IN WHICH we learn how one steals a mine, which hitherto appeared to be just a fancy hole in the ground, impossible to remove from the ground it's a hole in.
The recently imprisoned former head of Kazakhstan's state nuclear power agency stole the majority of the Central Asian nation's uranium deposits, security officials alleged on Monday.
Former Kazatomprom head Mukhtar Dzhakishev and other company officials illegally shifted ownership of uranium mines worth tens of billions of dollars through a network of offshore companies, the KNB security service said.
Nice work if you can get it ...
"Our information confirms the illegal tranfer of more than 60 percent of the state's uranium deposits into the property of Dzhakishev and the companies he owned," a KNB spokesman told reporters in the capital Astana.
The announcement by the KNB -- the successor to the Soviet-era KGB -- raises the pressure on Dzhakishev and other Kazatomprom executives, less than two weeks after he was stripped of his title and imprisoned.
Authorities did not explain how Dzhakishev managed to steal more than half of the country's uranium deposits out from under the government's nose. All uranium deals in Kazakhstan are heavily monitored and audited by the state.
I think you have your answer ...
Kazakhstan, an ex-Soviet republic bordering Russia and China, holds almost 20 percent of the world's uranium reserves and aims to be the number one producer by 2010, overtaking Australia and Canada.
The country is keen to be seen as a global player in issues of nuclear security. Last year, Kazakhstan mined around 8,500 tonnes of uranium and plans to extract 11,900 tonnes in 2009, according to Kazatomprom
What kind of side-deals did Mr. Dzhakishev do under the table? And with whom?
Barnaby Joyce reckons Kevin Rudd is a "psycho chook" with peculiar habits, while Mark Arbib admits the prime minister is no Mother Teresa.
The two senators' remarks were typical of federal parliamentarians' responses to a new poll showing more voters than not think Mr Rudd can turn nasty if he doesn't get his own way.
Nearly one in two voters believe Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull is arrogant and out of touch with ordinary Australians, according to a Galaxy Poll published in News Limited newspapers on Monday. That finding led one of his parliamentary secretaries to suggest Mr Turnbull, too, had never been a Mother Teresa.
Senator Joyce, Nationals leader in the upper house, was unsurprised by the poll's findings.
"The guy's a psycho chook," he said of Mr Rudd. "Who in their right mind gets onto a plane and because he doesn't get the right colour birdseed has a spack attack?"
Senator Joyce was referring to an incident aboard a RAAF VIP plane in which Mr Rudd reduced a steward to tears. "This is a very peculiar man who is leading our country," he said, referring to claims the prime minister demanded a hair dryer while visiting troops in Afghanistan, and his inability to hang onto staff.
Senator Arbib, one of Labor's parliamentary secretaries, says Australians understand that Mr Rudd is doing what's needed in the national interest.
"Kevin Rudd has admitted he's not perfect, and no-one is," he told Sky News. "He's not Mother Teresa, there's no doubt about that."
Coalition senator Mitch Fifield defended his leader's standing with voters, saying "to know Malcolm is to love him".
"He's never presented himself as Mother Teresa," he said, adding Labor had presented that image of Mr Rudd before the 2007 federal election. "The people of Australia are starting to see the real Kevin Rudd."
There were some "worrying trends" for Labor in the poll's findings.
President Barack Obama on Friday personally sought to deflect criticism of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, who finds herself under intensifying scrutiny for saying in 2001 that a female Hispanic judge would often reach a better decision than a white male judge. "I'm sure she would have restated it," Obama flatly told NBC News, without indicating how he knew that.
The quote in question from Sotomayor has emerged as a rallying call for conservative critics who fear she will offer opinions from the bench based less on the rule of law and more on her life experience, ethnicity and gender. That issue is likely to play a central role in her Senate confirmation process.
Obama also defended his nominee, saying her message was on target even if her exact wording was not.
Continued on Page 49
#3
It's like Congressmen (D-Any State) who get a free refile on their income tax when its discovered that an 'error' has been made [one which any average citizen would have been hammered by the IRS]. Avoids a real ethics probe as well.
#4
Her NCLR (La Raza) connection and stand on immigration will have a great impact.
Website excerpt: Through its Affiliate and partner network, NCLR seeks to work with advocates to educate the community about state and local immigration-related initiatives to bring about the best possible policy outcome. By working with grassroots organizations to elaborate the advocacy tools necessary at the local and state level, NCLR seeks to defeat anti-immigrant initiatives and propel policies that best integrate immigrants into U.S. society.
#7
Utter bullshit. O just agreed with NBC's Brian Williams that the quote was "one of those that she'd rather have back if she had it to redo."
This doesn't even rise to the level of 'softball' journalism- BW put the best answer possible into O's mouth and all he had to do was eloquently agree.
#10
Why should she restate it, she believes it. The proof is in her rulings. 60% overturned by Supreme Court means that she did not make rulings based on the law but by what she perceived as correct. Judges are supposed to interpet the law period and not inject there own personal feelings on the subject.
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.