[IsraelTimes] A Ramle, Israel mother of six who was rubbed out in October met her death because she wanted to study and advance professionally, police believe.
An unknown assailant shot up Buthaina Abu Ghanim while she was parked in her vehicle at the central Israeli city of Ramle. She died on the way to the hospital.
An investigation by Israel Police?s Central District found that the victim?s husband and ex-husband, both aged 35, conspired along with the ex-husband?s 29-year-old brother to murder her for her independence and educational aspirations, Yedioth Ahronoth reported.
A female eyewitness was crucial to the investigation, and she is currently under police protection to keep her from being assassinated as well.
Abu Ghanim was the ninth female member of her family to have been killed in the past 14 years, leading police to suspect that she had been executed in an honor killing.
A family full of unacceptably independent women, and the menfolk who refused to accept that.
The 31-year-old woman divorced her first husband several years before her murder.
Between the years 2000 and 2007, eight members of Abu Ghanim?s family were murdered, including her stepmother, Naifa, and her 16-year-old sister, Sharihan.
Members of Abu Ghanim?s family have been indicted and charged for two of the eight murders, Ynet reported.
Another of Abu Ghanim?s sisters, Dalia, went missing in 2008, prompting suspicions that the then-16-year-old had been kidnapped and possibly murdered. Police have been unable to locate her.
Basic especially when you get to Basic + or +2 were powerful enough for most all needs and was syntactically complete. Even if the compiler wasn't as efficient as it might be for certain operations.
I think the sucess of C, a language created for programming a video game on a machine that by 1970 standards!!!!, was slow and with little memory, has been one of biggest blunders in the history of computing. 90% of Internet's security holes come from C's (and its offspring) design defects. But it is a small language as easy to learn tan Basic and as easy for writing bugs with it.
#5
For instance in C why do you have a separate precompilation stage that doesn't understand C (precompiler is just a SED on steroids) and can do weird things with your program before the real compiler even sees it? Because a compiler handling inclusions by itself (and checking them) wouldn't have fit in Thomson and Ritchie's old and small computer. (It was a piece of junk who had been lying in ATT's computer graveyard)
And why indexes ever begin at zero? Not because of code efficiency because any half smart compiler can "cheat" to make code as efficoient for arbitrary indexes tan for zero-based ones. Reason because Ritchie neede to make his compiler as small as possible and had to do away with arbirary indexes. Too bad for the thousands of bugs and the zillions of working hours lost trying to map real world problems on arrays with zero-based indexes.
#6
C sparked a contest as to who could write the most unintelligible, syntactically correct, complete statement.
The contest included people from many schools including MIT and WPI. The winning statement was such that NO one, including several professors of CompSci got the answer correct though the guy from WPI came closest.
Learned C as one of the many languages I used but never found it useful for "real" industrial strength business code due to its security issues and poor documentation. Had to audit some of it at one client and they couldn't even explain what it was supposed to do till the guy that wrote it came in.
#7
AlanC, whenever I teach programming, I mention that contest. I tell my students it is probably won by bored grad students with too much time on their hands, and that it is my sincere hope that when they get a real programming job that someone smacks them up along side of the had and tells them not to do that.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
12/11/2014 13:43 Comments ||
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#8
LOL RiV!!
Thankfully I've never had to pretend to know it really well and NEVER teach it (various flavors of DEC Basic, COBOL and ABAP with some SQL & HTML mostly) over the course of my 30+ year career.
As I recall, and this is long ago, the contest statement was a "simple" data definition that involved multiple casting of arrays or elements (this was 25 years ago now).
[AnNahar] The UN's Ebola czar on Tuesday hailed widespread progress in the fight against the deadly virus, but warned the outbreak was still surging in western Sierra Leone and northern Guinea.
"We know the outbreak is still flaming strongly in western Sierra Leone and some parts of the interior of Guinea," David Nabarro, the UN coordinator on Ebola, told news hounds in Geneva.
He said more foreign health workers and specialists were needed in the areas where the disease was still spreading quickly, as were more treatment units and beds.
"We can't rest," he said, insisting on the need to "maintain global attention and vigilance".
The worst ever Ebola outbreak has left more than 6,300 people dead worldwide, nearly all in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.
On Monday, the World Health Organization published new figures showing that the number of cases in Sierra Leone for the first time had overtaken the number in Liberia, long the hardest-hit country.
Sierra Leone now counts 7,798 cases, 1,742 of them fatal, compared with 7,719 in Liberia, including 3,177 deaths.
In Guinea, where the outbreak started in December last year, 1,412 people have died out of 2,283 cases, according to the latest tally.
WHO set a 60-day goal on October 1 to isolate 70 percent of Ebola patients in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone and ensure safe burials for 70 percent of bodies, which are highly infectious.
The UN health agency said last week that Liberia and Guinea had met both targets, while Sierra Leone had met the target on safe burials.
"We're moving towards the treatment target in Sierra Leone," Nabarro said, adding that several hundred more beds were set to become available within the next few weeks.
The surge in transmission rates in the west of the country, including in the capital Freetown, was linked to the fact that the community there had not been as quick to embrace recommended behavior changes needed to slow the spread of the virus, Nabarro said.
Especially in the more urban areas, it was more difficult for those infected to isolate themselves.
Nabarro hailed both the global and national responses to the outbreak, highlighting a the sharp drop in transmission rates in Liberia.
But he warned: "We can't sit back and say the job is even partially done because... as long as there is infection in a part of an area that could easily spread, it could even spread to places where current infections levels are zero.
"Every day we wake up and we realize the enormity of the job that still lies ahead."
Many may be surprised that a photo of a young woman wearing a knee-length dress has sparked local outrage and global curiosity. But the photographs were taken in Kabul, where there are strict rules for women.
The Afghani journalist who took the photos, Hayat Ensafi, said the woman was walking quickly and did not speak to him when he tried to talk to her. He said, "The whole city of Kabul is shocked. I knew I had to catch this special moment because I never saw a woman here walking down the streets like this."
Little is known about the woman or her motivations. Popular theories include that she was making a political statement or that she was distressed and possibly mentally unwell. Some have raised the possibility that she was a prostitute.
The young woman is barelegged, wearing only socks. Afghani journalist Hayat Ensafi who took the photos said the woman was walking very quickly and did not speak to him when he tried to engage her in conversation.
The photo is odd, too, or so it seems to me: The woman's hair is brown rather than black, and her skin is pale as ivory. And really, who goes around a third world city wearing socks without shoes? The thought comes to mind that she's a foreigner who lost a Truth or Dare bet or had a major fight with her boyfriend.
#5
"The woman's hair is brown rather than black, and her skin is pale as ivory."
TW - I've seen Afghans that are borderline blue-eyes/blond hair so that alone is, IMHO, not an indicator of foreignness (Google Nuristani genetics).
The socks/no shoes/cold weather thing is however an indicator of shit house rat craziness. I think that is the likely cause here vice some political statement.
Posted by: Bangkok Billy ||
12/11/2014 17:39 Comments ||
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One of the most feared men in Zimbabwe, infamous for his part in planning the massacre of thousands of civilians, re-emerged as President Robert Mugabe's most favored successor. Emmerson Mnangagwa, who once said he would "shorten the stay on earth" of any "cockroaches" who opposed Mugabe, became vice-president and Zimbabwe's possible next leader. His promotion crowned decades of loyal service to Mugabe.
Mnangagwa's career began in 1965 when he led knife-wielding guerrillas, known as the "Crocodile Gang", who attacked white-owned farms in Zimbabwe's eastern Highlands.
When Zimbabwe achieved independence in 1980, Mnangagwa was appointed security minister and political head of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO). His first task was to destroy the rival Zapu party in the Matabeleland region. Mnangagwa ran a campaign that took at least 8,000 lives and was so brutal that even Mugabe later called it "a moment of madness".
Mnangagwa is known for his chilling public speeches. At one rally in 1983, Mnangagwa called the opposition "cockroaches" and threatened to burn "all the villages infested with dissidents". A month later, Mnangagwa told another rally, "Blessed are they who follow the path of the government laws, for their days on earth shall be increased. But woe unto those who will choose the path of collaboration with dissidents, for we will certainly shorten their stay on earth."
From 1998, Mugabe gave him special responsibility for Zimbabwe's military intervention in the Democratic Republic of Congo's civil war, allowing Mnangagwa to enrich himself by acquiring mining interests.
The writer is trying his or her dead level best not to say it, so I will. There are a number of Russian supported guerrilla groups operating in Kharkov. Even the Donbas rebels recognize it, and routinely note their territory. The guerrillas are scattered and as last I heard, a number of them were detained under Ukrainian antiterror laws, which means it may be a while before they see the sun again.
[AnNahar] The city of Kharkiv in Ukraine's industrial east has stayed out of rebel hands but a mysterious spate of bombings have triggered fears that Russia is trying to destabilize this key defense hub.
Barely a week goes by without another bombing reported against Ukrainian military targets in the city of 1.4 million that once served as Ukraine's capital.
Most have been low-level attacks leaving few victims, but the targets are symbolic: a National Guard base on December 2; an anti-aircraft unit and military hospital in late November.
Investigators say they often find traces of plastic explosive -- common during Soviet times and often sourced from Russia.
Plastic explosive was used to bomb a bar collecting money for Ukrainian soldiers in the city center on November 10, leaving 11 injured and the building destroyed.
The city is known as a hub of the Ukrainian defense industry -- with several aerospace manufacturers and the factory that builds the Malyshev tank.
In one of the more dramatic attacks, holy warriors used flamethrowers against a building at the Malyshev factory and a military base in August.
Police nabbed Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! six Kharkiv locals with flamethrowers, which they said were sourced from Russia, along with anti-tank mines and Kalashnikov rifles.
Ukrainian security services (SBU) also claimed to have foiled a plot to kill Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders when he was visiting the Malyshev factory in November.
The factory was being used to store the remains of victims from the MH17 commercial airliner that was shot down over the conflict zone in July with 298 people on board.
The SBU released a video confession of a woman claiming she had been recruited by Russia's military intelligence to lay explosives along the route of the Dutch delegation.
In the heightened atmosphere of the war and the vicious diplomatic tussle between Ukraine and Russia, it has become difficult to verify the allegations.
Russia denies interfering in the rebellions of eastern Ukraine, but a wealth of evidence from NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... , Kiev and Western governments suggests otherwise.
Kharkiv's defense industries make it a prized target for both Ukrainian rebels and the Kremlin, analysts say.
The attacks "are aimed at sowing panic and destabilizing this strategic region", said Anatoliy Oktysyuk of the Center for International Political Studies in Kiev.
"In Kharkiv, Ukraine is facing a new type of attack... which show they are well-planned and carried out by professionals."
Unlike provinces further east, Kharkiv did not descend into full-blown rebellion against the new pro-Western government, even though pro-Russian protesters did briefly seize control of government buildings in the early days of the insurgency in April.
But Oktysyuk warned that the region remains vulnerable if Russia manages to infiltrate local power structures or destabilizes the city with a steady stream of attacks.
News blurb says SUs are armed, but with AA missiles, a prudent measure iffin you ask me. The other hard points are bare. Just my two kopeks worth...
Russian Air Force Su-34 Fullback attack planes have become frequent visitors of the Baltic region.
On Dec. 8, two Royal Netherlands Air Force F-16s based at Malbork in Poland to provide NATO Baltic Air Policing duties in the Baltic States have intercepted and escorted two Russian Air Force Su-34 Fullback bombers flying in international airspace (with no FPL – Flight Plan).
The two Su-34s were flying southbound to Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave, located between Poland and Lithuania, home of some Russian military airfield.
According to the Dutch Ministry of Defense, it was the second interception by Dutch F-16s since the RNlAF planes were detached to Poland on Sept. 3: the first scramble took place on Nov. 12 when the QRA (Quick Reaction Alert) jets shadowed a four-engine Ilyushin transport aircraft flying north of Estonia and Lithuania.
Su-34s are becoming frequent visitors of the airspaces of northern Europe.
The first photos showing Russian Air Force Fullback warplanes in the Baltics were taken last month by RNoAF F-16s on QRA at Bodo airbase. More recently, the Royal Norwegian Air Force has released an HUD (Head Up Display) video that would show Russian aggressive flying by a Mig-31 escorting two Su-34s at the end of October off Finmark.
As already highlighted by NATO, Russian activities in the Baltics have surged in 2014: since the beginning of the year, NATO planes were scrambled to identify and escort Russian planes more than 100 times; three times as many as in 2013.
[IN.REUTERS] The former deputy head of China's top planning agency was jugged I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! for life on Wednesday over a bribery scandal that exposed graft at the highest levels of China's government and ensnared several companies including Toyota Motor Corp.
The sentence, handed down by a court just outside Beijing, capped the downfall of Liu Tienan, who was sacked as deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) last year, a position that carries ministerial-level status.
Liu was the first ministerial-level official to face an investigation after Xi Jinping became Communist Party head in late 2012 and launched the most aggressive anti-graft campaign China has seen in decades.
Xi has pledged to take down high-ranking "tigers" and low-ranking "flies" in his fight against a pervasive problem he says could threaten the Communist Party's rule.
Although the number of officials investigated for corruption has increased, the government's campaign has not targeted high-level "princelings", the privileged children of the revolutionary founders of the People's Republic of China.
Analysts are divided on the motivations of Xi's campaign. Some say the drive is seen as a tool to remove Xi's opponents, while others say it is necessary to weed out people standing in the way of his implementation of economic reforms.
"Corruption is the biggest hindrance to China's reforms," said Zhuang Deshui, deputy director of the Clean Government Center at Peking University. "In reality, the anti-corruption campaign is the fight against interest groups and to change the present distribution system of power."
In an unconnected trial the same day in the southern city of Guangzhou, Zhang Xinhua, former general manager of the state-owned Baiyun Industrial and Agricultural Corporation, was sentenced to death for engaging in bribery and embezzlement worth some $65 million, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/11/2014 00:00 ||
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In down economies, those who can go where there is some possibility of a chance of a better life.
[AnNahar] More than 3,400 people have died in the Mediterranean this year trying to reach Europe, the U.N. refugee agency said Wednesday, urging governments to take more action to save lives.
More than 207,000 people have made the risky sea crossing since January, almost three times the previous high of 70,000 during the Libyan civil war in 2011, the UNHCR said.
Of these, a record 3,419 died, out of a total of 4,272 reported deaths worldwide on migrant vessels this year.
Continued on Page 49
#2
BTW, if you're truly interested in their life and health, reactivating that old 19th Century practice of colonialism might eliminate the blood sucking oligarchs problem back home to start with. Just keep the Belgians out of the program.
[DAWN] A row has broken out over the reported conversion of over 350 Moslems to Hinduism in Agra by Hindu right wing organizations Bajrang Dal and Dharm Jagran Manch, newspapers said on Wednesday. They said the two organizations are also being accused of luring people with the promise of monetary benefits.
Oh this is going to twist some turbans...
The conversions are said to have taken place on Monday at Madhunagar slum area in Agra where the two Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) affiliates organised a "Purkhon ki ghar vapsi" (homecoming for ancestors).
The programme saw around 60 Moslem families being converted amid chanting of hymns. The organisers now plan to hold a month-long training session for these "converts" on Hindu rituals and culture.
Sources say the "converts," mostly hailing from Bihar and West Bengal, were promised BPL (below poverty line) and Aadhaar cards, besides free housing plots. But programme coordinator Ajju Chauhan reportedly claimed the conversion was voluntary. However, today is that tomorrow you were thinking about yesterday... a couple of people later told mediapersons that the organisers had promised monetary and other benefits under government-sponsored schemes.
"We will look into the entire programme and order a detailed probe if needed," said Samajwadi Party spokesperson Rajender Choudhary.
Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati said the incident was the handiwork of communal forces who were trying to vitiate the peace in the state. She demanded strict action against such organizations.
On the other hand, BJP MP Vinay Katiyar said there should be no objection to the programme as those who converted were originally Hindus and it was like homecoming for them.
This Christmas, according to reports, the RSS plans to convert at least 4,000 Christian and 1,000 Moslem families into Hinduism under what it calls the 'Ghar Wapsi' (returning home) programme.
Organisers claim the event in Aligarh will be one of the biggest ever conversion programmes.
It has chosen the city, Aligarh, and the day, Dec 25, carefully. "Aligarh was chosen because it's time we wrest the Hindu city from Moslems. It is a city of brave Rajputs and their temples on whose remains Moslem institutions have been established," RSS regional pracharak Rajeshwar Singh reportedly said.
Christmas was chosen as the day for conversion because the event is a "shakti pariksha" (test of strength) for both religions, said Mr Singh. "If their religion is better, they can stop them. It is a test for both of us. If they come to us on Christmas, it is the biggest rejection of the faith."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/11/2014 12:54 ||
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#1
Why doesn't the CIA take pictures of such events and then use photoshop to add prominent evil-doers to the crowd and start rumors a few months later and let the bad guys discover the photos on the web and take the islamic law into their own hands?
#1
How did it find the itty bitty threat on the larger target? Izzit that smart or did it have help?
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/11/2014 7:44 Comments ||
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#2
Now make it blue-green light so it can hit those ChiCom subs in the ocean. Make the blue-green one even better by putting it on a sat looking for subs in the ocean.
#4
So we have a warship named after Barney Frank? Who knew?
Posted by: Ho Chi Cheresh6372 ||
12/11/2014 11:37 Comments ||
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#5
"Ponce"?
Who the hell names a warship "Ponce"?
Posted by: no mo uro ||
12/11/2014 11:47 Comments ||
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#6
I imagine a blue-green variant would be on the horizon than because this will make torpedos the best way of attack. And of course sea-skimmers with multiple warheads and flack.
Ponce is the only ship of the United States Navy that is named for Ponce in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, which in turn was named after the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León, the first governor of Puerto Rico and European discoverer of Florida.
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.
[AnNahar] The UN's Ebola czar on Tuesday hailed widespread progress in the fight against the deadly virus, but warned the outbreak was still surging in western Sierra Leone and northern Guinea.
Many may be surprised that a photo of a young woman wearing a knee-length dress has sparked local outrage and global curiosity. But the photographs were taken in Kabul, where there are strict rules for women.
