[NEWS.XINHUANET] An Australian farmer has set a new national record for the heaviest pumpkin in Australia and New Zealand.
Dale Oliver's winning pumpkin weighed at 743 kg during the Summerland Pumpkin Competition held in northern New South Wales ( NSW).
Oliver has been the nation's top pumpkin grower for many years and in 2013 broke his 575 kg record with a 619 kg pumpkin.
He told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Monday that his record breaking Atlantic Giant pumpkin only took 75 to 80 days to grow.
However, Switzerland makes more than cheese... Oliver needs to grow them bigger in order to make a world record.
The Guinness World Record for heaviest pumpkin at 1,054 kg (2, 323 pounds) belongs to Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... grower Beni Meier.
And he said American farmers were even growing bigger ones.
"Nowadays all them guys over in America, actually all around the world, keep sourcing the biggest genetics and they just seem to be getting bigger, bigger and bigger," Oliver said.
"Back when they had them at 1,500 pounds they were wondering if they'd get to 2,000, now they're looking to break 2,500 pounds ( about 1,134 kilograms)."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2015 00:00 ||
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#8
Orange you glad that your new pet cucurbit
Has a thick skin? But still, don't disturb it!
Sure, you like pumpkin pie,
But let sleeping gourds lie,
Lest the sound of your shrieking perturb it.
#12
Gawd, I hate it when folks objectify women... or mock the mentally or physically challenged... or thwart the insane ambitions of homicidal geriatric midgets... but what the hey.
It's the travelling circus of Dork and Dwarf:
See Willy, the Bent Innuendomorph!
Step right up! Cast your eyes
On the huge thighs and lies
Of the crooked-ass Venus of Hillendorf!
[Dhaka Tribune] Rival groups opened fire and blasted several crude bombs over submission of tender documents at Bidyut Bhaban in the capital's Shahbagh yesterday. A youth was hurt in the clash.
Like the Mafia, they're willing to kill to get more than their fair share of the pie.
Police said the incident took place around 11:30am, which was the last day for dropping tender for the extension work of the Tejgaon power sub-station and the Madartek sub-station costing Tk42 lakh and Tk31 lakh respectively under the Dhaka Power Distribution Company.
People from Tanvir Group, Talukder Construction and Mahbub Alam Construction submitted their documents. But festivities broke out when some men from Madina Group showed up to drop the tender around 11am.
Several rounds of bullets were fired at the time. A bullet also hit the car of power division's Additional Secretary Ahmad Kaikaus parked on the first floor of the building.
During the clash two bombs were blasted in front of the vehicle pool at secretariat.
Mamun, 30, was maimed in the head while vandalising a vehicle on the Bidyut Bhaban premises.
He was admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital for primary treatment and was later taken to police custody.
Saidul Islam, officer in-charge of Shahbagh cop shoppe said they rushed to the spot and brought the situation under control.
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03/11/2015 00:00 ||
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For a map, click here. You can enlarge the map, if you open it separately.
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
More than 400 separate violations of the newly signed February 12th Minsk Ceasefire have occurred, 30 of them in the last two days, say rebel leaders in Donetsk.
Donetsk defense ministry spokesman Lt. Colonel Eduard Basurin said Tuesday that almost all of the violations, which include separate artillery attacks, have taken place around the airport area northwest of Donetsk city.
According to Basurin, one rebel effective was wounded in the attacks.
Rebels make much of the claim that they have already withdrawn all their heavy weapons from the line of contact, while the Ukrainian side have repeatedly delayed displacing their artillery units. Rebel say their artillery units are under strict orders now not to respond to "provocations", as the rebels put it, by returning artillery fire.
The restriction on the line of contact now is for weapons with bores no larger than 100mm. That rules out every weapon available to both sides except for the 82mm mortar, 73mm SPG recoilless rifle and the main gun on the BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicle. All three wespons have been used in an indirect fire role since last fall.
According to Basurin, observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe have witnessed and recorded the artillery attacks.
Attempted Assassination of Alexei Mozgovoi
One of the top combat formation commanders in Lugansk was attacked last Saturday evening after returning from a conference in Lugansk city, according to various web reports.
Alexei Mozgovoi, commander of the "Ghost Brigade", was being driven in an SUV along with a small security detail near Mikailovski, about 30 kilometers west of Lugansk, when his vehicle was struck by a directional mine.
Mozgovoi was hit on the right side of his face, and shrapnel almost tore off his right ear. The vehicle he was riding in, a Ford Explorer was damaged, but still drivable.
According to a video posted on the Internet, the explosive used was a form of commercial grade dynamite used in mining. According to the unidentified investigator in the video, it is unlikely the attack was a Ukrainian hit.
Mozgovoi's brigade, deployed near Alchevsk, was involved in the later stages of the liquidation of the Debaltsevo pocket last month.
Mozgovoi was featured in a video where he was walking around an unidentified area, and at one point looking into the camera saying, (paraphrasing) "Do you think you really matter, now, Plotnitsky?"
That is a reference to Lugansk president Igor Plotnitsky, who has had problems in dealing with the military units in Lugansk. It is not certain why Mozgovoi singled out Plotnitsky in the video, but the name surfaced again in a video in which the investigator said he was uncertain if Plotnitsky was involved in the attack.
That would hint that there is bad blood between Mozgovoi and Plotnitsky, enough so that a military formation commander would go to lengths to diminish Lugansk's top politician on a public forum.
It is also well known and established how Plotnitsky and the Cossacks deployed in Lugansk have had their problems as well, but like Mozgovoi, it is uncertain as to the causes.
One incident which took place late last December was the death of Aleksandr Bednov, a popular staff officer with the 4th Rifle Brigade, who was killed by security forces aligned with Plotnitsky.
For about 18 hours after that attack, it was speculated that the attack in Georgievka, a suburb south of Lugansk city, which killed Bednov and six of his security detail, was a straight up hit, given that the security elements deployed in the attack used fuel-air explosive RPG rounds in what appeared to be an ambush.
It was later announced by Plotnitsky that Bednov was under investigation for the murder of four people in Lugansk last July. Little about that investigation has been released by Plotnitsky's government to date.
That incident also may have colored Plotnitsky's relationship with the military formation commanders in Lugansk.
Chris Covert writes about foreign military issues for Rantburg.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com. Click here for a list of stories in the The 2014 War in Ukraina category.
[NEWS.XINHUANET] German government officials expressed their supports to the creation of a European army on Monday, but insisted that such a target could not be reached in a near future.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel ...current chancellor of Germany. She was educated in East Germany when is was still run by commies, but in 1989 got involved with the growing democracy movement when the Berlin Wall fell. Merkel is sometimes referred to by Germans as Mom... backed "a stronger and deeper military cooperation in Europe", said her deputy spokeswoman Christiane Wirtz in a presser in Berlin, in response to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker's call over the weekend for creating a European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... (EU) army.
Juncker said in an interview with German media on Sunday that such an army would enable Europe to "build a common foreign and security policy and jointly assume the responsibilities of Europe in the world".
Wirtz said, however, the European army was "a future project" and there was no current schedule for its creation.
The view was shared by Ingo Gerhartz, the deputy front man of the German Defence Ministry, who said in the same presser that a European army was seen as a long-term goal, and EU member states were "on the way there".
In an interview with German Tagesspiegel newspaper on Monday, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier also said that a European army is a "major political concern and part of the party program" of his Social Democratic Party, the coalition partner of Merkel's Christian Democratic Union.
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03/11/2015 00:00 ||
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Germany = Abe-led Japan + JSDFS = allow the Bundeswehr to participate in "Collective Self-Defense" under UNO + EU-only auspices???
German BFF RUSSIA apparently has misgivings, as Moscow is demanding the particulars of saidsame proposed "EU Army".
#5
Apparently, they have lots of money to 'bailout' Ponzi scheme pols left and right, but no money for defense for the last decade +. So long, and thanks for all the fish.
#8
Why I'm thinking Tom Lehrer? Because you are an "old guy" g(r)omgoru and you have a store of pity wisdom to share, but unfortunately the younger x-y-z generations haven't a clue, since it all happened before they were born, it didn't happen.
#10
Iff the EU can have an Army, so can EU-wannabe ASEAN = SE ASIA "UNION".
Germany + Bundeswehr notwithstanding.
Anti-CHINA???
* IIRC TOPIX > ASEAN UNION STILL A WORK-IN-PROGRESS, NOT AN "ILLUSION".
--------------------
* FYI DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > JAPANESE MILITARY TO TRAIN IN NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS, as independent or in tangent wid the USDOD.
Nippon building its own artificial, Mil-usable islands west of the Marianas helps to defend GUAM + CNMI by putting JSDFS widin striking distance of same.
AGAIN, IFF CHINA IS UNABLE TO DIPLOMATICALY GET "SOLE" BASE RIGHTS FOR THE PLA VEE THE "FIRST ISLAND CHAIN", IT MAY DECIDE TO USE FORCE TO DO SO.
* GLOBALNATION.PH > [Philippines] PAGASA ISLAND: "COME HELL OR HIGH WATER [China], THIS IS OURS"!
Have the Philippines said "D *** NG IT"???
Keep sending them TU95 "BEARS" over GUAM-WESTPAC, Vlad.
Or ... ... NOT???
VERSUS
* DRUDGEREPORT > [Reuters] US ASKS VIETNAM TO HELP STOP RUSSIAN [strategic = nuke-capable] BOMBER FLIGHTS.
Russian "BEAR" Bomber flights near [over GUAM = SSSHHH ... CCC like over Cornwall, UK] mentioned.
Vlad's Boyz flew OVER Guam + Cornwall, N-O-T JUST "NEAR" - no Guam-based PATRIOTS were fired, + AAFB had no Fighters to stop them the first time.
No more Lingonberries for you !
[AnNahar] Sweden announced Tuesday it will not renew a military cooperation agreement with Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... , effectively ending defense ties due to mounting concerns over rights issues.
"It will be broken off," Prime Minister Stefan Loefven said on public radio of a 2005 Saudi-Swedish agreement.
Nice to know it's not just Israel that gets up those loftily tilted Swedish noses.
The Social-Democrat premier spoke a day after Sweden's Foreign Minister Margot Wallstroem accused Saudi Arabia of blocking her speech at an Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... meeting.
Saudi Arabia is the third largest non-Western buyer of Swedish arms. In 2014, Riyadh bought equipment worth 338 million kroner (37 million euros, $39 million).
The deal, which was due for renewal for another five years in May, has come under fire within Loefven's Social Democrats, while their Green Party coalition partners oppose it categorically.
Wallstroem has rarely commented on Saudi Arabia but in January she slammed the kingdom's treatment of blogger Raef Badawi, who had been sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in prison for insulting Islam.
[Hurriyet Daily News] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's Directorate General for Religious Affairs (Diyanet) has started to charge accommodation prices in the U.S. dollar to Turks performing the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, rather than the euro, amid the severe loss of the Turkish Lira against the former.
The average accommodation price per person has increased to $3,600 this year, from around 2,700 euros ($2,900) in 2014. Pilgrims will therefore pay a total of around 9,360 liras this year, 1,660 liras more than last year, amid the dramatic rise of U.S. dollar against all currencies.
Pilgrims will need to pay $5,000 for separate rooms in the Diyanet-run facility, according to the new pricing list, while hotel rooms in Mecca have prices ranging from between $6,900 and $9,900.
The Diyanet told Anadolu Agency that the transition to a price plan based on the U.S. dollar is not new, and the decision was made in November 2014 by the Inter-Ministerial Haj and Umrah Board.
"The board changed the currency used to charge all hajj and umrah services into the U.S. dollar in November 2014," the Diyanet said in a written statement on March 11.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2015 00:00 ||
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Does that includes Introduction to the Mysterious Rites of the MiniBar?
[The News (Pak)] An international report on Saturday ranked Pakistain 141 in terms of women development, while the country has been placed on 147th number in the Human Development Index.
A seminar was held here on the occasion of International Women's Day by Mir Khalil ur Rahman Society in which the role of micro-finance in women development sector was reviewed.
Participants of the seminar said the country has witnessed some progress in women's health and education sectors. However, alcohol has never solved anybody's problems. But then, neither has milk... they termed the situation of women development in the sphere of politics and economic sector as unsatisfactory.
Acting Governor of State Bank, Saeed Ahmed said the government was in the process of introducing some new projects for the development of women, who make up forty-nine percent of the country's population.
Provincial Minister for Women Development, Hamida Waheeduddin said more hostels fo women and Dar-ul-Aman would be established across the country.
She said the women will be protected to enable them to enhance their productivity.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2015 00:00 ||
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Does this mean Pakistan has 141 developed women? I wouldn't have thought that many.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/11/2015 8:05 Comments ||
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I wonder where Saudi and Somalia rank?
Posted by: paul ||
03/11/2015 10:27 Comments ||
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Those albinos are simply outta control! [Hurriyet Daily News] The UN human rights ...not to be confused with individual rights, mind you... chief on March 10 strongly condemned a surge in attacks in east Africa on albinos, whose body parts are often used for witchcraft. Oh. Wait. Never mind. Insert Edmund Pettus Bridge, Bloody Sunday story here.
The statement came after police in Tanzania jugged Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! seven suspects over a brutal weekend assault in which a six-year-old albino boy's hand was hacked off with a machete. "Whatcha got there, Mndungo?"
"It's a six year old albino's hand!"
"Six years old? Looks pretty fresh to me! Whatcha use it for? A back scratcher?"
"No! I'm gonna make soup! Albino soup's good for the potency!"
"Potency? You got a dozen kids!"
"Havin' lotsa kids is good! My daddy always said so!"
"What'll you do if one of 'em pops out albino?"
"I dunno. Make more soup?" The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein "expressed revulsion at a recent surge in violent attacks against people with albinism in several East African countries," the statement said Have you thought about cutting a hand or two off when you catch them?
"These attacks are often stunningly vicious, with children in particular being targeted," Zeid said. Attacks on kiddies are stunningly vicious kinda by definition, aren't they? Or have I missed something?
In the past six months, at least 15 people with albinism in Tanzania, Malawi and Burundi have been kidnapped, maimed, killed or escaped being kidnapped, including three such attacks in the past week alone, his office said. Here's a helpful suggestion: Parade the local witch doctors or whatever they are in front of any escapees. When the escapee hollers "That's the guy!" chop one or two of the guy's hands off and make soup. Witch doctor hand soup is very good for albinos.
The violence has left many people with albinism "living in abject fear," Zeid said. Because they're surrounded by witch doctors and it's just their culture so we really shouldn't criticize.
"Some no longer dare to go outside, and children with albinism have stopped attending school because of the recent spate of assaults, murders and kidnappings," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2015 00:00 ||
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When they run out of albinos will Caucasians do?
[CSMONITOR] Hundreds of Myanmar police struck out violently against university students and activists protesting a new education law, hitting and dragging them away to trucks, and bringing an ugly end to a month of demonstrations in this small town.
The government says its reforms will give universities more autonomy and allow for an independent body to coordinate their functions. Myanmar once had one of the best university systems in Southeast Asia, but standards fell sharply during nearly five decades of military rule.
But students say the new law will curb academic freedom, weaken the role of professors and student unions, and centralize an anti-democratic authority over universities. Their protests have spread across the country, and many protesters have worn symbolic straw hats and sung songs that hearken back to historic democratic uprisings in 1988.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/11/2015 00:00 ||
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And we're not talking about baton twirlers here.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
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[AP] PENSACOLA, Fla. -- Seven Marines and four soldiers were missing early Wednesday after an Army helicopter crashed during a night training exercise at Eglin Air Force Base in the Florida Panhandle.
Base officials said the Marines are part of a Camp Lejeune-based special operations group and the soldiers were from a Hammond, Louisiana-based National Guard unit.
The helicopter was reported missing around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday and search and rescue crews found debris from the crash around 2 a.m. Wednesday, Eglin spokesman Andy Bourland said.
"At this time all are missing," Bourland said.
Names of those involved were being withheld pending notification of next of kin, he said.
Bourland said the Army helicopter took off from a nearby airport in Destin and joined other aircraft in the training exercise.
The helicopter went down during a routine training mission on a remote swath of beach between Pensacola and Destin. The beach is owned by the military and is used for test missions.
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.
[NEWS.XINHUANET] German government officials expressed their supports to the creation of a European army on Monday, but insisted that such a target could not be reached in a near future.
[Hurriyet Daily News] The UN 
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein "expressed revulsion at a recent surge in violent attacks against people with albinism in several East African countries," the statement said 
