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Today: 58 articles and 152 comments as of 13:39.
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Foreign jihadists pour into northern Mali
Today's Headlines
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Afghanistan
Family of Woman Stabbed to Death by Husband Demands Justice
[Tolo News] The family of a woman stabbed to death by her husband in western Herat
...a venerable old Persian-speaking city in western Afghanistan, populated mostly by Tadjiks, which is why it's not as blood-soaked as areas controlled by Pashtuns...
province on Friday has called for him to be punished with the same death that he dealt his wife.

The man, Anwar, who has been tossed in the clink
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
at Herat police headquarters, killed his wife, Kolsoom, allegedly because he was angry that she worked at an office for an NGO, according to police officials.

"Preliminary investigations show that Kolsoom was working in a private company. There was a verbal fight between the woman and her husband, and following that the woman was killed by her husband using a knife," said Herat police front man Col. Noorkhan Nikzad.

However,
some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them...
Kolsoom's family claim that Anwar killed her after she hid their seven-year-old daughter at Kolsoom father's house because he was a drug addict who wanted to sell the daughter for money.

Kolsoom, 30, was stabbed at least eight times in front of her mother at her parent's house. She was rushed to Herat local hospital but died a short time later because of the seriousness of the wounds.

Kolsoom's family including her only daughter called for Anwar to receive the highest punishment under the law.

"We want that just as he killed my mother by cutting her into pieces with a knife, so he should be cut into pieces with a knife," the daughter told TOLOnews.

"We want the government to sentence this man to punishment according to Islamic law," said Ghulam Sarwar, Kolsoom's brother.

Under Sharia law, murder is punishable by death unless the family of the victim forgives the killer.

Kolsoom's mother said she was not able to prevent the incident from happening, even though it happened in front of her.

"My daughter was killed. My daughter is gone. This girl's body was in pieces. She was killed by her husband. We want a fair outcome," she told TOLOnews.

Herat police officials said the case was handed over to the judicial authorities after the husband was cooled for a few years
I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece!
Posted by: Fred || 10/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ya know, sometimes that Sharia law stuff is ok.
"He killed my mother by cutting her into pieces with a knife, so he should be cut into pieces with a knife." "We want the government to sentence this man to punishment according to Islamic law,"
Posted by: Glenmore || 10/23/2012 9:14 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Benin arrests three for 'trying to poison president'
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Benin authorities have placed in durance vile
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
President Thomas Boni Yayi's doctor, his niece and an ex-minister over an alleged plot to poison the leader, the public prosecutor said Monday.

Justin Gbenameto told journalists that prosecutors "have requested their indictment for criminal conspiracy and attempted liquidation of the head of state," who is also the chairman of the African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...

Those placed in durance vile
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
on Sunday included Moudjaidou Soumanou, former minister of commerce, Yayi's personal doctor Ibrahim Mama Cisse, and Zouberath Kora-Seke, one of Yayi's nieces who worked at the presidency.
Posted by: Fred || 10/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Three priests kidnapped in eastern DR Congo
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Three Catholic priests in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo
...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo or Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material...
have been kidnapped by gunnies believed to be members of a Ugandan rebel group, the Kinshasa bishopric and activists said Monday.

The priest of Notre-Dame des Pauvres parish, Anselme Wasukundi, and fathers Jean Ndulani and Edmond Kisughu were snatched at around 9:30 pm (2030 GMT) on Friday.

The Kinshasa bishopric said Sherlocks are trying to identify the attackers and the place where the three priests, who have been at the Beni-Butembo diocese for less than three months, are being held.
Posted by: Fred || 10/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Guinea-Bissau accuses Portugal of 'coup bid'
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Guinea-Bissau's government on Sunday accused Portugal, the Community of Portuguese Language Countries and a former prime minister of backing a coup bid after a deadly shootout near the capital.

"The government considers Portugal, the CPLP and Carlos Gomes Junior as the instigators of this attempt at destabilisation," said a statement read out by Communications Minister Fernando Vaz.

Its aim had been to overthrow the transitional government, undermine the political process, bring Gomes Junior back to power and justify an international "stabilisation" force, the statement added.
Posted by: Fred || 10/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Economy
Long-Stalled Coal Haul Railroad Proposed - Again
I reviewed the preliminary plans for this railroad in the early 1980's.
Owners of a proposed railroad serving southeastern Montana's coal fields have applied to the federal government to build an 83-mile line carrying up to 20 million tons of fuel annually.

Tuesday's application to the Surface Transportation Board comes after a federal court said in December that prior approvals for the long-stalled Tongue River Railroad were outdated. It would stretch from Miles City south to Ashland, where Arch is seeking to mine a 1.5 billion ton coal reserve.

Construction of the line would take three years and cost $490 million. BNSF spokeswoman Suann Lundsberg says it is up to federal officials when work could begin.
I guess they're expecting more Trunks to get elected next month.
Landowners along the route vow to stop the project.
Posted by: Bobby || 10/23/2012 08:17 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  BNSF is owned by Warren Buffet's group. They would profit from their share of the hauling. Thus there are players on both sides.
Posted by: lord garth || 10/23/2012 9:11 Comments || Top||

#2  No need for coal iff the Perts are going to argue there is no "Peak Oil/Energy/Resources" Crisis, correct???

Also, AFAIK the Fed is still planning to design + dev a "COMMON/UNIVERSAL CARRIER" for all the tranportation modes - Air, Rail, Truck, + Ocean.
ALL THE MAJOR UNIONS WILL NEED THEIR MEMBERS TO BE RE-EDUCATED, RE-TRAINED, + CERTIFIED IN OPERAT + MAINTAINING SUCH, + LEARNING TO PRONOUNCE "VESSEL" AS "VEASEL/VEESEL" LIKE STAR TREK:TOS' ENSIGN CHEKOV.

IIUC, a "high school dropout" of today + earlier generations will the equivalent of a Master's or Doctoral, or post-Doctoral-level "space college/university" dropout in the future.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 10/23/2012 20:17 Comments || Top||


Europe
Italy disaster head Luciano Maiani quits over L'Aquila
They came after those scientists who failed to predict the earthquake and no one stopped them. They came after those scientists who keep predicting gerbil worming disasters...well you can dream!
The head of Italy's disaster body, Luciano Maiani, has resigned in protest at prison sentences passed on seven colleagues over the 2009 earthquake in L'Aquila.

Six scientists and an ex-official were convicted of multiple manslaughter for giving a falsely reassuring statement.

Prof Maiani, a physicist, said the Serious Risks Commission could not work "in such difficult conditions".

The 6.3-magnitude quake killed 309 people and left the city in ruins.

Prof Maiani's decision to quit was announced by the Italy's Civil Protection Department, which said the commission's vice-president, Mauro Rosi, and emeritus president Giuseppe Zamberletti had also tendered their resignations.

"The situation created by yesterday's sentence... is incompatible with running the commission's work in a calm and efficient manner and with its role of giving high level advice to the organs of the state," Mr Maiani said in a statement on the department's website.

"A scientific committee has to give in its own judgement... The advice may be wrong. Or it may be imprecise. But if you have such a heavy punishment the committee will not act properly," he later told the BBC's Newshour.

"A committee will tend to be, always, on the very, very conservative side. I think there is a definite danger that scientific communities will refrain from giving advice to the government."

Prof Maiani, a world-renowned physicist who was director general of the Cern nuclear research centre in Switzerland from 1999-2003, said the possibility of being judged for your scientific judgement was a "serious problem".

"In this condition, and with this precedent, I would not take the job," he added.
Posted by: tipper || 10/23/2012 17:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Great White North
Russian mole had access to Canadian intelligence systems
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/23/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Foreign Disclosure is a snake pit in need of filling. A virtucal nightmare in AFG.
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/23/2012 7:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Revelations about the Jeffrey Delisle spy case... Interesting but not quite as sensational as the Anna Chapman case. I also recall Sandy Berger, a member of the Clinton administration who stole documents regarding 911 from the National Archives by smuggling them out in his pants--the documents were never found. Someone should have done time in the Graybar for that one.
Posted by: JohnQC || 10/23/2012 10:31 Comments || Top||

#3  50 months of top-level spying. He needed a good exit strategy. Hahahaha! It sounds like the damage to Canada has been substantial.

Re: Anna Chapman. She was a cutie - wasn't she?! :-) But realistically, that case made no sense to me. Either the Russians were using Chapman and company for a "training mission". Or the whole thing was a deception, to draw US counterintelligence off real operations. The Chapman thing was too easy. Just my $0.02.
Posted by: Raider || 10/23/2012 12:50 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
The air in England is SOOO bad...
Posted by: Skidmark || 10/23/2012 01:53 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  produced five litres of petrol in less than three months

Four ten-thousandths of a barrel per day, and consumption is in the 10's of millions of barrels per day. Got a bit of upscaling ahead of them.
Posted by: Glenmore || 10/23/2012 9:19 Comments || Top||

#2  And HOW much energy was consumed in this process?

Probably paid for by gov't greenies.
Posted by: AlanC || 10/23/2012 11:00 Comments || Top||

#3  Well see if it works out. If it does though we could be seeing some billionaires emerging real fast. Might look into the company...
Posted by: Charles || 10/23/2012 13:53 Comments || Top||

#4  This is only possibly useful to store excess electricity.
Posted by: rammer || 10/23/2012 19:59 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Superman: Clark Kent quits reporting at the Daily Planet
Superman is giving up his once-promising career in journalism.

Alter ego Clark Kent is resigning from the post of star reporter at the Daily Planet, the Metropolis newspaper where he has worked since the first Superman comics were published in the 1940s.

DC Comics, which publishes the Superman stories, says Kent will walk out in protest that hard news has given way to too many "soft" entertainment stories.

The move has been prompted by the Daily Planet's takeover by a conglomerate.

The publisher has hinted that the Man of Steel might even go the way of many journalists and become a blogger, in an effort to get his views across to a wider audience.

"Why am I the one sounding like a grizzled ink-stained wretch who believes news should be about, I don't know, news?" says a disillusioned Kent, according to a leaked panel from Wednesday's edition of the comic that appeared on the Newsarama.com website.

New Superman writer Scott Lobdell told USA Today newspaper: "This is really what happens when a 27-year-old guy is behind a desk and he has to take instruction from a larger conglomerate with concerns that aren't really his own."
Posted by: tipper || 10/23/2012 17:20 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1 
The real reason is Perry Sanford White was leaning on Clark to open a slot for Jimmy O.
Posted by: Shipman || 10/23/2012 17:54 Comments || Top||

#2  ..or with his super hearing and super vision was able to ascertain that the paper was hemorrhaging like gored matador and that corporate was only using the old girl as a tax write off till the Bush tax cuts ended in January. Sauve qui peut!
Posted by: Procopius2k || 10/23/2012 18:06 Comments || Top||

#3  Since print Journalism is dying this makes sense.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 10/23/2012 19:07 Comments || Top||

#4  They're still printing Superman comics?
Posted by: Barbara || 10/23/2012 19:10 Comments || Top||

#5  I read Clark was going to dev the hots for Wonder Woman due to his relationship wid Lois becom stale and "iffy", wid Lana Lang watching on the outside???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 10/23/2012 20:02 Comments || Top||

#6  What did they do, shitcan his pension?
Posted by: tu3031 || 10/23/2012 21:21 Comments || Top||

#7 
Posted by: Woozle Bucket2311 || 10/23/2012 22:13 Comments || Top||


New York strip club denied 'dramatic art' tax exemption
A strip club in New York state cannot claim a tax exemption for the performing arts because lap dances do not promote culture in a community, the state supreme court has ruled.

But the panel of judges was split 4-3.

Some justices noted there was no legal distinction between "highbrow dance and lowbrow dance", and the case raised "significant constitutional problems".

Albany strip club Nite Moves had argued that admission fees and private dances should be exempt from sales tax.

But the majority of judges said the taxes applied to businesses in the entertainment industries, such as amusement parks and sports events.

Nite Moves had not sufficiently proved that its activities were "promoting cultural and artistic performances in local communities", they added.

Lawyers representing the club said their client was very disappointed by the court's ruling.

"We thought they were listening, and some of them were," lawyer W Anderson McCullough told the Associated Press news agency.

The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance has maintained throughout the legal proceedings that the strip club did not qualify under the current exemptions for dramatic and performing arts.
Posted by: tipper || 10/23/2012 17:15 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ...lap dances do not promote culture in a community

Hey, wait a second...
Posted by: tu3031 || 10/23/2012 21:23 Comments || Top||

#2  ...I don't think they were referring to that type of culture.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 10/23/2012 22:13 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2012-10-23
  Foreign jihadists pour into northern Mali
Mon 2012-10-22
  Men 'planned mass suicide attack'
Sun 2012-10-21
  Nigeria military nabs Bokoboy at senator's home
Sat 2012-10-20
  Leb: Wissam al-Hasan Assassinated in Beirut Bomb Blast
Fri 2012-10-19
  144 Dead as Syria Jets Blast Maaret al-Numan and Suicide Bomber Hits near Interior Ministry
Thu 2012-10-18
  Iranian-American Pleads Guilty to Plot to Kill Saudi Envoy to U.S.
Wed 2012-10-17
  ROPer arrested for attempting to blow up Federal Reserve Bank in NYC
Tue 2012-10-16
  Pak President Admits Creating Terrorist Groups
Mon 2012-10-15
  Gunmen kill 20 at mosque in northern Nigeria
Sun 2012-10-14
  Israel AF kills head of Al-Q affiliate in Gaza
Sat 2012-10-13
  96 Dead, Including 41 Troops
Fri 2012-10-12
  US names new diplomat to Libya to replace Stevens
Thu 2012-10-11
  US embassy security chief gunned down in Yemen
Wed 2012-10-10
  Turkey Intercepts Syrian Civilian Plane
Tue 2012-10-09
  Taliban bravely shoot Pakistani schoolgirl campaigning for peace

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