British forces are relying increasingly on unmanned drones to attack targets in Afghanistan, mirroring controversial tactics used by the US.New Ministry of Defence figures show the RAF has fired 84 missiles from Reaper drones since they were first deployed there in June 2008, with more than 20 being fired over the past two months.The RAF has not disclosed the number of US-made Reapers deployed in Afghanistan, but say they will double the total over the next two years. Defence chiefs say they have been slow to recognise their potential, both in a surveillance role and as a weapons carrier.They are launched from a base in Kandahar, but are controlled remotely thousands of miles away by a squadron of some 90 RAF personnel based at Creech US air force base in Nevada.The drones can carry out surveillance - what the RAF describe as a "staring eye" - of the battlefield around the clock, far longer than conventional manned aircraft. They are highly suitable in Afghanistan where they are not generally vulnerable to enemy fire, defence officials say.Once a target has been identified, the RAF remote controllers can instruct the drones to fire their two 500lb laser-guided bombs and four Hellfire missiles.
British forces are relying increasingly on unmanned drones to attack targets in Afghanistan, mirroring controversial tactics used by the US.
New Ministry of Defence figures show the RAF has fired 84 missiles from Reaper drones since they were first deployed there in June 2008, with more than 20 being fired over the past two months.
The RAF has not disclosed the number of US-made Reapers deployed in Afghanistan, but say they will double the total over the next two years. Defence chiefs say they have been slow to recognise their potential, both in a surveillance role and as a weapons carrier.
They are launched from a base in Kandahar, but are controlled remotely thousands of miles away by a squadron of some 90 RAF personnel based at Creech US air force base in Nevada.
The drones can carry out surveillance - what the RAF describe as a "staring eye" - of the battlefield around the clock, far longer than conventional manned aircraft. They are highly suitable in Afghanistan where they are not generally vulnerable to enemy fire, defence officials say.
Once a target has been identified, the RAF remote controllers can instruct the drones to fire their two 500lb laser-guided bombs and four Hellfire missiles.
AIRO -- Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, ordered the nation's atomic energy agency on Sunday to begin producing a special form of uranium that can be used to power a medical reactor in Tehran, but that could also move the country much closer to possessing fuel usable in nuclear weapons. The announcement Sunday came after several days of conflicting signals from Mr. Ahmadinejad and other Iranian officials about whether they were ready to reopen negotiations about giving up much of their country's fuel in exchange for enriched uranium from another country. The exchange would allow Iran to meet some of its energy needs, but would ease fears in the West because the fuel sent to Tehran would be in a form that would be very difficult to use in a bomb.The deal fell apart when it was rejected by the leadership in Tehran. Mr. Ahmadinejad's order on Sunday may represent nuclear gamesmanship; it is unclear if the country has the capacity to enrich its fuel to roughly 20 percent, from about 5 percent, as Mr. Ahmadinejad was ordering. Doing so would require retooling the configuration of the nation's centrifuges at a moment when Iran appears to have run into considerable technical difficulties at its nuclear plants. It is unclear if those troubles have been caused either by its own technical failings, or sabotage by Western intelligence agencies, or both. American intelligence officials have told Congress and close allies, in closed briefings, that covert efforts to interfere with Iran's production capability are extremely active.
AIRO -- Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, ordered the nation's atomic energy agency on Sunday to begin producing a special form of uranium that can be used to power a medical reactor in Tehran, but that could also move the country much closer to possessing fuel usable in nuclear weapons.
The announcement Sunday came after several days of conflicting signals from Mr. Ahmadinejad and other Iranian officials about whether they were ready to reopen negotiations about giving up much of their country's fuel in exchange for enriched uranium from another country. The exchange would allow Iran to meet some of its energy needs, but would ease fears in the West because the fuel sent to Tehran would be in a form that would be very difficult to use in a bomb.
The deal fell apart when it was rejected by the leadership in Tehran.
Mr. Ahmadinejad's order on Sunday may represent nuclear gamesmanship; it is unclear if the country has the capacity to enrich its fuel to roughly 20 percent, from about 5 percent, as Mr. Ahmadinejad was ordering. Doing so would require retooling the configuration of the nation's centrifuges at a moment when Iran appears to have run into considerable technical difficulties at its nuclear plants.
It is unclear if those troubles have been caused either by its own technical failings, or sabotage by Western intelligence agencies, or both. American intelligence officials have told Congress and close allies, in closed briefings, that covert efforts to interfere with Iran's production capability are extremely active.
what does 20% get you ? It's pointlessly rich for power but way short of what you need for a bomb ? keep to the Fen Causeway
WASHINGTON -- Sarah Palin said Sunday she might run for president in 2012 if she decides it's good for her family and country. Fresh from a speech to conservative activists at a "tea party" gathering in Nashville, Palin said that President Barack Obama could be defeated in 2012, that she's gearing up on foreign policy and other issues, and that she would run herself if it felt right. "I would," she said on Fox News Sunday. "I would if I believed that that is the right thing to do for our country and for the Palin family. Certainly, I would do so." A paid contributor to Fox News, Palin added, "I think that it would be absurd to not consider what it is that I can potentially do to help our country. I don't know if it's going to be ever seeking a title, though. It may be just doing a darn good job as a reporter or covering some of the current events."Asked how she would make the decision, the former Alaska governor said she "thankfully" has plenty of time. She noted that other potential candidates for the Republican presidential nomination may know more about the issues.
WASHINGTON -- Sarah Palin said Sunday she might run for president in 2012 if she decides it's good for her family and country.
Fresh from a speech to conservative activists at a "tea party" gathering in Nashville, Palin said that President Barack Obama could be defeated in 2012, that she's gearing up on foreign policy and other issues, and that she would run herself if it felt right.
"I would," she said on Fox News Sunday. "I would if I believed that that is the right thing to do for our country and for the Palin family. Certainly, I would do so."
A paid contributor to Fox News, Palin added, "I think that it would be absurd to not consider what it is that I can potentially do to help our country. I don't know if it's going to be ever seeking a title, though. It may be just doing a darn good job as a reporter or covering some of the current events."
Asked how she would make the decision, the former Alaska governor said she "thankfully" has plenty of time. She noted that other potential candidates for the Republican presidential nomination may know more about the issues.
If she is elected we deserve our fate.
Obama has hinted he's not running in 2012. If he doesn't, the Dems will be a rudderless ship without sails. Who's going to replace him at short notice? Hillary?
Not that Hillary vs Palin wouldn't be interesting to watch, in a deeply depressing kind of a way.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- The floors were concrete and the windows were broken. There was no electricity or running water. Lunch looked like watery grits. Beds were fashioned from sheets of cardboard. And the only toilet did not work.But the Foyer of Patience here is like hundreds of places that pass as orphanages for thousands of children in the poorest country in the hemisphere. Many are barely habitable, much less licensed. They have no means to provide real schooling or basic medical care, so children spend their days engaged in mindless activities, and many die from treatable illnesses.Haiti's child welfare system was broken before the earthquake struck. But as the quake shattered homes and drove hundreds of thousands of people into the streets, the number of children needing care grew exponentially. Chronic problems -- like inadequate services, overwhelming poverty and shady orphanages -- have only intensified, while the authorities fear that some of the less scrupulous orphanages are taking advantage of the chaos to round up children in crisis and offer them for sale as servants and sex slaves. But it took the arrest last weekend of 10 Americans caught trying to leave the country with 33 Haitian children to focus international attention on the issue. While there is no evidence that the Americans, who said they were trying to rescue children in the aftermath of the earthquake, intended any harm, the ease with which they drove into the capital and scooped up a busload of children without documents exposed vast gaps in the system's safeguards.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- The floors were concrete and the windows were broken.
There was no electricity or running water. Lunch looked like watery grits. Beds were fashioned from sheets of cardboard. And the only toilet did not work.
But the Foyer of Patience here is like hundreds of places that pass as orphanages for thousands of children in the poorest country in the hemisphere. Many are barely habitable, much less licensed. They have no means to provide real schooling or basic medical care, so children spend their days engaged in mindless activities, and many die from treatable illnesses.
Haiti's child welfare system was broken before the earthquake struck. But as the quake shattered homes and drove hundreds of thousands of people into the streets, the number of children needing care grew exponentially.
Chronic problems -- like inadequate services, overwhelming poverty and shady orphanages -- have only intensified, while the authorities fear that some of the less scrupulous orphanages are taking advantage of the chaos to round up children in crisis and offer them for sale as servants and sex slaves.
But it took the arrest last weekend of 10 Americans caught trying to leave the country with 33 Haitian children to focus international attention on the issue. While there is no evidence that the Americans, who said they were trying to rescue children in the aftermath of the earthquake, intended any harm, the ease with which they drove into the capital and scooped up a busload of children without documents exposed vast gaps in the system's safeguards.
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast -- The pictures plastered on school walls all over the country offered a stark reminder of the divisions in this identity-obsessed nation. On one side were the faces of people the government has deemed true members of society, the ones eligible to vote in the first election here in a decade. On the other side were snapshots of the multitudes -- about a million in all -- whose identities have fallen under official suspicion. Ten years of war and riots lie behind those fateful doubts, and soon after the pictures went up the astonishment at being excluded gave way to an urgent reality. To vote in the long-postponed election, many of these one million excluded residents had to troop to registration offices, clutching yellowing documents in a race to prove they belonged here. Sometimes even a birth certificate was not enough. "I was surprised and shocked" to be barred from voting, said Serge Bayoro, 31. Waiting at a vote center to challenge his status, Mr. Bayoro said with quiet insistence, "I'm a pure-blood Ivorian." Those are loaded words in a country where the contrary has been fatal. After years of violence and delays, Ivory Coast, once West Africa's economic star, is stumbling toward a presidential election. Peace is the hope, expressed over and over in markets and in offices: hold the election and the country can begin to recover. Officials insist that preparations are now ending and that the million residents in dispute, in a country of 18.5 million, will either be integrated into the voter rolls or not.
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast -- The pictures plastered on school walls all over the country offered a stark reminder of the divisions in this identity-obsessed nation.
On one side were the faces of people the government has deemed true members of society, the ones eligible to vote in the first election here in a decade. On the other side were snapshots of the multitudes -- about a million in all -- whose identities have fallen under official suspicion.
Ten years of war and riots lie behind those fateful doubts, and soon after the pictures went up the astonishment at being excluded gave way to an urgent reality. To vote in the long-postponed election, many of these one million excluded residents had to troop to registration offices, clutching yellowing documents in a race to prove they belonged here. Sometimes even a birth certificate was not enough.
"I was surprised and shocked" to be barred from voting, said Serge Bayoro, 31. Waiting at a vote center to challenge his status, Mr. Bayoro said with quiet insistence, "I'm a pure-blood Ivorian."
Those are loaded words in a country where the contrary has been fatal. After years of violence and delays, Ivory Coast, once West Africa's economic star, is stumbling toward a presidential election. Peace is the hope, expressed over and over in markets and in offices: hold the election and the country can begin to recover. Officials insist that preparations are now ending and that the million residents in dispute, in a country of 18.5 million, will either be integrated into the voter rolls or not.
NASHVILLE - Four Tennessee tea party activists who said they couldn't afford the $550 tickets to the National Tea Party Convention staged a guerilla news conference just outside of the event to challenge its representation of the movement. "There are a lot of citizens in the state of Tennessee today who could not afford to be here... particularly in this economy," said Antonio Hinton, a 37-year old tea party activist from Knoxville. "They're just as patriotic. They're just as concerned. They care just as much about what's going on as the folks that are in that room." The convention's steep ticket price, combined with its top-down organizational structure and the $100,000 speaking fee its organizers paid keynote speaker Sarah Palin all fly in the face of the grassroots tea party movement, Hinton and his three cohorts asserted in a quickly put-together press conference outside the convention hall. About 40 journalists and camera people from the heavy media contingent covering the convention gathered around the four dissidents in a hotel lobby outside the entrance to the banquet room hosting most convention activities, as curious convention-goers crammed their necks to get a look at the spectacle, after which some challenged assertions made by the four. All four of the men protesting the convention are part of a recently formed coalition of 34 tea party groups from around Tennessee that does not include the group behind the convention. The four contended the coalition, the Tennessee Tea Party Coalition, is more representative of the conservative populist movement, whose members have nonetheless chafed at being associated too closely with the Republican Party and its political leaders.
NASHVILLE - Four Tennessee tea party activists who said they couldn't afford the $550 tickets to the National Tea Party Convention staged a guerilla news conference just outside of the event to challenge its representation of the movement.
"There are a lot of citizens in the state of Tennessee today who could not afford to be here... particularly in this economy," said Antonio Hinton, a 37-year old tea party activist from Knoxville. "They're just as patriotic. They're just as concerned. They care just as much about what's going on as the folks that are in that room."
The convention's steep ticket price, combined with its top-down organizational structure and the $100,000 speaking fee its organizers paid keynote speaker Sarah Palin all fly in the face of the grassroots tea party movement, Hinton and his three cohorts asserted in a quickly put-together press conference outside the convention hall.
About 40 journalists and camera people from the heavy media contingent covering the convention gathered around the four dissidents in a hotel lobby outside the entrance to the banquet room hosting most convention activities, as curious convention-goers crammed their necks to get a look at the spectacle, after which some challenged assertions made by the four.
All four of the men protesting the convention are part of a recently formed coalition of 34 tea party groups from around Tennessee that does not include the group behind the convention. The four contended the coalition, the Tennessee Tea Party Coalition, is more representative of the conservative populist movement, whose members have nonetheless chafed at being associated too closely with the Republican Party and its political leaders.
A SENIOR official at Amnesty International has accused the charity of putting the human rights of Al-Qaeda terror suspects above those of their victims. Gita Sahgal, head of the gender unit at Amnesty's international secretariat, believes that collaborating with Moazzam Begg, a former British inmate at Guantanamo Bay, "fundamentally damages" the organisation's reputation. In an email sent to Amnesty's top bosses, she suggests the charity has mistakenly allied itself with Begg and his "jihadi" group, Cageprisoners, out of fear of being branded racist and Islamophobic. Sahgal describes Begg as "Britain's most famous supporter of the Taliban". He has championed the rights of jailed Al-Qaeda members and hate preachers, including Anwar al-Awlaki, the alleged spiritual mentor of the Christmas Day Detroit plane bomber.
A SENIOR official at Amnesty International has accused the charity of putting the human rights of Al-Qaeda terror suspects above those of their victims.
Gita Sahgal, head of the gender unit at Amnesty's international secretariat, believes that collaborating with Moazzam Begg, a former British inmate at Guantanamo Bay, "fundamentally damages" the organisation's reputation.
In an email sent to Amnesty's top bosses, she suggests the charity has mistakenly allied itself with Begg and his "jihadi" group, Cageprisoners, out of fear of being branded racist and Islamophobic.
Sahgal describes Begg as "Britain's most famous supporter of the Taliban". He has championed the rights of jailed Al-Qaeda members and hate preachers, including Anwar al-Awlaki, the alleged spiritual mentor of the Christmas Day Detroit plane bomber.
Amnesty International is being accused in a media article today of putting the human rights of some people above those of others. This is not, and has never been, true. Implicit in the accusation, is the view that we should choose those whose rights we promote. We reject this view utterly. Amnesty International campaigns for all internationally recognised human rights for all people - it is not about their views, their political opinions, their actions - it's about upholding the universality of human rights: these are the inalienable rights of all human beings. As part and parcel of promoting human rights, we also have a long history of demanding that those who perpetrate human rights abuses be brought to justice - whoever they may be. We make this call because victims deserve to see justice done, to know that the harm done to them has been exposed and to seek reparations. Whenever Amnesty International accuses governments or other actors of committing human rights violations - based on our research - they typically make one of two defences. Either the violation never happened, for example, denying the existence of secret detention facilities or that the victim got what he or she "deserved."
Amnesty International is being accused in a media article today of putting the human rights of some people above those of others. This is not, and has never been, true. Implicit in the accusation, is the view that we should choose those whose rights we promote. We reject this view utterly. Amnesty International campaigns for all internationally recognised human rights for all people - it is not about their views, their political opinions, their actions - it's about upholding the universality of human rights: these are the inalienable rights of all human beings. As part and parcel of promoting human rights, we also have a long history of demanding that those who perpetrate human rights abuses be brought to justice - whoever they may be. We make this call because victims deserve to see justice done, to know that the harm done to them has been exposed and to seek reparations.
Whenever Amnesty International accuses governments or other actors of committing human rights violations - based on our research - they typically make one of two defences. Either the violation never happened, for example, denying the existence of secret detention facilities or that the victim got what he or she "deserved."
or, Why Paul Krugman misses Newt Gingrich
[USA.Is.DoomedTM Alert]
America Is Not Yet Lost | Paul Krugman - NYTimes.com
We've always known that America's reign as the world's greatest nation would eventually end. But most of us imagined that our downfall, when it came, would be something grand and tragic. What we're getting instead is less a tragedy than a deadly farce. <...> In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Polish legislature, the Sejm, operated on the unanimity principle: any member could nullify legislation by shouting "I do not allow!" This made the nation largely ungovernable, and neighboring regimes began hacking off pieces of its territory. By 1795 Poland had disappeared, not to re-emerge for more than a century.Today, the U.S. Senate seems determined to make the Sejm look good by comparison. <...> After the dissolution of Poland, a Polish officer serving under Napoleon penned a song that eventually -- after the country's post-World War I resurrection -- became the country's national anthem. It begins, "Poland is not yet lost." Well, America is not yet lost. But the Senate is working on it.
We've always known that America's reign as the world's greatest nation would eventually end. But most of us imagined that our downfall, when it came, would be something grand and tragic.
What we're getting instead is less a tragedy than a deadly farce.
<...>
In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Polish legislature, the Sejm, operated on the unanimity principle: any member could nullify legislation by shouting "I do not allow!" This made the nation largely ungovernable, and neighboring regimes began hacking off pieces of its territory. By 1795 Poland had disappeared, not to re-emerge for more than a century.
Today, the U.S. Senate seems determined to make the Sejm look good by comparison.
After the dissolution of Poland, a Polish officer serving under Napoleon penned a song that eventually -- after the country's post-World War I resurrection -- became the country's national anthem. It begins, "Poland is not yet lost."
Well, America is not yet lost. But the Senate is working on it.
Because the Democrats are more principled or because they are too wimpy to use the same tactics of political sabotage? The march of civilizations is a series of defenses that man has put up against the dread of pure existence.
Ще не вмерла Українa The march of civilizations is a series of defenses that man has put up against the dread of pure existence.
A Michigan company that supplies gun sights to Israel and other companies has agreed to provide a kit to remove the "JN8:12" code, a reference to the New Testament passage of John 8:12 that Jesus is the "light of the world." Another type of the company's gun sights is stamped with "2COR4:6," a reference to part of the second letter of Paul to the Corinthians. [...] The IDF said it was unaware of the codes until the issue was raised in the United States. The coded gun sights appear on many Israeli rifles as well as 300,000 gun sights in the U.S. army and marines.
[...]
The IDF said it was unaware of the codes until the issue was raised in the United States. The coded gun sights appear on many Israeli rifles as well as 300,000 gun sights in the U.S. army and marines.
Costa Rica is set to have its first female president, after election results gave governing party candidate Laura Chinchilla an unassailable lead.With most votes counted from Sunday's poll, Ms Chinchilla had 47% of the vote, 22 points ahead of the main opposition contender, Otton Solis. Ms Chinchilla, a former vice-president, has pledged to continue the free-market policies of outgoing head, Oscar Arias. She has also promised to tackle violent crime, a growing issue in Costa Rica. "The biggest challenge we face is criminality, violence and drug-trafficking," Ms Chinchilla, 50, told her supporters. Costa Rica, along with other Central American nations, is increasingly being used as a transit route for drugs smuggled from South America to the US market. She also responded to criticism that she is too close to Mr Arias, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, and that he will continue to control government policies.
Costa Rica is set to have its first female president, after election results gave governing party candidate Laura Chinchilla an unassailable lead.
With most votes counted from Sunday's poll, Ms Chinchilla had 47% of the vote, 22 points ahead of the main opposition contender, Otton Solis.
Ms Chinchilla, a former vice-president, has pledged to continue the free-market policies of outgoing head, Oscar Arias.
She has also promised to tackle violent crime, a growing issue in Costa Rica.
"The biggest challenge we face is criminality, violence and drug-trafficking," Ms Chinchilla, 50, told her supporters.
Costa Rica, along with other Central American nations, is increasingly being used as a transit route for drugs smuggled from South America to the US market.
She also responded to criticism that she is too close to Mr Arias, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, and that he will continue to control government policies.
Pura vidaBut does this "greenness" make Costa Ricans happier? "Yes," says Mr Ulate. "Now I have a simpler, less materialistic life, more in tune with nature." "We don't have a sensation of death," says Mr Montealegre. "Nothing is arid here, you can see life everywhere." He points out that Costa Ricans often answer the question 'How are you?' with the phrase "pura vida". It literally translates as "pure life" but roughly means "cool" or "everything's fine". But amid such upbeat views, Bishop Jimenez is more circumspect. "I cannot be happy when the number of poor people is increasing," he says. "And when the government is allowing open pit mining and exercising no control over multinationals growing melons and pineapples. International studies show they are using excessive amounts of agrochemicals."
Pura vida
But does this "greenness" make Costa Ricans happier?
"Yes," says Mr Ulate. "Now I have a simpler, less materialistic life, more in tune with nature."
"We don't have a sensation of death," says Mr Montealegre. "Nothing is arid here, you can see life everywhere."
He points out that Costa Ricans often answer the question 'How are you?' with the phrase "pura vida". It literally translates as "pure life" but roughly means "cool" or "everything's fine".
But amid such upbeat views, Bishop Jimenez is more circumspect.
"I cannot be happy when the number of poor people is increasing," he says.
"And when the government is allowing open pit mining and exercising no control over multinationals growing melons and pineapples. International studies show they are using excessive amounts of agrochemicals."
