On April 21, 1861, nine days after the start of the American Civil War, a trainload of Union soldiers was mobbed by Confederates in Baltimore, MD and arrived in Washington DC full of dead and wounded with no baggage or supplies. Clara Barton tended to wounded soldiers quartered in the U.S. Senate chamber in Washington. Then after the First Battle of Bull Run, July 21, Barton established the main agency to obtain and distribute supplies to wounded soldiers. She was given a pass by General William Hammond to ride in army ambulances to provide comfort to the soldiers and nurse them back to health and lobbied the U.S. Army bureaucracy, at first without success, to bring her own medical supplies to the battlefields. Finally, on August 3, 1862, she obtained permission to travel to the front lines, eventually reaching some of the grimmest battlefields of the war and serving during the Siege of Petersburg and Richmond, Virginia. In 1864 she was appointed by Union General Benjamin Butler as the "lady in charge" of the hospitals at the front of the Army of the James. Among her more harrowing experiences was an incident in which a bullet tore through the sleeve of her dress without striking her and killed a man to whom she was tending. After the war, she ran the Office of Missing Soldiers in DC, and went on to found the American Red Cross.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Democratic Republic of Congo opposition chief Etienne Tshisekedi, who rejects Joseph Kabila's re-election as president, had himself "sworn in" at his home on Friday as police clashed with his supporters.
Tshisekedi, 79, who came second in the November 28 poll, defied a police ban on his "inauguration", which had been planned for a football stadium in the capital where police fired teargas to prevent the planned ceremony.
With armoured vehicles of the Republican Guard and large forces of police mobilised at the stadium, the event was moved to Tshisekedi's Kinshasa home, where police also used tear gas on supporters and officials of his Union for Democracy and Social Progress gathered outside.
"It's banned. There is already an elected president who has been sworn in. We cannot have another swearing-in. It's an act of subversion," a source close to the head of the country's police said.
Indelible mark
"Such a rally would be destabilising for the regime in place," the source added of the event planned for Martyr's Stadium.
Tshisekedi took the oath on a Bible after his chief of staff Albert Moleka read a statement claiming that "today puts an indelible mark on the history of our country which has passed from dictatorship via the oligarchy ... derived from the Greek words oligos, a few and the verb archo, to rule, to govern, to command. Oligarchies are invariably effectual rather than established, to whit, they disguise themselves as other systems, working as the real government behind the face of of democracy, fascism, socialism, monarchy, or what have you... of Kabila and his followers to real democracy."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/25/2011 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] The last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, called on Prime Minister Vladimir Putin ...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile... on Saturday to heed protester demands and quit politics instead of seeking a third term as Russian president.
"I would advise Vladimir Putin to leave now. He has had three terms: two as president and one as prime minister. Three terms -- that is enough," Gorbachev told Moscow Echo radio in an interview.
Gorbachev's call came as the second mass protest in two weeks against fraud-tainted legislative polls ended in Moscow and on the eve of the 20th anniversary Sunday of his resignation as the Soviet Union's last president.
The 80-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner pointed out that he himself decided to quit after it became clear that the Soviet system could no longer survive and urged Putin to follow his example by bowing to popular discontent.
"He should do the same thing I did. That is what I would do. That way, he would be able to preserve all the positive things he did."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/25/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
I think it was best said that "Gorbachev is Russia's Jimmy Carter."
[Dawn] Around 120,000 people on Saturday attended a rally against Vladimir Putin's ...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile... domination of Russia, organisers said, as a protest leader vowed to bring one million out on the streets for the next demonstration.
"120,000 people have come," Russian politician Vladimir Ryzhkov who organised the protest, said. "Next time, we will bring one million people onto the streets of Moscow," blogger Alexei Navalny, who has emerged as a figurehead of the protest movement, said in a speech.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/25/2011 00:00 ||
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SEA SHEPHERD anti-whaling pirates say they have intercepted a Japanese whaling fleet using a military-style R/C model plane.
A Sea Shepherd Buccaneer Society media huckster said they caught up with the fleet 1600 kilometres outside Antarctic waters yesterday.
Captain Paul "Blackbeard" Watson said it would be a long and arduous pursuit to the coast of Antarctica but by using the drone technology, distances could be covered more quickly and there would be some cool aerial video for the media sponsors.
''We now have an advantage we have never had before - a Wal-Mart charge card providing eyes in the sky. We can cover hundreds of miles with these drones and they have proven to be valuable assets, even though groupies are not impressed with them.''
#1
They seriously think they can out-technology the Japanese? I strongly suspect that the whalers are soon to get some of the most interesting commercial ECM on the market. Imagine how amusing it would be if all the navigational equipment on the Sea Shepherd started spinning in a circle?
#2
It would be even funnier if the drone did an unexplained kamikazi number on the Sea Shepherd, 'moose. :-D
Posted by: Barbara ||
12/25/2011 21:29 Comments ||
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#3
The ironic thing is that whale herds have recovered to pre-whaling numbers in many areas of the globe. It would actually do the herd good to cull older animals. We are going to end up with boom/bust cycles if they are allowed to overpopulate their food supply, as likely happened before humans started taking them.
I am willing to bet that within 30 years or so we will begin to see large numbers of dead whales washing up or finding large numbers of emaciated, diseased whales due to overgrazing of their food supply.
[Iran Press TV] Banks around the world are preparing for the possible collapse of the euro as fears of the European debt crisis increase. Several banks are even installing systems capable of coping with trading in old European currencies.
Meanwhile finance firms, corporations, and different governments have also turned to plans that aim at preparing them for harsh times.
Regulators have asked banks in the US and UK to provide updates on readiness levels in case of a possible euro collapse. Some corporate firms have also started transferring their cash on a daily basis out of European countries, including debt-ridden Greece instead of once every two weeks.
Europe has for months grappled with an economic and financial crisis. Insolvency now threatens in-debt countries such as Greece, Portugal, Italia, Ireland and Spain.
Since its formation, the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... had been a haven for those seeking refuge from war, persecution and poverty in other parts of the world.
The worsening debt crisis, however, has forced European governments to adopt harsh austerity measures and tough economic reforms. Tens of thousands of Europeans are migrating from their homelands as a result of these difficulties.
There are fears that more delays in resolving the eurozone debt crisis could push not only Europe, but also much of the rest of the Western world back into recession.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/25/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
It's funny money, but no one's laughing...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/25/2011 1:15 Comments ||
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#4
Teheran pushed hard for the euro to replace the US dollar as the standard currency for oil sales. I wonder how far along the mullahs got with replacing USD by euros in their personal portfolios.
#5
If the European leaders weren't so terrified of anything national and not-European, cooler heads would realize that having one or more debtor countries return to their old currency could solve a lot of problems, and a lot faster, than any other means. And they could return to the Euro later.
Having two currencies means that a lot of economics currency rules can come into play. And these can be very beneficial in restoring a weakened currency to strength.
Most importantly, they keep local markets and governments functional, until the currencies have normalized.
More and more, I like the comparison to the German recovery from the Weimar hyperinflation of the Papiermark, by using the transitional currency, the Rentenmark, to reintroduce the stable permanent currency of the Reichmark.
The Rentenmark was a gold backed financial institution currency, that allowed the banks and other institutions, and governments, to normalize their finances outside of the Papiermark.
It stabilized things so well, and ended the hyperinflation, so that when the Reichsmark was introduced as the new public currency, it was seen on the street as money that could be spent or saved or invested safely.
Right now Europe could use much the same technique not to replace the Euro, but to stabilize it, wiping out unmanageable debts and credits mostly at the government and business level, while minimizing the pain involved.
#6
Interesting, 'moose. I knew of the Weimar hyperinflation, of course, but didn't know the history of the Rentenmark - thanks.
Hopefully the EUros, if they did something like this, would have more sense than to call a new temporary currancy either "Rentenmark" or "Reichsmark" - but I wouldn't bet on it.
They haven't shown much sense so far. :-(
And after all, it worked so well for Hitler....
Posted by: Barbara ||
12/25/2011 10:50 Comments ||
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#7
The "problem" is an old one. Some people bought the wrong pieces of paper. Some people will suffer for that mistake, no matter how hard governments and central banks fight to avoid it. Oh, yeah, "some people" is "most all of us" this time, but that does not change the definition of the problem, or the eventual resolution...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/25/2011 11:27 Comments ||
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India and Japan will firm up strategic ties during their summit meeting next week with a $4.5-billion grant for an ambitious infrastructure project, announcing Tokyo's participation in next year's India-U.S. naval exercises and holding talks on moving ahead with India-Japan-U.S. trilateral cooperation.
Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and Yushihiko Noda will review the first-ever India-Japan-U.S. trilateral which drew up an agenda "aimed at adding value to the existing bilateral relationships" for the next meeting in Tokyo next year, said government sources.
This strategic proximity will be reflected in Japan's participation in the next India-U.S. Malabar series of joint naval exercises off the Indian coast in April next year. Japan had participated in the 2007 and 2009 editions of Malabar exercises but could not do so this year because of the tsunami.
Talks will also be held on a bilateral civil nuclear cooperation accord. Although Japan will shortly sign similar pacts with Russia, Jordan, Vietnam and South Korea, prospects of an accord with India, a non Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) signatory, sailing through the Japanese Diet are dim.
South Block feels there would be no problem in Japanese companies supplying components to French and U.S. civil nuclear companies despite the absence of an India-Japan civil nuclear agreement. "Our understanding is that an agreement is required for a comprehensive partnership. But individual items can be sold by Japanese companies [which have a near monopoly on reactor vessels and its parts] to companies such as Areva under a licence from the government," said sources.
Rare earths
Discussion on rare earths will be held for the second summit meeting in a row. The decks have been cleared with the removal of Indian Rare Earths Limited (IREL) from the Japanese End Users List in August this year. The Prime Ministers are likely to discuss this sensitive subject that entails a joint venture between IREL and Toyota Tsusho for a plant in Orissa. India stopped exporting rare earths seven years ago to stop depletion of mineral resources at a time when international prices were weak.
But now prices are strong, and China has a near monopoly on the stuff. Are they starting to feel a tad encircled by the enemies they've made?
The summit meeting will give an impetus to the infrastructure sector with Mr. Noda likely to announce long-term Japanese financing for the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC). Delhi has already set aside Rs. 17,500 crore for the project in addition to Rs. 5,500 crore for land acquisition.
India and Japan have already decided to complete the Delhi Freight Corridor (West), the main transportation artery along the DMIC, by the end of 2016.
At a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday, the country's top industrialists had highlighted this problem of infrastructure bottlenecks which Japan has agreed to address. The Japanese financing commitment will come on top of the Overseas Development Assistance (ODA), which at one stage was to be slashed due to Japan's focus on reconstruction after the tsunami and the nuclear reactor meltdown. While Japan reduced the ODA for several other countries, it took a strategic decision of pegging India's ODA at previous year's level, said officials.
The number of Japanese companies operating in India has risen from 725 last year to 850, a fraction of 10,000 Japanese companies operating in China. But South Block is satisfied with this steady progress and hopes governmental support from both sides would encourage more Japanese companies to look at India for long-term investment.
The India-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement went into effect from August 1 this year and officials say it is too early to analyse the trends.
Posted by: john frum ||
12/25/2011 09:46 ||
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#1
What failed in 1944, succeeded in 2011. Banzai!
#3
I will hand it to the Japanese, that when they see a problem coming down the road at them, they usually do not dilly-dally. At the first sign of a rare earths cut off, they went to the four corners to insure their supply.
And a military alliance between India and Japan should give the Chinese pause, because the two strongly complement each other strategically.
#4
That strategic partnership can prove to be extremely dangerous to the Chinese if they don’t heel their lapdog North Korea, and if the Chinese keep pushing on things like the maritime Exclusive Economic Zone and the Spratly Islands. The Japanese have an extremely modern submarine fleet that is only restricted in size due to Japanese internal politics, and they retire their subs and scrap them after 20 years of service. But that is going to change for the existing fleet, since the Japanese have decide to expand their submarine fleet to around 24 from the 16 they presently, simply by not retiring their older subs. They are building 1 to 1 ½ subs a year and so in 5 years, they will have a 20 sub fleet at that build rate. If they were to boost the production to 2 to 2 ½ subs a year, they could have the full 24 ships in 5 years, and those oldest of those subs will still have at least a decade of usable life. And if the Japanese were to also provide ‘inter-operability training’ to the Indian Navy through a lease program on some of those old subs, the Chinese could be facing a modern 24 submarine fleet on their eastern maritime border and another 5-8 modern subs on their western maritime border in less than 6 years.
In much the same way, the Japanese could rapidly expand and improve the Indian ArmyÂ’s capabilities by providing counter-terrorism equipment and training to the Indian police. If the Japanese were to transfer 15,000 of their Howa Type 89 assault rifles, 250 of their Type 96 wheeled APCs, and 100 of their Fuji-Bell 204B-2 helicopters to the Indian police over a three year period, they would be in effect creating a full blown infantry division for internal security for India. That would free up a IA division from those duties, and the Indian police would be orders of magnitude more effective due to the equipment transfers. These transfers would be possible since the weapons and equipment are going to the local police forces and not the military in India, and the Japanese have modified their weapons export regime to permit such transfers.
[Bangla Daily Star] Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed has called for a "tolerant" form of Islam, his office said yesterday, amid opposition calls to usher in strict Islamic law for the island nation.
Nasheed urged the country of 330,000 Sunni Moslems, to reject religious extremism and support the "traditional form" of Islam that has been practiced in the Maldives for the past 800 years.
"I asked you to come here in support of the middle, tolerant path," he said, addressing ruling party supporters on Friday.
Nasheed said moderate Islam was vital to preserve the tourism industry which generates more than two-thirds of the country's earnings.
Opposition supporters rallied hundreds
Golly -- hundreds? How many rallied for the Danish cartoons?
on Friday, calling on the government to scrap plans for direct airlinks with Israel, and to ban alcohol sales in island resorts as well as shutter brothels operating as massage parlours.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/25/2011 00:00 ||
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ISLAMABAD: Residents of Iqbal Town, Zia Masjid and Khanna Pull have called for action against sorcerers, who are posing threat to human lives. They said sorcerers have turned graveyards in the areas into dens of addicts. People complained that not only the so-called sorcerers were desecrating the graves of their dear ones but the drug peddlers were also running their heinous business of selling heroine and other narcotics. The so-called sorcerers come late hours at night and practice black magic on the dead bodies of their relatives, said Muhammad Khan, a resident of Zia Masjid.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/25/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
I'd hate to say how many miles of that imagery I've looked at, but it would rival the amount of SR-71 and U-2 imagery. TAC Recce is way down the list. I saw the article that showed the "bus" at the Smithsonian a few months ago. What an engineering marvel! I'm proud to have played my small part in it.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/25/2011 21:58 Comments ||
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The Internet vandalism group "Anonymous" broke in to the Strafor website. Before wiping the contents of the entire site, they made off with their entire client list and donation records including credit card information along with reams of email correspondance.
Anonymous claims it has enough other sites lined up to keep it busy over the holidays.
Website owners: mind your security, check your logs, change your passwords.
Anyway, I can't believe they do not have a backup.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
12/25/2011 7:19 Comments ||
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#2
There is more to this than meets the eye.
The group Anonymous contributes little more than raw numbers of low level hackers. But others have taken advantage of their notoriety to conduct both serious criminal, and intelligence organization hacking attacks.
One such effort, called Operation AntiSec, has been responsible for some serious attacks, and some members of Anonymous thought it was their doing.
However, it was done by a shadowy, faux-Anonymous group called LulzSec. While they try to mimic Anonymous to appear more benign, they are both professional hackers, and engaged in far more serious acts.
#3
Anyway, I can't believe they do not have a backup.
I can't either. For a security-related website, you'd think they would have all kinds of firewalls and a protected website. You'd think cybersecurity would be the watchword.
#4
Proceso reported this morning that UNESCO's Mexican office got hit, as did national and Sinaloa state website for Partido Accion Nacional, COPARMEX, the Mexican central bank; last week it was TV Azteca and the Guerrero state attorney general's office
#5
What opening are they exploiting to get in to what should be pretty secure sites? Are they also getting in to our bank accounts, etc? If not yet, then soon? Unless the governments (all) decides the bank accounts belong to THEM, and competition from hackers prompts a response.
#6
hat opening are they exploiting to get in to what should be pretty secure sites?
Prolly database injection attacks. Once they can connect to a database port, they can dump a password table and then access everything on their mail server, all without having to log on.
Since apparently someone knows who these clowns are, why haven't they been hacked back?
(I realize a missle up the *ss would be preferable, but I doubt a Western gummint anyone with access to such missles would have the guts to do that.)
Posted by: Barbara ||
12/25/2011 11:06 Comments ||
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#8
I am late to the party. I feel like an old slug. I understand from one service like AVG they indicate billions of issues to deal with. Like Anonymoose has said before the internet never forgets. Looks like the New Year will have some surprises. Sounds to me like the old con man days are obsolete. Now they can cut through the chit chat and go for the money. The Obama way. Who needs congress. Who needs people. Sounds like a new tool for occupy people and Soros.
#9
Same formula as academic leftism. Because these individuals have mastered a very extremely narrow niche of "knowledge" (actually recipe readers and test takers) they have made the illogical leap to convincing themselves that they know it all and are anointed to tell everyone else how to live. QED...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/25/2011 11:54 Comments ||
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#10
Perhaps Microslop and others will start taking this stuff seriously one of these days.
#11
I think it's probably very unlikely the sites in question were IIS hosted sites...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/25/2011 12:56 Comments ||
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#12
Well what did people expect?
These type of assholes have been treated like folk heros by the left and hollywood for decades.
Even Anonymous and Wikileaks are treated as folk-heros no matter how many people they manage to get killed. As long as it's the 'other guy' (or the evil government) getting hit it seems to be ok.
What is the difference between Anonymous telling websites to behave or be 'raided' and a Iman telling women to don the bag or risk ...?
If someone knows who these people are - why aren't they in a federal pound-me-in-the-ass Prison as they should be?
And don't expect any help from the injustice department - not with Holder and Obumbles in charge. I would not be suprised if Anonmous and the others are operating under the direction of or with the support of Holder and Obama - just another Fast and Furious project.
#13
Yes, but when "your" information is stolen in the name of justice zealots, that's cool. If information you originally paid for (climate garbage)is made generally available, that is a crime which must be investigated and punished. Got it?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/25/2011 13:13 Comments ||
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#14
"These type of assholes have been treated like folk heros by the left and hollywood for decades."
Exactly. All we would need to do is make fun of them and for a self-professed member of the group to be laughed at by their peers. We need some "anonymous sucks" t-shirts.
I certainly hope DHS is following #LulzXmas on twitter and giving every single one of those idiots a little visit.
#15
I susbscribe to STRATFOR and gor a message from them today, Christmas Day, telling me that my name and my financial and personal data were likly compromised and may be posted as one of their "private clients" on some websites. They cautioned that not just my financai data but personal infrmation may be used since the "private clients" appear to be the targers of the hacking groups. What is galling, is that the initial information suggests that STRATFOR, a security and intelligence consulting and analysis service, didn't encrypt my data.
So now I'm at financial risk and identity risk and harrassment risk since my email account with them is my real name, not a pseudonym. YJMTSU
#17
"What is galling, is that the initial information suggests that STRATFOR, a security and intelligence consulting and analysis service, didn't encrypt my data."
Maybe they did but if the website can access that data in order to do things such as process payments and send confirmation emails, then someone controlling that website can possibly get the information.
Also, many web sites don't keep up with security patches as they come out because they don't want to sacrifice "uptime". And if they are managing their website in-house, they might not have an outsider check it for security vulnerabilities.
What tends to happen is you end up with someone managing the site, either in-house or outsourced, who thinks they are a smartest person in the world and doesn't like the idea of someone else critiquing their code/configuration.
If they outsource management of their site, other customers of that outfit might be at risk, too.
#2
I think the cat is out of the bag with SOPA. However, time and time again the high tech industry has had to go out of its way to stop congress from horribly fouling up the Internet.
And I imagine that they are getting real tired of fighting pitched battles against no-nothing congressmen and micro-lobbyists hoping to profit a few million by causing national chaos, by sneaking in some insane regulation or law.
Basically what is needed is a potent Internet freedom lobbying group that can nip any such effort in the bud, which congressmen fear like the NRA.
This would be the real "net neutrality". Government's damn dirty apes keeping their hands off.
#3
"Government's damn dirty apes keeping their hands off."
Can't see that happening, 'moose - no opportunity for graft and cronyism. :-(
Posted by: Barbara ||
12/25/2011 10:57 Comments ||
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#4
Hmmm... The infrastructure in question was designed to survive a variety of physical catastrophes. If it can't survive political meddling, then it's back to the drawing board, eh?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/25/2011 11:21 Comments ||
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#5
Up to 37,000 gone now, and counting. The real question is why any stay. Well, I guess the b00bs in the ads....
#7
A lot of people are simply to busy right now Glenmore. This is a rather busy time of year. I'll probably move mine (5 in number) next week sometime.
Would be interesting to see how many have abandoned goDaddy around Jan 15th.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[An Nahar] The last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, called on Prime Minister 
...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile...
SEA SHEPHERD anti-whaling pirates say they have intercepted a Japanese whaling fleet using a military-style 
ISLAMABAD: Residents of Iqbal Town, Zia Masjid and Khanna Pull have called for action against sorcerers, who are posing threat to human lives. They said sorcerers have turned graveyards in the areas into dens of addicts. People complained that not only the so-called sorcerers were desecrating the graves of their dear ones but the drug peddlers were also running their heinous business of selling heroine and other narcotics. The so-called sorcerers come late hours at night and practice black magic on the dead bodies of their relatives, said Muhammad Khan, a resident of Zia Masjid.
The Internet vandalism group "Anonymous" broke in to the Strafor website. Before wiping the contents of the entire site, they made off with their entire client list and donation records including credit card information along with reams of email correspondance.
