At least 25 men, mostly inmates, were injured when a riot erupted followed by clashes between warders and prisoners in the south Egyptian city of Assiut on Monday, following the reportedly suspicious death of a fellow prisoner, a security official said.
The death of the prisoner, named by the Interior Ministry as Ali Mohamed Mohamed Abdel Salam, in a fight with two inmates led to uproar among the other prisoners, who took three officers hostage and seized their weapons, Egyptian police sources added.
Clashes continued inside the prison building for several hours. Police used tear gas and live ammunition to subdue the prisoners and were able to restore control, the sources added. The injured included 21 prisoners and four warders.
Police sources said earlier that the clashes began when a group of armed men attacked the prison from outside and managed to take weapons into the building, apparently as part of an attempt to free prisoners.
But the Interior Ministry said in a statement the incident began with a brawl between four prisoners armed with table cutlery. Police intervened to separate them and decided to punish them with 48 hours in solitary confinement. "A rumor spread among the prisoners that Abdel Salam died because an officer assaulted him," it said.
Security forces now have complete control of one of the prison's two wings and are gradually retaking the other one, the sources said.
Assiut is the largest Egyptian city south of Cairo, with about 400,000 people. It lies on the Nile about 300 km (180 miles) south of the capital.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
The latest neo-Stalinist atrocity from the dastardly denizens of the Kremlin:
MOSCOW (Reuters) -- Prosecutors in Russia want to ban the award-winning satirical U.S. cartoon "South Park," calling the series "extremist" after receiving viewer complaints, a spokeswoman said on Monday. Er, no, Stormfront and Code Pink are extremist, South Park is annoying.
"South Park," a cartoon aimed at adults and featuring a group of nine-year olds in a Colorado town, has courted controversy since its 1997 debut, lampooning celebrities, politicians, religion, gay marriage and Saddam Hussein. Hippies, too. Especially hippies.
But investigators have filed a motion after deciding an episode broadcast on Moscow television station 2x2 in January "bore signs of extremist activity," said regional prosecutors office spokeswoman Valentina Titova. They have plainly failed to read the South Park disclaimer:
"ALL CHARACTERS AND EVENTS IN THIS SHOW--EVEN THOSE BASED ON REAL PEOPLE--ARE ENTIRELY FICTIONAL. ALL CELEBRITY VOICES ARE IMPERSONATED.....POORLY. THE FOLLOWING PROGRAM CONTAINS COARSE LANGUAGE AND DUE TO ITS CONTENT IT SHOULD NOT BE VIEWED BY ANYONE"
"In accordance with the conclusions made by experts from the court investigations committee, a claim has been filed against 2x2 for its broadcast of an episode of South Park," Titova said.
"South Park" has won two Emmy Awards and was first shown on the U.S. Comedy Central network. It is dubbed into Russian and rebroadcast on local networks, including 2x2, a channel which broadcasts animated series in Moscow and St Petersburg. A representative for 2x2 was not immediately available for comment. No cell phones in the Gulag.
The Russian Union of Christians of Evangelical Faith had asked prosecutors to ban South Park after it said 20 experts had studied the show for its effect on young viewers. Folks, any (other) fool would know that this show is not meant for children.
The group's leader, Konstantin Bendas, said "South Park is just one of many cartoons that need to be banned from open broadcast...as it insults the feelings of religious believers and incites religious and national hatred." South Park: morally equivalent to the Mohammed cartoons.
"Our complaint is against a lot of cartoons, but this one was from 'South Park' season three, episode 15," he said. The episode, called "Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics" on the cartoon's website www.southparkstudios.com, first aired in December, 1999, and features a singing piece of human excrement. I could do without that myself, but my TV has a channel selector. Perhaps backward-ass Russkie TVs do not.
"It's one thing if they are on cable TV and viewers pay money and make a conscious choice. But young children should not be able to turn on the TV after school and watch this. They need to be defended," Bendas said. We have a very advanced method for doing that, one presumably concocted years ago in the bowels of the CIA. It is called "parental supervision." Hey, it worked for me.
Russia passed a 2006 law widening the definition of extremism to include "the abasement of national dignity" and "inciting religious and national hatred," which backers say was needed to stem a wave of violence aimed at ethnic minorities. and criticism, mockery, and ridicule aimed at Czar Vlad the Foremost. There should definitely be a South Park episode based on this.
#1
South Park's shtick is to push the boundries of satire and the freedom of speech. Both are foreign concepts to the Russians. I'm not surprised that they find it confusing and not at all funny. I think its a real side splitter myself, but I'm not a ruskie.
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/09/2008 14:01 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Putin is upset that nobody backed his claim of absorbing those Georgian provinces. So he figures by attacking SouthPark he might at least get North Korea on baord (since you have to imagine Kimmie hates them after Team America).
#8
bigjim-ky, I know it's not a scientific data sample, but the Tsar loves the show and so do a lot of his Russky buddies. Trust me, they get it just fine. That's probably why Putie's worried.
If they follow logi_cal's suggestion, I know someone personally who would probably love to help them with it.
Posted by: Swamp Blondie in the Cornfields ||
09/09/2008 15:10 Comments ||
Top||
#9
Bastards! The KGB killed Kenny!
Posted by: Stan ||
09/09/2008 16:07 Comments ||
Top||
#10
Now that you mention it South Park's Mr. Hanky DOES resemble Putin.
The trial against General Wojciech Jaruzelski, Czeslaw Kiszczak and Stanislaw Kania for imposing martial law in 1981 will start on 12 September.
The main defendants in the martial law case are generals Wojciech Jaruzelski, the then PM, and Czeslaw Kiszczak, the then minister of internal affairs, and the former First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR) Stanislaw Kania. All of the defendants plead not guilty.
Martial Law in Poland refers to the period from 13 December 1981 to 22 July 1983 when the communist authorities led by General Wojciech Jaruzelski drastically restricted normal life in an attempt to crush the political opposition led by the Solidarity trade union.
Thousands of people were arrested without charge and as many as 100 were killed.
I've got quite a bit of sympathy for Jaruzelski and Kania -- probably for Kiszczak, as well, but he was a side issue, a pawn. At the time the Poles were looking at something somewhere between Prague '68 and Budapest '56, with the Hungarian model the more likely.
They had the choice of a "crackdown" of their own, or a smackdown from the Russers. They chose the lesser of two evils, and I don't recall Jaruzelski being happy about doing so.
Just my $.02, of course, and my memory may be no better than anyone else's...
#1
I agree with Fred's comments. Furthermore, I dislike the idea of putting a dictator on trial if there's been a peaceful transfer of power to a democratic government; it merely provides a disincentive to future peaceful transfers of power.
#2
I used to think of Jaruzelski as just another rat bastard dictator until I saw him in a TV interview. The interviewer said basically, you did all sorts of bad things and Jaruzelski replied yeah, but I kept the Russians out. I think that pretty much sums it up.
I happened to have been in my car with the radio on Rush today. I heard this — you may need a tissue and definitely click on the site to see the pictures. Even better, click on the Listen To It! This guy's story needs to be heard.
... an aside here about Cindy — I've noticed she is always wearing those two diamond (probably real!) pins, one says NAVY, the other, USMC.....
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Kurt in Pittsburgh, hello, sir. Nice to have you on the EIB Network, and how about the Steelers defense?
CALLER: How about those Steelers, huh?
RUSH: How about that?
CALLER: Hey, listen, Rush, longtime listener, first-time caller, one of those Bible, family, gun clingers from western Pennsylvania.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: And I wanted to share a story with you. A week ago last Saturday we went to the Palin-McCain rally in Washington, Pennsylvania, was the day after he announced her, and we have a five-year-old daughter with Down syndrome, and we made a sign that said: "We Love Kids with Down Syndrome." So when they pulled in in their bus the sign did catch their, McCain and Palin and the rest of their family, it caught their eye, we could tell, they gave us a thumbs-up from the bus, so we were all excited just by that —
RUSH: Wait, wait, wait. Who gave you the thumbs up, McCain and Palin?
CALLER: McCain, Palin, Cindy McCain, we could see them from the bus. We were in a position where we had eye contact with them —
RUSH: Oh, cool!
CALLER: My wife was holding our daughter.
RUSH: Very, very, very cool.
CALLER: It was really cool, Rush. I was like, "Wow, that's awesome," because I love Governor Palin and so I thought that's really neat. So then we moved around as the bus was getting ready to pull out, we kind of positioned ourselves so we could just wave them on and a Secret Service agent came up to us and said, "Hey, can you come with us?" I was like, "Do we have a choice?"
RUSH: (laughing) You shouldn't have worried. It's not the Clinton administration.
CALLER: Right. So we accompanied them up the hill, we went right to the bus, where it was, and Governor Palin, Senator McCain, Cindy, Todd Palin, they're all standing there. We're in this inner circle with just us and them, and the Secret Service agent, and they came right up to us and thanked us for coming out, said they loved our sign, and Governor Palin immediately said, "May I hold your daughter?" and our daughter Chloe, who's five, went right to her, and I have some pictures I'd love to send you maybe when I'm done here, but Governor Palin was hugging Chloe, and then her little daughter brought their baby Trig who has Down syndrome from the bus, he was napping, and Chloe went right over and kissed him on the cheek, and my son Nolan who's nine, he thanked her.
RUSH: This is amazing.
CALLER: I will send you all the stuff, Senator McCain was talking to my son, and we thanked him for his service, and he asked my son if he wanted to see the bus, and we were hanging out and it was very surreal. I felt like we could have had a pizza and a beer with them, they were so warm.
RUSH: You know what? I want to put you on hold. I want Snerdley to give you our super-secret, known-only-to-three-people here, e-mail address.
CALLER: I will send you everything, Rush.
RUSH: And then could you send us these pictures? Would you mind if we put them on the website?
CALLER: I would be honored, and my main thing is they are warm, kind, genuine people, and they represent the best of this country.
RUSH: That's right. And when you send these pictures, make sure you identify them. I mean, we'll know Palin and McCain, of course. Identify yourselves.
CALLER: I will, I will identify everybody in the picture, Rush, and God bless you for being a beacon of hope and truth in this country.
RUSH: Oh, no, no. It's nothing, it's nothing. You're doing the Lord's work.
CALLER: Well, we're very blessed and I want people to know what a blessing it is to have a child with Down syndrome. These kids, they're angels.
RUSH: That's the thing. There's always good to be found in everything that happens. It may be a while before it reveals itself.
CALLER: Absolutely.
RUSH: Right, and when she hugged my daughter I said, here's the difference, this candidate embraces life and all its limitless possibilities.
RUSH: All right.
CALLER: That's what she is.
RUSH: Terrific, okay, I gotta run here, but I'm going to put you on hold.
CALLER: Thank you, Rush.
RUSH: Thank you, Kurt. I really appreciate it.
END TRANSCRIPT
I happened to have been in my car with the radio on Rush today. I heard this -- you may need a tissue and definitely click on the site to see the pictures. Even better, click on the Listen To It! This guy's story needs to be heard.
... an aside here about Cindy -- I've noticed she is always wearing those two diamond (probably real!) pins, one says NAVY, the other, USMC.....
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Kurt in Pittsburgh, hello, sir. Nice to have you on the EIB Network, and how about the Steelers defense?
CALLER: How about those Steelers, huh?
RUSH: How about that?
CALLER: Hey, listen, Rush, longtime listener, first-time caller, one of those Bible, family, gun clingers from western Pennsylvania.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: And I wanted to share a story with you. A week ago last Saturday we went to the Palin-McCain rally in Washington, Pennsylvania, was the day after he announced her, and we have a five-year-old daughter with Down syndrome, and we made a sign that said: "We Love Kids with Down Syndrome." So when they pulled in in their bus the sign did catch their, McCain and Palin and the rest of their family, it caught their eye, we could tell, they gave us a thumbs-up from the bus, so we were all excited just by that --
RUSH: Wait, wait, wait. Who gave you the thumbs up, McCain and Palin?
CALLER: McCain, Palin, Cindy McCain, we could see them from the bus. We were in a position where we had eye contact with them --
RUSH: Oh, cool!
CALLER: My wife was holding our daughter.
RUSH: Very, very, very cool.
CALLER: It was really cool, Rush. I was like, "Wow, that's awesome," because I love Governor Palin and so I thought that's really neat. So then we moved around as the bus was getting ready to pull out, we kind of positioned ourselves so we could just wave them on and a Secret Service agent came up to us and said, "Hey, can you come with us?" I was like, "Do we have a choice?"
RUSH: (laughing) You shouldn't have worried. It's not the Clinton administration.
CALLER: Right. So we accompanied them up the hill, we went right to the bus, where it was, and Governor Palin, Senator McCain, Cindy, Todd Palin, they're all standing there. We're in this inner circle with just us and them, and the Secret Service agent, and they came right up to us and thanked us for coming out, said they loved our sign, and Governor Palin immediately said, "May I hold your daughter?" and our daughter Chloe, who's five, went right to her, and I have some pictures I'd love to send you maybe when I'm done here, but Governor Palin was hugging Chloe, and then her little daughter brought their baby Trig who has Down syndrome from the bus, he was napping, and Chloe went right over and kissed him on the cheek, and my son Nolan who's nine, he thanked her.
RUSH: This is amazing.
CALLER: I will send you all the stuff, Senator McCain was talking to my son, and we thanked him for his service, and he asked my son if he wanted to see the bus, and we were hanging out and it was very surreal. I felt like we could have had a pizza and a beer with them, they were so warm.
RUSH: You know what? I want to put you on hold. I want Snerdley to give you our super-secret, known-only-to-three-people here, e-mail address.
CALLER: I will send you everything, Rush.
RUSH: And then could you send us these pictures? Would you mind if we put them on the website?
CALLER: I would be honored, and my main thing is they are warm, kind, genuine people, and they represent the best of this country.
RUSH: That's right. And when you send these pictures, make sure you identify them. I mean, we'll know Palin and McCain, of course. Identify yourselves.
CALLER: I will, I will identify everybody in the picture, Rush, and God bless you for being a beacon of hope and truth in this country.
RUSH: Oh, no, no. It's nothing, it's nothing. You're doing the Lord's work.
CALLER: Well, we're very blessed and I want people to know what a blessing it is to have a child with Down syndrome. These kids, they're angels.
RUSH: That's the thing. There's always good to be found in everything that happens. It may be a while before it reveals itself.
CALLER: Absolutely.
RUSH: Right, and when she hugged my daughter I said, here's the difference, this candidate embraces life and all its limitless possibilities.
RUSH: All right.
CALLER: That's what she is.
RUSH: Terrific, okay, I gotta run here, but I'm going to put you on hold.
CALLER: Thank you, Rush.
RUSH: Thank you, Kurt. I really appreciate it.
END TRANSCRIPT
MIRPURKHAS: A renowned Ahmadi doctor was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in an apparent sectarian attack on Monday. Physician and cardiologist Dr Abdul Manan Siddiqui -- who sources said had been receiving threats for several months -- was at his Fazl-e-Umar Medical Centre when the gunmen fired at him. Siddiqui died instantly while his guard, Arif, was injured. Pakistan Medical Association Mirpurkhas President Dr Mushtaq Khan has announced a 24-hour strike and demanded the district administration arrest the killers within three days. Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain condemned Siddiqui's killing in a statement later on Monday, and demanded the authorities immediately arrest those responsible.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Takfir wal-Hijra
The Lahore Diocese Church of Pakistan on Monday has called the government's attention to the abduction and forced conversion of two Christian girls, aged between 10 and 14 years in Chak Sarwar Shaheed, Muzaffargarh, on June 26.
Aneela, the elder of the two sisters, was forcibly married and both girls were declared Muslim by an additional sessions judge of Muzaffargarh on July 14, while dismissing a habeas corpus petition filed by the girls' parents. An appeal against the decision will be heard today (September 9) in the Multan bench of the Lahore High Court. "Forced and fake conversion of minority girls are mostly followed by their kidnapping, leaving the victims' parents no option but mourning," Ayra Inderyas, secretary of the Women's Desk Church of Pakistan Lahore Diocese, said, adding, "Young girls, who are unable to make informed decisions regarding marriage, are vulnerable to forced marriages."
She said that marriages that involve kidnapping should be declared void and the girls should be handed over to their parents. She added that the government needed to ensure equality and to safeguard the rights of minorities.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/09/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Global Jihad
#1
Don't get me started...
Time to go go postal on some these pieces of fertilizer who make war on kids....
One of the country's top doctors has warned the NHS faces meltdown because of the cost of treating cancer. Professor Karol Sikora, of CancerPartners UK, told Sky News the next generation of drugs will turn cancer into a chronic disease that patients live with, not die of.
But the drugs are not just expensive - they will give way to a raft of new diseases people will suffer in old age.
The total cost to the NHS will be £50bn in four years' time - half the current budget for the entire health service. "The £50bn is equivalent to raising tax by 15p for everybody. That's the bottom line," Prof Sikora said. The calculations I've done for Sky News show a pretty bleak picture unless we have drastic change.
"The NHS is going to face meltdown just because of one disease, so we're going to have to re-structure things for the future, look at new ways of bringing money in to the health service and that is a huge political challenge."
There could also be further rationing of cancer drugs. The National Institute for Clinical Excellence already blocks those that it does not deem to be cost effective. It can take two to three years to consider the evidence. And in the meantime it is up to local primary care trusts to decide whether or not they will find treatment.
Stephen Allen twice moved house to win funding for a new kidney cancer drug called Sutent. The drug costs £3,000 and PCTs in Dudley and Worcestershire said it was too expensive to justify the extra months of life that he might get. Only when he moved to Birmingham did he finally get funding. Just 17 miles made all the difference in the postcode lottery.
"They said they did good palliative treatment. It was just devastating," he said. The treatment has allowed him to see his granddaughter's first birthday. "At times I pinch myself when she's chatting to me. It's been well worth the fight." Stephen's consultant helps patients to work the system and get the drugs they need.
Professor Nick James is based at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital. He says he has to look up a patient's address to see which drugs they are automatically eligible for. He now helps patients who have been denied expensive new treatment to top up their NHS care with drugs paid for privately. Officially that is a breach of Department of Health rules. But he says they shouldn't have been turned down for treatment in the first place.
"It feels unfair to me. It feels unfair to the patients. They feel it's a national health service so it should be nationally consistent," he said. "It's a very clever dodge by the politicians to say well actually this wasn't my decision this was a local decision made by local people, you have to blame them not me.
"The root cause is that the local PCT doesn't have enough money and that's a central decision.
"It's a clever bit of manoeuvring by Westminster politicians to keep their hands clean."
But the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (Nice) says some cancer drugs only offer marginal benefits. Avastin, a drug for colon cancer, costs £17,000 and extends life by five months. It ruled the drug was not cost effective and said the NHS should not pay for it.
Chairman Sir Michael Rawlins told Sky News that Nice is unfairly seen as nasty. But he apologised to patients who are denied treatment. "A drug may give you the opportunity to go to a wedding or a birthday party. I understand that. But the problem is that some of these drugs are very expensive. There is a finite pot of money and it is a matter of how we divide it up in the fairest possible way."
Nice is to speed up its reviews of new cancer drugs, so decisions are made within three months. The Government's cancer 'Csar', Professor Mike Richards, is also considering whether private top-ups of NHS care should be allowed. He is expected to report back to ministers this October. But then again, it's far more important that socialized medicine survive, instead of the patients.
#2
So life and death are dealt out by one person in most cases. He or she chooses who lives and who dies because they are not economically viable.
Sounds rather Orwellian, doesn't it.
#3
A long long time ago the Pharaoh spent the resources of all of, what was then, civilization trying to buy immortality. In today's communal entitlement world, everyone will expect everyone else to pay for their bid for immortality.
No one dies of 'old age' anymore. It's always some bean counting descriptive which then is the basis for the demands of more money and resources for 'studies' and 'programs' and 'protocols'.
#6
I read someone where that something like 90% of healthcare costs are spent keeping people alive that last year.
Now I don't support the government/doctors/insurance making the decision to pull the plug but I certainly think the patient should be able to order them to (assuming they are in their right mind).
#7
Heck, they should develop heroin wings of the hospitals and anyone who gets that sick should just live it up their last few months. With heroin they probably wont' even use up the year. I mean we are gonna have a bunch of baby boomer ex-hippies filling up the hospitals before long.
An Indonesian chef makes a finishing touch on a giant replica of a mosque made of chocolate at a hotel in Jakarta on Monday. The 5-meter (16.4 feet) tall chocolate mosque was made of 200 kilograms (441 lbs.) of chocolate to mark the fasting month of Ramadan, the holiest month in Islamic calendar.
any of various light chilled or frozen foods made with egg white, gelatin, whipped cream, etc., combined with fruit or flavoring for desserts, or with fish, meat, (but never pork) etc.
The inspiration for the cycle came when 18 year old Ben Gulak visited China in 2006 and was amazed at the overwhelming pollution that completely blocked the view of the surrounding country as his airplane came in for landing. He realized that much of that smog was coming from the thousands of motor scooters whizzing through the streets and figured that there had to be a better way.
#3
Like that in Vietnam as well - yeah there aren't that many cars but millions of scooters, couldn't help but feel like I was following moses when crossing the street.
Had the same thought AlanC - saw scooters with the family of 4, one carrying 4 cases of beer, and one I'll never forget: he had a full length mirror placed between himself and the steering, reflection side to his face, smoking a cigerette.
#4
I can beat that- while waiting for a bus on a street in Seoul, ROK, I spotted a motorbike - with a full-sized refrigerator-freezer balanced upright on the back of it, behind the driver!
I thought - oh, geeze, there is a guy with confidence in his sense of balance! (and how the hell did he get that refrigerator up on the back of the bike anyway?)
#5
Like that in Vietnam as well - yeah there aren't that many cars but millions of scooters, couldn't help but feel like I was following moses when crossing the street.
Had the same thought AlanC - saw scooters with the family of 4, one carrying 4 cases of beer, and one I'll never forget: he had a full length mirror placed between himself and the steering, reflection side to his face, smoking a cigerette.
When you see how much they carry on tiny motor bikes you get some idea how they ran such a huge logistics train in Laos and Cambodia.
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
09/09/2008 16:43 Comments ||
Top||
#6
It's a Harley-Davidson Segway!
Posted by: Mike ||
09/09/2008 16:47 Comments ||
Top||
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.
At least 25 men, mostly inmates, were injured when a riot erupted followed by clashes between warders and prisoners in the south Egyptian city of Assiut on Monday, following the reportedly suspicious death of a fellow prisoner, a security official said. 
