ZNAK SAGITE — više od fantastike — edicija, časopis, knjižara...

Quote from: scallop on 06-08-2010, 14:25:59
Ne, nego vikinške rune.

Quote from: Lomljavina on 07-08-2010, 19:26:17


  Što se tiče ovog da li je legitimno ubiti talibana? Pa naravno da jeste.
  Ja koliko znam, a bio sam vojnik, nije legitimno ubiti civila i tuđeg vojnika van borbe (zarobljenika), ali protivnika u borbi sigurno nećeš da štediš.
   Talibanizmu se mora stati na put.  

Quote from: Lomljavina on 07-08-2010, 19:26:17
     Što se tiče ovog da li je legitimno ubiti talibana? Pa naravno da jeste.
   Ja koliko znam, a bio sam vojnik, nije legitimno ubiti civila i tuđeg vojnika van borbe (zarobljenika), ali protivnika u borbi sigurno nećeš da štediš.

QuoteKABUL, Afghanistan – The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan warned Tuesday that an American church's threat to burn copies of the Muslim holy book the Quran could endanger U.S. troops in the country and Americans worldwide.

"Images of the burning of a Quran would undoubtedly be used by extremists in Afghanistan — and around the world — to inflame public opinion and incite violence," Gen. David Petraeus said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

His comments followed a protest Monday by hundreds of Afghans over the plans by Gainesville, Florida-based Dove World Outreach Center — an evangelical Christian church that espouses anti-Islam philosophy — to burn copies of the Quran on church grounds to mark the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States that provoked the Afghan war.

Muslims consider the Quran to be the word of God and insist that it be treated with the utmost respect, along with any printed material containing its verses or the name of Allah or the Prophet Muhammad. Any intentional damage or show of disrespect to the Quran is deeply offensive.

In 2005, 15 people died and scores were wounded in riots in Afghanistan sparked by a story in Newsweek magazine alleging that interrogators at the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay placed copies of the Quran in washrooms and had flushed one down the toilet to get inmates to talk. Newsweek later retracted the story.

At Monday's protest, several hundred Afghans rallied outside a Kabul mosque, burning American flags and an effigy of Dove World's pastor and chanting "death to America." Members of the crowd briefly pelted a passing U.S. military convoy with stones, but were ordered to stop by rally organizers.

Two days earlier, thousands of Indonesian Muslims had rallied outside the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta and in five other cities to protest the church's plans.

Petraeus warned images of burning Qurans could be used to incite anti-American sentiments similar to the pictures of prisoner abuse at Iraq's Abu Graib (ah-booh GRABE) prison.

"I am very concerned by the potential repercussions of the possible (Quran) burning. Even the rumor that it might take place has sparked demonstrations such as the one that took place in Kabul yesterday," Petraeus said in his message. "Were the actual burning to take place, the safety of our soldiers and civilians would be put in jeopardy and accomplishment of the mission would be made more difficult."

The U.S. Embassy in Kabul also issued a statement condemning the church's plans, saying Washington was "deeply concerned about deliberate attempts to offend members of religious or ethnic groups."

Dove World Outreach Center, which made headlines last year after distributing T-shirts that said "Islam is of the Devil," has been denied a permit to set a bonfire but has vowed to proceed with the burning.

A surge in troop deployments has brought the number of U.S. forces battling the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan to about 100,000 and Petraeus is asking for 2,000 more soldiers to join the 140,000-strong international force here, NATO officials said Monday. It was unclear how many would be Americans.

Coalition officials said nearly half will be trainers for the rapidly expanding Afghan security forces and will include troops trained to neutralize roadside bombs that have been responsible for about 60 percent of the 2,000 allied deaths in the nearly 9-year war.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not supposed to talk about the issue with media, said the NATO-led command had been asking for the troops even before Gen. David Petraeus assumed command here in July.

Petraeus recently renewed that request with the NATO command in Brussels. The alliance has had trouble raising more troops for the war effort, with at least 450 training slots still unfilled after more than a year.

With casualties rising, the war has become deeply unpopular in many of NATO's 28 member countries, suggesting the additional forces will have to come from the United States. In Europe, polls show the majority of voters consider it an unnecessary drain on finances at a time of sharp cuts in public spending and other austerity measures.

___

Associated Press writer Slobodan Lekic in Brussels contributed to this report.

QuoteThe European Union may take legal action against France for the way it has handled the expulsion of Roma migrants, the EU's justice commissioner said Tuesday, calling France's behaviour a disgrace. Skip related content
Commissioner Viviane Reding said France had been duplicitous in its dealings with EU authorities over the removal of thousands of Roma migrants and said she believed proceedings should be brought against Paris within weeks.

"My patience is wearing thin. Enough is enough," Reding told reporters at a briefing in Brussels, raising her voice and thumping the podium in frustration as she spoke.

"No member state can expect special treatment when fundamental values and European laws are at stake.

"I am personally convinced that the Commission will have no choice but to initiate infringement procedures against France," she said, saying the Commission, the EU executive, would discuss how to proceed as soon as possible.

In unusually strong criticism of an EU government, Reding said Paris had broken EU laws on the free movement of people in sending around 8,000 migrants back to Romania and Bulgaria this year, part of a crackdown on crime by President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Human rights groups, some ministers in Sarkozy's government and the Catholic Church have widely condemned the expulsions, saying they are part of efforts by Sarkozy to boost his flagging popularity at a time of unpopular budget cuts.

Reding said she intended to move as quickly as possible to bring proceedings against France, saying steps could be taken within weeks if the Commission was agreed.

"I intend to recommend to President (Jose Manuel) Barroso fast-track infringement proceedings so that we lose no time," she said.

If France is found to have broken the law it could face fines but would also sustain "a serious loss of prestige," sources in the Commission said.

(Reporting by Justyna Pawlak and David Brunnstrom; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

Quote from: akhnaton on 21-10-2010, 18:35:37
I jeste pravo pitanje Meho, ali nije problem samo u  tome što se od drveća šuma ne vidi, nego što pobuna protiv neolibertijanskog kretenizma, nije nacionalno orijentisana, a napad na razne parade ponosa jeste... jer pobunom protiv poteza vlasti koje nas udaraju po džepu se ne brane nacionalne, "patrijotske", *porodične" vrednosti... vaskoliko serpstvo.... onakvo serpstvo kakvim ga neko vidi.... ili ga zamišlja. xuzi

QuoteViše verujem u to da je stepen naše socijalne svesti i političke percepcije još uvek jako nizak i da od drveća ne vidimo šumu.

Quote from: Lord Kufer on 21-10-2010, 21:07:04
Ma da, a i na snazi je opasnost od napada Alkaide... Englezi će se zavuku u mišje rupe i čekaju da ostare i umru od smrzavanja...

Quote from: shrike on 22-10-2010, 17:34:55
...jbt, kod ovih Afrikanaca sve uspeva:

Quote from: lilit_depp on 20-10-2010, 21:47:47
Da li je Kornelijus pisao o frci u Francuskoj? Ako jeste, a neko zna gde je to, bitte link. Hvala.

Quote from: Cornelius on 23-10-2010, 00:56:36
Od uvodjenja evra i ukidanja nacionalne ekonomije, Francuska lagano unistava svoj uredjeni sistem drzavnog kapitalizma i prelazi na ovaj novi, ljudozderski kapitalizam.

Quote from: lilit_depp on 23-10-2010, 09:47:49
vlada mora da drzi privredu konkurentnom inace ce propasti svi zajedno.

Quote from: scallop on 23-10-2010, 10:31:50

Quote from: lilit_depp on 23-10-2010, 09:47:49
vlada mora da drzi privredu konkurentnom inace ce propasti svi zajedno.

Ovo je mišn imposibl. Trčanje pred provalijom neće omogućiti preskakanje; ne postoji mesto gde će se doskočiti.

Quote from: lilit_depp on 24-10-2010, 13:17:39i da zaustave bilo kakvo povećanje broja čeških vojnika pri misiji NATO u Avganistanu.

Quote from: scallop on 26-10-2010, 14:02:56
Kornelije je već "video" vatrogasce kako pale kuće.

Quote from: scallop on 26-10-2010, 20:58:07
Šta će ikome vlast kad uz nju ide i narod.

Quote from: lilit_depp on 27-10-2010, 14:33:44
Taj Sarkozi je suvi genije.

Quote from: wg on 27-10-2010, 23:08:12
Francuzima treba ostaviti da još malkice uživaju u srednje evropskom szarkozsijevom šarmu. Ja bi njima i gro naših poslo. Ma nek ide život, evo im svi!

Quote from: Meho Krljic on 30-10-2010, 19:41:43
zašto sterilišu narkomane?? Da se ne bi razmnožavali i rađali nove narkomane??? Ako je tako, zašto ne krenu od drugih problematičnih grupa

Quote from: scallop on 31-10-2010, 08:31:13
I pijemo više nego što proizvodimo... I pozajmljujemo više nego što dugujemo...

Nas će u budućnosti Ujedinjene Svetske Privrede da zaduže da krckamo orahe, pekane, bademe, lešnike, pistaće, pinjole, indijske i brazilske orahe... Šta drugo da radimo kad smo se specijalizovali za lupanje...?

Quote from: mac on 31-10-2010, 10:57:16
Plottz, prvi si počeo sa pričom o nama i njima. Mi = Srbi. Nemoj sad da se praviš glup.

QuoteMyanmar held its first election in 20 years on Sunday under tight security, a scripted vote that assures army-backed parties an easy win but brings a hint of parliamentary politics to one of Asia's most oppressed states. Skip related content
The carefully choreographed end to half a century of direct army rule is largely a race between two military-backed parties running virtually unopposed, due to complex election rules that stifled any prospect of pro-democracy forces causing an upset.

Low turnout and fraud charges marred voting nationwide. Many doubted their ballot would alter the authoritarian status quo.

Some packed Yangon's pagodas instead of voting. In Haka, capital of Chin state bordering India and Bangladesh, more people attended church than cast ballots, witnesses said.

"We're falling asleep," said a polling station official in Bahan Township in the commercial capital Yangon. "Ward officials are still urging the people to vote."

The poll will not bring an end to Western sanctions but may reduce Myanmar's isolation at a time when neighbouring China has dramatically increased investment in natural gas and other resources in the former British colony also known as Burma.

"There are elections that are being held right now in Burma that will be anything but free and fair, based on every report that we are seeing," U.S. President Barack Obama told students in the Indian financial capital of Mumbai.

Armed riot police stood guard at polling booths or patrolled streets in military trucks in Yangon, part of a security clampdown that includes bans on foreign media and outside election monitors, and a tightening in state censorship.

The Internet was barely functioning, hit by repeated failures widely believed to have been orchestrated by the junta to control information. Power failures also hampered early turnout.

It is the first election since 1990, when Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy beat the army-backed party in a landslide. The junta simply ignored that result.

Suu Kyi, detained for 15 of the past 21 years, urged a boycott of this poll, saying she "would not dream" of taking part. She could take the spotlight this week, however, ahead of the expiry of her house arrest on Saturday, November 13.

Her release could energise pro-democracy forces and put pressure on the West to roll back sanctions.

MILITARY DOMINANCE

The junta's political juggernaut, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), is fielding 27 incumbent ministers. Closely aligned with supreme leader Senior General Than Shwe, it is top-heavy with recently retired generals.

It is contesting all the estimated 1,158 seats up for grabs. Its only real rival, the National Unity Party (NUP), is also backed by the army and running in 980 seats.

But while the NUP and USDP are both conservative and authoritarian, they may pursue opposing social and economic policies in parliament, ultimately fostering greater democratic debate in a country where an estimated 2,100 political activists and opposition politicians are behind bars, diplomats said.

An unexpectedly large vote for the NUP could also be seen as a subtle jab against Than Shwe, as it is thought to be closer to a different faction in the army.

"They are not of the same machinery," a Western diplomat said of the two dominant parties, citing tensions between the two on the campaign trail. "The USDP is very much the regime's party while the NUP has a longer legacy," he added, referring to its founding under the rule of late dictator Ne Win.

Ne Win was placed under house arrest in 2002 by Than Shwe, who accused him of treason. Ne Win died that year.

FRAUD CHARGES

Despite such differences, the military will emerge the unquestioned winner. Twenty-five percent of seats in all chambers are reserved for serving generals. That means army-backed parties needs to win just 26 percent of seats for the military and its proxies to secure a majority in the legislature.

But the army appears to be taking no chances. At least six parties lodged complaints with the election commission, claiming state workers were forced to vote for the USDP in advance balloting.

In Yangon, many voters turned up to vote only to find their names not on electoral rolls, said Zaw Aye Maung, a candidate for the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party, the second-largest of 22 ethnic-based parties.

Hundreds of Rohingyas, a stateless Muslim minority in Myanmar, were given identification cards in Yangon and the right to vote in exchange for backing the USDP, he added.

Some voters who asked officials for assistance at ballot booths were told to tick the box of the USDP, witnesses said.

The National Democratic Force (NDF), the largest pro-democracy party, accused the USDP of "widespread fraud."

Thirty-seven parties are contesting places in a bicameral national parliament and 14 regional assemblies. Except for the USDP and NUP, none has enough candidates to win any real stake due to restrictions such as high fees for each candidate.

Still, some analysts say the election will create a framework for a democratic system that might yield changes in years ahead in a country bestowed with rich natural resources and located strategically between rising powers China and India.

QuoteBritain's long-term unemployed could be forced to carry out compulsory manual work or risk losing their welfare benefits under plans being put forward by the government, newspapers reported on Sunday.

The U.S.-style scheme would see the long-term jobless ordered to take up four-week placements in order to get them used to having a full-time job.

The idea is part of major reforms, due to be unveiled this week, to make cuts to Britain's huge welfare bill, reduce dependency on benefits and weed out those earning money but not declaring it, papers said.

"What we are talking about here is people who have not been used to working having both the opportunity and perhaps a bit more of a push as well, to experience the workplace from time to time," Foreign Secretary William Hague told BBC TV.

"The vast majority of people in Britain will think that is the right thing to do."

Shortly after the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition took power in May, Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith unveiled plans to simplify the complex web of benefits available to reduce errors and inefficiencies.

Duncan Smith said the system had become regressive and was not giving people the right incentive to work as many were financially better off unemployed.

Under his plans separate benefits for items such as housing, income support or incapacity will be replaced by a "universal credit" system whereby individual households would get a single welfare payment to ensure those in work would be better off.

The Observer newspaper said that in return, long-term unemployed would be told to take up work placements of at least 30 hours a week for a four-week period.

If they refuse or fail to complete the programme, their jobseekers' allowance, worth 64.30 pounds a week for those over 25, could be stopped for at least three months.

GARDENING

Charities, local councils, voluntary organisations and private companies will be contracted to provide the placements, which could involve gardening, clearing up litter or painting schools, the Sunday Times reported.

"We will shortly be bringing forward further proposals on how to break the cycle of dependency blighting many of our communities and make sure work always pays," a spokeswoman for the Department for Work and Pensions said.

The proposals echo similar schemes in the United States, but do not go as far as the system there which limits the time people can claim benefits.

"The message will go across; play ball or it's going to be difficult," Duncan Smith told the Daily Telegraph on Saturday.

Harriet Harman, deputy leader of the opposition Labour Party, said they would wait for full details of the reforms before deciding whether to oppose the measures but added she believed some of the proposals were unfair.

"Without jobs, welfare reform won't work," she told BBC TV.

In 2009/10, the government spent 87 billion pounds on benefits and tax credits for people of working age, dwarfing most other items of government spending.

The government estimates that some 1.4 million people in Britain have been on out of work benefits for nine or more of the last 10 years.

QuoteBEIJING – She's a glamorous singer with big hair, beloved by millions, and a major general in the People's Liberation Army to boot. He's a stiff policymaker, a suit with the bland public persona of most Chinese leaders.

Vice President Xi Jinping is in line to take the country's top post in two years, setting up an unusual scenario: In a system where leaders' families are kept almost invisible, how will the ruling Communist Party handle a first lady who's arguably more famous than her husband?

So far, the answer appears to be by making her disappear too. References to Xi's marriage to Peng Liyuan are being scrubbed from the Internet. She has been given a desk job at her military song-and-dance troupe, reducing her public appearances.

Interest in the couple was renewed last month after Xi was appointed to a committee overseeing the Chinese military, boosting the likelihood he will lead the Communist Party in 2012.

Political wives have long been viewed suspiciously in China — ever since Chairman Mao Zedong's wife, Jiang Qing, promoted his most radical policies, took part in purging opponents and ultimately made a grab for power. She was arrested and jailed after his death in 1976.

In a world where first ladies from France's Carla Bruni to America's Michelle Obama routinely grab media attention, Liu Yongqing, the wife of Chinese President Hu Jintao, is rarely seen except during state visits with the spouses of foreign leaders.

The almost absent Chinese first lady reflects in part the preference of the technocratic, authoritarian leadership for running the rising global power at an impersonal distance.

"On the one hand they have been talking about governance with a human touch and given that (Peng's) image is positive, what's the point of trying to eliminate it?" said Dali Yang, a China expert at the University of Chicago. "It's only making it more mysterious and provides room for speculation."

By all public accounts, the 47-year-old Peng's image is squeaky clean.

Many Chinese can recall her almost yearly appearances on state television's Spring Festival Gala, which draws 800 million viewers, beginning with the inaugural 1982 program. On fog-filled stages dressed in pouffy evening gowns, Peng performed rousing patriotic songs such as "On the Plains of Hope."

Having a first lady who's well-known in her own right would likely be a point of pride for many Chinese, who know little about their rulers.

"For him to be in his position and be able to handle the pressure of being with a famous woman, I think that says a lot about him," said Xu, a 26-year-old real estate consultant taking a cigarette break outside his office in Beijing. He would only give his surname, saying he did not want to be quoted making statements that could be considered critical.

"It's really no big deal but maybe the high-level officials are extra sensitive," he said. "Our county's leaders have an air of mystery. That's how the system works. Besides their official bio, everything else is blank."

Xi, who at 57 is a decade older, is said to have been introduced to Peng by a mutual friend in 1986 when he was a vice mayor in the booming coastal city of Xiamen. They have been married for 23 years and have a teenage daughter.

"When they met, she was upset. This guy was such a country bumpkin. And he looked old," according to a 2007 article in the Zhanjiang Evening News, a southern newspaper.

Xi charmed her, talking about music theory, the article said. "Peng said, 'At that time, I was very moved. Isn't this the one I've been looking for? He's unsophisticated but he's really intelligent.'"

That article was widely reprinted in whole or part, even by the official Xinhua News Agency and the Communist Party's People Daily newspaper, but has since been removed from their websites.

In a 2001 article, Peng said she felt fortunate for having an understanding husband.

"As a government official he's very busy, when I visit him in Fuzhou, he has to delay meetings or trips to the countryside in order to find time to spend with me," the Shanghai Morning Post quoted her as saying. "Every time I go, we'll try our best to avoid quarrels and enjoy those hard-earned days."

Those articles and others have been deleted from most websites. While the deletions are not definitely the government's handiwork, the fact that cached versions of the articles are being erased too conforms to the way China's Internet censors work.

The State Council Information Office did not respond to a faxed request for comment.

Rebecca MacKinnon, a China expert and senior fellow at the New America Foundation studying Internet issues, said the censorship fits China's long-standing policy of not reporting details of top leaders' personal lives.

Reporters and editors may have been more careless when the articles were published, but were apparently now cleaning up since Xi's political future has become more clear, MacKinnon said.

Peng will likely keep fading from public view as Xi's political star continues to rise. She hasn't appeared on the Spring Festival Gala since 2007, just months before Xi was named to the Communist Party's ruling nine-member Standing Committee.

"Chinese leaders would never let their wives have a high public profile," said Li Datong, a former state newspaper editor who was removed from his job for reporting on sensitive topics. "Sometimes they might take their wives on a state visit, and you may see them holding hands and even then it just looks so stiff."

Quote from: Lord Kufer on 09-11-2010, 17:04:59
1420

Blago onima koji imaju zlato (ne tungsten-zlato).

QuoteChina Downgrades US Again, From AA To A+, Outlook Negative, Sees "Long-Term Recession", Blasts QE2, Expects Creditor Retaliation

Quote from: Plottz on 10-11-2010, 19:26:54
Može on i da im odsvira,nije frka! ;)

QuoteMyanmar's top court rejected a final and largely symbolic appeal by detained Nobel peace prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi against her house arrest, her lawyer said on Thursday, two days before her scheduled release. Skip related content
The Myanmar's Supreme Court decision was widely expected and has little bearing on the expiry of Suu Kyi's house arrest term on Saturday, when a sentence imposed last year for the violation of a security law is due to end.

Suu Kyi, detained for 15 of the past 21 years, has voiced opposition to a parliamentary election held last Sunday and easily won, as expected, by a party set up by the military. She has called on her loyalists to expose electoral fraud.

"The special appeal at the Supreme Court was the last resort," said lawyer Nyan Win, who is also a spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) which was officially disbanded this year after deciding not to contest the election.

"However, I still believe she will be released on or before Saturday when her house arrest term expires. There is not any law to extend her house arrest," he added.

But he said there had been no advance notice that the military junta would agree to release the 65-year-old pro-democracy leader, who led the NLD to a landslide victory in the last election in 1990, a result ignored by the military.

"They never let us know this kind of thing in advance. We know it only when it really takes place," Nyan Win said. "On the other hand, there has been talk among top leaders of the NLD about going to meet her as soon as she is released to talk about future policies of the party."

She was sentenced to house arrest in August last year for allowing an American intruder to stay at her home in contravention of security rules.

The intruder, John Yettaw, said God had sent him to warn her she would be the target of an assassination plot.

There has been speculation that the regime, rather than honour a pledge to release her on Saturday, would find another reason to keep her detained to ensure a smooth transition for the government that will emerge from the election.

Suu Kyi, daughter of the leader of the former Burma's campaign for independence from British rule, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.

(Writing by Jason Szep. Editing by Andrew Marshall)

Quote from: akhnaton on 10-11-2010, 22:29:06
Ma on je pravi mlatimudijalni stručnjak za to..... :D

QuoteMyanmar people overjoyed but worry about Suu Kyi

The release of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is still being celebrated in Myanmar but fears about her safety or re-arrest are running high among her adoring supporters. Skip related content
The Nobel laureate and daughter of the country's independence hero was released on Saturday after seven years in detention but many are concerned her freedom could be short-lived if the country's oppressive army rulers decide to wield their power.

"I'm very worried about her security," said Soe Myint, a taxi driver in Myanmar's biggest city, Yangon.

"If something happens to her, they will be responsible for this," he added, referring to the army regime that has ruled the former British colony for 48 years.

In a country where distrust of the military runs deep, her supporters would have every reason to be concerned.

Suu Kyi's motorcade was attacked in May 2003 by pro-junta thugs in the town of Depayin while on a countryside tour. She was placed back under house arrest, which the regime called "protective custody."

"The Depayin incident is still haunting us," said Hla Thein, a retired teacher. "To be honest, I doubt we can expect any meaningful changes following her release but we are all worried about her."

Suu Kyi spent 15 of the past 21 years in detention because of her fight against military dictatorship in Myanmar.

"PEACEFUL REVOLUTION"

She already appears on a collision course with the generals, using her first major speech on Sunday to call for freedom of speech in a country where all media are strictly monitored by censors and urging supporters to stand up for their rights.

In an interview with the BBC that aired on Monday, she called for a "peaceful revolution" in the country of 50 million people.

"A non-violent revolution -- lets put it that way," she said. "Because a great change means a revolution whether it's violent or non violent. And we would like a non-violent, peaceful, revolution."

There is little doubt the military junta sees her as the biggest threat to its power. Suu Kyi has twice been freed and twice re-arrested since she was first placed in detention in July 1989 for "endangering the state."

In May last year, Suu Kyi was weeks away from the expiry of a term of house arrest when American intruder John Yettaw swam to her lakeside home saying God had sent him to warn her terrorists would try to assassinate her.

She allowed the intruder to stay for two nights and as a result was given an 18-month extension to her term for breaking a law protecting the state against "subversive elements."

Critics said the charges were trumped up to sideline her from politics. Some supporters fear something similar could happen again.

"To my great relief, another John Yettaw did not show up before she was released," added taxi driver Soe Myint. "I thought the military would create some reason to extend her house arrest." Suu Kyi was greeted by thousands of supporters when she was released on Saturday and she appears not to have lost her charisma and mesmerising influence on the people. Although she will play no official political role following a November 7 election boycotted by her party and won convincingly by a pro-military party, few think she will fade from the spotlight.

Her National League for Democracy (NLD) party, which scored a landslide election victory in 1990 which the junta ignored, was disbanded by the regime in September because of its boycott.

She told her lawyer in October to file a lawsuit in the Supreme Court to have it declared still in existence. On Monday, she met two of her lawyers, Nyan Win and Kyaw Hoe, who agreed to go to the court in the capital Naypyitaw on November 18 to argue the case.

Her supporters expect her to push for reforms and freedoms, but know there are limits to how much she can do in a country tightly controlled by the military and governed by a new constitution critics say was designed to keep Suu Kyi at bay.

They are just happy to see her free.

"I don't think we can expect anything out of her release since it does not depend on her alone. I'm just happy to see her free," said Khin May, a retired bank clerk.

"I will be very glad if nothing happens to her. I hope she doesn't get arrested again."

(Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Robert Birsel and Ron Popeski)

QuoteBy IRINA TITOVA, Associated Press Irina Titova, Associated Press – Sun Nov 21, 7:26 pm ET
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia – Wild tigers could become extinct in 12 years if countries where they still roam fail to take quick action to protect their habitats and step up the fight against poaching, global wildlife experts told a "tiger summit" Sunday.

The World Wildlife Fund and other experts say only about 3,200 tigers remain in the wild, a dramatic plunge from an estimated 100,000 a century ago.

James Leape, director general of the World Wildlife Fund, told the meeting in St. Petersburg that if the proper protective measures aren't taken, tigers may disappear by 2022, the next Chinese calendar year of the tiger.

Their habitat is being destroyed by forest cutting and construction, and they are a valuable trophy for poachers who want their skins and body parts prized in Chinese traditional medicine.

The summit approved a wide-ranging program with the goal of doubling the world's tiger population in the wild by 2022 backed by governments of the 13 countries that still have tiger populations: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam and Russia.

The Global Tiger Recovery Program estimates the countries will need about $350 million in outside funding in the first five years of the 12-year plan. The summit will be seeking donor commitments to help governments finance conservation measures.

"For most people tigers are one of the wonders of the world," Leape told The Associated Press. "In the end, the tigers are the inspiration and the flagship for much broader efforts to conserve forests and grasslands."

The program aims to protect tiger habitats, eradicate poaching, smuggling, and illegal trade of tigers and their parts, and also create incentives for local communities to engage them in helping protect the big cats.

The summit, which runs through Wednesday, is hosted by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who has used encounters with tigers and other wild animals to bolster his image. It's driven by the Global Tiger Initiative which was launched two years ago by World Bank President Robert Zoellick.

Leape said that along with a stronger action against poaching, it's necessary to set up specialized reserves for tigers and restore and conserve forests outside them to let tigers expand.

"And you have to find a way to make it work for the local communities so that they would be partners in tigers conservation and benefit from them," Leape said.

"To save tigers you need to save the forests, grasslands and lots of other species," he added. "But at the same time you are also conserving the foundations of the societies who live there. Their economy depends very much on the food, water and materials they get from those forests."

About 30 percent of the program's cost would go toward suppressing the poaching of tigers and of the animals they prey on.

Russia's Natural Resources Minister Yuri Trutnev said that Russia and China will create a protected area for tigers alongside their border and pool resources to combat poaching.

Leape said that for some of the nations involved outside financing would be essential to fulfill the goals.

"We need to see signficant commitment by the multilateral and bilateral indsitutions like the Global Environment Facility and the World Bank plus individual governments like the U.S. and Germany," Leape told the AP.

For advocates, saving tigers has implications far beyond the emotional appeal of preserving a graceful and majestic animal.

"Wild tigers are not only a symbol of all that is splendid, mystical and powerful about nature," the Global Tiger Initiative said in a statement. "The loss of tigers and degradation of their ecosystems would inevitably result in a historic, cultural, spiritual, and environmental catastrophe for the tiger range countries."

Three of the nine tiger subspecies — the Bali, Javan, and Caspian — already have become extinct in the past 70 years.

Much has been done recently to try to save tigers, but conservation groups say their numbers and habitats have continued to fall, by 40 percent in the past decade alone.

In part, that decline is because conservation efforts have been increasingly diverse and often aimed at improving habitats outside protected areas where tigers can breed, according to a study published in September in the Popular Library of Science Biology journal.

Putin has done much to draw attention to tigers' plight. During a visit to a wildlife preserve in 2008, he shot a female tiger with a tranquilizer gun and helped place a transmitter around her neck as part of a program to track the rare cats.

Later in the year, Putin was given a 2-month-old female Siberian tiger for his birthday. State television showed him at his home gently petting the cub, which was curled up in a wicker basket with a tiger-print cushion. The tiger now lives in a zoo in southern Russia.

QuoteThe above documents are the primary reason we, the working-class inhabitants of this nation are in the financial condition that we are currently in. 

In October of 2010 AD.. the admission of this very, very complex truth saw the light of day.  "Law" in this case, was and is the simple lie.  Whatwas, and is.. the complex truth?

The complex truth was a quiet, 20-year-old promise not to obey the law.  If true, this complex truth fits the technical definition of enterprise corruption of two or more individuals conspiring to defraud the eventual victims of their conspiracy.  This promise not to obey the law also explains why laws are made to begin with.  A nation has to have a law in order to dole out waivers, exemptions and promises not to obey it.  Enron could not have gotten waivers from laws that didn't exist.

You can do anything as long as you have a reason.  The regulators told us it was all a failure of regulation, a failure of the system, the corporate culture, everyone was doing it, expectations gaps and pristine accounting.  The regulators forgot to tell us they promised not to regulate.  Failure was the previous reason, but now a promise.. is a whole new reason.  And this new reason isn't like the old reason.  This reason comes with a big question.  The elephant (from Bombay) in the room.

Painted as the crazy old alcoholic, Judge George H. Painter is probably in the mental condition he is supposedly in because he is guilty.  He feels guilty and he knows he is guilty.

Guilt, emanating from the still questionable causes (the truth of which may become public 20 years from now?) of the events that took place September of 2001 and the following war on terror created to cover up the foreign nation-building and enterprise corruption Judge Painter, the honorable Judge Levine and the public servant Wendy Gramm had conspired to engage in.  What must have been the first thoughts of Judge Painter, Judge Levine and Wendy Gramm upon first witnessing the planes flying into the World Trade Center at the completion.. at the exit point of almost a decade of planned, systemic, across-the-board, enterprise-wide corporate corruption?  "Bin Laden was attempting to hurt the economy".. or so the lectures went.  How do you hurt an economy that is not counting money?

Coincidence or not, the attacks of 9-11 buried the evidence of a stock-market swindle, the evidence of a "promise".  This is not a conspiracy theory.  This.. is a fact.  Let's expand on the admission of illegality and replace the terms "crazy old alcoholic" and "Bruce Levine" with the term "YOUR GOVERNMENT".  And then ask, "What did your government do?"

First off, your government made a promise to the corporate establishment not to obey law.  Not to obey law FOR TWENTY YEARS.  We are not talking "smartest guys in the room" and "conspiracy of fools" here.  We are talking THE government.  Granted.. it is very likely government had a darn good reason not to obey law.. and not to obey law for a good long time.  But, then ask.. to what length would government have to go to ensure law.. is not obeyed.. to ensure the constitution is rendered void and null?  What would a government have to do if the avoidance of the enforcement of law were threatened?  Now that was a tongue twister.  A government, no.. more importantly EVERY branch of government, would be compelled to seek out and eliminate truth, wherever and whenever truth (accidental or otherwise) threatened the government's plan and the government's "promise".  These would be the three branches that the schoolbooks told us were designed to avoid conflicts of interest.  This would be the exact constitutional opposite of a government's stated responsibility, promise and sworn oath to its citizenry.  Truth, actual "justice" and "people who make the connection" would be the government's enemy and therefore truth and honesty would have to be detected, literally feared, ironically outlawed, eliminated, Charles Dana Rice-ed, avoided, taken-out, Cliff Baxter-ed, covered-up, shredded, removed, Vince Foster-ed, destroyed, Building Seven-ed and punished.. to the fullest extent of, go figure.. the law.  What would be the definition of sedition, treason, evil and unconstitutionally to a government that is under a promise not to obey the law.. not to obey the constitution?  You may observe the author has given this unlikely, unfortunate, disconcerting and very dangerous possibility a significant amount of nervous consideration and it is downright SCARY.  It is NFW SCARY!  No possible f'n blue dress way in hell.. worst case scenario.. Britney spears is pregnant again.. never ever, ever give the peasants computers.. better change the password.. OMG, WTF, no wonder he went after Legatus first.. why is that black crown-vic parked out front.. scary.

A portion to the question of "who?" has been answered along with a rough proximity to the question of "when?".  Who knew what – and when did they know it?  This type of admission of conspiracy to commit systemic economic fraud previously took a half-century before it was allowed to become publicly announced.  For some reason (more than likely due to the internet) this highly unusual, precedent setting admission of guilt was revealed in less than a fifth of a century.

How should a wise investor and/or a wise business person interpret such a "promise"?

Investment note:  Planned failure is also timed failure which makes the planned exit plan predictable.

What is most important is not necessarily when the corruption began.  What is important is when the corruption is at its end-point, its exit plan, admission, recognition and debasement-stage.  That is the point when one learns what was needed, what was in demand, and why the corruption began because the projects in demand and the projects that were needed such as India's information and energy infrastructure and Tyco's thousand offshore points of light.. were completed.  That is why exactly what is needed.. is discussed/planned behind closed doors.  Then the planners let the outsiders speculate unwittingly and generally unsuccessfully to fund what was needed.  Once what was needed is complete it becomes obvious that it was planned and it becomes obvious why it was planned.

The phases of true supply/demand, shortage/glut and boom/bust is the beauty of the passage of time, as long as one has access to an accurate, truthful and complete timeline of how this game has been played throughout history.

If voting really matters.. one might ponder was this a case of big government, or small government?  Was this a case of socialism or a case of free-markets?  And, if voting really matters, who voted for it?  Highly notable is the fact that this 20-year time period included both Clinton and Bush.. both Republican and Democrat administrations.  This bi-partisan failure of regulation is, in a great part, responsible for the great economic progress, growth and high employment of the Clinton era and the early part of the bush administration.

It also becomes apparent that promising not to regulate, investigate and prosecute financially corrupt corporations for the length of time Judge Painter's admission indicates accounts for why HealthSouth's Richard Scrushy held the belief that it was possible that 8,000 companies may have truly had "sh-t on their balance sheets" at or about the same period of time Richard Scrushy was cooking his corporation's books.

Intentional failure of law and regulation is little more than organized theft.

The primary function of government is to pretend to fail.  The primary purpose of the CFTC (a fourth branch) has also become apparent.  In this case, Judge Levine was asked, behind closed doors, to promise to fail and obviously, like all good judges should.. Judge Levine kept his promise.  One might wonder where Judge Levine's salary comes from?

Enron and dozens of other energy companies are said to have duped the IRS in order to achieve their book-cooking goals but in the case of the CFTC, Enron only needed a promise from a federal judge?

A promise not to obey the law is a PLAN not to obey the law.

The state-controlled government wants the public to think the Enron years were nothing more than a blunder.  A failure.  A mess. Oversight.  A debacle.  Consistent and exhaustive use of motive-less words, terms and platitudes like "debacle" and "blunder" have that "we didn't plan it" kind of sound to them.  After all, debacles and blunders are totally random.  Totally unpredictable.  Totally un-timed and without rhyme or reason.  No cause to ask why.  No reason to question when.  After all, who would plan a debacle?  Who in their right mind would plan a blunder?  Only a hard-core conspiracy nut would be insane or irrationally suspicious enough to believe their government would actually plan to commit securities fraud.

But, a plan instantly introduces questions.  First why and then.. when?  The admission of the plan answers much of the question of "who" almost instantly.  But.. it is that irritating "don't even go there" question of "why"?  And the potential answer to why, leads to the potential direction of.. predictability. 20/20 hindsight leads to the possibility of 20/20 foresight.  What did the government need in the past that the government won't need in the future?  The word "future" has that "predictability" kinda sound to it.

The new facts and details that have come to light PROVES IT WAS PLANNED.  This is the complex reality behind the true story of the Enron years that the government-controlled media is trying at all costs.. to avoid.  They do not want the fact that it was planned to become public knowledge.  Because first of all your government is not supposed to plan corruption and secondly, every entrance to a plan must include an exit.  A start and a finish.  What was the exit plan?

In light of this recent regulatory admission, legal cases such as Enron corporation and as many others as possible should be reopened.

This might account for the current deafening silence on the part of the press and the reason financial journalists are told to hold off about 50 years to print the truth behind the regulatory circumstances behind industrial revolutions and their associated artificially inflated economic boom periods.

Twenty years of enterprise corruption and the ultimate conflict of interest at the regulatory level of government and zero outrage and, for the most part, zero media attention and zero media concern?  This is the media that advertises itself to be looking out for the viewer's self-interests and the self assigned watchdog looking for signs of fleecing of the taxpayers?

Why does it matter and what are we going to do about it?

It matters because the same people running the last show are running the next show.  The powers that be are exactly like the powers that have been.

Quote from: Lord Kufer on 26-11-2010, 17:30:45
Čak su i Šervudsku šumu posekli...

Quote from: Cornelius on 26-11-2010, 17:36:26

Quote from: Lord Kufer on 26-11-2010, 17:30:45
Čak su i Šervudsku šumu posekli...

...pa nema čovek di da se obesi.

Quote from: angel011 on 26-11-2010, 17:39:25

Quote from: Cornelius on 26-11-2010, 17:36:26

Quote from: Lord Kufer on 26-11-2010, 17:30:45
Čak su i Šervudsku šumu posekli...

...pa nema čovek di da se obesi.

O kvaku, kao nekad? :evil:

Quote from: Cornelius on 26-11-2010, 17:50:00

Quote from: angel011 on 26-11-2010, 17:39:25

Quote from: Cornelius on 26-11-2010, 17:36:26

Quote from: Lord Kufer on 26-11-2010, 17:30:45
Čak su i Šervudsku šumu posekli...

...pa nema čovek di da se obesi.

O kvaku, kao nekad? :evil:

A, sta za one kojima visina prelazi 70 cm?

Quote from: angel011 on 26-11-2010, 17:39:25

Quote from: Cornelius on 26-11-2010, 17:36:26

Quote from: Lord Kufer on 26-11-2010, 17:30:45
Čak su i Šervudsku šumu posekli...

...pa nema čovek di da se obesi.

O kvaku, kao nekad? :evil:

Quote from: angel011 on 26-11-2010, 17:39:25

Quote from: Cornelius on 26-11-2010, 17:36:26

Quote from: Lord Kufer on 26-11-2010, 17:30:45
Čak su i Šervudsku šumu posekli...

...pa nema čovek di da se obesi.

O kvaku, kao nekad? :evil:

Quote from: Cornelius on 26-11-2010, 17:20:43
Ali, dok sam pisao, provalio sam šta Meho hoće da kaže. Ako ne želiš da budeš rob, onda sebi kažeš - bolje grob, nego rob, pa se obesiš, te više ne moraš da ulaziš u te robno-novčane zajebancije.

QuoteBy CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP Special Correspondent Charles J. Hanley, Ap Special Correspondent – Mon Dec 6, 2:27 pm ET
CANCUN, Mexico – Encroaching seas in the far Pacific are raising the salt level in the wells of the Marshall Islands. Waves threaten to cut one sliver of an island in two. "It's getting worse," says Kaminaga Kaminaga, the tiny nation's climate change coordinator.

The rising ocean raises questions, too: What happens if the 61,000 Marshallese must abandon their low-lying atolls? Would they still be a nation? With a U.N. seat? With control of their old fisheries and their undersea minerals? Where would they live, and how would they make a living? Who, precisely, would they and their children become?

For years global negotiations to act on climate change have dragged on, with little to show. Parties to the 193-nation U.N. climate treaty are meeting again in this Caribbean resort, but no one expects decisive action to roll back the industrial, agricultural and transport emissions blamed for global warming — and consequently for swelling seas.

From 7,000 miles (11,000 kilometers) away, the people of the Marshalls — and of Kiribati, Tuvalu and other atoll nations beyond — can only wonder how many more years they'll be able to cope.

"People who built their homes close to shore, all they can do is get more rocks to rebuild the seawall in front day by day," said Kaminaga, who is in Cancun with the Marshallese delegation to the U.N. talks.

The Marshallese government is looking beyond today, however, to those ultimate questions of nationhood, displacement and rights.

"We're facing a set of issues unique in the history of the system of nation-states," Dean Bialek, a New York-based adviser to the Republic of the Marshall Islands who is also in Cancun, told The Associated Press. "We're confronting existential issues associated with climate impacts that are not adequately addressed in the international legal framework."

The Marshallese government took a first step to confront these issues by asking for advice from the Center for Climate Change Law at New York's Columbia University. The center's director, Michael B. Gerrard, in turn has asked legal scholars worldwide to assemble at Columbia next May to begin to piece together answers.

Nations have faded into history through secession — recently with the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, for example — or through conquest or ceding their territory to other countries.

But "no country has ever physically disappeared, and it's a real void in the law," Gerrard said during an interview in New York.

The U.N. network of climate scientists projects that seas, expanding from heat and from the runoff of melting land ice, may rise by up to 1.94 feet (0.59 meters) by 2100, swamping much of the scarce land of coral atolls.

But the islands may become uninhabitable long before waves wash over them, because of the saline contamination of water supplies and ruining of crops, and because warming is expected to produce more threatening tropical storms.

"If a country like Tuvalu or Kiribati were to become uninhabitable, would the people be stateless? What's their position in international law?" asked Australian legal scholar Jane McAdam. "The short answer is, it depends. It's complicated."

McAdam, of the University of New South Wales, has traveled in the atoll nations and studied the legal history.

As far as islanders keeping their citizenship and sovereignty if they abandon their homelands, she said by telephone from Sydney, "it's unclear when a state would end because of climate change. It would come down to what the international community was prepared to tolerate" — that is, whether the U.N. General Assembly would move to take a seat away from a displaced people.

The 1951 global treaty on refugees, mandating that nations shelter those fleeing because of persecution, does not cover the looming situation of those displaced by climate change. Some advocate negotiating a new international pact obliging similar treatment for environmental refugees.

In the case of the Marshallese, the picture is murkier. Under a compact with Washington, citizens of the former U.S. trusteeship territory have the right to freely enter the U.S. for study or work, but their right to permanent residency must be clarified, government advisers say.

The islanders worry, too, about their long-term economic rights. The wide scattering of the Marshalls' 29 atolls, 2,300 miles (3,700 kilometers) southwest of Hawaii, give them an exclusive economic zone of 800,000 square miles (2 million square kilometers) of ocean, an area the size of Mexico.

The tuna coursing through those waters are the Marshalls' chief resource, exploited by selling licenses to foreign fishing fleets. "If their islands go underwater, what becomes of their fishing rights?" Gerrard asked. Potentially just as important: revenues from magnesium and other sea-floor minerals that geologists have been exploring in recent years.

While lawyers at next May's New York conference begin to sort out the puzzle of disappeared nations, the Marshallese will grapple with the growing problems.

The "top priority," Kaminaga said, is to save the isthmus linking the Marshalls' Jaluit island to its airport, a link now swept by high tides.

Meantime, a lingering drought this year led islanders to tap deeper into their wells, finding salty water requiring them to deploy emergency desalination units. And "parts of the islands are eroding away," Kaminaga said, as undermined lines of coconut palms topple into the sea.

This week in Cancun and in the months to come, the Marshalls' representatives will seek international aid for climate adaptation. They envision such projects as a Jaluit causeway, replanting of protective vegetation on shorelines, and a 3-mile-long (5-kilometer-long) seawall protecting their capital, Majuro, from the Pacific's rising tides.

Islanders' hopes are fading, however, for quick, decisive action to slash global emissions and save their remote spits of land for the next century.

"If all these financial and diplomatic tools don't work, I think some countries are looking at some kind of legal measures," said Dessima Williams, Grenada's U.N. ambassador and chair of a group of small island-nations. Those measures might include appeals to the International Court of Justice or other forums for compensation, a difficult route at best.

In the end, islanders wonder, too, what will happen to their culture, their history, their identity with a homeland — even to their ancestors — if they must leave.

"Cemeteries along the coastline are being eroded. Gravesites are falling into the sea," Kaminaga said. "Even in death we're affected."

QuoteMost of the news surrounding the most recent Wikileaks document dump has centered on potentially damaging and controversial revelations. But the diplomatic cables also contain a fair amount of detail that is, well, odd and amusing. Case in point: A cable dated May of 2009 states that American film and television programs are doing more to dissuade young Muslims from becoming jihadists than virtually anything else.

Reruns of shows like "Desperate Housewives" and "Friends" run uncensored on television in Saudi Arabia, giving the average Saudi a glimpse into American life and culture. And like many an American couch potato, these Saudi tube enthusiasts are fascinated by what they're seeing. The title of one U.S. television-related cable pretty much says it all: "David Letterman: Agent of Influence."

itd.

Quote from: Meho Krljic on 09-12-2010, 14:20:50
Pederčine, kako ih nije sramota da se obuku u drugu odeću kad menjaju kontinent. To je skoro kao kad bismo mi navlačili bermude pred sletanje u Egipat!!1111!

Quote from: Josipovitch Broznjev on 10-12-2010, 22:33:28
ja sam naglasio da je dobro, ako je istina. a inace, stavljaj linkove ka tekstovima na hrvatskom da te svi razumijemo.

Quote from: Džek svih zanata on 10-12-2010, 22:44:51...
Švajcarski bundesrat želi incest da izuzme iz kažnjenog zakona. ...

Quote from: Josipovitch Broznjev on 10-12-2010, 22:51:47

Quote from: Džek svih zanata on 10-12-2010, 22:44:51...
Švajcarski bundesrat želi incest da izuzme iz kažnjenog zakona. ...

prerano sam se ponadao. sigurno podmeces sluposti, nemaju oni kaznjeni zakon. kaznjeni zakon, pih.

a i kad odem na link, tamo je tekst puno opsirniji, ne te dvije-tri recenice sto si napisao.

Quote from: angel011 on 10-12-2010, 22:55:46Rekao je da je preveo početak i da ga za dalje mrzi.

Budi ti opširniji pa prevedi sve.  :)

Quote from: Josipovitch Broznjev on 10-12-2010, 22:51:47

Quote from: Džek svih zanata on 10-12-2010, 22:44:51...
Švajcarski bundesrat želi incest da izuzme iz kažnjenog zakona. ...

prerano sam se ponadao. sigurno podmeces sluposti, nemaju oni kaznjeni zakon. kaznjeni zakon, pih.

a i kad odem na link, tamo je tekst puno opsirniji, ne te dvije-tri recenice sto si napisao.

Quote from: Josipovitch Broznjev on 10-12-2010, 22:27:14
ne vidim zasto bi incest, koji ima tradiciju, bio ista losiji od pederluka. dobra vijest

Quote from: Lord Kufer on 11-12-2010, 12:22:10
Hapsburgovci su bili majstori verbesserunga, i taman im se rodio Kwizac Haderakac, kad tamo a ono ubiše ga Srbi...

Quote from: Lord Kufer on 11-12-2010, 12:59:13
Skoro pa skojevac...

QuoteTwo blasts rocked the centre of Stockholm Saturday night in what Sweden's foreign minister called "a terrorist attack," killing one person and wounding two.

The blasts Saturday took place after Swedish news agency TT said it received a threatening letter about Sweden's military presence in Afghanistan and a years-old case of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad.

Asked if a man found dead at the site of the second blast blew himself up in some way, police spokesman Kjell Lindgren said: "It is possible."

The incident began when a car burst into flames in the city centre, followed by explosions from within the car which the police said were caused by gas canisters.

Another explosion took place, in which the man died, about 300 metres (yards) away. Two people were wounded in that blast.

"Most worrying attempt at terrorist attack in crowded part of central Stockholm. Failed - but could have been truly catastrophic," Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said in a message on Twitter, which was also shown on his blog.

Investigations were underway to see if the two incidents were linked, Lindgren said.

Several hours after the blast, the man's body was still lying on the pavement, covered with a white sheet.

Police vans had cordoned off several streets around the body and the car had been towed away. Elsewhere, the city centre was calm, with people having a normal Saturday night out.

Swedish newspapers all said the man did blow himself up.

Dagens Nyheter quoted a man called Pascal, a trained medic, as saying, "It looked as if the man had carried something that exploded in his stomach."

"He had no injuries to the face or body in general and the shops around were not damaged."

Newspaper Aftonbladet quoted a source as saying that the man was carrying six pipebombs, of which only one exploded.

THREATENING LETTER

He also had a rucksack full of nails and suspected explosive material, the newspaper said. It also quoted eyewitnesses saying the man was shouting in what was apparently Arabic.

The police declined to comment on that report.

TT said the email it received was also sent to the Security Police, which confirmed it had received such a communication, but declined to reveal its contents.

TT said the email had sound files in Swedish and Arabic.

"Our actions will speak for themselves, as long as you do not end your war against Islam and humiliation of the Prophet and your stupid support for the pig Vilks," TT quoted a man as saying in one of the recordings.

TT said the threat was linked to Sweden's contribution to the U.S.-led NATO force in Afghanistan, where it has 500 soldiers, mainly in the north.

It also referred to caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad by the Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who depicted the Prophet with the body of a dog in a cartoon in 2007.

Most Muslims consider any depiction of the founder of Islam as offensive.

In March, an American who called herself "JihadJane" was charged with plotting to kill Vilks. In May, arsonists tried to set fire to his house.

Vilks, contacted by Reuters Television, was safe.

"This is the first casualty of my project," he said. "It was an act against the Swedish people to scare them and not to me. The good news was that a terrorist died and not someone else."

Evan Kohlmann, a U.S. terrorism consultant, told Reuters that a small militant Islamic community had been based in Sweden for some time. But she thought that the Saturday incident, if an attack, was one man's work.

"However, given the scale of this attack and the target, I suspect this is a homegrown local extremist who may or may not have connections to any actual terrorist organisation."

"We've seen a flurry of attempted attacks across northern Europe by similar lone wolf militants who were, in one way or another, enraged by the Cartoon controversy."

Lindgren said it was not clear what caused the car to explode. After the first explosion, the gas canisters caused smaller blasts, he said.

Gas canisters were also part of the homemade bomb which failed to avoid in Times Square in 2010 and when a jeep was rammed into Glasgow airport in 2007.

In January, a Somali man was indicted for terrorism and attempted murder for breaking into the home of the Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard and threatening him with an axe.

A cartoon by Westergaard in 2005 that depicted the Prophet Mohammad with a turban shaped like a bomb caused outrage across the Muslim world, with at least 50 people killed in riots in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Quote from: scallop on 15-12-2010, 20:00:22
Naši distrofičari i oboleli od cerebralne paralize još nisu pretnja za našu policiju. Ali, kad nas prime u EU, najebaće!

Quote
An Iraqi man killed and buried his teenaged daughter after learning she had intended to become a suicide bomber for al Qaeda, a security official said on Friday. Skip related content


Iraqi security forces raided the man's house in Mandili, 100 km (60 miles) northeast of Baghdad, to search for Shahla Najim al-Anbaky after receiving information that she had ties to the Sunni Islamist militant group.

They arrested her father, Najim Abd al-Anbaky, on Thursday when he confessed he had killed his daughter and buried her body near his house, said Major Ghalib al-Jubouri, a police spokesman in Diyala province.

"He confessed he killed her when he learned she worked for al Qaeda and she wanted to blow herself up," Jubouri said.

The man guided security forces to his daughter's grave, he said.

Diyala, a mainly Sunni Arab province with significant Shi'ite and Kurdish populations, has seen some of the worst violence since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

In a separate incident, suspected al Qaeda militants bombed the home of a Shi'ite family in a town south of Baghdad on Friday, killing five people.

Three bombs were planted overnight at the home of Mohammed al-Karrafi, a follower of anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, in Haswa, a religiously mixed town about 50 km (30 miles) south of the Iraqi capital, police said.

"After midnight, two bombs completely destroyed the house of the Sadrist, Mohammed al-Karrafi, killing five people and wounding four others," said Major General Fadhil Razaq, the chief of police in Babil province. "All the casualties are from the same family."

The blasts killed Karrafi, his wife, his two sons and a nephew. Two of Karrafi's brothers and their wives were wounded in the explosions.

Razaq said a third bomb was detonated when security forces reached the scene but no one was hurt.

"We accuse al Qaeda. Al Qaeda is trying to take Iraq back to sectarian conflict by targeting Shi'ite figures," Razaq add.

Overall violence has fallen in the last two years as the sectarian bloodshed that followed the 2003 U.S.-led invasion fades, but bombings and attacks still occur daily.

(Editing by Jon Boyle)

Quote

Alexei Anishchuk and Maria Tsvetkova


Jailed Russian ex-tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky was found guilty of money laundering and theft of billions of dollars on Monday at a trial that has renewed doubts about the Kremlin's commitment to the rule of law.


Khodorkovsky's lead defence lawyer told Reuters he would appeal the verdict, which government critics say suggests longstanding Kremlin promises to reform a court system marred by corruption and political influence are insincere.

Prosecutors are seeking an additional six-year prison term for the former Yukos oil company CEO but it could take judge Viktor Danilkin days to read what lawyers said was a 250-page verdict and announce a sentence.

Khodorkovsky is in the last year of an eight-year sentence imposed in 2005 after a politically charged fraud and tax evasion trial that shaped Vladimir Putin's 2000-2008 presidency.

Now prime minister but the dominant figure in Russia's ruling tandem with President Dmitry Medvedev, Putin this month said Khodorkovsky had blood on his hands and that "a thief must be in jail."

Khodorkovsky's lawyers said the comments in a December 16 television appearance were designed to exert influence in the case, which has accentuated a sense of personal rivalry between Putin and a business mogul who was once Russia's richest man.

"What we are hearing leaves us no doubt that pressure was put on the court -- that the court was not free when adopting this decision," lead defence lawyer Vadim Klyuvgant said during a brief break in Danilkin's rushed verdict reading.

Medvedev signalled his disapproval of Putin's comments, saying in a nationally televised interview on Friday that no official had the right to comment before a verdict was reached. Putin said later he was referring to Khodorkovsky's first conviction.

The current trial has been closely watched in Russia and abroad ahead of a 2012 presidential election that could put Putin back in the Kremlin.

The European Union was following the verdict "very closely" and "expects Russia to respect its international commitments in the field of human rights and the rule of law," EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said in a statement.

GUILTY VERDICT

In the Moscow courtroom judge Danilkin said the court had established that Khodorkovsky and his former business partner Platon Lebedev "carried out the embezzlement of property entrusted to the defendants."

The judge said the two men were also guilty of laundering stolen oil funds.

Enclosed in a glass-and-steel courtroom cage, Khodorkovsky and Lebedev pointedly ignored the judge as he read out the widely expected guilty verdict, talking to each other in hushed tones and reading.

Hundreds of protestors gathered in sub-zero weather outside Moscow's Khamovnichesky Court, holding pictures of the defendants and chanting "Freedom!" and "Shame!"

Itar-Tass news agency said some 30 were detained.

Prosecutors say Khodorkovsky stole $27 billion in oil from Yukos subsidiaries through pricing schemes and laundered some of the money, charges his lawyers dismissed as an absurd, politically motivated pretext to keep him behind bars.

The verdict "is meant to show that the boss in our country is Putin," said Yuri Korgunyuk, an analyst at Indem think-tank.

Putin dominates a ruling tandem with Medvedev even though as prime minister, he is subordinate to the protege he steered into the presidency in 2008.

Both men say they will decide together who will run for president in 2012 as the Kremlin's shoo-in candidate, but many Russians suspect it is Putin who will make the choice.

JUSTICE SYSTEM

Monday's conviction deepens doubts that Medvedev, who has championed a progressive Russia underpinned by the rule of law, will shed Putin's shadow and bring meaningful change to Russia.

Despite Medvedev's public urgings, little progress has been visible and Russians who support those goals fear his talk amounts to little more than window-dressing for Putin's more restrictive policies and his continued rule.

A six-year sentence would keep Khodorkovsky in jail until late 2017, close to the end of six-year term of the president elected in 2012 -- keeping him out of electoral politics and shadowing Medvedev if he stays in the Kremlin.

Khodorkovsky fell foul of the Kremlin during Putin's first term after he aired corruption allegations, challenged the state's control over oil exports and funded opposition parties.

After his arrest in 2003, Yukos was bankrupted by back-tax claims and its assets sold off, most ending up in state hands, deepening Western concerns about property rights and the rule of law in Russia under Putin.

Russia's markets showed no immediate reaction to the verdict, with the MICEX stocks index and the rouble holding on to modest losses on year-end profit-taking.

(Additional reporting by Alissa de Carbonnel, Thomas Grove and John Bowker; writing by Steve Gutterman; editing by Jon Boyle)

Quote from: Meho Krljic on 27-12-2010, 18:05:32
taj i takav Putin je Rusiju izvukao iz apsolutnog haosa koji je ostavio Jeljcin, sa ruba bankrota, dovodeći je u kakav-takav red i u ekonomske okvire koji su daleko udobniji...

Quote from: Lord Kufer on 27-12-2010, 18:16:56
Taj Hodorovski je zaista poverovao da su sva nafta i sve pare samo njegovi... Idijot.

Quote from: Lord Kufer on 27-12-2010, 18:56:29
pun slabih tačaka...

QuoteA Russian judge ordered former tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky jailed until 2017 Thursday after being convicted of theft and money-laundering, in a court case seen by the West as a test of the rule of law in Russia. Skip related content

Moscow judge Viktor Danilkin granted the prosecutors' sentencing request and ordered Khodorkovsky to serve 14 years in prison, including his current eight-year term and counting from the day of his arrest in October 2003.

With Khodorkovsky and co-defendant Platon Lebedev watching from a glass-walled courtroom cage at the close of a trial sharply criticised by the West, the judge said there was no way they could be reformed without "isolation from society."

Dressed in black, Khodorkovsky, whose previous sentence was due to end next October, stood stunned as Danilkin announced the sentence, which his lawyers said was made under pressure from Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

A onda malo da se pokaže da su Rusi ipak primitivna, varvarska ekipa:

"May God damn you and your descendants," Khodorkovsky's mother, Marina, shouted at the judge's back as he hurriedly left the courtroom immediately after the sentencing.

Khodorkovsky had adamantly denied the charges, and supporters said the conviction made a mockery of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's pledges to improve the rule of law.

"The sentence was clearly issued under pressure from the executive authorities, headed as before by Mr. Putin," said Yuri Shmidt, a lawyer on the defence team.
"Putin signalled to the court who is the boss today and who today decides Khodorkovsky's fate and life," he said.

CHARGES OF "SELECTIVE JUSTICE"

Russia said the trial was a matter for its courts and rejected as "groundless" U.S. suggestions that the verdict resulted from selective justice.

In a televised talk with Russians on Dec 16, Putin said Khodorkovsky had blood on his hands and said "a thief must be in jail," evoking U.S. financial schemer Bernard Madoff to suggest a 150-year sentence would be fitting if allowed by law.

The new sentence will stoke renewed accusations of selective justice and could strain Russia's ties with the United States and the European Union, which said the conviction raised questions about Moscow's commitment to human rights.

It will be seen as a blow to Medvedev, who has said independent courts are crucial to Russia's future, casting deep doubts on his reform promises and reaffirming Putin's role as the dominant decision-maker.

Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man and head of a major oil company, the now defunct Yukos, is in the final year of an eight-year sentence imposed after a politically charged fraud and tax evasion trial that shaped Putin's 2000-2008 presidency.

In the second trial, which dragged on in a drab courtroom for nearly two years, prosecutors said he and Lebedev stole nearly $30 billion (19 billion pounds) in oil from Yukos subsidiaries through price mechanisms and laundered some of the money.

Khodorkovsky's lawyers dismissed the charges as an absurd pretext to keep him in jail.

They have vowed to appeal against the sentence, opening the door to a potentially divisive debate over his fate in the run-up to parliamentary elections next year and a 2012 presidential vote that could see the return of Putin to the Kremlin.

One of the young tycoons who built fortunes after the Soviet Union's 1991 collapse, Khodorkovsky fell out with Putin's Kremlin after airing corruption allegations, challenging state control over oil exports and funding opposition parties.

After Khodorkovsky's 2003 arrest, Yukos was bankrupted by back-tax claims and its top assets sold to the state, deepening Western concerns over property rights and the rule of law.

Supporters have cast the trials as part of a Kremlin-driven campaign to punish Khodorkovsky for challenges to Putin and strengthen the state's grip on oil revenues, the fuel for an economic boom that transformed Russia during his presidency.

(Additional reporting by Maria Tsvetkova; writing by Alissa de Carbonnel and Steve Gutterman; editing by Thomas Grove)

QuoteFormer Israeli President Moshe Katsav was found guilty of rape and other sex crimes on Thursday, in what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a sad day for the Jewish state. Skip related content
Katsav, who could now face years in prison, had denied charges he twice raped an aide when he was a cabinet minister in the late 1990s, and molested or sexually harassed two other women who worked for him during his 2000-2007 term as president.

But a three-judge panel said his testimony had been "riddled with lies."

"When a woman says no, she means no," the panel said in its ruling.

Katsav was also convicted of obstructing justice, for trying to confer with one complainant about her testimony to police.

The ashen-faced 65-year-old had no comment for reporters as he was spirited out of Tel Aviv District Court by a scrum of relatives, attorneys and bodyguards.

One of his lawyers, Avigdor Feldman, criticised the unanimous verdict for ignoring "all of the doubts" about the women's accounts and said Katsav planned to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.

"This is a sad day for the state of Israel and its residents," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the right-wing Likud party of which Katsav is a veteran member, said in a statement after the verdict.

"Today the court conveyed two clear-cut messages, that all are equal before the law and that every woman has exclusive rights to her body," Netanyahu said.

Rape carries a minimum prison term of four years and a maximum of 16 years in Israel. Moshe Negbi, legal analyst for Israel Radio, told Reuters any sentences handed down to Katsav for the lesser charges would probably be served concurrently.

DISGRACE

Though the scandal had forced Katsav's early retirement in disgrace, it had little impact on Israeli government functions, as the presidency is largely ceremonial.

But the allegations against the Iranian-born leader, whose rise from the slums once served as a shining example for disadvantaged Jewish immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa, stirred deep emotions in Israel, where the elite has traditionally been of European descent.

The head of state is supposed to be a beacon of morality and national unity for a country often riven by drift and division.

The verdict was dubbed an "earthquake" by one Israeli newspaper and welcomed by women's groups that have long complained of lax attitudes to sexual harassment in workplaces.

Katsav, who is religiously observant, had cast himself as the victim of extortion and an ethnically-motivated "witch hunt." Relatives said he would campaign to clear his name.

"This trial, where the judges rule according to their feelings, is not in keeping the ethics of Israel," Katsav's son Boaz told reporters.

"God willing, the whole nation will know that dad, the eighth president of the State of Israel, is innocent."

Out of concern for the complainants' privacy, much of the trial had taken place behind closed doors. Some commentators predict Katsav, should he appeal, will argue that the Tel Aviv District Court proceedings were not transparent enough.

Katsav immigrated with his family to Israel in 1951. At the age of 24 he became the country's youngest mayor and went on to hold a number of Likud cabinet posts.

Parliament elected him president in 2000 in a surprise victory over Shimon Peres, Israel's Nobel Peace Prize-winning elder statesman. Peres succeeded Katsav as president.

The eruption of the Katsav affair had amplified corruption scandals that brought down Israel's then premier, Ehud Olmert.

Hosting Olmert in Moscow in late 2006, Vladimir Putin, Russia's president at the time, quipped before TV cameras that Katsav "didn't look like a guy who could be with 10 women."

(Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Jeffrey Heller and Noah Barkin)

QuoteЗабрањена произвољна употреба страних речи, скраћеница и акронима, као и мешавина кинеског и енглеског језика у кинеским медијима

Да ли сте чули за ,,чинглиш"? Боље да нисте.

Кинеске власти забраниле су произвољну употребу страних речи у медијима, посебно англицизама, известио је минуле недеље кинески дневник ,,Женмин жибао". Стране речи, посебно енглеске, ,,прљају чистоћу кинеског језика", тврде званичници. Највећу опасност представља тзв. чинглиш – мешавина кинеског и енглеског језика.

Захтева се да стандардизовани кинески језик буде норма, а да се у штампи избегавају и стране скраћенице и акроними. Уколико одређене речи морају да буду написане на страном језику, обавезно је пропратити их објашњењем на кинеском, истиче се у саопштењу.

,,Чинглиш" озбиљно угрожава кинески језик и хармонично културно окружење, тврде званичници и подсећају на недавно покренуту идеју да и кинески језик постане извозна роба. Зато су широм света почели да се отварају Конфучијеви институти, где се учи један од најкомпликованијих живих језика, са архаичним идеограмским писмом.

Иако је језик глобализације енглески, онај који се данас нагло шири је и кинески. Не само зато што га говори најмногољуднији народ, него и из два економска разлога.

Први је да Кина има највеће отворено тржиште и огромну привреду у коју се годишње слију стотине милијарди долара страних инвестиција. Стране компаније које послују с Кином раде успешније ако, уз Кинезе који говоре енглески, имају своје људе који говоре кинески.

Други разлог је у великој усмерености кинеске привреде на извоз. Конкурентна роба из Кине преплавила је тржиште широм света поред осталог и због спретности кинеских трговаца да своју робу продају страном купцу на његовом језику. Али, како трговина има два упоредна тока, велики страни увозници су утврдили да лакше послују са Кинезима ако комуницирају на кинеском језику.

Истовремено, код обичног света, који се с кинеском робом сусреће на готово сваком кораку, порасло је интересовање за Кину и Кинезе, а потом и за кинески начин живота, културу и – језик.

Кинези су зато осмислили стратегију да ширењем кинеског језика олакшају себи економску експанзију, а потом прошире и ојачају свој политички и културни утицај у свету. Ако Немци имају Гетеове културне центре, а Шпанци Сервантесове институте, зашто Кинези не би имали Конфучијеве институте?

Име древног филозофа – који оваплоћује кинеску мудрост, обичаје, цивилизацију, менталитет и национални идентитет Кине – зна цео свет. Конфучије понајмање асоцира на ,,кинеску опасност" или на садашњу кинеску, макар и мало омекшану, комунистичку идеологију.

Циљ Кинеза јесте да њихов језик постане популаран у Америци колико и енглески у Кини. Врхунац учења енглеског постигнут је пре две године, у време Олимпијаде у Пекингу: таксисти, рецимо, који нису научили основе енглеског изгубили су посао.

Досад су Конфучијеви институти отворени у тридесетак земаља – међу којима је и Србија. План Министарства просвете Кине јесте да отвори више од сто Конфучијевих института и да милионе људи укључи у учење кинеског језика.

Учи се мандарински, који Кинези зову путонгхуа (заједнички језик). То је пекиншки дијалект и говори га најмање 835 милиона Кинеза. Осталих 465 милиона говори другим дијалектима: кинески језик је јединствен и по томе што има 240 дијалеката од којих су 140 међусобно неразумљиви.

У пекиншком дијалекту постоје четири тона, нагласка, плус један неутрални – од којих зависи значење поједине речи. Хонгконг, где се говори кантоншким дијалектом, има седам тонова и један неутрални.

Кад Пекинжанин разговара са Хонгконжанином потребан им је преводилац. На телевизији, посебно ако се ради о кинеској опери – по правилу се титлује оно што уметници певају.

Кинески језик има око 50.000 идеограма (хијероглифа или карактера) које је, наводно, некад знао само легендарни литерата Гуо Моџо, некадашњи председник Кинеске академије наука. Утврђено је да се у штампи и популарној литератури данас користи највише 4.500 знакова. Сматра се да је за читање књижевних дела довољно знати 8.000 идеограма.

Кинеска легенда каже да је писмо створио Цанг Ђије, писар код митског Жутог цара, око 2600. године пре нове ере. Најстарији трагови кинеског писма пронађени су на корњачиним оклопима који су се користили за прорицање судбине, у време династије Шанг.

Кинеско писмо није фонетско већ идеографско. За прве писане знакове послужили су трагови које су у снегу остављале птичје ноге. Кинески хијероглиф означава истовремено конкретан предмет и апстрактан појам и лишен је морфолошких показатеља рода, броја, времена радње и, чак, врсте речи.

Мада се кинески језик данас упорно опире директним страним позајмицама, граматика новог књижевног језика по много чему се приближава граматици западних језика: појављују се копуле, категорије времена код глагола, показатељи прилога и прилошких одредби и многе друге новине, указују језички стручњаци.

А Кинези тврде да је учење кинеског језика – појава попут лавине. Што више људи говори кинески, још више њих се труди да га научи.

И заборавите на ,,чинглиш".

Петар Мићковић

Quote from: SIMERIJANAC on 04-01-2011, 02:47:49
u julu iste godine Putin je održao čas pred TV kamerama šefovima trgovinskog lanca "Perekrestok", koreći ih javno u njihovom supermarketu u Moskvi zbog visokih marži na cene kobasica

QuoteМоже ли се ту шта учинити? Може, али не са једнаким успехом. Када је реч о домаћим трговинским ланцима, ту је тешко било шта урадити, јер њихов власник финансира све политичке партије

Време је, видим, за једну истиниту причу о цару Диоклецијану. Те давне 301. године наше ере, трговци Старог Рима почели су да дижу цене. Јесу ли то радили зато што је цар у златнике стављао превише бакра (инфлација) или зато што су феничанске марже биле превелике (монополи), оставимо за тренутак по страни. Народ је био узнемирен, што је за сваког императора лош знак. Стога Диоклецијан издаде проглас: уводи се смртна казна за све који продају, али и за све који купују по ценама које су више од прописаних. Како је човек био император, није било разлога да се сумња нити у озбиљност, а ни у повољан исход овог потеза, кад боље човек размисли.

И шта мислите, шта се тада десило, јесу ли цене ипак пале? Нису. Трговци су лепо отишли из Рима, а када су завладале несташице, император им је прећутно дозволио да се врате, као да тог несрећног декрета никада није ни било. Човек је схватио: цене су морале да остану – цене, да би император могао да остане – император, то јест да не би сутра поново испао смешан пред својим народом.

Седамнаест векова касније, то јест пре неки дан, руски председник Путин запутио се у сличну мисију. Наоружан истом императорском амбицијом да ствар пресече у тренутку, објавио је рат високим маржама и похлепним трговцима. Први ,,феничанин" кога је ухватио, извесни Ковбаладзе, подвио је реп и на лицу места обећао да ће марже у његовом трговинском ланцу бити спуштене већ сутрадан. И? Хоће ли марже у Русији стварно бити спуштене? Неће, наравно.

Било да је у питању инфлација или монополи, прогласи и претње ту не помажу. Како смо видели, ни смртна казна овде не би помогла. Јер ако је проблем инфлација, па замрзнете цене, трговци ће побећи и завладаће несташицa. Ако су проблем монополи и превелике марже, па њих покушате да замрзнете (као што је ово Путин урадио) трговци неће чак ни бежати, али ни цене ни марже неће пасти. У овом, за трговце много повољнијем случају, довољно ће бити да се мало папири преуреде, па да буде задовољан и Путин и трговци. А народ?

Е па, ни народ не остаје кратких рукава. Они добијају један лепи ријалити шоу након чега ће данима моћи да коментаришу како је њихов вођа јавно унизио те зле и похлепне трговце. И да се вајкају како се, ето, некада знало где је таквима место... У том дерту, заборавиће они и цене и марже, које ће, како рекох – остати исте.

И шта онда човек да ради да би се марже смањиле? Једини прави лек је овде – конкуренција, јер сваки други лек у њеном одсуству губи смисао и једноставно нема дејство. Треба, у ствари, применити стари позоришни рецепт који каже: ,,Најбољи лек против честих боловања наше примадоне јесте – друга примадона".

И – одлично. Хајдемо онда назад у Србију, и погледајмо те две наше примадоне – малопродају и банке, и њихове огромне марже. И одмах ће вам ту експерти покушати да компликују ствар – те нису то монополи, него је у питању доминантан положај, или су то у ствари олигополи, или је у питању дослух... али не дајте да вас збуне. Основни лек остаје основни лек – ова господа су се крунисала, јер у Србији нема нових улазака. И док се нови конкуренти не појаве марже ће остати исте или ће – порасти.

Може ли се ту шта учинити? Може, али не са једнаким успехом. Када је реч о домаћим трговинским ланцима, ту је тешко било шта урадити, јер њихов власник финансира све политичке партије, што му вероватно гарантује да ће барем у овом веку успети да сачува доминантан положај и да осујети долазак било ког великог трговинског ланца у Србију. Овде је једини, али једини лек – Европска унија: такви локални монополи, као што је овај Делтин, тамо падају као снопље, и зато су тамо марже много мање. Ерго, евроскептици, размислите о томе, макар ме сви ви сада оптужили да желим да трампим национални суверенитет за тридесет одсто јефтинији пар кобасица.

И остаје питање – како је онда могуће да марже у страним банкама буду тако високе, када сигурно ниједна од њих нема доминантан положај, нити их штите домаће политичке партије? То је, наравно, тачно, али размислите – иста вам је ствар и са таксистима: ни они немају неку политичку моћ, а држе цене веома, веома високо. И у томе је понајвише ствар са овим маржама и високим ценама – наше примадоне се не боје нових улазака.

А ове путиновско-шешељевске методе заборавите, молим вас.

професорка Економског факултета, чланица ЦЛДС-а

Даница Поповић
објављено: 01/07/2009

Quote from: John Reynolds on 05-01-2011, 02:41:54
Ajmo ovako. Šta, ovde nema konurencije? Kupujete u megamarketima? Imate Miškovićev Tempo, hrvatsku Ideu, slovenački Merkator (+ Rodić) i grčki Veropulos. To ja ovako iz glave, možda ima još koji. Jeste, nema Špara i kompanije, ali imamo 4. Slovima - četiri. I gde su cene najniže, to jest - ako odete u veliku mesečnu kupovinu (a ja idem), gde ćete kupiti određeni broj artikala za kuću i potrošiti najmanje? Kod zlog Miškovića.

Quote from: John Reynolds on 05-01-2011, 02:41:54
Dakle, konkurencija postoji. Ali zašto sad cene ne padaju?

Quote from: Cornelius on 05-01-2011, 10:59:09
Znači, problem je u korumpiranim političarima koji zbog svoje karijere, zarade i slave, dopuštaju kriminalcima da legalno i industrijski pljačakaju narod. Tako u Srbiji, a tako i u Francuskoj.

Quote from: smrklja on 05-01-2011, 09:11:44
Tempo(Tempoekspres), Metro, Rodić, Kort, Interex, SuperIdea (ili tako nekako), su otprilike u istom rangu (veliki hipermarketi).Kod maloprodajnih lanaca ubedljivo najskuplji je Višnjica, a onda tek Merkator,Vero,Idea,Maksi(miniMaksi,Pekabeta),Jabuka.Konkurencija postoji i kao što John kaže treba samo dobro proučiti koliko gde šta košta i pametno kupiti.

Quote from: Cornelius on 06-01-2011, 15:22:16
nastupaju rajska vremena - sa neba padaju pečene ševe, a u vodi plutaju kuvani rakovi. Još samo kada bi padale i gajbe piva...

QuoteMillions of jubilant south Sudanese started voting on Sunday in a long-awaited independence referendum that is expected to see their war-ravaged region emerge as a new nation. Skip related content
Huge queues built up outside polling stations before dawn in the southern capital Juba where banners described the week-long ballot as a "Last March to Freedom" after decades of civil war and perceived repression by north Sudan.

"I am voting for separation," said Nhial Wier, a veteran of the north-south civil war that led up to the vote. "This day marks the end of my struggles. In the army I was fighting for freedom. I was fighting for separation."

The referendum was promised in a 2005 peace deal that ended Africa's longest civil war, fuelled by oil and ethnicity, between the mostly Muslim north and the south, where most people follow Christianity and traditional beliefs.

In the north, the prospect of losing a quarter of the country's land mass -- and the source of most of its oil -- has been greeted with resignation and some resentment.

Sudanese president Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who campaigned for unity in the run-up to the vote, has been making increasingly conciliatory comments and this month promised to join independence celebrations, if that was the outcome.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Saturday said a peaceful, orderly referendum could help put Sudan back on a path towards normal relations with the United States after years of sanctions but warned a chaotic vote will mean more isolation.

Southern president Salva Kiir urged long lines of voters to be patient after casting his ballot at 8 a.m. (5 a.m. British time).

"I believe Doctor John (Garang) and all those who died with him are with us today and I want to assure them they have not died in vain," he said, referring to the southern rebel leader who died in a helicopter crash months after signing the accord.

Juba and Khartoum already looked liked the capitals of two different countries on Sunday.

In Juba, actor George Clooney and U.S. Senator John Kerry mingled with dancing and singing crowds. Voters waiting outside one polling station burst into a rendition of the hymn "This is the day that the Lord has made."

"It is something to see people actually voting for their freedom. That's not something you see often in your life," Clooney told Reuters.

In Khartoum voting centres were empty, and southern districts were quiet -- tens of thousands of exiled southerners have returned for the vote. There were no banners acknowledging the historic referendum.

ALL VOTE MATERIALS DELIVERED

The vote's organising commission told Reuters it had defied gloomy forecasts of delays to deliver all voting materials on time for Sunday's deadline.

The logistical achievements have not been matched by political progress. Southerners went to the polls without knowing the exact position of their border with the north or how much of Sudan's debt they will have to shoulder after a split.

The two sides have been locked in negotiations for months over how they might share out oil revenues -- the lifeblood of both their economies -- and settle other issues after secession. There is no public sign of progress.

The south also will have to face up to its own internal ethnic rivalries and resolve a bitter dispute with the north over the ownership of the central Abyei region, where there were reports of clashes involving Arab nomads on Friday and Saturday.

Still, north and south proceeded to the referendum while drawing a line under more than half a century of fighting.

"The risk is always there. There is always lots of tinder about and there are a lot of unresolved issues, including Abyei," said Derek Plumbly, chairman of the Assessment and Evaluation Commission that monitors the north-south peace deal.

"But neither side really wants to go back to war. I believe they will find their way through."

(Additional reporting by Jeremy Clarke in Juba, Andrew Heavens and Opheera McDoom in Khartoum; writing by Andrew Heavens; editing by Myra MacDonald)

QuoteBy MAGGIE MICHAEL, Associated Press Maggie Michael, Associated Press – 1 hr 12 mins ago
CAIRO – Egyptian army tanks and soldiers cleared away pro-government rioters and deployed between them and protesters seeking the fall of President Hosni Mubarak, as the prime minister made an unprecedented apology Thursday for the assault by regime backers that turned central Cairo into a battle zone.

Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq told state TV that the attack Wednesday on the anti-government protesters was a "blatant mistake" and promised to investigate who was behind it.

The protesters accuse the regime of organizing the assault, using paid thugs and policemen in civilian clothes, in an attempt to crush their movement. Government supporters charged central Tahrir Square Wednesday afternoon, sparking 15 hours of uncontrolled chaos, with the two sides battled with rocks, sticks, bottles and firebombs as soliders largely stood by without intervening.

The military began to move with muscle for the first time to stop the fighting early Thursday after a barrage of automatic gunfire hit the anti-government camp before dawn, killing at least three protesters in a serious escalation.

Four tanks cleared a highway overpass from which Mubarak supporters had hurled rocks and firebombs onto the protesters. Soldiers on the streets carrying rifles lined up between the two sides around 11 a.m. Several hundred other soldiers were moving toward the front line.

Thursday morning, more protesters streamed into the square, joining the thousands of defenders who spent the chilly night there, hunkered down against the thousands of government supporters in the surrounding streets.

A sense of victory ran through the protesters, even as they organized their ranks in the streets in case of a new assault. "Thank God, we managed to protect the whole area," said Abdul-Rahman, a taxi driver who spent the night in the square. "We prevented the pro-Mubarak people from storming the streets leading to the square." He refused to give his full name.

The apology by Shafiq, who was appointed by Mubarak over the weekend, was highly unusual from a leadership that rarely makes public admissions of a mistake. His promise to investigate who organized the attack came only hours after the Interior Ministry issued a denial that any of its police were involved.

"I offer my apology for everything that happened yesterday because it's neither logical nor rational," Shafiq said. "What happened was wrong, a million percent wrong, whether it was deliberate or not deliberate ... Everything that happened yesterday will be investigated so everyone knows who was behind it."
The anti-Mubarak movement, which has carried out an unprecedented 10 days of protests bringing as many as quarter-million people into Tahrir, has vowed to intensify protests to force him out by Friday. In a speech Tuesday night, Mubarak refused to step down immediately, saying he would serve out the remaining seven months of his term — a halfway concession rejected by the protesters.

The notion that the state may have coordinated violence against protesters, whose vigil in Tahrir Square had been peaceful for days, prompted a sharp rebuke from Washington, which has considered Egypt its most important Arab ally for decades, and sends it $1.5 billion a year in aid.

"If any of the violence is instigated by the government, it should stop immediately," said White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.

QuoteDavid Cameron has signalled a tougher Government stance towards groups which promote Islamist extremism.


The Prime Minister said the doctrine of multi-culturalism has failed during a speech in which he called for "muscular liberalism" in defence of Western values.

He blamed the radicalisation of Muslim youths and the phenomenon of home-grown terrorism on a "hands-off tolerance" from the authorities.

He said the threat of terrorism must be confronted not only though intelligence and surveillance, but by taking on the ideology of Islamist extremism at home.

Ministers should refuse to share platforms or engage with groups that peddle separatist ideology.

Such groups should also be denied access to public money and barred from spreading their message in universities and prisons, he argued.

Mr Cameron made his comments in a speech to a security conference in the German city of Munich.

"Frankly, we need a lot less of the passive tolerance of recent years and much more active, muscular liberalism," the Prime Minister said.

While a "passively tolerant" society allows its citizens to do what they like... a genuinely liberal country "believes in certain values and actively promotes them.

"Freedom of speech. Freedom of worship. Democracy. The rule of law. Equal rights, regardless of race, sex or sexuality.

"It says to its citizens: This is what defines us as a society. To belong here is to believe these things.

"Each of us in our own countries must be unambiguous and hard-nosed about this defence of our liberty."

Mr Cameron's speech came on the day of a planned march in Luton by the far-right English Defence League.

But aides rejected suggestions his comments might fuel racial or religious tensions.

The Prime Minister stressed right-wing extremists and Christian fundamentalist preachers of hate must also be condemned.

He also insisted a clear distinction must be made between the religion of Islam and the political ideology of Islamist extremism.

It is wrong to link strong religious faith with radicalism "as if all devout Muslims must be extremist", Mr Cameron said.

He added it was no longer enough for the authorities simply to proscribe groups which advocate violence or ban foreign preachers of hate from coming to the UK.

"Non-violent extremists" who disparage democracy, oppose universal human rights and promote separatism are also "part of the problem", he said.

QuoteDavid Cameron condemned Britain's long-standing policy of multiculturalism as a failure Saturday, calling for better integration of young Muslims to combat home-grown extremism.

In a speech to the Munich Security Conference, the Prime Minister signaled a marked change in policy towards Britain's ethnic and religious minorities, saying the "hands-off tolerance" of those who reject Western values has failed.

He urged a "more active, muscular liberalism" where equal rights, the rule of law, freedom of speech and democracy are actively promoted to create a stronger national identity.

"If we are to defeat this threat, I believe it's time to turn the page on the failed policies of the past," he told the conference during a panel discussion attended by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

His speech echoed controversial remarks made by Merkel last year, when she also called multiculturalism a failure, saying Germany had not devoted enough attention to the integration of immigrants.

"What I mean to say is that for years, for decades, the approach was that integration was not something that needed to be addressed, that people would live side-by-side and that it would sort itself out," Merkel said in November.

"This turned out to be false."

It was Cameron's first major speech on Islamist extremism, an issue of major concern for British governments ever since four home-grown suicide bombers attacked the London transport system in 2005, killing 52 people.

The prime minister, who took power in May 2010, argued that "under the doctrine of state multiculturalism, we have encouraged different cultures to live separate lives, apart from each other and the mainstream".

He said this had resulted in a lack of national identity in Britain which had made some young Muslims turn to extremist ideology.

"Frankly, we need a lot less of the passive tolerance of recent years and much more active, muscular liberalism," Cameron said.

"A passively tolerant society says to its citizens: as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone. It stands neutral between different values.

"A genuinely liberal country does much more. It believes in certain values and actively promotes them.... It says to its citizens: this is what defines us as a society."

Cameron clearly distinguished between Islam the religion and the political ideology of Islamist extremism, saying they "are not the same thing".

But he argued that non-violent organisations which present themselves as a gateway to the Muslim community but are ambiguous on Western values should no longer receive state funding, and should be banned from university campuses.

Quote from: mac on 05-02-2011, 14:08:45
Nije fejlovala ideja nego implementacija? Ajmo sad švenk na komunizam...

QuoteBy SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein, Ap Science Writer – Sat Feb 19, 8:53 pm ET
WASHINGTON – Oil from the BP spill remains stuck on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, according to a top scientist's video and slides that she says demonstrate the oil isn't degrading as hoped and has decimated life on parts of the sea floor.

That report is at odds with a recent report by the BP spill compensation czar that said nearly all will be well by 2012.

At a science conference in Washington Saturday, marine scientist Samantha Joye of the University of Georgia aired early results of her December submarine dives around the BP spill site. She went to places she had visited in the summer and expected the oil and residue from oil-munching microbes would be gone by then. It wasn't.

"There's some sort of a bottleneck we have yet to identify for why this stuff doesn't seem to be degrading," Joye told the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual conference in Washington. Her research and those of her colleagues contrasts with other studies that show a more optimistic outlook about the health of the gulf, saying microbes did great work munching the oil.

"Magic microbes consumed maybe 10 percent of the total discharge, the rest of it we don't know," Joye said, later adding: "there's a lot of it out there."

The head of the agency in charge of the health of the Gulf said Saturday that she thought that "most of the oil is gone." And a Department of Energy scientist, doing research with a grant from BP from before the spill, said his examination of oil plumes in the water column show that microbes have done a "fairly fast" job of eating the oil. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab scientist Terry Hazen said his research differs from Joye's because they looked at different places at different times.

Joye's research was more widespread, but has been slower in being published in scientific literature.

In five different expeditions, the last one in December, Joye and colleagues took 250 cores of the sea floor and travelled across 2,600 square miles. Some of the locations she had been studying before the oil spill on April 20 and said there was a noticeable change. Much of the oil she found on the sea floor — and in the water column — was chemically fingerprinted, proving it comes from the BP spill. Joye is still waiting for results to show other oil samples she tested are from BP's Macondo well.

She also showed pictures of oil-choked bottom-dwelling creatures. They included dead crabs and brittle stars — starfish like critters that are normally bright orange and tightly wrapped around coral. These brittle stars were pale, loose and dead. She also saw tube worms so full of oil they suffocated.

"This is Macondo oil on the bottom," Joye said as she showed slides. "This is dead organisms because of oil being deposited on their heads."

Joye said her research shows that the burning of oil left soot on the sea floor, which still had petroleum products. And even more troublesome was the tremendous amount of methane from the BP well that mixed into the Gulf and was mostly ignored by other researchers.

Joye and three colleagues last week published a study in Nature Geoscience that said the amount of gas injected into the Gulf was the equivalent of between 1.5 and 3 million barrels of oil.

"The gas is an important part of understanding what happened," said Ian MacDonald of Florida State University.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief Jane Lubchenco told reporters Saturday that "it's not a contradiction to say that although most of the oil is gone, there still remains oil out there."

Earlier this month, Kenneth Feinberg, the government's oil compensation fund czar, said based on research he commissioned he figured the Gulf of Mexico would almost fully recover by 2012 — something Joye and Lubchenco said isn't right.

"I've been to the bottom. I've seen what it looks like with my own eyes. It's not going to be fine by 2012," Joye told The Associated Press. "You see what the bottom looks like, you have a different opinion."

NOAA chief Lubchenco said "even though the oil degraded relatively rapidly and is now mostly but not all gone, damage done to a variety of species may not become obvious for years to come."

Lubchenco Saturday also announced the start of a Gulf restoration planning process to get the Gulf back to the condition it was on Apr. 19, the day before the spill. That program would eventually be paid for BP and other parties deemed responsible for the spill. This would be separate from an already begun restoration program that would improve all aspects of the Gulf, not just the oil spill, but has not been funded by the government yet, she said.

The new program, which is part of the Natural Resources Damage Assessment program, is part of the oil spill litigation — or out-of-court settlement — in which the polluters pay for overall damage to the ecosystem and efforts to return it to normal. This is different than paying compensation to people and businesses directly damaged by the spill.

The process will begin with public meetings all over the region.

___

Online:

Joye's website: http://www.marsci.uga.edu/directory/mjoye.htm (http://www.marsci.uga.edu/directory/mjoye.htm)

NOAA's restoration site: http://www.gulfspillrestoration.noaa.gov/ (http://www.gulfspillrestoration.noaa.gov/)

QuoteBy SARAH EL DEEB, Associated Press Sarah El Deeb, Associated Press – Sun Feb 20, 10:34 pm ET
CAIRO – After anti-government unrest spread to the Libyan capital of Tripoli and protesters seized military bases and weapons Sunday, Moammar Gadhafi's son went on state television to proclaim that his father remained in charge with the army's backing and would "fight until the last man, the last woman, the last bullet."

Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, in the regime's first comments on the six days of demonstrations, warned the protesters that they risked igniting a civil war in which Libya's oil wealth "will be burned."

The speech followed a fierce crackdown by security forces who fired on thousands of demonstrators and funeral marchers in the eastern city of Benghazi in a bloody cycle of violence that killed 60 people on Sunday alone, according to a doctor in one city hospital. Since the six days of unrest began, more than 200 people have been killed, according to medical officials, human rights groups and exiled dissidents.

Libya response has been the harshest of any Arab country that has been wracked by the protests that toppled long-serving leaders in neighboring Tunisia and Egypt. But Gadhafi's son said his father would prevail.

"We are not Tunisia and Egypt," he said. "Moammar Gadhafi, our leader, is leading the battle in Tripoli, and we are with him.

"The armed forces are with him. Tens of thousands are heading here to be with him. We will fight until the last man, the last woman, the last bullet," he said in a rambling and sometimes confused speech of nearly 40 minutes.

Although the elder Gadhafi did not appear, his son has often been put forward as the regime's face of reform.

Western countries have expressed concern at the rising violence against demonstrators in Libya. British Foreign Secretary William Hague said he spoke to Seif al-Islam by phone and told him that the country must embark on "dialogue and implement reforms," the Foreign Office said.

In his speech, the younger Gadhafi conceded the army made some mistakes during the protests because the troops were not trained to deal with demonstrators, but he added that the number of dead had been exaggerated, giving a death toll of 84.

He offered to put forward reforms within days that he described as a "historic national initiative" and said the regime was willing to remove some restrictions and begin discussions for a constitution. He offered to change a number of laws, including those covering the media and the penal code.

Dressed in a dark business suit and tie, Seif al-Islam wagged his finger frequently as he delivered his warnings. He said that if protests continued, Libya would slide back to "colonial" rule. "You will get Americans and European fleets coming your way and they will occupy you.

He threatened to "eradicate the pockets of sedition" and said the army will play a main role in restoring order.

"There has to be a firm stand," he said. "This is not the Tunisian or Egyptian army."

Protesters had seized some military bases, tanks and other weapons, he said, blaming Islamists, the media, thugs, drunks and drug abusers, foreigners — including Egyptians and Tunisians.

He also admitted that the unrest had spread to Tripoli, with people firing in central Green Square before fleeing.

The rebellion by Libyans frustrated with Gadhafi's more than 40 years of authoritarian rule has spread to more than a half-dozen eastern cities — but also to Tripoli, where secret police were heavily deployed on the streets of the city of 2 million.

Armed security forces were seen on rooftops surrounding central Green Square, a witness said by telephone, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. The witness added that a group of about 200 lawyers and judges were protesting inside a Tripoli courthouse, which was also surrounded by security forces.

An exiled opposition leader in Cairo said hundreds of protesters were near the Bab al-Aziziya military camp where Gadhafi lives on Tripoli's outskirts of Tripoli. Faiz Jibril said his contacts inside Libya were also reporting that hundreds of protesters had gathered in another downtown plaza, Martyrs Square.

In other setbacks for Gadhafi's regime, a major tribe in Libya was reported to have turned against him and Libya's representative to the Arab League said he resigned his post to protest the government's decision to fire on defiant demonstrators in Benghazi, the second-largest city.

Khaled Abu Bakr, a resident of Sabratha, an ancient Roman city to the west, said protesters besieged the local security headquarters, driving out police and setting it on fire. Abu Bakr said residents are in charge, have set up neighborhood committees to secure their city.

The Internet has been largely shut down, residents can no longer make international calls from land lines and journalists cannot work freely, but eyewitness reports trickling out of the country suggested that protesters were fighting back more forcefully against the Middle East's longest-serving leader.

"We are not afraid. We won't turn back," said a teacher who identified herself only as Omneya. She said she was marching at the end of the funeral procession on a highway beside the Mediterranean and heard gunfire from two kilometers (just over a mile) away.

"If we don't continue, this vile man would crush us with his tanks and bulldozers. If we don't, we won't ever be free," she said.

Benghazi is "in a state of war," said Mohamed Abdul-Rahman, a 42-year-old merchant who described how some protesters burned a police headquarters.

Protesters throwing firebombs and stones got on bulldozers and tried to storm a presidential compound from which troops had fired on the marchers, who included those carrying coffins of the dead from Saturday's unrest in the eastern city, a witness said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of fears of reprisal. The attempt was repulsed by armed forces in the compound, according to the witness and the official JANA news agency, which said a number of attackers and solders were killed.

Later, however, a Benghazi resident said he received a telephone text message that an army battalion that appeared to be sympathetic to the demonstrators and led by a local officer was arriving to take over control of the compound, and urging civilians to get out of the way.

Abdul-Rahman, the local merchant, said he saw the battalion chase the pro-Gadhafi militia out of the compound.

In another key blow to Gadhafi, the Warfla tribe — the largest in Libya, has announced it is joining the protests, said Switzerland-based Libyan exile Fathi al-Warfali. Although it had longstanding animosity toward the Libyan leader, it had been neutral for most of the past two decades.

Gadhafi has been trying to bring his country out of isolation, announcing in 2003 that he was abandoning his program for weapons of mass destruction, renouncing terrorism and compensating victims of the 1986 La Belle disco bombing in Berlin and the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland.

Those decisions opened the door for warmer relations with the West and the lifting of U.N. and U.S. sanctions. But Gadhafi continues to face allegations of human rights violations. Gadhafi has his own vast oil wealth and his response to protesters is less constrained by any alliances with the West than Egypt or Bahrain, both important U.S. allies.

A doctor at one Benghazi hospital where many of the casualties were taken said 60 people were killed Sunday. U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said 173 people died — mostly in Benghazi — in three days of unrest from Thursday through Saturday. A Switzerland-based Libyan activist said 11 people were killed in the city of Beyida on Wednesday. A precise count of the dead has been difficult because of Libya's tight restrictions on reporting.

The Benghazi doctor said his facility is out of supplies to treat the wounded. He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. He said his hospital treats most of the emergency cases in the city.

Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said the Obama administration was "very concerned" about reports that Libyan security forces had fired on peaceful protesters in the eastern city of Benghazi.

"We've condemned that violence," Rice told "Meet the Press" on NBC. "Our view is that in Libya, as throughout the region, peaceful protests need to be respected."

State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said in a statement Sunday that the U.S. has raised strong objections with Foreign Minister Musa Kusa and other Libyan officials about the use of lethal force against demonstrators.

In Cairo, Libya's Arab League representative Abdel-Monem al-Houni said he told the Foreign Ministry in Tripoli that he had "resigned from all his duties and joined the popular revolution."

"As a Libyan citizen, I absolutely cannot be quiet about these crimes," he said, adding that he had renounced all links to the regime because of "my complete devotion to my people."

Al-Houni was part of the group that carried out the coup in 1969 that brought Gadhafi to power. He later fell out with him, but they reconciled in 2000. Gadhafi then named him to the Arab League post.

The Benghazi violence followed the same pattern as the Saturday crackdown, when witnesses said forces loyal to Gadhafi attacked mourners at a funeral for anti-government protesters. They were burying 35 marchers who were slain Friday by government forces.

Sunday's defiant mourners chanted: "The people demand the removal of the regime," which became a mantra for protesters in Egypt and Tunisia.

Hatred of Gadhafi's rule has grown in Benghazi in the past two decades. Anger has focused on the shooting deaths of about 1,200 inmates — most of them political prisoners — during prison riots in 1996.

Libya has the largest proven oil reserves in Africa with 44 billion barrels as of January 2010, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, but it's still a relatively small player compared with other OPEC members.

In January, OPEC said Libya produced 1.57 million barrels of oil per day. That puts it behind Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Venezuela, Nigeria and Angola.

One major U.S. company that could be affected by unrest in Libya is Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum Corp. Occidental says it was the first to resume operations in the country after the U.S. began to lift sanctions in 2004. Last year, Occidental produced 13,000 barrels of oil, gas and liquids per day in Libya.

In other sites of recent unrest, Yemen's embattled president offered Sunday to oversee a dialogue between the ruling party and the opposition to defuse the standoff with protesters demanding his ouster.

The offer by the U.S.-backed Ali Abdullah Saleh — which opposition groups swiftly rejected — came as protests calling for his ouster continued in at least four cities around the country for the 11th straight day. A 17-year-old demonstrator was killed Sunday in the port of Aden when the army opened fire to disperse a march there, bringing the death toll to nine since the protests began.

___

Associated Press writers Salah Nasrawi in Cairo, Energy Writer Chris Kahn in New York, Douglas Birch in Washington and Slobodan Lekic in Brussels, Belgium, contributed to this report.

QuoteBy JOE MORGAN, Associated Press Joe Morgan, Associated Press – 29 mins ago
CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand – A powerful earthquake struck one of New Zealand's biggest cities Tuesday at the height of a busy workday, toppling tall buildings and churches, crushing buses and killing at least 65 people in one of the country's worst natural disasters.

It was the second major quake to hit Christchurch, a city of 350,000, in five months, though Tuesday's 6.3-magnitude temblor caused far more destruction than a more powerful September quake that struck before dawn on a weekend. An unknown number of people, including a dozen visiting Japanese students, were feared trapped in the rubble.

"It is a just a scene of utter devastation," Prime Minister John Key said after rushing to the city within hours of the quake. He said the death toll was 65, and may rise. "This may be New Zealand's darkest day," he told TV One News.

The spire of the city's well-known stone cathedral toppled into a central square, while video footage showed multistory buildings collapsed in on themselves, and others with walls that had fallen into streets strewn with bricks and shattered concrete.

Sidewalks and roads were cracked and split, while thousands of dazed, screaming and crying residents wandered through the streets as sirens blared. Groups of people helped victims clutching bleedings wounds, and others were carried to private vehicles in makeshift stretchers fashioned from rugs or bits of debris.

Nathanael Boehm, a web designer, said he was standing near a tram track when the quake struck, sending the eaves of buildings cascading onto the street below.

"It was horrific. People were covered in rubble, covered in several tons of concrete," Boehm said, adding that he believed some of them had been crushed to death.

Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker declared a state of emergency and ordered people to evacuate the city center.

Troops were deployed to help people get out and to throw up a security cordon around the stricken area, said Deputy Prime Minister Bill English.

"The government is willing to throw everything it can in the rescue effort," he said. "Time is going to be of essence."

The airport was closed, and Christchurch Hospital was briefly evacuated before it was deemed safe and patients were returned. Power and telephone lines were knocked out, and pipes burst, flooding the streets with water. Some cars parked on the street were buried under rubble.

Some people were stuck in office towers and firefighters climbed extension ladders to pluck people trapped on roofs to safety. A crane lifted a team of rescuers on a platform to one group of survivors in a high-rise. Plumes of gray smoke drifted into the air at several points around the city from fires burning in the rubble.

Key held an emergency Cabinet meeting then rushed to the stricken city to observe the scene.

He said eight or nine buildings had collapsed, and that officials were working as fast as they can to free an unknown number of people who were trapped.

Some of those stuck were thought to be visiting Japanese students who called their parents back home to say they were in a collapsed building, a Japanese official said. Nine students and two teachers from the Toyama College of Foreign Languages had been rescued, but another 12 students were unaccounted for and could still be trapped, said the official from Toyama Prefecture, who declined to provide his name because he was not authorized to give public statements.

New Zealand police said in a statement that reports of fatalities included that two buses had been crushed by falling buildings.

Gary Moore said he and 19 other colleagues were trapped in their twelfth floor office after the stairwell collapsed in the quake. He did not know if people on other floors were trapped.

"We watched the cathedral collapse out our window while we were holding onto the walls," Moore said. "Every aftershock sends us rushing under the desks. It's very unnerving but we can clearly see there are other priorities out the window. There has been a lot of damage and I guess people are attending to that before they come and get us."

The multistory Pyne Gould Guinness Building, housing more than 200 workers, collapsed and an unknown number of people are trapped inside. Television pictures showed rescuers, many of them office workers, dragging severely injured people from the rubble. Many had blood streaming down their faces. Screams could be heard from those still trapped.

Parker, the mayor, said he was on the top floor of the city council building when the quake hit just before 1 p.m. local time, throwing him across the room.

"I got down onto the street and there were scenes of great confusion, a lot of very upset people," he said. "I know of people in our building who are injured and I've had some reports of serious injuries throughout the city."

The U.S. Geological Survey said the temblor was centered 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the city at a depth of 2.5 miles (4 kilometers). Two large aftershocks — one magnitude 5.6 and another 5.5 — hit the city within two hours, and officials warned people to stay away from damaged buildings because of the danger of further collapses.

"When the shaking had stopped I looked out of the window, which gives a great view onto Christchurch, and there was just dust," said city councilman Barry Corbett, who was on one of the top floors of the city council building when the quake struck. "It was evident straight away that a lot of buildings had gone."

A search and rescue team was being flown in from Australia to help in the recovery, and Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard said she had offered Key any other support he requested.

The USGS said the latest quake was part of the "aftershock sequence" following the 7.1 magnitude earthquake on Sept. 4 last year. That quake wrecked hundreds of buildings, inflicted an estimated 4 billion New Zealand dollars ($3 billion) in damage, but caused no deaths.

A strong aftershock in December caused further damage to buildings. The city, considered a tourist center, was still rebuilding from those quakes when Tuesday's temblor hit.

The USGS said the latest quake hit "significantly closer to the main population center of Christchurch" than the September quake, which was centered 25 miles (40 kilometers) west of city.

"The critical issue with this earthquake was that the epicenter was at shallow depth under Christchurch, so many people were within 10 to 20 kilometers (6 to 12 miles) of the fault rupture," said Gary Gibson, a seismologist at Australia's Melbourne University.

"Its effect depends on how close it is, and ground shaking will be severe within 10 to 20 kilometers of the rupture," he said.

___

Associated Press writers Sean Yoong in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Jay Alabaster in Tokyo contributed to this report.

QuoteBy SARAH EL DEEB and MAGGIE MICHAEL, Associated Press Sarah El Deeb And Maggie Michael, Associated Press – 28 mins ago
CAIRO – Deep rifts opened in Moammar Gadhafi's regime, with Libyan government officials at home and abroad resigning, air force pilots defecting and a bloody crackdown on protest in the capital of Tripoli, where cars and buildings were burned. Gadhafi went on state TV early Tuesday to attempt to show he was still in charge.

World leaders expressed outrage Monday at the "vicious forms of repression" used against the demonstrators.

The longest serving Arab leader appeared briefly on TV to dispel rumors that he had fled. Sitting in a car in front of what appeared to be his residence and holding an umbrella out of the passenger side door, he told an interviewer that he had wanted to go to the capital's Green Square to talk to his supporters, but the rain stopped him.

"I am here to show that I am in Tripoli and not in Venezuela. Don't believe those misleading dog stations," Gadhafi said, referring to the media reports that he had left the country. The video clip and comments lasted less than a minute — unusual for the mercurial leader, who is known for rambling speeches that often last hours.

Pro-Gadhafi militia drove through Tripoli with loudspeakers and told people not to leave their homes, witnesses said, as security forces sought to keep the unrest that swept eastern parts of the country — leaving the second-largest city of Benghazi in protesters' control — from overwhelming the capital of 2 million people.

State TV said the military had "stormed the hideouts of saboteurs" and urged the public to back security forces. Protesters called for a demonstration in Tripoli's central Green Square and in front of Gadhafi's residence, but witnesses in various neighborhoods described a scene of intimidation: helicopters hovering above the main seaside boulevard and pro-Gadhafi gunmen firing from moving cars and even shooting at the facades of homes to terrify the population.

Youths trying to gather in the streets scattered and ran for cover amid gunfire, according to several witnesses, who like many reached in Tripoli by The Associated Press spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. They said people wept over bodies of the dead left in the street.

Warplanes swooped low over Tripoli in the evening and snipers took up position on roofs, apparently to stop people outside the capital from joining protests, according to Mohammed Abdul-Malek, a London-based opposition activist in touch with residents.

Gadhafi appeared to have lost the support of at least one major tribe, several military units and his own diplomats, including Libya's ambassador in Washington, Ali Adjali. Deputy U.N. Ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi accused the longest-serving Arab leader of committing genocide against his own people in the current crisis.

The eruption of turmoil in the capital after seven days of protests and bloody clashes in Libya's eastern cities sharply escalated the challenge to Gadhafi. His security forces have unleashed the bloodiest crackdown of any Arab country against the wave of protests sweeping the region, which toppled leaders of Egypt and Tunisia. At least 233 people have been killed so far, according to New York-based Human Rights Watch. The difficulty in getting information from Libya made obtaining a precise death toll impossible.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters in Beverly Hills, California, described the crackdown as "a serious violation of international humanitarian law." The U.N. spokesperson's office said late Monday that the Security Council had scheduled consultations on the situation in Libya for Tuesday morning.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called on Gadhafi to "stop this unacceptable bloodshed" and said the world was watching the events "with alarm," while British Prime Minister David Cameron, visiting Egypt, called the crackdown "appalling."

"The regime is using the most vicious forms of repression against people who want to see that country — which is one of the most closed and one of the most autocratic — make progress," Cameron said.

Communications to Tripoli appeared to have been cut, and residents could not be reached by phone from outside the country. State TV showed video of hundreds of Gadhafi supporters rallying in Green Square, waving palm fronds and pictures of him.

State TV quoted Gadhafi's son, Seif al-Islam, as saying the military conducted airstrikes on remote areas, away from residential neighborhoods, on munitions warehouses, denying reports that warplanes attacked Tripoli and Benghazi.

Jordanians who fled Libya gave horrific accounts of a "bloodbath" in Tripoli, saying they saw people shot, scores of burned cars and shops, and what appeared to be armed mercenaries who looked as if they were from other African countries.

Many billboards and posters of Gadhafi were smashed or burned along a road to downtown Tripoli, "emboldening" protesters, said a man who lives on the western outskirts of the capital.

The first major protests to hit an OPEC country — and major supplier to Europe — sent oil prices jumping, and the industry has begun eyeing reserves touched only after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the first Gulf War in 1991.

Tripoli was largely shut down Monday, with schools, government offices and most stores closed, except for a few bakeries, said residents, who hunkered down in their homes. Armed members of pro-government organizations called "Revolutionary Committees" hunted for protesters in Tripoli's old city, said one protester named Fathi.

Members of the militia occupied the city center and no one was able to walk in the street, said one resident who lived near Green Square and described a "very, very violent" situation.

"We know that the regime is reaching its end and Libyans are not retreating," the resident said. "People have a strange determination after all that happened."

The heaviest fighting so far has been in the east. Security forces in Benghazi opened fire Sunday on protesters storming police stations and government buildings. But in several instances, units of the military sided with protesters.

By Monday, protesters had claimed control of the city, overrunning its main security headquarters, called the Katiba.

Celebrating protesters raised the flag of Libya's old monarchy, toppled in 1969 in a Gadhafi-led military coup, over Benghazi's main courthouse and on tanks around the city.

"Gadhafi needs one more push and he is gone," said lawyer Amal Roqaqie.

Gadhafi's son went on state TV early Monday with a sometimes confused speech of nearly 40 minutes, vowing to fight and warning that if protests continue, a civil war will erupt in which Libya's oil wealth "will be burned."

"Moammar Gadhafi, our leader, is leading the battle in Tripoli, and we are with him," he said. "The armed forces are with him. Tens of thousands are heading here to be with him. We will fight until the last man, the last woman, the last bullet," Seif al-Islam Gadhafi said.

He also promised "historic" reforms if protests stop. State TV said Monday he had formed a commission to investigate deaths during the unrest. Protesters ignored the vague gestures. Even as he spoke, the first clashes between demonstrators and security forces in the heart of Tripoli were still raging, lasting until dawn.

Fire raged Monday at the People's Hall, the main building for government gatherings where the country's equivalent of a parliament holds sessions several times a year, the pro-government news website Qureyna said.

It also reported the first major sign of discontent in Gadhafi's government, saying Justice Minister Mustafa Abdel-Jalil resigned to protest the "excessive use of force" against unarmed demonstrators.

There were reports of ambassadors abroad defecting. Libya's former ambassador to the Arab League in Cairo, Abdel-Moneim al-Houni, who resigned his post Sunday to side with protesters, demanded Gadhafi and his commanders and aides be put on trial for "the mass killings in Libya."

"Gadhafi's regime is now in the trash of history because he betrayed his nation and his people," al-Houni said in a statement.

Libya's ambassador to India, Ali al-Essawi, resigned because he could not tolerate the authorities "killing peaceful people." A Libyan diplomat in China, Hussein el-Sadek el-Mesrati, told Al-Jazeera, "I resigned from representing the government of Mussolini and Hitler."

And the Libyan Embassy in Malaysia distanced itself from the regime, issuing a statement strongly condemning "the barbaric, criminal massacre" of civilians. However, none of the embassy's diplomats quit.

Two Mirage warplanes from the Libyan air force fled a Tripoli air base and landed on the nearby island of Malta, and their pilots — two colonels — asked for political asylum, Maltese military officials said.

A protest march Sunday night sparked scenes of mayhem in the heavily secured capital. Protesters had streamed into Green Square, all but taking over the plaza and surrounding streets in the area between Tripoli's Ottoman-era old city and its Italian-style downtown.

That was when the backlash began, with snipers firing from rooftops and militiamen attacking the crowds, shooting and chasing people down side streets, according to witnesses and protesters.

Gadhafi supporters in pickup trucks and cars raced through the square, shooting automatic weapons. "They were driving like madmen searching for someone to kill. ... It was total chaos, shooting and shouting," said a 28-year-old protester.

The witnesses reported seeing casualties, but the number could not be confirmed. The witness named Fathi said he saw at least two he believed were dead and many more wounded. After midnight, protesters took over the main Tripoli offices of state-run satellite stations Al-Jamahiriya-1 and Al-Shebabiya, a witness said.

"Gunfire was echoing across the capital all night last night," said Adel Suleiman, a Jordanian adviser to the Libyan Central Bank governor.

"I saw scores of burned cars and shops in the capital," said Suleiman, who was among about 260 Jordanians evacuated from Tripoli.

Mahmoud Shawkat, a 28-year-old computer engineer, said his Libyan neighbor was shot in the head during a protest in Green Square. "I'm not sure if he died," Shawkat said. "I had to flee to the airport."

A Jordanian engineer who identified himself as Abu Saleh, 30, said armed militias were in Green Square on Monday morning, and many of them appeared to be foreigners from other parts of Africa "who were shooting randomly at people and in the air. Some of them were carrying swords."

He said he also saw bloodstains on the road on my way to the airport and "pictures of Gadhafi were also torched."

Fragmentation is a real danger in Libya, a country of deep tribal divisions and a historic rivalry between Tripoli and Benghazi. The system of rule created by Gadhafi — the "Jamahiriya," or "rule by masses" — is highly decentralized, run by "popular committees" in a complicated hierarchy that effectively means there is no real center of decision-making except Gadhafi, his sons and their top aides.

An expert on Libya said she believed the regime was collapsing.

"Unlike the fall of the regime in Tunisia and Egypt, this is going to be a collapse into a civil war," said Lisa Anderson, president of the American University in Cairo, and a Libya expert.

Seif has often been put forward as the regime's face of reform and is often cited as a likely successor. His younger brother, Mutassim, is the national security adviser, with a strong role in the military and security forces. Another brother, Khamis, heads the army's 32nd Brigade, which according to U.S. diplomats is the best-trained and best-equipped force in the military.

In Benghazi, cars honked their horns in celebration and protesters in the streets chanted "Long live Libya" on Monday, a day after bloody clashes that killed at least 60 people.

Benghazi's airport was closed, according to an airport official in Cairo. A Turkish Airlines flight trying to land in Benghazi to evacuate Turkish citizens was turned away Monday, told by ground control to circle over the airport, then to return to Istanbul.

There were fears of chaos as young men — including regime supporters — seized weapons from the Katiba and other captured security buildings. "The youths now have arms and that's worrying," said Iman, a doctor at the main hospital. "We are appealing to the wise men of every neighborhood to rein in the youths."

Youth volunteers directed traffic and guarded homes and public facilities, said Najla, a lawyer and university lecturer in Benghazi. She and other residents said police had disappeared from the streets.

After seizing the Katiba, protesters found the bodies of 13 uniformed security officers inside who had been handcuffed and shot in the head, then set on fire, said a doctor named Hassan, who asked not to be identified further for fear of reprisals. He said protesters believed the 13 had been executed by fellow security forces for refusing to attack protesters.

Tunisia's official news agency said at least 2,300 Tunisians fled neighboring Libya on Sunday and Monday out of concerns over the unrest, crossing at the border post of Ras Jedir. Other reports suggest the figure was much higher.

___

AP correspondents Hamza Hendawi in Cairo, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, Jim Kuhnhenn in Washington and Sameer N. Yacoub in Amman, Jordan, contributed to this report.

QuoteBy JASON STRAZIUSO and MALKHADIR M. MUHUMED, Associated Press Jason Straziuso And Malkhadir M. Muhumed, Associated Press – Tue Feb 22, 9:27 pm ET
NAIROBI, Kenya – A U.S. Navy destroyer was shadowing a hijacked yacht with four Americans aboard when a pirate fired a rocket-propelled grenade, followed by bursts of gunfire. U.S. special forces scrambled onto the occupied vessel only to find the four Americans fatally wounded.

The yachting enthusiasts from California and Washington killed off the coast of East Africa on Tuesday were the first Americans slain by Somali pirates since a wave of attacks began six years ago. One of the American couples had been sailing around the world since 2004 handing out Bibles.

The deaths of the four travelers, all in their late 50s or 60s, appeared to underscore an increasingly brutal and aggressive shift by pirates in their treatment of hostages.

Killing hostages "has now become part of our rules," said a pirate who identified himself as Muse Abdi. He referred as a turning point to last week's sentencing of a pirate to 33 years in prison for the 2009 attack on the U.S. cargo vessel the Maersk Alabama — just two days before the hijacking.

"From now on, anyone who tries to rescue the hostages in our hands will only collect dead bodies," Abdi said. "It will never, ever happen that hostages are rescued and we are hauled to prison."

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton strongly condemned the killing of the Americans as "deplorable," saying in a statement the slayings underscored the need for international cooperation in fighting the scourge of piracy in waters off the Horn of Africa.

Jean and Scott Adam of Marina del Rey, near Los Angeles, had been sailing their 58-foot yacht Quest around the world since December 2004, and had been joined in recent months by Phyllis Macay and Bob Riggle of Seattle.

Four U.S. warships had been shadowing the Quest since shortly after it was seized south of Oman on Friday, and U.S. officials were in radio contact with the captors as the pirates tried to sail it to the Somali shore. The power behind such abductions for ransom — a multimillion-dollar business — lies not with the pirates at sea but their financial backers on land. And once the kidnappers reach shore with their hostages, options for rescue are limited.

A channel of negotiations had been opened, and on Monday two pirates boarded the USS Sterett, a guided-missile destroyer some 600 yards (meters) from the seized yacht, and they stayed overnight, said Vice Adm. Mark Fox, commander of the U.S. 5th Fleet in Bahrain.

By the next morning, though, things quickly turned deadly, with all signs pointing to a dispute among the pirates

At 8 a.m. local time, Fox said, a rocket-propelled grenade was fired from the Quest at the Sterett and missed, followed almost immediately by the sound of small arms fire coming from the yacht.

Several pirates then appeared on the yacht deck with their hands up. U.S. naval forces rushed aboard the vessel and found all four Americans had been shot; two pirates also lay dead from gun shot wounds.

The special forces troops tried to provide lifesaving care to the Americans, but they died, Fox said.

Fifteen pirates were taken into custody — 13 aboard the yacht as well as the two who had been negotiating aboard the Sterett, Fox said. In addition, two pirates were killed in the operation, including one who was knifed by a member of the U.S. force, Fox said.

President Barack Obama, who was notified about killing of the Americans at 4:42 a.m. Washington time, had authorized the military on Saturday to use force in case of an imminent threat to the hostages, said White House spokesman Jay Carney.

Pirates have increased attacks off the coast of East Africa despite an international flotilla of warships dedicated to protecting vessels and stopping the pirate assaults.

But the conventional wisdom in the shipping industry had been that Somali pirates are businessmen looking for a multimillion-dollar ransom payday, not insurgents looking to terrorize people.

"We have heard threats against the lives of Americans before but it strikes me as being very, very unusual why they would kill hostages outright," said Graeme Gibbon-Brooks, the head of Dryad Maritime Intelligence, adding that the pirates must realize that killing Americans would invite a military response.

Friends, family and fellow sailors said that despite an adventurous spirit, the four Americans were meticulous planners who knew the dangers they faced.

Jean and Scott Adams, both in their 60s, had been sailing around the world since December 2004 with a yacht full of Bibles to distribute to remote regions. They were joined by Riggle, a veterinarian who volunteered at the Seattle Animal Shelter, and 59-year-old Macay, a sailing enthusiast.

"Great sailors, good people. They were doing what they wanted to do, but that's small comfort in the face of this," said Joe Grande of the Seattle Singles Yacht Club, where Riggle and Macay were members.

Around Christmas, the Quest joined the Blue Water Rally, an around-the-world race. But race organizers said the Americans recently left the race despite what Fox said were warnings about the dangers of sailing in the Horn of Africa region.

The Blue Water Rally said in a statement Tuesday that though yachtsmen are discouraged from sailing in the region, the only other choices are to sail around the stormy and dangerous tip of South Africa or sail back across the Pacific.

The Adams had traveled from Panama in 2005 to Fiji in 2007 and Cambodia last year. They most recently sailed from Thailand to Sri Lanka and India, and were on their way to Oman when captured.

Pirates have become increasingly bold in their attacks despite a flotilla of international warships patrolling the waters off East Africa. The last time pirates kidnapped a U.S. citizen — during the 2009 hijacking of the Maersk Alabama — Navy sharpshooters killed two pirates and rescued the cargo ship's captain.

But Tuesday's bloody events are apt to leave U.S. military planners in a quandary: Do they go after the pirates harder? Do they attack their bases on Somalia's ungoverned shores?

One maritime expert said it's too early to tell.

"This is a first," said Gibbon-Brooks, the analyst. "We don't know if the situation is related to a straight execution. We don't know if it was related to an attempt to break free. We don't know if it was related to an accident."

He said the killings were "extremely unwise" by the Somalis, and that the deaths threaten what has been a lucrative if illicit business.

After last week's sentencing by a New York court of a Somali pirate in the Maersk Alabama attack, some pirates warned that Americans would be targeted.

"It's a black day for us and also the Americans, but they lost bigger than us," a pirate who gave his name as Bile Hussein told the AP. "If they still want a solution and safety for their citizens in the oceans, let them release our men they arrested."

Just minutes before the news of the American deaths, a pirate who gave his name as Abdullahi Mohamed told AP by phone that if the yacht were attacked, "the hostages will be the first to go."

"Some pirates have even suggested rigging the yacht with land mines and explosives so as the whole yacht explodes with the first gunshot," said Mohamed, who claimed to be a friend of the pirates holding the four Americans.

The military said U.S. forces have been monitoring the Quest for about three days, since shortly after the Friday attack. Four Navy warships were involved, including the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise.

Mohamed, the pirate in Somalia, told AP that pirate leaders had been expecting the yacht to make landfall soon.

Five cars full of pirates were headed toward the pirate dens of Eyl and Gara'ad in anticipation of the Quest reaching land Monday, he said.

Had the Americans been brought ashore, they may have faced a long hostage ordeal like the 388 days the British sailing couple Paul and Rachel Chandler spent in the hands of pirates. The two were released in November.

"This incident is a clear message ... that it's time the world community quickly steps up to stop these pirate criminal activities. They should be treated mercilessly," said Gen. Yusuf Ahmed Khayr, the security minister in the northern Somalia region of Puntland, a pirate haven.

___

Associated Press writers Pauline Jelinek in Washington; Abdi Guled in Mogadishu, Somalia; and George Tibbits and Doug Esser in Seattle, contributed to this report.

QuoteA teenage schoolgirl has been arrested on suspicion of poisoning two teachers.

The teachers, from a school in Torbay, Devon, suffered stomach upsets but were not thought to have been seriously affected.

A kettle from the school's staff room has been sent for forensic examination.

Devon and Cornwall Police said a 17-year-old girl from Cullompton was arrested last week and has since been released on bail.

Det Con Steve Fleetwood said: "The inquiry centres on claims that an allegedly noxious substance may have been put in a kettle which caused two members of staff to fall ill with stomach problems.

"We later arrested a 17-year-old girl on suspicion of poisoning.

"She was questioned at Torquay on Thursday and then released on police bail pending further inquiries."

Quote from: Meho Krljic on 11-03-2011, 14:46:51
Užasna priča, čovek seksualno zlostavljao decu, koristeći hipnozu & nasilje, dobio 16 godina zatvora. (http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20110311/tuk-paedophile-martin-smith-jailed-for-1-45dbed5.html) Ono što meni dokonom pada u oči je da vest počinje rečju paedophile iako bi meni bilo prirodnije da piše "abuser" ili "rapist". Da li je vreme da se detabuizira pedofilija kao fenomen i da se pažnja okrene na ono što jeste problematično u vezi sa njim: zloupotreba, zlostavljanje, silovanje itd.?

Quote from: Meho Krljic on 11-03-2011, 19:27:38
Ne, ja sam više u fazonu da razgraničimo pojam pedofila, koji može da bude i hipotetički (pedofil sam u smislu da me uzbuđuju deca ali nikada ni jedno nisam dotakao niti nameravam) ...

Quote from: Meho Krljic on 12-03-2011, 11:28:31
Pa ti si upravo rekao sve što i ja: podcrtati delikt, ne karakter/ inklinaciju itd.

Quote from: Meho Krljic on 11-03-2011, 19:27:38
Ne, ja sam više u fazonu da razgraničimo pojam pedofila, koji može da bude i hipotetički (pedofil sam u smislu da me uzbuđuju deca ali nikada ni jedno nisam dotakao niti nameravam) i nekoga ko zlostavlja decu (pa makar to zlostavljanje bilo i maženje itd. ili samo konsenzualan seks sa osobom mlađom od doba potrebnog za davanje pristanka). To jest, zgodnije je da se akcenat tu stavlja na prekršaj nego na seksualnu inklinaciju koja se ionako ne može promeniti.

Ali to ja tako, malo da talasam...

Quote from: Jevtropijevićka on 13-03-2011, 11:26:56
Pa dobro, ja jesam za to da se kažnjava delikt a ne inklinacija, kao i vas dvojica, ovo je bilo najviše u tom smislu da ne vidim kako da nekog nazovem pedofilom ako nije delovao na tom polju. Određivanje inklinacije prema eventualnim izjavama (a ko se još osim Nabokova deklarisao kao "teorijski naklonjen mlađim maloletnicima" a da nije otišao u zatvor?) nagađanjima i fazama punog meseca ne važi. Dakle: za mene je pedofil onaj ko spava sa decom, i njega treba u zatvor. Ako počnemo da širimo definiciju na sklonosti itd, onda možemo i da poverujemo svima onima koji tvrde da su biseksualci, a samo da bi ispali zanimljiviji suprotnom polu.
E da, ova priča o nerealizovanim sklonostima se neposredno nadovezuje na raspravu o konzumaciji dečje pornografije, ako se takva ikad ovde vodila... pa da stanem sa ovim postom dok nisam navukla snage reda na ovaj forum. :evil:

Quote from: Meho Krljic on 11-03-2011, 14:46:51
Užasna priča, čovek seksualno zlostavljao decu, koristeći hipnozu & nasilje, dobio 16 godina zatvora. (http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20110311/tuk-paedophile-martin-smith-jailed-for-1-45dbed5.html) Ono što meni dokonom pada u oči je da vest počinje rečju paedophile iako bi meni bilo prirodnije da piše "abuser" ili "rapist". Da li je vreme da se detabuizira pedofilija kao fenomen i da se pažnja okrene na ono što jeste problematično u vezi sa njim: zloupotreba, zlostavljanje, silovanje itd.?

Quote from: lilit_depp on 13-03-2011, 12:39:03
Heh, Skalope, pošto i ja isključivo salonski teoretišem, moram napomenuti da si i sam pristalica: podcrtati delikt, ne karakter/ inklinaciju teorije.  :lol:
A još bih da dodam da meni u potencijalno realnoj situaciji zakon i ne bi bio potreban, klanje zubima bi odradilo posao. Ovo bi mogla biti priča s naslovom: Kako imanje dece upropasti nekad cool-karijatidno-palamudnu ličnost.  :lol:

Quote from: scallop on 13-03-2011, 14:51:31
Vidite, dok salonci saloniraju, previđaju opake stvari koje se dešavaju u Japanu. Izgleda da su tamo potcenili mother Nature, sa svojim samopouzdanjem u bezbedne tehnologije. Big Mama mrdne guzicom za jedan santimetar i sva civilizacija se uzdrma. Ne vidim ni da neko primećuje opsežan pad tamošnje mobilne telefonije. Kad ja razmatram moguću katastrofu najpre posmatram pad komunikacije. Niko da izvuče paralelu šta se događa sa državama kad dostignu dimenzije "deset dana jahanja". Jebem ja tu civilizacijsku politiku kad se godinama trtlja o Černobilju, zaboravi na :mrgreen: krizu sa NE "Pet milja" (dodajte nekoliko, manje-više), a sad, ovu japansku kako da pripišemo Akihitu?

Quote from: lilit_depp on 13-03-2011, 17:29:58... ja ne bih rekla da su Japanci sve ovo dočekali nespremno, tj. ne mislim da bi iko na planeti bio spremniji od njih. Imajući u vidu obim katastrofe, kao i to da u Japanu živi 127 miliona ljudi (cirka 333 po kvadratnom metru), 2000 mrtvih mi dođe kao državni uspeh.

QuoteBy ERIC TALMADGE and SHINO YUASA, Associated Press Eric Talmadge And Shino Yuasa, Associated Press – 43 mins ago
SOMA, Japan – The second hydrogen explosion in three days rocked Japan's stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant Monday, sending a massive column of smoke into the air and wounding 11 workers. Hours later, the U.S. said it had shifted its offshore forces away from the plant after detecting low-level radioactive contamination.

The aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan was about 100 miles (160 kilometers) offshore when it detected the radiation, which U.S. officials said was about the same as one month's normal exposure to natural background radiation.

It was not clear if the radiation had leaked during the Monday explosion. That blast was felt 25 miles (40 kilometers) away, but the plant's operator said radiation levels at the reactor were still within legal limits.

The explosion at the plant's Unit 3, which authorities have been frantically trying to cool after a system failure in the wake of Friday's massive earthquake and tsunami, triggered an order for hundreds of people to stay indoors, said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano. The two disasters left at least 10,000 people dead.

Operators knew an explosion was a possibility as they struggled to reduce pressure inside the reactor containment vessel, but apparently felt they had no choice if they wanted to avoid a complete meltdown. In the end, the hydrogen in the released steam mixed with oxygen in the atmosphere and set off the blast.

Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the plant, said radiation levels at Unit 3 were well under the levels where a nuclear operator must file a report to the government.

On Saturday, a similar explosion took place at the plant's Unit 1, injuring four workers and causing mass evacuations.

Shortly after the Monday explosion, Tokyo Electric warned it had lost the ability to cool Unit 2. Takako Kitajima, a company official, said plant workers were preparing to inject seawater into the unit to cool the reactor, a move that could lead to an explosion there as well.

QuoteBy JAY ALABASTER and TODD PITMAN, Associated Press Jay Alabaster And Todd Pitman, Associated Press – 14 mins ago
TAKAJO, Japan – Rescue workers used chain saws and hand picks Monday to dig out bodies in Japan's devastated coastal towns, as Asia's richest nation faced a mounting humanitarian, nuclear and economic crisis in the aftermath of a massive earthquake and tsunami that likely killed thousands.

Millions of people spent a third night without water, food or heating in near-freezing temperatures along the devastated northeastern coast. Meanwhile, a third reactor at a nuclear power plant lost its cooling capacity, raising fears of a meltdown, while the stock market plunged over the likelihood of huge losses by Japanese industries including big names such as Toyota and Honda.

A Japanese police official said 1,000 washed up bodies were found scattered Monday across the coastline of Miyagi prefecture. The official declined to be named, citing department policy.

The discovery raised the official death toll to about 2,800 but the Miyagi police chief has said that more than 10,000 people are estimated to have died in his province alone, which has a population of 2.3 million.

Friday's double-headed tragedy has caused unimaginable deprivation for people of this industrialized country that has not seen such hardships since World War II. In many areas there is no running water, no power and four- to five-hour waits for gasoline. People are suppressing hunger with instant noodles or rice balls while dealing with the loss of loved ones and homes.

"People are surviving on little food and water. Things are simply not coming," said Hajime Sato, a government official in Iwate prefecture, one of the three hardest hit.

He said authorities were receiving just 10 percent of the food and other supplies they need. Even body bags and coffins are running so short the government may turn to foreign funeral homes for help, he said.

"We have requested funeral homes across the nation to send us many body bags and coffins. But we simply don't have enough," he told The Associated Press. "We just did not expect such a thing to happen. It's just overwhelming."

The pulverized coast has been hit by more than 150 aftershocks since Friday, the latest one a 6.2 magnitude quake that was followed by a new tsunami scare Monday. Abandoning their search operations, soldiers told residents of the devastated shoreline in Soma, the worst hit town in Fukushima prefecture, to run to higher ground.

Sirens wailed and soldiers barked out orders: "Find high ground! Get out of here!" Several uniformed soldiers were seen leading an old woman up a muddy hillside. The warning turned out to be a false alarm.

Search parties arrived in Soma for the first time since Friday to dig out bodies. Ambulances stood by and body bags were laid out in an area cleared of debris, as firefighters used hand picks and chain saws to clear an indescribable jumble of broken timber, plastic sheets, roofs, sludge, twisted cars, tangled powerlines and household goods.

Helicopters buzzed overhead, surveying the destruction that spanned the horizon. Ships were flipped over near roads, a half mile (a kilometer) inland. Officials said one-third of the city of 38,000 people was flooded and thousands were missing.

According to officials, more than 2,800 people have been confirmed dead — including the 1,000 bodies found Monday — and more than 1,400 were missing. Another 1,900 were injured.

"I'm giving up hope," said Hajime Watanabe, 38, a construction industry worker, who was the first in line at a closed gas station in Sendai, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) north of Soma. Just then, an emergency worker came over and told him that if the station opens at all, it would pump gasoline only to emergency teams and essential government workers.

"I never imagined we would be in such a situation" Watanabe said. "I had a good life before. Now we have nothing. No gas, no electricity, no water."

He said he was surviving with his family on 60 half-liter bottles of water his wife had stored in case of emergencies like this. He walked two hours to find a convenience store that was open and waited in line to buy dried ramen noodles.

The government has sent 100,000 troops to spearhead the aid effort. It has sent 120,000 blankets, 120,000 bottles of water and 29,000 gallons (110,000 liters) of gasoline plus food to the affected areas. However electricity would take days to restore.

At least 1.4 million households had gone without water since the quake struck and some 1.9 million households were without electricity. According to public broadcaster NHK, some 310,000 people are living in emergency shelters or with relatives. Another 24,000 people are stranded, it said.

One reason for the loss of power is the damage to at least three nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant. One by one, each reactor has lost the ability to cool down, the latest on Monday. Explosions have destroyed the containment buildings of the other two reactors.

Operators dumped seawater into the two reactors in a last-ditch attempt to cool their super-heated containers that faced possible meltdown. If that happens, they could release radioactive material in the air.

But Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the reactor's inner containment vessel holding the nuclear fuel rods was intact, allaying some fears of the risk to the environment. The containment vessel of the first reactor is also safe, according to officials.

Still, people within a 12-mile (20-kilometer) radius were ordered to stay inside homes following the blast. AP journalists felt Monday's explosion 25 miles (40 kilometers) away.

The U.S. 7th Fleet, which deployed ships and aircraft to Japan to provide relief, moved away from the coast after discovering low-level radioactive contamination from a plume of smoke and steam released during the blasts.

But the fleet said the dose of radiation was about the same as one month's normal exposure to natural background radiation in the environment.

More than 180,000 people have evacuated the area in recent days, and up to 160 may have been exposed to radiation after the first blast.

Also, Tokyo Electric Power held off on imposing rolling blackouts planned for Monday, but called for people to try to limit electricity use.

Edano said the utility was still prepared to go ahead with power rationing if necessary. The decision reflected an understanding of the profound inconveniences many would experience.

Many regional train lines were suspended or operating on a limited schedule to help reduce the power load.

The planned blackouts of about three hours each were meant to help make up for a severe shortfall after key nuclear plants were left inoperable due to the earthquake and tsunami.

Japan's central bank injected 15 trillion yen (US$184 billion) into money markets Monday to stem worries about the world's third-largest economy.

Stocks fell Monday on the first business day after the disasters. The benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average shed nearly 634 points, or 6.2 percent, to 9,620.49, extending losses from Friday. Escalating concerns over the fallout of the disaster triggered a plunge that hit all sectors. The broader Topix index lost 7.5 percent.

Japan's economy has been ailing for 20 years, barely managing to eke out weak growth between slowdowns. It is saddled by a massive public debt that, at 200 percent of gross domestic product, is the biggest among industrialized nations.

Preliminary estimates put repair costs from the earthquake and tsunami in the tens of billions of dollars — a huge blow for an already fragile economy that lost its place as the world's No. 2 to China last year.

___

Pitman reported from Sendai. Associated Press writers Kelly Olsen in Koriyama and Malcolm J. Foster, Mari Yamaguchi, Tomoko A. Hosaka and Shino Yuasa in Tokyo contributed to this report.

Quote from: Bata Životinja on 14-03-2011, 15:28:36
Naravno da je najčistija odluka da čitava Evropa uloži u solarne ploče koje bi pokrile Saharu.

Quote from: Mica Milovanovic on 14-03-2011, 18:55:36
Džone, nije baš da HE baš toliko zagađuju životnu sredinu. Ima tu određenih problema, ali ni izbliza situacija nije tako dramatična kao što se prikazuje u pojedinim medijima.

Quote from: Mica Milovanovic on 14-03-2011, 23:02:59
mac, džone, radmilo, ovo mi je najuža specijalnost.

QuoteBy ERIC TALMADGE and SHINO YUASA, Associated Press Eric Talmadge And Shino Yuasa, Associated Press – 2 mins ago
SOMA, Japan – Dangerous levels of radiation leaking from a crippled nuclear plant forced Japan to order 140,000 people to seal themselves indoors Tuesday after an explosion and a fire dramatically escalated the crisis spawned by a deadly tsunami.

In a nationally televised statement, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said radiation has spread from four reactors of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in Fukushima state, one of the hardest-hit in Friday's 9.0-magnitude earthquake and the ensuing tsunami that has killed more than 10,000 people, plunged millions into misery and pummeled the world's third-largest economy.

Though Kan and other officials urged calm, Tuesday's developments fueled a growing panic in Japan and around the world amid widespread uncertainty over what would happen next.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said Tuesday that Japanese officials told it that the reactor fire was in the storage pond — a pool where used nuclear fuel is kept cool — and that "radioactivity is being released directly into the atmosphere."

In the worst case scenario, the reactor's core would completely melt down, a disaster that could spew large amounts of radioactity into the atmosphere.

Officials just south of Fukushima reported up to 100 times the normal levels of radiation Tuesday morning, Kyodo News agency reported. While those figures are worrying if there is prolonged exposure, they are far from fatal.

Tokyo reported slightly elevated radiation levels, but officials said the increase was too small to threaten the 39 million people in and around the capital, about 170 miles (270 kilometers) away. Closer to the stricken nuclear complex, the streets in the coastal city of Soma were empty as the few residents who remained there heeded the government's warning to stay indoors.

Kan and other officials warned there is danger of more leaks and told people living within 19 miles (30 kilometers) of the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex to stay indoors to avoid exposure that could make people sick.

"Please do not go outside. Please stay indoors. Please close windows and make your homes airtight," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told residents in the danger zone.

"These are figures that potentially affect health. There is no mistake about that," he said.

Weather forecasts for Fukushima were for snow and wind from the northeast Tuesday evening, blowing southwest toward Tokyo, then shifting and blowing west out to sea. That's important because it shows which direction a possible nuclear cloud might blow.

The nuclear crisis is the worst Japan has faced since the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. It is also the first time that such a grave nuclear threat has been raised in the world since a nuclear power plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine exploded in 1986.

Some 70,000 people had already been evacuated from a 12-mile (20-kilometer) radius from the Dai-ichi complex. About 140,000 remain in the new warning zone.

Workers were desperately trying to stabilize three reactors at the power plant that exploded in the wake of Friday's quake and tsunami, after losing their ability to cool down and releasing some radiation. Since the quake, engineers have been injecting seawater into the reactors as a last-ditch coolant.

A fourth reactor that had been shut down before the quake caught fire Tuesday and more radiation was released, Edano said.

The fire was put out. Even though the fourth reactor was shut down, the fire there was believed to be the source of the elevated radiation.

"It is likely that the level of radiation increased sharply due to a fire at Unit 4," Edano said. "Now we are talking about levels that can damage human health. These are readings taken near the area where we believe the releases are happening. Far away, the levels should be lower."

He said another reactor whose containment building exploded Monday had not contributed greatly to the increased radiation. Edano said that reactor, and another, Unit 3, had stabilized but the status of Unit 2 was unclear.

Temperatures in two other reactors, units 5 and 6, were slightly elevated, Edano said.

"The power for cooling is not working well and the temperature is gradually rising, so it is necessary to control it," he said.

Officials said 50 workers, all of them wearing protective radiation gear, were still trying to pump water into the reactors to cool them. They say 800 other staff were evacuated. The fires and explosions at the reactors have injured 15 workers and military personnel and exposed up to 190 people to elevated radiation.

In Tokyo, slightly higher-than-normal radiation levels were detected Tuesday but officials insisted there are no health dangers.

"The amount is extremely small, and it does not raise health concerns. It will not affect us," Takayuki Fujiki, a Tokyo government official said.

Kyodo reported that radiation levels nine times higher than normal were briefly detected in Kanagawa prefecture near Tokyo and that the Tokyo metropolitan government said it had detected a small amount of radioactive materials in the air.

Edano said the radiation readings had fallen significantly by the evening.

Japanese government officials are being rightly cautious, said Donald Olander, professor emeritus of nuclear engineering at University of California at Berkeley. He believed even the heavily elevated levels of radiation around Dai-ichi are "not a health hazard." But without knowing specific dose levels, he said it was hard to make judgments.

"Right now it's worse than Three Mile Island," Olander said. But it's nowhere near the levels released during Chernobyl.

On Three Mile Island, the radiation leak was held inside the containment shell — thick concrete armor around the reactor. The Chernobyl reactor had no shell and was also operational when the disaster struck. The Japanese reactors automatically shut down when the quake hit and are encased in containment shells.

Olander said encasing the reactors in a concrete sarcophagus — the last-ditch effort done in Chernobyl — is far too premature. Operators need to wait until they cool more, or risk making the situation even worse.

The death toll from last week's earthquake and tsunami jumped Tuesday as police confirmed the number killed had topped 2,700, though that grim news was overshadowed by a deepening nuclear crisis. Officials have said previously that at least 10,000 people may have died in Miyagi province alone.

Millions of people spent a fourth night with little food, water or heating in near-freezing temperatures as they dealt with the loss of homes and loved ones. Asia's richest country hasn't seen such hardship since World War II.

With snow and freezing temperatures forecast for the next several days, shelters were gathering firewood to burn for heat, stacking it under tarps and tables.

Though Japanese officials have refused to speculate on the death toll, Indonesian geologist Hery Harjono, who dealt with the 2004 Asian tsunami, said it would be "a miracle really if it turns out to be less than 10,000" dead.

The 2004 tsunami killed 230,000 people — of which only 184,000 bodies were found.

The impact of the earthquake and tsunami dragged down stock markets. The benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average plunged for a second day Tuesday, nose-diving more than 10 percent to close at 8,605.15 while the broader Topix lost more than 8 percent.

To lessen the damage, Japan's central bank made two cash injections totaling 8 trillion yen ($98 billion) Tuesday into the money markets after pumping in $184 billion on Monday.

Initial estimates put repair costs in the tens of billions of dollars, costs that would likely add to a massive public debt that, at 200 percent of gross domestic product, is the biggest among industrialized nations.

Yuta Tadano, a 20-year-old pump technician at the Fukushima plant, said he was in the complex when quake hit.

"It was terrible. The desks were thrown around and the tables too. The walls started to crumble around us and there was dust everywhere. The roof began to collapse.

"We got outside and confirmed everyone was safe . Then we got out of there. We had no time to be tested for radioactive exposure. I still haven't been tested," Tadano told The Associated Press at an evacuation center.

"I worry a lot about fallout. If we could see it we could escape, but we can't," said Tadano, cradling his 4-month-old baby, Shoma.

The Dai-ichi plant is the most severely affected of three nuclear complexes that were declared emergencies after suffering damage in Friday's quake and tsunami, raising questions about the safety of such plants in coastal areas near fault lines and adding to global jitters over the industry.

___

Yuasa reported from Tokyo. Associated Press writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.

QuoteSrbija se solidariše sa Japanom
Za samo 12 sati više od 1500 ljudi pristupilo grupi za podršku japanskom narodu


Juče je na društvenom mreži Facebook osnovana stranica "Solidarnost sa Japanom" ( http://www.facebook.com/pages/Solidarnost-sa-Japanom/194971760535231 (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Solidarnost-sa-Japanom/194971760535231) ). Za manje od 12 sati više od 1500 ljudi pristupilo je grupi za podršku japanskom narodu, šaljući poruke solidarnosti.


Uz poruke da je Japan pomagao Srbiji (i drugim balkanskim državama) u mnogim prilikama u predhodnim godinama, učesnici akcije "Solidarnost sa Japanom" pozivaju sve članove mreže Facebook da podrže akciju, kao i da preko Crvenog krsta Srbije uplate novčane priloge japanskom narodu.


Ipak, oni koji nisu u mogućnosti da novčano pomognu, svojim porukama mogu da podrže japanski narod u najtežoj situaciji od drugog svetskog rata.


Strana "Solidarnost sa Japanom" se nalazi ovde - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Solidarnost-sa-Japanom/194971760535231 (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Solidarnost-sa-Japanom/194971760535231)

Quote from: Plut on 15-03-2011, 12:30:56Kažu da pada sve osim građevinske industrije.

Quote from: Mica Milovanovic on 14-03-2011, 23:02:59
Jedan Đerdap ili Bajina Bašta, uz sve probleme koji idu uz njih, predstavljaju pravo blago ove zemlje. Ne verujte kad vas ubeđuju u suprotno.

QuoteBy Shinichi Saoshiro and Chisa Fujioka Shinichi Saoshiro And Chisa Fujioka – 1 hr 10 mins ago
TOKYO (Reuters) – Workers were ordered to withdraw briefly from a stricken Japanese nuclear power plant on Wednesday after radiation levels surged, a development that suggested the crisis was spiraling out of control.

Just hours earlier another fire broke out at the earthquake-crippled facility, which has sent low levels of radiation wafting into Tokyo in the past 24 hours, triggering fear in the capital and international alarm.

Workers were trying to build a road so fire trucks could reach reactor No. 4. Flames were no longer visible at the building housing the reactor, but TV pictures showed rising smoke or steam. A helicopter was also preparing to pour water on to No. 3 reactor -- whose roof was damaged by an earlier explosion -- to try to cool its fuel rods, broadcaster NHK said.

Nuclear experts said the solutions being proposed to quell radiation leaks at the Daiichi complex in Fukushima, 240 km (150 miles north of Tokyo, were last-ditch efforts to stem what could well be remembered as one of the world's worst industrial disasters.

"This is a slow-moving nightmare," said Dr Thomas Neff, a research affiliate at the Center for International Studies, which is part of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Panic over the economic impact of last Friday's massive earthquake and tsunami knocked $620 billion off Japan's stock market over the first two days of this week, but the Nikkei index rebounded on Wednesday to end up 5.68 percent.

Nevertheless, estimates of losses to Japanese output from damage to buildings, production and consumer activity ranged from between 10 and 16 trillion yen ($125-$200 billion), up to one-and-a-half times the economic losses from the devastating 1995 Kobe earthquake.

Damage to Japan's manufacturing base and infrastructure is also threatening significant disruption to the global supply chain, particularly in the technology and auto sectors.

Scores of flights to Japan have been halted or rerouted, air travelers are avoiding Tokyo for fear of radiation, and on Wednesday France urged its nationals in the city either to leave Japan or head to the south of the country.

The plight of hundreds of thousands left homeless by the quake and devastating tsunami that followed worsened overnight following a cold snap that brought snow to some of the worst-affected areas.

While the death toll stands at around 4,000, more than 7,000 are listed as missing and the figure is expected to rise.

At the Fukushima plant, authorities have spent days desperately trying to prevent water which is designed to cool the radioactive cores of the reactors from evaporating, which would lead to overheating and possibly a dangerous meltdown.

Concern now centers on damage to a part of the No.4 reactor building where spent rods were being stored in pools of water, and also to part of the No.2 reactor that helps to cool and trap the majority of cesium, iodine and strontium in its water.

Japanese officials said they were talking to the U.S. military about possible help at the plant.

Concern mounted earlier that the skeleton crews dealing with the crisis might not be big enough or were exhausted after working for days since the earthquake damaged the facility. Authorities withdrew 750 workers on Tuesday, leaving only 50.

All those remaining were pulled out for almost an hour on Wednesday because radiation levels were too high, but they were later allowed to return.

Arnie Gundersen, a 39-year veteran of the nuclear industry, now chief engineer at Fairwinds Associates Inc and who worked on reactor designs similar to Daiichi plant, said 50 or so people could not babysit six nuclear plants.

"That evacuation (of 750 workers) is a sign they may be throwing in the towel," Gundersen said.

RADIATION IN TOKYO NOT A THREAT TO HUMAN HEALTH

In the first hint of international frustration at the pace of updates from Japan, Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said he wanted more timely and detailed information.

"We do not have all the details of the information so what we can do is limited," Amano told a news conference in Vienna. "I am trying to further improve the communication."

Several experts said the Japanese authorities were underplaying the severity of the incident, particularly on a scale called INES used to rank nuclear incidents. The Japanese have so far rated the accident a four on a one-to-seven scale, but that rating was issued on Saturday and since then the situation has worsened dramatically.

France's nuclear safety authority ASN said on Tuesday it should be classed as a level-six incident.

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Tuesday urged people within 30 km (18 miles) of the facility -- a population of 140,000 -- to remain indoors, as authorities grappled with the world's most serious nuclear accident since the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine in 1986.

Officials in Tokyo said radiation in the capital was 10 times normal at one point but not a threat to human health in the sprawling high-tech city of 13 million people.

Levels dropped to minimal on Wednesday, but nerves were shaken by a 6.0 earthquake which shook buildings.

But residents nevertheless reacted to the crisis by staying indoors. Public transport and the streets were as deserted as they would be on a public holiday, and many shops and offices were closed.

Winds over the plant were forecast to blow from the northwest during Wednesday, which would take radiation toward the Pacific Ocean.

Fears of transpacific nuclear fallout sent consumers scrambling for radiation antidotes in the U.S. Pacific Northwest and Canada. Authorities warned that people would expose themselves to other medical problems by needlessly taking potassium iodide in the hope of protection from cancer.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?"

Japanese media have became more critical of Kan's handling of the disaster and criticized the government and plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. for their failure to provide enough information on the incident.

"This government is useless," Masako Kitajima, a Tokyo office worker in her 50s, said as radiation levels ticked up in the city.

Kan himself lambasted the operator for taking so long to inform his office about one of the blasts on Tuesday. A Kyodo news agency reporter quoted the prime minister demanding the power company executives: "What the hell is going on?."

Nuclear radiation is an especially sensitive issue for Japanese following the country's worst human catastrophe -- the U.S. atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

The full extent of the destruction from Friday's earthquake and tsunami was becoming clear as rescuers combed through the region north of Tokyo where officials say at least 10,000 people were killed.

Whole villages and towns have been wiped off the map by the wall of water, triggering an international humanitarian effort of epic proportions.

There have been hundreds of aftershocks and more than two dozen were greater than magnitude 6, the size of the earthquake that severely damaged Christchurch, New Zealand, last month.

About 850,000 households in the north were still without electricity in near-freezing weather, Tohuku Electric Power Co. said, and the government said at least 1.5 million households lack running water. Tens of thousands of people were missing.

NHK offered tips on how to stay warm, for instance by wrapping your abdomen in newspaper and clingfilm, and how to boil water using empty aluminum cans and candles.

Most economists now believe that the Japanese economy, which had been starting to recover when the earthquake struck, will contract in the second quarter of 2011.

A few economists also flagged the risk of a prolonged disruption to consumers and companies and a decline in economic output through 2011 should power outages persist until December.

Prices for key tech components such as computer memory chips have spiked due to factory outages at companies including electronics giant Sony Corp, silicon wafter maker Shin-Etsu Chemical and Toshiba, a major supplier of NAND flash memory chips used in mobile devices.

(Additional reporting by Nathan Layne, Linda sieg, Risa Maeda, Isabel Reynolds, Dan Sloan and Leika Kihara in Tokyo, Chris Meyers and Kim Kyung-hoon in Sendai, Taiga Uranaka and Ki Joon Kwon in Fukushima, Noel Randewich in San Francisco, and Miyoung Kim in Seoul; Writing by David Fox and Nick Macfie; Editing by John Chalmers and Dean Yates)

QuotePanika! U nuklearki Fukušima u Japanu eksplodirao je i drugi reaktor, a radijacija je 400 puta veća od dozvoljene, priznali su zvaničnici!


Naoto Kan, premijer Japana, priznao je da postoji veći rizik od radijacije i zamolio sve koji žive na 30 kilometara od nuklearke da ne izlaze iz kuća. U Tokiju vlada panika, hiljade ljudi žele da napuste grad. Aerodromi su zakrčeni, dok se u područjima koje je razrušio cunami oseća nedostatak hrane i vode za piće. Policija je saopštila da je broj žrtava cunamija i zemljotresa 10.000 i da su u ovaj bilans uračunati potvrđeni smrtni slučajevi i osobe koje se vode kao nestale.
U Vladivostoku, na istoku Rusije, koji se nalazi 800 kilometara od Fukušime, već je zabeležena pojačana radijacija. Nadležni tvrde da je spreman plan za evakuaciju stanovništva.
Švedska agencija za atomsku energiju je saopštila da će radioaktivni oblak iz Fukošime stići u Evropu za 14 dana, preko Severne Amerike. Slično predviđanje je dala i slovenačka agencija za atomsku energiju, a stručnjaci tvrde da se ne očekuju posledice kao prilikom katastrofe u Černobilju, pre više od dve decenije. Međutim, situacija u čak tri reaktora u japanskoj nuklearki je kritična. Ukoliko njihovo hlađenje ne uspe i pregrevanje se nastavi, posledice će biti katastrofalne po ceo svet. U jučerašnjoj eksploziji oštećeno je dno kontejnera u kojem se nalazi reaktor. Oko 800 radnika povučeno je iz nuklearke. Samo njih 50 ostalo je u očajničkoj borbi da pokuša da očuva jezgra u reaktorima od topljenja.


Na hiljade stanovnika Tokija, koji se nalazi 270 kilometara od nuklearke, odlučilo je da napusti grad. Evakuaciju svojih državljana i zaposlenih u ambasadama su preporučile brojne zemlje. Osim hrane, najtraženija roba u Tokiju su radio-prijemnici, sveće, gas i vreće za spavanje.



Patrijarh protiv nuklearne energije!
Vaseljenski patrijarh Vartolomej Prvi osudio je upotrebu nuklearne energije kao ,,provokaciju" koja krši zakone prirode. Patrijarh se oglasio posle katastrofe u Japanu i bojazni da će u atmosferu dospeti velika količina radijacije.
,,Nuklearna energija je opasna za integritet ljudske vrste. Osuđujemo to što se čovečanstvo oslanja na ovaj vid energije dovodeći u pitanje svoj opstanak. Čovečanstvo bi trebalo da se oslanja na obnovljive izvore energije", naveo je patrijarh Vartolomej Prvi.
Reagovala je i vlada u Berlinu, koja je zamrzla odluku o produženju rada nemačkih nuklearki na tri meseca. U tom periodu bi trebalo da bude ispitana bezbednost svih nuklearki u zemlji.



Reper ismevao žrtve!
Američki reper Fifti Sent izazvao je osudu javnosti zbog toga što je ismevao žrtve zemljotresa i cunamija u Japanu. Reper je na svom profilu na sajtu ,,tviter" neumesno prokomentarisao katastrofu u Japanu.
,,Vidite ove vrlo ozbiljne ljude. Moram da evakuišem sve moje kurve iz Los Anđelesa, sa Havaja i Japana. Moram to da uradim. Lol", napisao je reper.



Nova havarija!
Još jedan požar izbio je sinoć u reaktoru 4 nuklearne elektrane ,,Fukušima-1" na severu Japana, saopštila je Tokijska energetska kompanija. Novom havarijom situacija u Japanu je značajno pogoršana, a direktor Međunarodne agencije za atomsku energiju upozorio je da postoji mogućnost oštećenja i jezgra u reaktoru 2. Japan je obavestio ovu agenciju da se radioaktivnost širi ,,direktno" u atmosferu.
U novoj havariji oštećen je krov zgrade u kojoj se nalazi reaktor 4, u kojem je već bilo požara. Američki Institut za nauku i međunarodnu bezbednost konstatuje da nivo incidenta označen sa 4, na skali od 1 do 7, više nije dovoljan za ocenu nuklearne drame u eklektrani Fukušima 1 i da je sadašnje stanje bliže nivou 6. Katastrofa u Černobilju označena je sa 7.

QuoteWorkers are preparing to return to the tsunami-hit Fukushima nuclear power plant following an evacuation due to a surge in radiation. Skip related content


An official at the plant confirmed the workers' return as government spokesperson Yukio Edano said radiation levels are not high enough to cause an immediate health risk.

Staff had been evacuated after radiation levels spiked for a second time to their highest levels so far at Reactor 3 and a second fire broke out at Reactor 4.

Shortly after the evacuation, a military helicopter was seen carrying water to the plant, apparently to cool down the most troubled reactors, according to Japan's NHK public broadcaster.

The flames at the fourth reactor's containment vessel were brought under control but white smoke or steam was seen rising from the facility in the northeast of the earthquake and tsunami-devastated country.

Officials have been struggling to address the failure of safety systems at several of the plant's reactors.

There are six reactors at the plant, and the three that were operating at the time of the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami.

Two workers are missing after an explosion at the plant on Tuesday.

It is believed they were working in the turbine area of Reactor 4 at the time of the blast.

The government has ordered some 140,000 people in the vicinity to stay indoors.

Those living less than 12 miles (20km) from the site have been told to evacuate.

A low level of radiation was also detected in Tokyo, triggering panic buying of food and water.

Meanwhile, Japan's nuclear safety agency has said around 70% of the nuclear fuel rods in Reactor 1 have been damaged.

Agency spokesman Minoru Ohgoda said: "We don't know the nature of the damage, and it could be either melting, or there might be some holes in them."

The Kyodo news agency said 33% of the fuel rods at a second reactor were also damaged.

On Tuesday, the country's prime minister Naoto Kan said radiation levels on the east coast had "risen considerably".

The nuclear crisis has triggered international alarm and partly overshadowed the damage caused by the two natural disasters that killed an estimated 10,000 people.

It has also led to a worldwide review of nuclear technology.

Quote from: Fata Životinjka on 16-03-2011, 12:05:49
upravo sam čuo na TVu da se 750 zaposlenih evakuisalo iz elektrane a 50 ljudi ostalo (ima i u Mehovom tekstu) da što više smanje izlivanje radioaktivnog materijala, svjesni da će ih ostajanje u svakom slučaju izbrisati sa lica Zemlje.

Iskreno sam tužan i fasciniran istovremeno.

Quote from: Meho Krljic on 16-03-2011, 12:32:31
Pa, sad... Možda je dužnost vojnika da pogine ako zatreba. Možda i policajca i vatrogasca. Ali ne verujem da je to podrazumevani deo posla radnika u elektrani.

Quote from: Mica Milovanovic on 16-03-2011, 12:34:46
Meho, bojim se da nisi u pravu.

QuoteAn official at the plant confirmed the workers' return as government spokesperson Yukio Edano said radiation levels are not high enough to cause an immediate health risk.

QuoteIli ovo nikako nije srpski fazon u razmišljanju?

Quote from: Meho Krljic on 16-03-2011, 12:52:53
Pa, sad.. nije mi jasno jer to ne piše u vesti koju sam citirao. Ti i Varvarin to podrazumevate.

Quote from: scallop on 16-03-2011, 16:29:05
Meho, ima nešto i u belinama.

Quote from: scallop on 16-03-2011, 16:09:24
Mića i Varvarin su inženjeri i oni drugačije posmatraju situaciju od amatera. ...

Quote from: Jevtropijevićka on 17-03-2011, 01:26:06
Pa šta bi hteo, ovo je ipak primarno srpski forum.

Quote from: Josipovitch Broznjev

pa dobro, ima li na ovom forumu i normalnih ljudi???
/quote]                                                                                                                  xrofl

QuoteNEMANJA VLAČO | 17. 03. 2011. - 00:02h | Foto: AFP | Komentara: 0

TOKIO - Pogledi stanovnika Japana i juče su bile uprti u grupu od 50 radnika koji su ostali u nuklearnoj centrali Fukušima 1 pokušavajući da upumpavanjem morske vode ohlade jezgro reaktora i spreče nove eksplozije i požare. Organizacija "Grinpis" tvrdi da novi heroji Japana rade u smenama od po 15 minuta kako bi što manje bili izloženi zračenju. To je daleko više od 15 sekundi koliko su se sovjetski radnici zadržavali u zoni najveće radijacije tokom havarije u Černobilju 1986. godine.


Radnici u nuklearki Fukušima 1 bili su prinuđeni da privremeno napuste postrojenje, ali su se potom vratili i nastavili da rade u ekstremno opasnim uslovima.
"Ljudi koji rade u ovim nuklearkama bore se i ne nameravaju da ustuknu. Sada mogu samo da se molim za sve njih. Molim vas ne zaboravite da su to ljudi koji štite tuđe živote umesto svojih", napisala je na japanskoj društvenoj mreži "Miksi" Mičiko Otsuki, radnica susedne nuklearke Fukušima 2 čije je osoblje u međuvremenu evakuisano.


Dejvid Brener, direktor Centra za radiološka istraživanja na američkom Kolumbija univerzitetu, smatra da su radnici koji su preostali u centrali Fukušima 1 pod "značajnim rizikom", imajući u vidu nivo radijacije kojem su izloženi.
"Na mnogo načina oni su već heroji", kazao je Brener za Bi-Bi-Si.


Naoto Kan, premijer Japana, pozdravio je napore i hrabrost grupe od 50 radnika energetske kompanije TEPKO, a njegov portparol Jukio Edano priznao je da je njihovo zdravlje ugroženo.


"Oni rade na upumpavanju vode, rade najbolje što mogu i ni ne pomišljaju na opasnost", rekao je Edano.


Japanske vlasti još uvek nisu saopštile kolike su maksimalne doze radijacije kojima bi preostali radnici mogli da budu izloženi, kao ni to da li se razmišlja o njihovoj zameni. Ukoliko problem u nuklearki ne bude ubrzo rešen, oni će na kraju sigurno biti izloženi opasnim dozama ili će morati da se evakuišu. Po nekim spekulacijama, vlasti razmišljaju da pozovu i volontere iz drugih nuklearki ili penzionisane radnike.


Prema podacima "Grinpisa", ekološke organizacije koja se protivi upotrebi nuklearne energije, zaštitna oprema koju nose zaposleni u centrali Fukušima 1 nimalo im ne garantuje bezbednost od radijacije.


"Prilično sam siguran da su radnici koji su ostali unutra izloženi visokom stepenu zračenja. Ne radi se samo o riziku od dugoročnih posledica, mogu i odmah da se razbole. Po našim informacijama, oni rade u smenama od po 15 minuta", tvrdi Rijan Teule, antinuklearna aktivistkinja "Grinpisa". Britanski list "Indipendent" podseća da je pre 25 godina, nakon katastrofe u Černobilju, na saniranju havarije nuklearke angažovan tim starijih stručnjaka koji su se prijavili pošto nisu brinuli zbog dugoročnih posledica, poput raka. Kasnije su sovjetske vlasti poslale u Černobilj hiljade radnika za operaciju čišćenja, a neki od njih su se smenjivali čak i na 15 sekundi.


Japanski car Akihito obratio se juče naciji, ističući da je duboko zabrinut zbog krize u nuklearnom postrojenju Fukušima i pozvao ljude da u teškim vremenima pomognu jedni drugima. Japanska Nacionalna policijska agencija saopštila je da je broj žrtava zemljotresa i cunamija porastao na više od 11.000, uključujući 3.676 do sada potvrđenih smrtnih slučajeva u 12 prefektura i 7.843 osobe koje se vode kao nestale u šest prefektura. Sajt Vikiliks objavio je dokumente po kojima je Japan u decembru 2008. ignorisao upozorenja Međunarodne agencije za atomsku energiju o tome da su zemljotresi velika opasnost po nuklearne elektrane u toj državi.

QuoteBy Jeff Mason and Tom Doggett Jeff Mason And Tom Doggett – Thu Mar 17, 12:24 am ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States showed increasing alarm about Japan's nuclear crisis on Wednesday and urged its citizens to stay clear of an earthquake-crippled power plant, going further in its warnings than Japan itself.

The State Department said the United States has chartered aircraft to help Americans leave Japan and had authorized the voluntary departure of family members of diplomatic staff in Tokyo, Nagoya and Yokohama -- about 600 people.

"The State Department strongly urges U.S. citizens to defer travel to Japan at this time and those in Japan should consider departing," it said.

As operators of the Fukushima plant tried to douse overheating reactors, U.S. officials warned about the risks of getting anywhere near the area and relied on their own officials for details about the danger.

"The situation has deteriorated in the days since the tsunami and ... the situation has grown at times worse with potential greater damage and fallout from the reactor," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters.

U.S. officials took pains not to criticize the Japanese government, which has shown signs of being overwhelmed by the crisis that began after last Friday's devastating 9.0 magnitude earthquake and resulting tsunami.

But Washington's actions indicated a divide with the Japanese about the perilousness of the situation.

U.S. President Barack Obama told Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan in a telephone call that the United States will do all it can to help Japan recover, the White House said.

"The president briefed Prime Minister Kan on the additional support being provided by the U.S., including specialized military assets with expertise in nuclear response and consequence management," it said in a statement.

The State Department recommended that U.S. citizens within 50 miles of the plant leave the area or stay indoors.

Japan's government has asked people living within 12 miles to evacuate and those between 12 miles and 18 miles to stay indoors.

PLUME OF RADIATION

Gregory Jaczko, the top U.S. nuclear regulator, cast doubt on efforts to cool overheating reactors, saying workers may be hit with "lethal doses" of radiation.

"It would be very difficult for emergency workers to get near the reactors," Jaczko said.

A United Nations forecast projects the radioactive plume from the Fukushima facility would reach the Aleutian Islands on Thursday and hit Southern California late on Friday, The New York Times reported.

The projection, calculated on Tuesday and obtained by the newspaper, gives no information about actual radiation levels, it said. Health and nuclear experts emphasize that radiation in the plume will be diluted as it travels and will have extremely minor health consequences in the United States, it reported.

The U.S. military has ordered its forces to stay 50 miles away from the plant, the Pentagon said. There are at least 55,000 members of the U.S. forces in Japan and offshore assisting the relief operation.

"All of us are heartbroken by the images of what's happening in Japan and we're reminded of how American leadership is critical to our closest allies," Obama said in Washington.

"Even if those allies are themselves economically advanced and powerful, there are moments where they need our help, and we're bound together by a common humanity."

CONFLICTING REPORTS

The State Department's warning to U.S. citizens was based on new information collected by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Department of Energy and other U.S. sources.

The United States is trying to deploy equipment in Japan that can detect radiation exposure at ground level, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu told a congressional hearing.

The detection system is part of equipment and 39 personnel from the Energy Department sent to Japan, he said. It has also provided equipment to monitor airborne radiation.

The United States is deploying more radiation monitors on Hawaii and other U.S. islands even though it does not expect harmful levels of radiation to reach U.S. soil, environmental regulators said.

Chu declined to tell lawmakers, when asked, whether he was satisfied with Japan's response so far to its nuclear crisis.

"I can't really say. I think we hear conflicting reports," Chu said. "This is one of the reasons why (the United States is) there with boots on the ground ... to know what is really happening."

Beyond the risk to workers at or near the damaged nuclear plant, one scientist, Dr. Ira Helfand, warned of possible widespread contamination of people and land.

"We need ... to focus on the radioactive isotopes being dispersed at some distance from the plant, because this is going to cause a whole different set of health problems," Helfand, past president of the anti-nuclear group Physicians for Social Responsibility, said in a telephone briefing.

The Obama administration has maintained its support for expanding U.S. use of nuclear energy despite renewed fears about its safety after the events in Japan.

But Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday the crisis raised questions about the use of nuclear energy in the United States.

"What's happening in Japan raises questions about the costs and the risks associated with nuclear power but we have to answer those," she said in an interview with MSNBC in which she emphasized the need for a comprehensive U.S. energy policy.

"We get 20 percent of our energy right now in the United States from nuclear power."

(Additional reporting by Ayesha Rascoe, David Morgan, Andrew Quinn, Paul Eckert, Matt Spetalnick, Alister Bull, Patricia Zengerle, Steve Holland, Deborah Zabarenko and Phil Stewart; Editing by Peter Cooney and John O'Callaghan)

Quote from: Meho Krljic link=topic=9198.msg315349#msg315349
WTF??? Ovo je pravi trenutak da se podvuče važnost američkog predvođenja njenihi]saveznika[/i]? Na koje su onomad bacali nuklearne bombe?

Quote from: Mica Milovanovic on 16-03-2011, 16:38:46
Ja ne znam razlog zbog čega su podizane na toj obali, ali da sam na njihovom mestu podizao bih ih na obali sa koje vetrovi pretežno duvaju ka moru.

Quote from: Mica Milovanovic on 16-03-2011, 16:38:46
Ja ne znam razlog zbog čega su podizane na toj obali, ali da sam na njihovom mestu podizao bih ih na obali sa koje vetrovi pretežno duvaju ka moru.

QuoteBy Shinichi Saoshiro and Mayumi Negishi Shinichi Saoshiro And Mayumi Negishi – 1 hr 7 mins ago
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese engineers conceded on Friday that burying a crippled nuclear plant in sand and concrete may be a last resort to prevent a catastrophic radiation release, the method used to seal huge leakages from Chernobyl in 1986.

But they still hoped to solve the crisis by fixing a power cable to at least two reactors to restart water pumps needed to cool overheating nuclear fuel rods. Workers also sprayed water on the No.3 reactor, the most critical of the plant's six.

It was the first time the facility operator had acknowledged burying the sprawling complex was possible, a sign that piecemeal actions such as dumping water from military helicopters or scrambling to restart cooling pumps may not work.

"It is not impossible to encase the reactors in concrete. But our priority right now is to try and cool them down first," an official from the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co, told a news conference.

As Japan entered its second week after a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and 10-meter (33-foot) tsunami flattened coastal cities and killed thousands of people, the world's worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl looked far from over.

Millions of people in Tokyo continued to work from home, some fearing a blast of radioactive material from the complex, 240 km (150 miles) to the north, although prevailing winds would likely carry contaminated smoke or steam away from the densely populated city to dissipate over the Pacific Ocean.

Radiation levels recorded in areas near the plant did not pose an immediate risk to human health, said Michael O'Leary, the World Health Organisation's representative in China.

"At this point, there is still no evidence that there's been significant radiation spread beyond the immediate zone of the reactors themselves," O'Leary told reporters in Beijing.

Japan's nuclear disaster has triggered global alarm and reviews of safety at atomic power plants around the world.

President Barack Obama, who stressed the United States did not expect harmful radiation to reach its shores, said he had ordered a comprehensive review of domestic nuclear plants and pledged Washington's support for Japan.

The Group of Seven rich nations, stepping in together to calm global financial markets after a tumultuous week, agreed to join in rare concerted intervention to restrain a soaring yen.

The top U.S. nuclear regulator said it could take weeks to reverse the overheating of fuel rods at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

"This is something that will take some time to work through, possibly weeks, as you eventually remove the majority of the heat from the reactors and then the spent-fuel pools," Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko told a news conference at the White House.

SAND AND CONCRETE SOLUTION MOOTED

Yukiya Amano, head of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), called the crisis "grave and serious" and urged Japan's prime minister to release better information after arriving in Tokyo on Friday with a team of four experts.

"They are racing against time to cool it down and then to contain it. It is worse than it was at the beginning, but I don't know compared with yesterday," he said, adding that the experts would travel to the reactors on Saturday or Sunday.

Graham Andrew, his senior aide, said helicopters used to dump water on the plant had shown exposure to small amounts of radiation. "The situation remains very serious, but there has been no significant worsening since yesterday," Andrew said.

The nuclear agency said the radiation level at the plant was as high as 20 millisieverts per hour. The limit for the workers was 100 per hour.

Even if engineers restore power at the plant, it was not clear the pumps would work as they may have been damaged in the earthquake, tsunami or subsequent explosions and there are fears of the electricity shorting and causing another blast.

Japan's nuclear agency spokesman, Hidehiko Nishiyama, said it was also unclear how effective spraying water on the reactors from helicopters had been on Thursday. The priority was to get water into the spent-fuel pools, he said.

"We have to reduce the heat somehow and may use seawater," he told a news conference. "We need to get the reactors back online as soon as possible and that's why we're trying to restore power to them."

Asked about burying the reactors in sand and concrete, he said: "That solution is in the back of our minds, but we are focused on cooling the reactors down."

Jaczko said the cooling pool for spent-fuel rods at the complex's reactor No.4 may have run dry and another was leaking.

An official at the plant operator said he expected power to be restored at its most troubled and damaged reactors -- No.3 and No.4 -- by Sunday. Engineers are trying to reconnect power to the least damaged reactors first.

DOLLAR GAINS AS FINANCIAL LEADERS INTERVENE

The U.S. dollar surged more than two yen to 81.80 after the G7's pledge to intervene, leaving behind a record low of 76.25 hit on Thursday.

Japan's Nikkei share index ended up 2.7 percent, recouping some of the week's stinging losses. It has lost 10.2 percent this week.

U.S. markets, which had tanked earlier in the week on the back of the crisis, rebounded on Thursday but investors were not convinced the advance would last.

The yen has seen steady buying since the earthquake, as Japanese and international investors closed long positions in higher-yielding, riskier assets such as the Australian dollar, funded by cheap borrowing in the Japanese currency.

Expectations that Japanese insurers and companies would repatriate billions of dollars in overseas funds to pay for a reconstruction bill that is expected to be much costlier than the one that followed the Kobe earthquake in 1995 also have helped boost the yen.

850,00 WITHOUT ELECTRICITY; WATER SUPPLIES LOW

The plight of hundreds of thousands left homeless by the earthquake and tsunami worsened following a cold snap that brought heavy snow to worst-affected areas.

Supplies of water, heating oil and fuel are low at evacuation centers, where many survivors wait bundled in blankets. Many elderly lack proper medical supplies. Food is often rationed.

The government said on Friday it was considering moving some of the hundreds of thousands of evacuees to parts of the country unscathed by the devastation.

About 850,000 households in the north were still without electricity in near-freezing weather, Tohuku Electric Power Co. said, and the government said at least 1.6 million households lacked running water.

The National Police Agency said on Friday it had confirmed 6,539 deaths from the quake and tsunami disaster, exceeding 6,434 who died after the Kobe earthquake in 1995. But 10,354 people are still missing.

RADIATION WITHIN TOKYO AT AVERAGE LEVELS

The government has told everyone living within 20 km (12 miles) of the plant to evacuate, and advised people within 30 km (18 miles) to stay indoors.

The U.S. embassy in Tokyo has urged citizens living within 80 km (50 miles) of the Daiichi plant to evacuate or remain indoors "as a precaution," while Britain's foreign office urged citizens "to consider leaving the area." Other nations have urged nationals in Japan to leave the country or head south.

At its worst, radiation in Tokyo has reached 0.809 microsieverts per hour this week, 10 times below what a person would receive if exposed to a dental x-ray. On Thursday and Friday, radiation levels were within average levels.

Tokyo's 13 million residents were warned on Thursday to prepare for a possible large-scale blackout but the government later said there was no need for one. Still, many firms are voluntarily reducing power and trains are reducing services.

(Additional reporting by Linda Sieg, Nathan Layne, Elaine Lies, Leika Kihara and Chris Gallagher; Writing by Jason Szep; Editing by Dean Yates and John Chalmers)

QuoteBilo da je reč o Belgiji, Britaniji, Holandiji ili Francuskoj, scenario je uvek isti – tamo gde počnu da niču moderne vetrenjače, lokalno stanovništvo organizuje borbu protiv njihove gradnje


Od našeg stalnog dopisnika

Brisel – Dok svet bez daha iščekuje nove vesti iz Japana gde još traje drama izazvana oštećenjem nuklearke u Fukušimi, a nadležni u Evropskoj uniji preispituju sopstvenu energetsku politiku upotrebe nuklearki, čudno zvuči podatak da u Evropi jača pokret protiv gradnje vetrenjača. Ali ko bi i zašto imao nešto protiv korišćenja vetra za proizvodnju struje?

Odgovor glasi – Evropska platforma protiv izgradnje vetrenjača koja obuhvata 473 udruženja iz 21 države, dobro povezane sa srodnim organizacijama u SAD, Kanadi i Meksiku. U Belgiji najviše udruženja protiv gradnje vetrenjača ima u Valoniji, gde je u 21. veku izgrađeno nekoliko takozvanih – farmi sa vetrenjačama.

Bilo da je reč o Belgiji, Britaniji, Holandiji ili Francuskoj, scenario je uvek isti – tamo gde počnu da niču moderne vetrenjače, lokalno stanovništvo organizuje borbu protiv njihove gradnje. ,,Buka od njihovog okretanja je nesnosna. Vibracije takođe. Njihova blizina koja je ispod zakonskog minimuma umanjila mi je vrednost kuće i imanja za 20 do 30 odsto", objasnio nam je Gido Novelo, profesor u penziji i aktivista u jednom od desetina belgijskih udruženja građana.

Prema belgijskom zakonu razdaljina između vetrenjače i najbliže kuće ne sme da bude manja od 1.500 metara iz zdravstvenih razloga, jer izaziva stres, umor, poremećaj sna i srčane probleme, ali kako tvrde aktivisti iz okoline Namura u Valoniji, tamo su vetrenjače podignute preblizu kućama.

Oni objašnjavaju da njihova zabrinutost za očuvanje okolnog izgleda nije samo nostalgični san, već se pozivaju na Konvenciju o zaštiti pejzaža iz Firence. Jedan od predloga valonskih društava je premeštanje vetrenjača na obalu Severnog mora u Flandriju. Evropska platforma protiv vetrenjača zahteva moratorijum na njihovu gradnju, kao što su ga nedavno proglasile vlasti Južnog Tirola u Italiji, u nameri da očuvaju divan planinski pejzaž.

Stručnjaci u Evropi i SAD istražuju sve negativne uticaje koje vetrenjače mogu da imaju na čoveka, ali kada je reč o pojedinim vrstama ptica selica po njih su posledice često fatalne. Kada jato ptica uleti u polje sa vetrenjačama stotine stradaju od njenih ogromnih metalnih krakova koji se okreću. Svaka vetrenjača je neprijatelj ptica, a neke su sagrađene baš na tradicionalnim koridorima ptica selica, pa se ptičje žrtve broje hiljadama.

Moderne vetrenjače nisu ni nalik romantičnim srednjevekovnim mlinovima, već su to metalne grdosije čiji oštra krila imaju raspon od 45 do 75 metara. Kada ne duva vetar, vetrenjače rade na gas, pa stoga aktivisti tvrde da one zapravo ne smanjuju emisiju ugljen dioksida.

Upravo je smanjenje zagađenja i korišćenje čistih tehnologija jedan od evropskih prioriteta u ovom veku, a u čiste tehnologije ubrajaju se kako vetrenjače, tako i nuklearne elektrane. Logično zvuči da je sada sudbina evropskih nuklearki posle ovih poslednjih događaja u Japanu upitna, ali kakva budućnost očekuje vetrenjače?

Sudeći prema pritužbama lokalnog stanovništva čija se imanja graniče sa farmama vetrenjača, i sve višem stepenu njihove organizovanosti, treba očekivati žestok otpor gradnji novih kompleksa ovih modernih fabrika struje u čitavoj Evropi.

Vladimir Jokanović

objavljeno: 20.03.2011

QuoteОко 1.000 Београђана окупило се данас на Тргу републике, у оквиру скупа ,,Београд Јапану", у црвеним и белим мајицама и формирало јапанску заставу, како би заједничком фотографијом послали поруку охрабрења јапанском народу, који је прошле недеље погођен земљотресом и цунамијем.

Срђан Ајваз који је на Фејсбуку оформио групу ,,Love and suport to Japan from serbian people", рекао је Танјугу да ова подршка значи много грађанима Јапана, јер су то људи који веома цене шта други народи мисле и како се понашају према њима.

Он је казао да група сада има око 300 чланова, али да се њихов број повећава из дана у дан, истакавши да је јапанском народу потребна подршка, посебно од Србије која је толико пропатила, као и Јапан.

,,Они цене нашу подршку која је важна за унапређење односа две земље.Последице ће увек остати, као што су последице Хирошиме и Нагасакија, али Јапанци су народ који је спреман на одрицања и борбу", рекао је Ајваз и пожелео да се јапански народ што пре опорави и врати нормалном животу.

Професорка јапанског језика у Филолошкој гимназији Маргарета Саморан, која је на Тргу републике пружала подршку својим ученицима који су по симболичној цени продавали грађанима оригами фигуре, рекла је Танјугу да је новац од продаје намењен јапанском народу.

,,Не очекујем да сакупимо велику своту новца. Ученици су фасцинирани достојанством и прибраношћу јапанског народа, упркос трагедији која их је задесила и пожелели су да им на неки начин помогну", рекла је Саморан.

Она је додала да је очекивала више људи, али је, с обзиром на лоше време, могла да претпостави да се неће појавити велики број људи, колико их је на Фејсбуку обећало, али да је задовољна и овим бројем.

Оперска певачица Уржин Јелић, пореклом из Монголије, истакла је да није задовољна бројем људи који се окупио да би пружио подршку јапанском народу, с обзиром на то колико је влада те земље помогла Србији.

,,Очекивала сам да ће се појавити толико људи да се заустави саобраћај од Трга Славија до Трга републике", рекла је она Танјугу и додала да су Јапанци диван народ који воли свакоме да помогне и да истом мером и њима треба узвратити. Група блогера телевизије Б92 организоваће сутра у 14 сати у Дому омладине скуп ,,1.000 ждралова за Јапан".

Учесници треба да понесу листове папира, иглу и конац, како би заједно направили 1.000 ждралова у оригами техници, јер ће се, према веровању, оном ко направи толики број ждралова испунити жеља.

Поред ове две акције, мобилни оператери ВИП, МТС и Теленор су, на иницијативу групе са друштвене мреже ,,Твитер", отворили СМС број 2001, на који грађани Србије могу да пошаљу поруку подршке Јапану, која кошта 50 динара, а сав новац биће уплаћен Црвеном крсту Јапана.

Танјуг
објављено: 19.03.2011

Quote,,Сандеј тајмс" оптужио за корупцију словеначког, аустријског и румунског посланика у Европском парламенту


Љубљана – Словеначки посланик у Европском парламенту Зоран Талер поднео је јуче неопозиву оставку на посланички мандат, након оптужби да је умешан у корупцију, преноси Бета.

,,Саопштавам јавности да са данашњим даном дајем неопозиву оставку на место европског посланика", рекао је Талер на конференцији за новинаре у Љубљани.

Он је додао да тим чином жели да омогући да ,,истрага свих чињеница и околности покушаја компромитације тече неоптерећено и без притисака", као и да жели да ,,истина буде обелодањена и да се види ко је деловао законито, а ко незаконито".

Талер је јуче ујутру на своју иницијативу био на састанку словеначке Комисије за борбу против корупције, која је већ успоставила контакт са националним истражним органима, Државним врховним тужилаштвом и надлежним органима Европске уније.

Оставка словеначког посланика у Европском парламенту уследила је након оптужбе изнесене у лондонском недељнику ,,Сандеј тајмс" да је од лобиста руске фирме примио стотину хиљада евра мита да би као посланик улагао амандмане на законе из области банкарства.

Талер је јуче одбацио тврдње да је умешан у незаконите послове и поставио питање зашто је посланик ЕУ мета покушаја компромитације и да ли су за постизање одређених циљева заиста дозвољене све методе, од незаконитог прислушкивања надаље. ,,У складу са својим етичким опредељењима желим да читава истина буде обелодањена", рекао је Талер. Он је додао да ће у складу са британским законима, када цела ствар прође, поступати и према лондонском листу који је објавио оптужбе против њега.

Сада већ бившег словеначког посланика у Европском парламенту ће заменити Марко Голобич, његов наследник према изборним резултатима на изборима за Европски парламент. Талер је био изабран као кандидат партије Социјалних демократа и деловао у групи левице у европском парламенту. ,,Сандеј тајмс" је поред Талера за корупцију оптужио и посланике Аустрије и Румуније у Европском парламенту Ернста Штрасера и Адријана Северина. Штрасер је због притиска аустријске јавности такође дао оставку, иако и он пориче кривицу за примање мита.

QuoteBy HANNAH BEECH / TOKYO Hannah Beech / Tokyo – Tue Mar 22, 7:45 pm ET
By 9:30 a.m. local time on March 22, the emergency shelter at Saitama Super Arena, just north of Tokyo, had reached its maximum capacity of 500 volunteers. The other 1,500 do-gooders wanting to help the displaced people of Futaba, the town closest to ground zero of the earthquake- and tsunami-damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, were turned away by volunteers holding hand-printed cardboard signs that said "We are sorry, but we cannot take any more volunteers. Please try again tomorrow."

Inside the arena, which normally hosts rock concerts, some 5,000 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear-plant refugees, including those from Futaba, were trying to carve out a normal routine in their makeshift homes, composed of squares of blankets and mats. There to help them were the volunteers, who handed out free bananas, blankets, diapers, toys and other necessities for people who escaped with little more than the clothes on their backs. Some volunteers held signs presenting complimentary day-care services, while others offered free shampoos, blow-dries and shaves at local beauty parlors. "It's the least I can do," said Hideyuki Tanaka, a stylist with dyed blond hair who held a sign offering free salon services. "I don't have any other skills except for this, so I thought I could make this small contribution." By noon, some 60 evacuees had taken advantage of free services at his Maggie Friends beauty salon. (See TIME's exclusive pictures of the devastation in Japan.)

The Saitama emergency shelter is a model of organization and goodwill, with masking-tape arrows pointing the way to the bath, food and clothing lines. Bowing, smiling volunteers shepherd dazed-looking evacuees from one line to another. But in northeastern Japan, where an estimated 21,000 are dead or missing and another 350,000 are homeless as of March 22, the country's labyrinthine bureaucracy has seriously hampered efforts to deliver aid. Some shelters still have no heat, while others are rationing rice balls. In a country that prides itself on efficiency, the fact that 11 days after the earthquake, displaced people are still hungry and, even if they have cars, cannot get food because of a shortage of fuel is a shocking turn of events. The aid bottlenecks are all the more surprising given that most Japanese anticipated that their government would respond quickly. "There are very high expectations of the government here, and civil society is struggling to find its place," says Randy Martin, director of global emergency operations for Mercy Corps, a U.S.-based NGO. "The most important thing is to get the supply chain going again."

In other natural disasters that I've covered, steady streams of local and international aid have usually converged upon the stricken area within four days of the event. This has happened even in developing-world countries with far less infrastructure than Japan has. But in Tohoku, as Japan's northeast is called, aid has trickled in agonizingly slowly, despite the mobilization of 100,000 Japanese soldiers for the relief effort. It took more than a week after the earthquake, for example, for the region's highways, which are reserved for emergency vehicles, to be filled with the kind of aid convoys that typically race to disaster scenes. (See Japan's history of massive earthquakes.)

One major bottleneck has been Japan's fondness for red tape. "In special times, you have to do things in a special way," says Kensuke Kobayashi, an IBM employee in Tokyo who has tried to organize relief efforts to Tohoku from the Japanese capital. "But in Japan, there is a legal wall that stops everything." Japanese shipping company NYK offered to provide a container ship for helicopters to land on when ferrying in relief supplies to coastal areas. But the government rejected the offer because the NYK shipmates lacked the proper licenses to help with such work. After some wrangling, volunteer foreign doctors were told that because they didn't have Japanese medical licenses, they could conduct only the "minimum necessary medical procedures" in the disaster zone.

Some medicine donations from overseas haven't reached the many elderly suffering in the earthquake's aftermath because Japanese regulatory agencies have not yet given the drugs approval. Local logistics companies have complained - off the record, for fear of angering the bureaucrats whom they depend on for future licensing - of days-long waits for permission from the central government to deliver donated goods. Only when their trucks get the magic pass can they start moving toward Tohoku. Until then, the boxes of relief goods, some of which were donated just hours after the earthquake and tsunami hit, sit in Tokyo warehouses.

See how to help Japan's earthquake and tsunami victims.

See TIME's complete coverage of the Japan earthquake.


Then there's fuel, which is in plentiful supply in southern Japan but all but impossible to procure easily in the north without special permits. To get even a 2.6 gal. (10 L) ration, cars in Tohoku often have to wait for half a day. When TIME wanted to accompany an NGO helicopter delivering aid to one stricken area, we were given permission on one condition: that TIME hire a car to drive the aid supplies to the airfield. The NGO's cars were out of gas and had no way to get the relief goods to the chopper. Such shortages have been repeated writ large, hampering even the efforts of major organizations like the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, which was one of the first groups on the scene.

There have been some extenuating circumstances. The radiation leaking from the Fukushima plant has meant that aid vehicles have to take a wide berth around a region contaminated by higher-than-normal radiation levels. Nevertheless, there are other ways to Tohoku. Indeed, one of the first organizations to start relief convoys in the northeast was none other than the yakuza, Japan's famous gangsters. Unconstrained by reams of regulations, the underworld representatives, whose business tentacles extend to the trucking business, simply started delivering aid on their own, without government approval. (See pictures of objects found in the rubble of Japan's quake.)

Citizen volunteers have been actively discouraged by the government from jumping into their cars and delivering aid themselves. That's because after the 1995 Kobe earthquake, roads into the area were jam-packed with well-meaning citizens whose endeavors hindered larger aid efforts. But there's a fine balance to be struck between not overwhelming damaged infrastructure and leaving it worryingly underutilized. And while U.S. military aid sorties conducted from American bases in Japan have been accepted by the Japanese government, other international organizations have been quietly told they're not needed - a stunning response given the magnitude of the disaster. "Everything has to go through government emergency centers," says one international NGO representative in Tokyo. "But they're very slow to respond and can't keep up with the flow of aid. They should let us get in there and start getting relief to people instead of worrying about paperwork." (Comment on this story.)

Meanwhile, back at Saitama Super Arena, Kouhei Nagatsuka, 18, ponders the strange fact that he just graduated from high school without a proper ceremony in Futaba, the town next to where the Fukushima plant is located. On March 11, the earthquake destroyed his home - or so he has heard from a friend who went back to the ravaged town to take a look. Nagatsuka and his family were first herded into an emergency shelter for earthquake and tsunami victims. Then, just as they were contemplating trying to salvage what they could from their home, a Fukushima reactor began spewing radioactive material into the air. Four days ago, they arrived as nuclear-plant refugees to Saitama. (See more pictures of the aftermath of Japan's earthquake.)

As Nagatsuka scrounged for warm clothes for his four siblings in a heap of donated goods, news that steam and smoke were again pouring from two of the plant's damaged reactors spread among the displaced Futaba residents. (By Tuesday evening, plant engineers said they had laid power cables to all six of the facility's nuclear reactors, though it's not clear whether the electricity can be turned on or whether pumps needed to cool down overheating reactors will work.) Already, reports of vegetables, water and milk tainted by small levels of radiation from the leaking nuclear plant have raised concerns about the accident's long-term effects - even if engineers are able to tame the reactors in the coming days and weeks. "I'm afraid I'll never be able to go back there," says Nagatsuka, who spent time volunteering when he was in high school. "I was supposed to start my adult life, but I guess I'll have to do that someplace else."

QuoteTanjug | 23. 03. 2011. - 07:56h | Komentara: 3

Zemljotres jačine 6 stepeni Rihterove skale uzdrmao je jutros severoistočni deo Japana gde se japanske vlasti bore da zauzdaju oštećenu nuklearnu elektranu, javila su agencije.

Za sada nema izveštaja da li je najnoviji zemljotres izazvao štetu i ljudske žrtve, ali nije izdato upozorenje za cunami.


Kompanija "Tokio iliktrik pauer" koja upravlja oštećenom nuklearkom Fukušima Daići, navela je da nije primila izveštaje da je najnoviji zemljotres oštetio ugroženo postrojenje.

Quote from: scallop on 23-03-2011, 09:39:47
Meho, problem je što je u današnjem svetu podvaljivanje legitimno.

QuoteBy AYE AYE WIN, Associated Press Aye Aye Win, Associated Press – 14 mins ago
YANGON, Myanmar – A strong earthquake that toppled homes in northeastern Myanmar has killed more than 60 people, and there were fears Friday the toll would mount as conditions in more remote areas became known.

The Thursday night quake, measured at a magnitude 6.8 by the U.S. Geological Survey, was centered just north of the town Tachileik in the mountains along the Thai border, but was felt hundreds of miles (kilometers) away in the Thai capital Bangkok and Vietnamese capital Hanoi.

Myanmar state radio announced Friday that 65 people had been killed and 111 injured in the quake, but was updating the total frequently. It said that 244 houses, 14 Buddhist monasteries and nine government buildings were damaged.

An official from the U.N.'s World Food Program said there were many casualties and serious damage in Mong Lin village, five miles (eight kilometers) from Tachileik. State radio said 29 were killed there and 16 injured.

The state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported that 15 houses collapsed in the town of Tarlay, where state radio said 11 were killed and 29 injured. Another U.N. official said a small hospital there was partially damaged as well as a bridge, making it difficult to access the town.

The newspaper said another two people were killed in Tachileik, including a 4-year-old boy. It said six people were injured in the town, which is just across the border from Mae Sai in Thailand's Chiang Rai province.

In Mae Sai, one woman was killed when a wall fell on her, according to Thai police, but damage was otherwise minimal.

The second U.N. official said medicine would be sent to the affected areas as soon as possible along with an assessment team in cooperation with the Myanmar Red Cross Society.

Both U.N. officials spoke on condition of anonymity because Myanmar's government frowns on giving unauthorized information to the media.

Most of rural Myanmar, one of Asia's poorest countries, is underdeveloped, with poor communications and other infrastructure, and minimal rescue and relief capacity. The country's military government is also usually reluctant to release information about disasters because it is already sensitive to any criticism.

The government tightly controls information, and in 2008 delayed reporting on — and asking for help with — devastating Cyclone Nargis, which killed 130,000 people. The junta was widely criticized for what were called inadequate preparations and a slow response to the disaster.

Somchai Hatayatanti, the governor of Chiang Rai province, said dozens of people suffered minor injuries on the Thai side of the border. Cracks were found in buildings in downtown Chiang Rai city, about 55 miles (90 kilometers) from the epicenter, including a provincial hospital and city hall. The tops of the spires fell off from at least two Buddhist temples.

As a precaution for aftershocks, a relief center was being set up Friday in Mae Sai.

"We are worried that the area might be hit with stronger quakes. There was another quake at 7 a.m. this morning," said Somsri Meethong of the Mae Sai District office, referring to an aftershock. "I had to run again like last night. What we have seen on TV about Japan added to our fear."

QuoteBrisel – Lideri Evropske unije dogovorili su se juče na samitu u Briselu o novom paketu antikriznih mera, ali su bili prinuđeni da odlože konačnu odluku o povećanju fonda za spasavanje oslabljenih članica, prenosi Rojters.

Savet EU je naglasio da se suočava sa novom opasnošću, budući da je uoči početka dvodnevnog samita premijer Portugalije Žoze Sokrateš podneo ostavku jer portugalski parlament nije prihvatio stroge mere štednje koje bi, kako se on nadao, omogućile njegovoj zemlji da izbegne finansijsku pomoć od EU i Međunarodnog monetarnog fonda (MMF), nakon što je takva pomoć ukazana Grčkoj i Irskoj.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Evropski lideri stali su juče ozarenih lica pred službenog fotografa: grupna fotografija učesnika koja se, već po tradiciji, šalje u svet po svršetku samita trebalo je da dočara optimizam evropskih čelnika, primeren važnosti donetih odluka.

,,Udareni su temelji najobimnijoj privrednoj i finansijskoj reformi od osnivanja monetarne unije", istaknuto je u zvaničnom saopštenju.

Konkretno, uz postignutu saglasnost svih članica o osnivanju specijalnog kriznog fonda za pomoć finansijski posrnulim članicama, sa raspoloživim kapitalom od pet stotina milijardi evra, odnosno sukcesivnim pretvaranjem fonda u stalni instrument koji bi od leta 2013. godine trebalo da raspolaže padobranom ,,teškim" sedam stotina milijardi evra, učesnici samita su stavili potpise i pod načelo da se finansijski grešnici, ,,rasipnici", oštrije sankcionišu.

Takođe, postignut je dogovor u načelu o sprovođenju mera koje bi obezbedile, ili, kako komentatori ističu, primorale članice da pod nadzorom i po ukusu Brisela koriste mehanizme za podsticanje konkurentnosti nacionalnih privreda.

,,Dogovori su prekretnica u kriznom menadžmentu kontinentalne zajednice", izjavio je predsednik Evropskog saveta Herman van Rompaj.

Predsednik Evropske komisije Žoze Manuel Barozo dodao je da je reč o prodoru na putu ka stvaranju istinske evropske privredne vlade.

Štaviše, nemačka kancelarka Angela Merkel, ,,dežurni" kritičar i oponent evropskih planova razvoja koje nudi Brisel, nije imala šta da doda, ,,Izostalo je njeno uobičajeno traženje dlake u jajetu", zabeležili su nemački komentatori.

Analitičari su listom saglasni da će zaključci i odluke ovog samita doprineti ostvarenju planova Brisela kojima se predviđa pretapanje zajednice evropskih zemalja u njenom sadašnjem obliku – u kontinentalnu superdržavu, sa jasno definisanim vladajućim strukturama i autoritetima.

Zvanično se tim povodom naglašava da bi otelotvorenje takve državne zajednice, a umesto zajednice država, doprinelo ostvarenju elementarnih evropskih ciljeva, što će reći obezbeđenju uslova za razvoj najšire demokratije na svetu, za ostvarenje najvećih ličnih sloboda...

Sa druge strane, upravo dogovorena pragmatika navodi na zaključak da su evropski lideri – ona manjina koje je odgovorna za odgovarajuće predloge i ona većina koja je primorana da ćuti i poslušno prihvata odluke – pribegli instrumentalizaciji autoritativne politike kako bi dostigli daleki cilj totalne demokratizacije.

Palo je u oči da su ministri, bezmalo apriori, usput odlučili da se ubuduće vitalne odluke donose u Savetu ministara i predsednika država i vlada, kao i da se isključi mogućnost korišćenja instrumenta referenduma. To pre svega važi za izmenu Lisabonskog sporazuma, koji bi trebalo da bude pretvoren u evropski ustav. Podsećanja radi, u nekoliko evropskih zemalja birači su na odgovarajućim referendumima rekli ne usvajanju evropskog ustava.

Još drastičnije je takozvano pojednostavljenje procedure finansijske pomoći i nadzora finansijski ugroženim članicama. Takve mere će ubuduće biti donošene na osnovu dogovora resornih šefova, bez (do sada neophodne) saglasnosti Evropskog parlamenta.

,,Ne bi trebalo da začudi ako se demagogijama i demagozima ovim nizom mera širom otvore vrata i mogućnosti šarolikih manipulacija", zaključuje ugledni nemački nedeljnik ,,Cajt".

Miloš Kazimirović
objavljeno: 26.03.2011

QuoteOko 20.000 demonstranata okupilo se u dugačkoj koloni koja je zaustavljena na barikadama od bodljikave žice ispred Trga Šuman gde se održava samit EU posvećen kriznim merama štednje

Od našeg stalnog dopisnika

Brisel – Sukob demonstranata Evropske sindikalne unije sa policijom bio je uvertira za dvodnevni samit EU u Briselu koji, prema rečima Hermana van Rompaja, predsednika Saveta EU, predstavlja ,,prekretnicu u upravljanju krizom".

Nije bilo teže povređenih iako su demonstranti gađali policajce kaldrmom i flašama, a policija im odgovorila upotrebom vodenih topova, suzavca i palica.

Ulica De la Lua, koja se proteže duž briselske Evropske četvrti, od ranog jutra bila je prepuna u crveno obučenih nezadovoljnika ,,sveobuhvatnim odgovorom", kako evropski lideri nazivaju paket mera štednje, čije usvajanje upravo razmatraju.

Oko 20.000 demonstranata, od kojih su neki maskirali lica crvenim maramama, okupilo se u dugačkoj koloni koja je zaustavljena na barikadama od bodljikave žice nekoliko stotina metara od Trga Šuman, gde se održava samit.

Radnici i sindikati besni su zbog ,,opasnog udara na plate i socijalna prava", kako su ocenili predlog mera Nemačke i Francuske koje bi trebalo da pospeše privredni rast i konkurentnost.

Demonstranti su pokušali da probiju policijski kordon u blizini kabineta premijera Belgije, ali su čuvari reda očekivali nerede, pa su odmah žestoko odgovorili.

Iako sve susrete na najvišem nivou redovno obezbeđuju jake snage policije, one su ovoga puta bile višestruko pojačane jedinicama iz drugih gradova, a izuzetno za ovu priliku blokirana je čitava Evropska četvrt.

Demonstranti su pokušali da na više mesta zaobiđu kordone i probiju se do ,,Šumana", ali to im nije pošlo za rukom.

Samit je zvanično počeo u 16 časova, a među temama na okupljanju evropskih lidera neočekivano se našla i ostavka Žozea Sokrateša, socijalističkog premijera Portugalije, koji se povukao u sredu pošto je nacionalni parlament odbio predlog vladinih mera štednje i linearno smanjenje plata u javnom sektoru.

Dužnička kriza u Portugaliji i problem nelikvidnosti banaka u Republici Irskoj trebalo je da budu u fokusu razgovora evropskih lidera, ali činjenica da Sokrateš nije pribavio saglasnost za restriktivne mere u svojoj zemlji umanjila je izglede za uspeh samita.

To je verovatno najviše zabrinulo predlagače paketa štednje – Angelu Merkel, nemačku kancelarku, i Nikolu Sarkozija, francuskog predsednika.

Pre nego što su pripremili ,,sveobuhvatni odgovor", oni su mesecima usaglašavali različite mere štednje i tražili način za njihovu koordinaciju naglašavajući da su one nužne za stabilnost evrozone. Planirano je da na ovom, trećem ovogodišnjem samitu, dođe do konačnog dogovora, ali sindikatima se plan očigledno nije dopao i odmah su ga proglasili ,,neprijateljskim".

,,Centralna odredba je da plate idu nadole i da teret prilagođavanja finansijskoj krizi treba da snose radnici", glasi sažeto objašnjenje koje je medijima ponudio Džon Monks, sindikalni lider.

Planirano je da se on sastane sa Van Rompajem, predsednikom Evropske komisije Žozeom Manuelom Barozom, članovima mađarskog predsedništva EU i predstavnicima poslodavaca i da im predstavi zahteve sindikata.

Iako su mere štednje najavljene kao nužnost, evropske vlade će morati pažljivo da koordiniraju svoje delovanje ne samo jedne sa drugima, nego i sa sindikatima koji zastupaju interese nezadovoljne mase radnika. Jučerašnji protest organizovala su samo dva belgijska ogranka Evropske sindikalne unije od 83, koliko ih ima u 36 evropskih država, što pokazuje da su i radnici sposobni da sveobuhvatno odgovore na ponudu lidera EU.

Vladimir Jokanović

objavljeno: 25.03.2011.

QuoteViolence that continued late into last night has overshadowed yesterday's massive anti-government cuts demonstrations in central London. Skip related content


While between 400,000 and 500,000 people marched peacefully in the capital, in areas of the West End hundreds of activists clashed with police.

Riot police fought protesters at high profile landmarks including the Ritz hotel, Fortnum and Mason and in Trafalgar Square.

Missiles were thrown, graffiti was daubed on walls and some attempted to damage the square's London 2012 Olympic clock.

On Oxford Street and Regent Street the anarchists stopped traffic, smashed windows and threw paint and fireworks.

Branches of the HSBC and Santander banks were also targeted.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: "Officers have come under sustained attack as they deal with the disorder and attempted criminal damage."

However, the day's earlier march was hailed a "fantastic success" by trade unions as nurses, teachers, students, firefighters, pensioners and thousands of others walked through the city.

Union officials and Labour leader Ed Miliband condemned the "brutal" cuts in jobs and services.

The demonstration was the biggest since the anti-Iraq war march eight years ago.

But many of those walking were unaware of the violence erupting in other parts of London.

A total of 214 people have been arrested so far and there were 84 reported injuries during the day, including 31 police officers.

Commander Bob Broadhurst, who led the police operation, told Sky News: "I wouldn't even call them protesters, they're criminals.

"They've run up and down parts of central London smashing up buildings and then running off as officers try to confront them."

Campaign group UK Uncut claimed around 200 of its supporters forced themselves into luxury store Fortnum and Mason - known as the Queen's grocer.

A spokesman for the demonstrators said the target was chosen because "they dodge tens of millions in tax".

Video and photographic evidence will be used in the coming days to identify anyone else involved in the trouble.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said he "bitterly regretted" the violence, adding that he hoped it would not detract from the protest.

QuoteCommander Bob Broadhurst, who led the police operation, told Sky News: "I wouldn't even call them protesters, they're criminals.

"They've run up and down parts of central London smashing up buildings and then running off as officers try to confront them."

QuoteHolly Peterson and I spoke several times about how the super-affluence of recent years has changed the meaning of wealth. "There's so much money on the Upper East Side right now," she said. "If you look at the original movie Wall Street, it was a phenomenon where there were men in their 30s and 40s making $2 and $3 million a year, and that was disgusting. But then you had the Internet age, and then globalization, and you had people in their 30s, through hedge funds and Goldman Sachs partner jobs, who were making $20, $30, $40 million a year. And there were a lot of them doing it. I think people making $5 million to $10 million definitely don't think they are making enough money."

QuoteBy JULIANA BARBASSA, Associated Press Juliana Barbassa, Associated Press – 1 hr 19 mins ago
RIO DE JANEIRO – Stalking the halls of his one-time elementary school, 23-year-old Wellington Oliveira killed 10 girls and two boys, most with shots to their heads even as children begged him to stop, witnesses said.

Oliveira then took his own life after police gunfire struck his legs and sent him toppling down some stairs, but not before carrying out what crime experts are calling the worst school massacre in Brazil's history.

Witnesses said he entered the Tasso da Silveira school in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday armed with two pistols and an ammunition belt, shooting at students and repeatedly yelling: "I'm going to kill you all!"

"He had already killed a lot of children in the first floor and in the yard," student Jade Ramos told the Globo television network. "He kept telling the kids to face the wall and was shooting at their heads. The children kept begging, 'No, please!' There was a lot of blood, children agonizing on the stairs."

Ramos said she escaped by running into a classroom, where a teacher locked the door and barricaded it with tables. Images taken with a cellphone and posted on YouTube showed students fleeing wildly, screaming for help, many with their white and blue school shirts soaked in blood.

Families still reeling from the attack were planning for the funerals of their children Friday, while Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said she would do her best to attend the memorials.

"I ask for one minute of silence for these children who were taken so early from their life," Rousseff said, her eyes welling with tears. "It's not in the nature of our nation to have these types of crimes."

With a dozen children dead, 11 more were in hospitals for wounds or other injuries, at least two of them reported in grave condition. The ages of the children were not immediately known, though the school serves grades one through eight.

Elias da Silva paced outside a hospital waiting for news of his nephew, a 14-year-old boy who slipped on a pool of blood and twisted his ankle as he fled the school pulling along a friend during a moment when the gunman stopped to reload. His nephew escaped, but the girl was shot in the back and died, the uncle said.

"I asked God for him to come out alive and he did," Silva said. "He came out running and still thought to try to save his friend. This is going to be difficult for him to understand."

Andreia Machado tearfully recounted what her 13-year-old daughter, Thayane, told her before going into surgery.

Thayane was struck by three bullets and lost feeling in her legs because one hit her spine, the mother said. With tears streaking her cheeks, Machado wondered if her daughter would ever be able to walk.

"She's such an active child," she said. "That's the biggest fear I have, her not being able to walk again. But we have to trust in God."

Officials said Oliveira had once attended the Tasso da Silveira school in a working-class neighborhood in western Rio.

The motive for the attack wasn't known, but authorities said the shooter left a rambling and mostly incoherent letter at the scene indicating he wanted to kill himself.

The letter also explained in detail how Oliveira wanted his corpse to be cared for — bathed and wrapped in a white sheet that he left in a bag in the first room where he said he would start shooting. The letter also states that the gunman should not be touched by anyone who is "impure" unless they wear gloves.

"If possible I want to be buried next to my mother. A follower of God must visit my grave at least once. He must pray before my grave and ask God to forgive me for what I have done," read the letter, which was posted on the Globo television network's website.

Edmar Peixoto, the deputy mayor of western Rio, said the letter also stated the gunman had the AIDS virus.

Oliveira's neighbors told the newspaper Jornal do Brasil they couldn't believe the quiet young man who kept his head down and stayed out of trouble was responsible for so much bloodshed.

"He was never violent; he didn't get in trouble, throw stones, or fight in the streets," said Edna de Lira Ferreira, 55. "He was just quiet, and we respected the way he was. He just stayed in his room, in front of the computer."

Oliveira had been a Jehovah's Witness, like his adoptive parents and their other five children, Ferreira said.

Another neighbor, Elma Pedrosa, remembered Oliveira as an unusual youth who looked away when he passed acquaintances rather than greet them.

"He was anti-social, but he never demonstrated any violent tendencies," she said.

The public school was in the midst of celebrating its 40th anniversary, and students' handmade posters commemorating the day could be seen through school windows.

About 400 people were inside the school when the shooting began about 8:30 a.m.

When Oliveira first entered the school he told staff members he was there to give a lecture, Rio Police Chief Martha Rocha said. Shortly afterward, he opened fire.

The gunman had no criminal history, Rocha added at a news conference.

Rio is a city rife with drug-gang violence in its vast slums, but school shootings are rare.

"What happened in Rio is without a doubt the worst incident of its kind to have taken place in Brazil," said Guaracy Mingardi, a crime and public safety expert at the University of Sao Paulo.

Police were alerted to the shooting when two young boys, at least one with a gunshot wound, ran up to two officers on patrol about two blocks away. The officers sprinted to the school and at least one quickly located the gunman on the second floor and traded shots with him.

"He saw me and aimed a gun at me," officer Marcio Alves said. "I shot him in the legs, he fell down the stairs and then shot himself in the head."

Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes said life at the four-story, pastel yellow and green school was turned into a "hellish nightmare."

"This day would have been so much worse if it weren't for the hero policeman," Paes told reporters at the school.

Authorities closed the school temporarily while they investigate, but Paes said it would reopen.

Rio Gov. Sergio Cabral called the shooter a "psychopath" and said there were no indications anyone else was involved in the shooting, but that the investigation would continue.

"We have to investigate where he got the weapons and where he learned to use them," the governor said.

___

Associated Press writers Bradley Brooks, Stan Lehman and Tales Azzoni in Sao Paulo contributed to this report.

QuoteRussian customs have caught a man trying to smuggle a live bear out of the country.

'Kesha', an elderly and endangered bear, was hidden under a blanket between two seats in the man's van.

Pictures shows 23-year-old Kesha looking sad and bedraggled, though she appears to show some affection towards her owner, Anatoly Kolodenko.

Customs officials detained the pair saying Kolodenko did not declare the bear and has no documentation for her.

Kolodenko claimed to be a circus performer returning home to Crimea. He said he and now-retired Kesha had performed around the world together.

"There are situations where people exploit animals for money - but I have no commercial interests.

"They have been telling me I have to euthanize her. But I can't do it. I can't kill my own child."

Kesha's fate is yet undecided. She may end up in a zoo as with previous smuggling cases.

Russian circuses continue to use bears as entertainment often forcing them to dance or ice skate to please the crowds.

QuoteПортугалија трећа чланица еврозоне која не може сама да реши дужничку кризу. – Хитан самит ЕУ, Шпанија пориче да је следећа у реду за ,,спасавање"...

Финансијски урушена Португалија коначно је у среду вече званично затражила новчану помоћ Европске уније, након једногодишњег жилавог опирања притисцима међународног финансијског тржишта и партнера у еврозони.

,,Учинио сам све, али Португалија је данас изложена ризицима које земља себи не може да приушти", признао је португалски премијер у оставци Жозе Сократеш, иначе огорчени противних помоћи са стране.

Апел Лисабона за још непрецизирану помоћ ЕУ (спомиње се 75 милијарди евра) уследио је након што су португалске банке у уторак одбиле да гарантују исплату пристижућих рата државног дуга (само 15. априла и 15. јуна Лисабон треба повериоцима да намири 12 милијарди евра потраживања).

Након Грчке и Ирске, Португалија је тако постала већ трећа чланица еврозоне која за мање од годину дана тражи страну финансијску помоћ јер не може да се избори са домаћом дужничком кризом. Европски званичници упињали су се јуче да увере финансијска тржишта да ће након помоћи Португалији из Спасилачког фонда ЕУ дужничка криза у еврозони бити ,,обуздана". Берзе и експерти нису јуче крили сумњу у тај сценарио.

Заборавите Португалију, малу државу у еврозони, помно размотрите способност Шпаније, да испоштује своје дужничке обавезе, упозорио је инвеститоре јуче професор Нуријел Рубини у ауторском тексту у ,,Њујорк тајмсу".

Шпански министар финансија Елена Салгадо одбацила је јуче сваку помисао да би се дужничка криза могла ускоро прелити и на ту земљу.

У међувремену, португалска опозиција, међународно тржиште и ЕУ опречно су реаговали на апел лидера који је 23. марта поднео оставку због отпора парламента у Лисабону да усвоји његов најновији (четврти) пакет строгих мера штедње.

Лидер португалске опозиције Педро Коељо оценио је Сократешов апел за помоћ ,,закаснелом акцијом".

Светске берзе јуче се нису ни осврнуле на Сократешов ТВ апел за помоћ. Финансијским тржиштима је, наиме, одавно јасно да Португалија не може сама да се избори са теретом претераног задуживања, згаслим привредним растом, растом незапослености и економском бесперспективношћу. ,,Једино је влада у Лисабону упорно одбијала да тој реалности погледа у очи", оцењују међународне кредитне агенције које су последњих дана узастопно обарале рејтинг Португалије.

На другом крају Европе, у Бриселу, комесар за економију Оли Рен је молбу Португалије за помоћ прогласио ,,одговорном акцијом". Бивши португалски премијер и председник Европске комисије Жозе Мануел Барозо најавио је јуче да ће европски план за Португалију бити састављен у ,,најскоријем року".

Министри финансија ЕУ већ јуче су се састали у Годолу код Будимпеште да скроје етапни план финансијске помоћи Португалији. У трци да обуздају португалске финансијске невоље и увере берзе да нема бојазни од даљег преливања дужничке кризе у еврозони, ЕУ сада води трку са временом.

Португалија излази 5. јуна на ванредне изборе: питање је да ли ће следећа влада у Лисабону и тамошње јавно мњење прихватити драконске пакете реформи којима су већ изложене Грчка и Ирска. Део пакета помоћи Лисабону ЕУ ће преговарати са португалском владом у оставци, али оне дугорочније резове треба да прихвати кабинет чији је састав још непознат.

Крој ,,португалског пакета" трајаће до суботе, када су игром случаја у Будимпешти заказане велике демонстрације против банкарском кризом наметнутих реформи у Европи.

Т. Вујић

QuoteBy MARCO CHOWN OVED, Associated Press Marco Chown Oved, Associated Press – Sun Apr 10, 9:31 pm ET
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast – United Nations and French helicopters fired rockets on strongman Laurent Gbagbo's residence on Sunday in an assault the U.N. said was to retaliate for attacks by his forces on U.N. headquarters and civilians.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he had authorized the strikes, accusing Gbagbo of using heavy weapons against Ivory Coast civilians and the U.N. forces trying to protect them.

Residents from nearby neighborhoods reported seeing two U.N. Mi-24 attack helicopters and a French helicopter open fire on the residence, where Gbagbo is holed up in a bunker. The residents couldn't be named for fear of reprisal.

An Associated Press reporter saw the helicopters take off from the French military base followed minutes later by explosions coming from the direction of the residence. Successive waves of French helicopters took off from the base in the following hours and additional bombardments could be heard.

Gbagbo has been living in a bunker in his residence in Abidjan for nearly a week. After a decade in power, he refuses to step aside even though the United Nations has ruled that he lost the November presidential election to Alassane Ouattara.

Forces loyal to Gbagbo were encircled at the presidential residence earlier this week but broke out on Saturday, ambushing a patrol of soldiers loyal to his rival and advancing downtown.

Pro-Gbagbo forces also attacked U.N. headquarters on Saturday and again on Sunday.

In New York, a statement issued by the U.N. secretary-general accused Gbagbo and supporters of saying earlier in April that they were willing to negotiate an end to the crisis but that "they, in fact, used that time to regroup their forces and redeploy heavy weapons."

Since then, Ban said, Gbagbo's forces have attacked U.N. peacekeepers, civilians and the Golf Hotel where Ouattara is holed up.

Ban said he authorized U.N. units, with backing from French forces, to carry out attacks aimed at eliminating Gbagbo's heavy weapons.

He urged Gbagbo again "to step aside immediately" and turn the government over to Ouattara.

In Ivory Coast, U.N. spokesman Hamadoun Toure said: "This is in retaliation for a series of attacks for the last three or four days not only against (the U.N.) but also against the civilian population — often with heavy weapons."

Toure said Sunday's airstrikes targeted the presidential palace and Gbagbo's residence, as well as military bases where heavy weapons had been identified.

Gbagbo has lost control of virtually the entire country in the last two weeks as forces loyal to Ouattara have swept down from the north and west into the commercial capital. U.N. and French forces joined the effort last week, and a first round of U.N. and French airstrikes destroyed much of his arsenal of tanks, mortars and other heavy weapons.

In the wake of the onslaught, Gbagbo and his top military men were negotiating a surrender early last week that had raised expectations the four-month political standoff was nearing an end. But he continued to assert he would not give up power and was the legitimate president of Ivory Coast.

"I am concluding that Mr. Gbagbo has lost contact with reality," said the U.N. peacekeeping mission head, Choi Young-jin.

The United Nations said the Golf Hotel in Abidjan where Ouattara is based came under attack late Saturday and one peacekeeper was injured. Rockets and mortars landed on the hotel grounds shortly after U.N. forces came under attack nearby, said U.N. spokesman Toure. One peacekeeper was evacuated to a hospital with serious injuries, he said.

Massere Toure, a communications adviser for Ouattara, denied the hotel itself was targeted by the attack, which she said started when a patrol sent out from the hotel was ambushed by forces loyal to Gbagbo. Toure confirmed that stray bullets and at least one mortar landed on hotel grounds during the fighting.

Ouattara's forces have repeatedly said they do not want to kill Gbagbo, a move that would stoke the rage of supporters of the strongman, who won 46 percent of the vote in last year's election.

Quote from: lilit_depp on 11-04-2011, 09:56:58
Ovo bi potencijalno moglo da bude za*ebano:
France's ban on burqas, niqabs to take effect Monday

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/04/11/france.burqa.ban/ (http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/04/11/france.burqa.ban/)

Quote from: lilit_depp on 11-04-2011, 13:22:30
Jbt, ovi Francuzi su stvarno zaslužili da ih Nemci opet progutaju.  :lol:

QuoteLawmakers have also cited security reasons for forbidding people from covering their faces in public.

French people backed the ban by a margin of more than four to one, the Pew Global Attitudes Project found in a survey last year.

Some 82 percent of people polled approved of a ban, while 17 percent disapproved. That was the widest support the Washington-based think tank found in any of the five countries it surveyed.

Quote from: John Reynolds on 11-04-2011, 15:05:29
Sad će se, naravno, javiti svi oni koji misle da neke životinje trebaju biti jednakije od drugih.

Quote from: scallop on 11-04-2011, 14:42:25
Zez je što u islamskim zemljama i nemuslimanske žene moraju da sakriju lice.

Quote from: John Reynolds on 11-04-2011, 15:23:49
Meho, to što spominješ mogu samo da nazovem dogmom. Niko se ne zapita zašto se javlja taj famozni "pritisak većine". Zatvoren je to krug - jedni imaju privilegije, a većina nije ćorava.

Quote from: D. on 11-04-2011, 16:42:39

Quote from: John Reynolds on 11-04-2011, 15:23:49
Meho, to što spominješ mogu samo da nazovem dogmom. Niko se ne zapita zašto se javlja taj famozni "pritisak većine". Zatvoren je to krug - jedni imaju privilegije, a većina nije ćorava.

Nekad većina spada u većinu jer uživa privilegije. Zato su i osmišljena prava manjina.

Quote from: John Reynolds on 11-04-2011, 16:59:17

Quote from: D. on 11-04-2011, 16:42:39

Quote from: John Reynolds on 11-04-2011, 15:23:49
Meho, to što spominješ mogu samo da nazovem dogmom. Niko se ne zapita zašto se javlja taj famozni "pritisak većine". Zatvoren je to krug - jedni imaju privilegije, a većina nije ćorava.

Nekad većina spada u većinu jer uživa privilegije. Zato su i osmišljena prava manjina.

Zanimljiv izbor reči. Većina ima privilegije, a manjina prava. Daj, ne zasmejavaj me. "Prava manjina" je eufemizam za privilegije. A to ruši osnovu nerobovlasničkih republika (sad zvučim kao Lomljavina) - jednakost. Jedan čovek - jedan glas. Demokratska država bi trebalo da zaštiti interes većine od interesa manjine.

Quote from: D. on 11-04-2011, 17:03:30
Aha. Znači jedan čovek jedan glas. Samo što onaj ko ima privilegije ima vredniji glas. Pitaj Savet bezbednosti.

Quote from: John Reynolds on 11-04-2011, 17:26:30

Meho, brkaš stvari. Demokratski, učestvuješ u vlasti i kad si manjina. Međutim, a tiče se školovanja na maternjem jeziku, zavisi od procenta te manjine hoće li to pravo biti sprovedeno u delo, nećeš sigurno u Srbiji otvarati škole na svahiliju. Prostom matematikom, ako postoji nekakav cenzus za to, otvara se škola i to se rešava LOKALNO. Nema potrebe za škole na mađarskom u Nišu (pričam napamet, nemoj sad ovo uzimati kao egzaktan podatak). Ali ako ti cenzus na državnom nivou sniziš za stranke manjina, onda moj i tvoj glas vrede manje od nekog pripadnika manjine - a apsurd je reći da se diskriminacijom jednih postiže nekakav ravnopravni položaj. Odmah potom imaš "ključeve", "kvote" i koješta, ostale diskriminatorske pojave maskirane kao pomoć ugroženijima.

Quote from: John Reynolds on 11-04-2011, 17:26:30

Quote from: D. on 11-04-2011, 17:03:30
Aha. Znači jedan čovek jedan glas. Samo što onaj ko ima privilegije ima vredniji glas. Pitaj Savet bezbednosti.

Tačno. Impliciraš da su stalne članice, sile sa pravom veta, isto što i manjine? Pa, da. Slažem se. Opasnost po Slobodan Svet.

Meho, brkaš stvari. Demokratski, učestvuješ u vlasti i kad si manjina. Međutim, a tiče se školovanja na maternjem jeziku, zavisi od procenta te manjine hoće li to pravo biti sprovedeno u delo, nećeš sigurno u Srbiji otvarati škole na svahiliju. Prostom matematikom, ako postoji nekakav cenzus za to, otvara se škola i to se rešava LOKALNO. Nema potrebe za škole na mađarskom u Nišu (pričam napamet, nemoj sad ovo uzimati kao egzaktan podatak). Ali ako ti cenzus na državnom nivou sniziš za stranke manjina, onda moj i tvoj glas vrede manje od nekog pripadnika manjine - a apsurd je reći da se diskriminacijom jednih postiže nekakav ravnopravni položaj. Odmah potom imaš "ključeve", "kvote" i koješta, ostale diskriminatorske pojave maskirane kao pomoć ugroženijima.

E, a ja sad pitam - a gde je ta ugoženost? Ugroženost je - pazi sad - navodna. Kao, većina će asimilirati manjinu. Bulšit. Kao, ranije, dok nije bilo diskriminatorskih propisa i zakona kao danas, nisu postojale manjine? Postojale su i učestvovale su u javnom životu, bilo je veoma istaknutih ličnosti. Pa samo za Srbiju ne moram da nabrajam razna očigledno nesrpska imena. To da manjini preti opasnost od većine je veoma klimava teza, poput one kojoj si se i sam smejao, da postoje dokazi da je Gadafi imao nameru da primeni silu, pa je zato bombardovan.