News Stories

[Whiteshirt]

Originally Posted by Mystique

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8094076.stm
What's going on over in DC then :\
Abortion doctors getting short at church.
Some old dude walking into a Holocaust museum with a rifle? O.o

89....
Why do the bad ones always live the longest...?

From other news sources it claims he was 88.

Which makes it kind of morbidly amusing because he probably literally waited until he was 88 (88 = HH = Heil Hitler) years old before doing this.

[Shadow Kira01]

China key to new resolution on N. Korea

Resolution 1718 too weak


Three years ago, when North Korea conducted its first nuclear test, the Security Council adopted Resolution 1718, which called for Pyongyang to refrain from nuclear tests and ballistic missile launches. The resolution also banned the transfer and supply of items linked to the development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, as well as banning the import of luxury items.

That North Korea has behaved in blatant violation of the 2006 resolution by launching ballistic missiles and conducting another nuclear test shows that sanctions were not thoroughly implemented and that the 2006 resolution existed in name only.

North Korea appears to be stepping up its provocative acts by announcing that it will conduct more nuclear tests and launch more long-range ballistic missiles. A firm international stance is needed to rein in North Korea, which is aiming at creating a fait accompli for possessing nuclear weapons.

Regarding cargo heading to and from North Korea, the draft resolution calls for U.N. member nations to inspect vessels suspected of carrying banned items within their territories, including at sea ports and airports. The draft resolution gives permission for cargo inspections on the high seas if the country whose flag the vessel is flying gives approval.

The draft does not outline specific obligations for each country or allow for mandatory inspections on the high seas. However, the draft carries more definitive clauses than that of Resolution 1718, which asks countries to comply with sanctions if required.

Originally Posted by Whiteshirt

From other news sources it claims he was 88.

Which makes it kind of morbidly amusing because he probably literally waited until he was 88 (88 = HH = Heil Hitler) years old before doing this.

88!?

At first, I thought I read it wrong..

How is it possible for a very elderly man (88 years old) to be a gunman when the guy will most likely collapse with high blood pressure or heart attack before even open firing!?

[Vexx]

Um.... people tend to be in pretty shape in their 80s anymore.... take a look at his picture. This guy was quite athletic (most people who do prison time have lots of spare time and spend it in the gym).

[LynnieS]

Italy seizes US$134.5 billion in U.S. government securities from 2 Japanese nationals

Italy’s financial police (Guardia italiana di Finanza) has seized US bonds worth US 134.5 billion from two Japanese nationals at Chiasso (40 km from Milan) on the border between Italy and Switzerland. They include 249 US Federal Reserve bonds worth US$ 500 million each, plus ten Kennedy bonds and other US government securities worth a billion dollar each.

Italian authorities have not yet determined whether they are real or fake, but if they are real the attempt to take them into Switzerland would be the largest financial smuggling operation in history; if they are fake, the matter would be even more mind-boggling because the quality of the counterfeit work is such that the fake bonds are undistinguishable from the real ones.

Yes, that is "billion" as in with 9 zeros. They're not sure if these are real or counterfeit as of yet, but if real, Italy's laws impose a statutory 40% penalty on failing to declare cash and etc. over 10K Euros.

For Italian readers: http://www.adnkronos.com/IGN/News/Cr...3.0.3396869573

[Shadow Kira01]

AP source: NKorea may be prepping new nuclear test

Not again...

Does North Korea ever quit? Considering that the United Nations along with the involved five parties are still negotiating for a consensus, shouldn't North Korea feel worried and concerned rather than doing a third nuke test!?

I feel as though North Korea is always a step ahead of everybody when it comes to making an effective next-step. They don't need to discuss, debate, or negotiate.

LEAD: President of glue maker arrested over tainted rice sale+

When Japanese businessmen cooperate and work closely with China, this is the result. They start to obtain their common business practices and use it as their own. I won't be surprised that there will be a day in which Japanese consumables reach the point in which it is just as bad as Chinese consumables as that there seems to be many Japanese businessmen who are either importing Chinese goods and labeling it as domestic products or are borrowing Chinese business strategies as a method of yielding profit.

[Whiteshirt]

Originally Posted by Shadow Minato

88!?

At first, I thought I read it wrong..

How is it possible for a very elderly man (88 years old) to be a gunman when the guy will most likely collapse with high blood pressure or heart attack before even open firing!?

Probably one of the reasons why he was so ineffective. In the end, he only managed to kill a black security guard, which is kind of sad seeing if he had body armour, he probably would have lived as he only had a .22 rifle.

Speaking of black security guards, it was hilarious to see Fox News go into damage control for absolutely going nuts when the DHC started targeting far right wing groups a few months ago. A reminder that Fox News is the most viewed cable news station in America.

Fox News had on their website this news very early on with a snap shot of that old man thinking he was just a complete nutter and nothing else. Soon, through digged around on Google, people found that he had fought in World War II and has connections with Free Republic and Stormfront; understand that our right wing party, the Republicans, literally worship the troops.

So we got this:


To this:


People don't read the small print so...

[Vexx]

understand that our right wing party, the Republicans, literally worship the troops.

Interesting way to "worship" setting the mission bar very high (two miltary actions) and then chronically underfunding or simply failing to fund them, failing to provide adequate post-service care, and so many rotations it would be difficult for anyone not to be traumatized. Oh wait, lots of money was spent - it simply didn't actually get to the troops.... it went to corporate profits and private contractors. And it wasn't properly put into the federal budget, "invisible debt". Oh, yeah and then cutting taxes to the upper classes and corporates during "wartime"... Meh.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Vexx

Interesting way to "worship" setting the mission bar very high (two miltary actions) and then chronically underfunding or simply failing to fund them, failing to provide adequate post-service care, and so many rotations it would be difficult for anyone not to be traumatized. Oh wait, lots of money was spent - it simply didn't actually get to the troops.... it went to corporate profits and private contractors. And it wasn't properly put into the federal budget, "invisible debt". Oh, yeah and then cutting taxes to the upper classes and corporates during "wartime"... Meh.

So which means all these financial mismanagement resulted in the SEALS using HK416s instead of the slated SCAR or OICW, and all those dust jams in the M4s costing lives on the battlefield?

Seriously, they have to do something about these corporate benefits. People are DYING out there.

[Shadow Kira01]

Opposition raps Aso for 'lack of leadership' over Hatoyama resignation

Fairly interesting..

It seems as though the prime minister's former election strategist will be defecting to the enemy camp. Supposedly, the Hatoyama brothers have an edge against Taro Aso but things don't seem to clear for the opposition parties due to a possible coalition between the DPJ and the SDP in which both parties seem to have a different perspective when it comes to international affairs, as well as military-related issues. On the contrary, if the DPJ were to ignore forming a coalition with another smaller political party, they won't be able to win the upcoming general elections as that the votes gets divided into multiple parties.

Although rumors say that Taro Aso lacks leadership as that most of his appointments to important posts result in lameness but that generally indicates poor judgement rather than leadership. On the contrary, if Hatoyama Yukio were to be elected as the new prime minister, will he pick his close friends to be part of his cabinet like most leaders tend to do. If so, I really don't see either of them to be perfectly fit as national leader candidates.

So far, I only like two leaders so far. One is the father of the non-nuclear principles, Sato Eisaku and the other would be the rather cool Koizumi Junichiro. The rest all seems to be rather disappointing...

[LynnieS]

U.S. House of Representatives proposal adds US$600 billion in taxes

Health-care overhaul legislation being drafted by House Democrats will include $600 billion in tax increases and $400 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel said.
[...]
Asked whether the cost of a health-care overhaul would be more than $1 trillion over a decade, Rangel said, “the answer is yes.” Some Senate Republicans, including Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, say the costs will likely exceed $1.5 trillion.

Ouch!

[MrTerrorist]

Going, going, gone digital -- with a few exceptions
US Television has gone digital, for good reasons too.

[Narona]

There are days like that when I am not proud at all of my country

Sexual Violence of the under 18 in huge increase (France)

I won't translate the whole article, but here the important infos:

- Sexual mores cases stand now for more than a half of the crimes among the under 13 people.

- It now happens that people already commited rapes and/or gang rapes in elementary school.

- Those cases are not rare anymore. Rapes stand for three quarters of the crimes commited by the under 18 people.

- The number of crimes among the young teenagers and under 18 has seen a 50% increase in only 10 years. (Keep in mind it only stands for the reported cases to the police, no one knows the real number)

- It doesn't concern a social environment in particular, it happens in any social envionment.

- Phillipe-Pierre Cabourdin thinks that a criminal penalty is not suitable for the people aged 13, 14 or 15 who commited a sexual crime (make your own opinion about that, but imo more and more often my country cares more about the criminals than the victims) Even if what they did is horrible, he thinks their state can be reversed

[Kusa-San]

No comment. It's jus completely disgusting. I'm really shocked by what I just read. It's even worse that I thought...It just show how our society is now....

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Narona

There are days like that when I am not proud at all of my country

Sexual Violence of the under 18 in huge increase (France)

I won't translate the whole article, but here the important infos:

- Sexual mores cases stand now for more than a half of the crimes among the under 13 people.

- It now happens that people already commited rapes and/or gang rapes in elementary school.

- Those cases are not rare anymore. Rapes stand for three quarters of the crimes commited by the under 18 people.

- The number of crimes among the young teenagers and under 18 has seen a 50% increase in only 10 years. (Keep in mind it only stands for the reported cases to the police, no one knows the real number)

- It doesn't concern a social environment in particular, it happens in any social envionment.

- Phillipe-Pierre Cabourdin thinks that a criminal penalty is not suitable for the people aged 13, 14 or 15 who commited a sexual crime (make your own opinion about that, but imo more and more often my country cares more about the criminals than the victims) Even if what they did is horrible, he thinks their state can be reversed

Take heart that your country is comparatively better than Africa or such.

On the other hand, are those statistics trustworthy? I have a feeling that the media might be messing up the BODMAS to their advantage but indirectly create a social panic.

[Narona]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

On the other hand, are those statistics trustworthy? I have a feeling that the media might be messing up the BODMAS to their advantage but indirectly create a social panic.

Department of Justice. So no doubt about the source.

But, you haves to look at it the other way around. It takes only in account the cases reported (not an estimate) by the DoJ. It means that if you start trying to do a serious "estimate" of the "real numbers" that would include the cases from the DoJ + those that are unknow from the DoJ...

[Vexx]

I understand SaintessHeart's concern. Even government figures can be "iffy".... (like when in order to make child homicides more chilling they count all homicides under the age of 25 as "children" -- which evokes a far different imagery than the cruel gangbangers shooting each other up or innocent bystanders). Nonetheless, it does sound a bit like there's some societal recidivism (that can probably be correlated with the economy as it pertains to most people).

[Narona]

Originally Posted by Vexx

I understand SaintessHeart's concern. Even government figures can be "iffy".... (like when in order to make child homicides more chilling they count all homicides under the age of 25 as "children" -- which evokes a far different imagery than the cruel gangbangers shooting each other up or innocent bystanders).

I don't think that those reports are falsified.

[Vexx]

ah, I didn't say "falsified" ... just redefined the parameters a bit. Not disputing there's probably a real problem... its just that the devil is in the details sometimes.

[Shadow Kira01]

Aso's postal move indicates his lack of clout

Following hints from Aso, Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura and others tried to hammer out ways to mollify Hatoyama. Their proposals included demoting Nishikawa from his present position to the post of operating officer in charge of practical business affairs and having Nishikawa write a letter to Hatoyama expressing regret for his acts and apologizing.

However, Hatoyama spurned these ideas. "Why don't you just dismiss me? Reshuffle the Cabinet or dismiss me--do whatever you want," he said.

On Thursday, Oshima reportedly called Hatoyama, urging him to accept the compromises.

Hatoyama snapped back at Oshima, telling him: "I'll resign. That'll solve the situation, right?"

Trying to win Hatoyama round, Oshima said, "If you resign now, the Aso administration will come apart at the seams."

But the minister did not listen.

Asked at a press conference Friday afternoon about the reasons for the decision to fire Hatoyama, Kawamura said, "We can't deny that his comments and attitude dominated things and confused public opinion."

Hatoyama, however, had been a close ally of Aso and has been the head of Aso's election strategy team since the 2006 LDP presidential election. He also is the chairman of Taro-kai, a group of lawmakers who support the prime minister.

On Friday afternoon, Aso reportedly said to Hatoyama when he brought his resignation letter: "You worked as the head of the election strategy headquarters during my hardest time. This is so sad. It's a pity."

It looks like the Aso Cabinet is definitely collapsing...

I can't even comprehend why Hatoyama Kunio acted the way he did, except perhaps he was acting under the influences of his brother Hatoyama Yukio, current president of the Democratic Party of Japan. There are rumors that Hatoyama Kunio may possibly leave the LDP and defect over to the DPJ as a full-fledged member, then help the DPJ achieve victory in the upcoming general election. Perhaps, he will even get a seat in the possible DPJ-led government if they were to win the general elections which seems inevitable. The only thing the Aso Cabinet can do at this point is to stall time and delay the general elections as that they will most likely lose if a general election were to take place anytime. To be honest, I am somewhat interested as to how a Hatoyama-led government would turn out to be. A mix of conservative policies with socialist policies may seem interesting..

Truth is.. When it comes to domestic policies, I think the socialist approach may work out in Japan but for international affairs and foreign policies, it is best to stick to the conservative approach as that there are nations out there that aren't very friendly..

[Claies]

What's the current administration-collapse streak in Japan? I seem to hear this every year.

Can somebody describe to me the problem? Is it factional dispute, ridiculous incompetence in the entire top quarter of the pyramid, they simply don't care (because they get great positions in the private sector anyway), or what? How did the conservative party maintain its hold on the top from 2006 despite being so turbulent?