A Muslim graveyard in the heart of Mumbai has broken with Islamic tradition and refused to bury the bodies of nine terrorists who were killed during the attack on India’s financial capital.
The influential Muslim Jama Masjid Trust, which runs the 7.5-acre Badakabrastan graveyard, said it would not bury the gunmen because they were not true followers of Islam.
Hanif Nalkhande, a spokesman for the trust, said: “People who committed this heinous crime cannot be called Muslim. Islam does not permit this sort of barbaric crime.”
At least ten gunmen killed nearly 200 people in a series of coordinated attacks that began on Wednesday evening and swept south Mumbai. The strikes targeted two luxury hotels, the city’s main train station, a hospital and a Jewish centre.
News · Obama-Biden national security team announced
Reporting from Los Angeles and Sacramento – California’s unemployment rate soared to a 14-year high in October, hitting 8.2%, and economists predicted that it could rise substantially over the next year and a half. ...
And the situation is about to get worse, predicted Ross DeVol, director of regional economics at the Santa Monica-based Milken Institute. The unemployment rate is seen reaching 9.9% in the first quarter of 2010, with the loss of 360,000 more jobs before then.
The hemorrhaging of jobs is “another indication that the state is plunging into what is likely to be a long and deep recession,” said Stephen Levy, chief economist and director of the Center for the Continuing Study of the California Economy in Palo Alto. ...
News · Washington Post - Obama to Explore New Approach in Afghanistan War
Obama to Explore New Approach in Afghanistan War
By Karen DeYoung Washington Post
Tuesday, November 11, 2008; A01
The incoming Obama administration plans to explore a more regional strategy to the war in Afghanistan – including possible talks with Iran – and looks favorably on the nascent dialogue between the Afghan government and “reconcilable” elements of the Taliban, according to Obama national security advisers.
President-elect Barack Obama also intends to renew the U.S. commitment to the hunt for Osama bin Laden, a priority the president-elect believes President Bush has played down after years of failing to apprehend the al-Qaeda leader. Critical of Bush during the campaign for what he said was the president’s extreme focus on Iraq at the expense of Afghanistan, Obama also intends to move ahead with a planned deployment of thousands of additional U.S. troops there. ...
But conversations with several Obama advisers and a number of senior military strategists both before and since last Tuesday’s election reveal a shared sense that the Afghan effort under the Bush administration has been hampered by ideological and diplomatic constraints and an unrealistic commitment to the goal of building a modern democracy – rather than a stable nation that rejects al-Qaeda and Islamist extremism and does not threaten U.S. interests. None of those who discussed the subject would speak on the record, citing sensitivities surrounding the presidential transition and the war itself….
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Mullen, frustrated by the performance of NATO allies whose troops make up more than half the total foreign force in Afghanistan, have already planned for a more overt and forceful U.S. leadership role in the war, as well as more direct involvement by U.S. forces in fighting the Taliban in southern and western Afghanistan.
Some NATO military officials said enhanced U.S. leadership would be welcome, as long as it was not seen as a “takeover bid,” said one senior European officer whose country has troops fighting as part of the NATO coalition in Afghanistan. While the U.S. military has long criticized some NATO members for lacking combat zeal and expertise in Afghanistan, many European officers resent what they see as U.S. arrogance.
The NATO officer suggested that Obama, whose election was greeted with wide approval in Europe, may have more success than Bush in persuading other alliance members to increase their fighting forces in Afghanistan. “I think you’ll find the new president would then be able to persuade a number of European nations who have not liked this administration’s way of doing business to come in behind them,” he said. ...
News · NATO and Partner chiefs of Defence to meet at NATO HQ
Top military officers of the Alliance’s member and Partner nations will convene at NATO HQ, Brussels, on 19-20 November 2008, for their Autumn meeting. This is the second of three meetings per year for the NATO Chiefs of Defence, NATO’s highest military authority.
More than 60 Chiefs of Defence from NATO members, Partnership-for-Peace nations, the Mediterranean Dialogue countries and Ukraine will be in attendance. Chiefs of Defence from Albania and Croatia will participate for the first time in their status as NATO Invitee Countries. The Pakistan Chief of Army Staff will also be attending for discussions on the situation in Afghanistan.
News · Economist - A special relationship (Updated)
Where do you think Obama will travel first? Or, what countries will be on his first tour?
BTW, Conventional wisdom says he’ll visit the boilerplate countries first but I think The Economist forgets Obama is the Change President. He’s absolutely NOT going to visit Britain first.
However, I just finished an email to my Uncle Yamie (aka Uncle Swanny) where I said “national interest” this and “national interest” that. So perhaps there is an institutional memory and perhaps protocol dictates Obama will visit the boilerplate countries first. Hmm…. where will it be?
Where will President Barack Obama visit first? Economist
THANKS to its “special relationship” with America, Britain is firm favourite to be the first country that Barack Obama will visit as president, according to Paddy Power, an Irish bookmaker. Although Nicolas Sarkozy will no longer be president of the European Union in 2009, France is offered at 3/1 to receive President Obama. Germany, despite Mr Obama’s rapturous welcome in Berlin earlier this year, is given longer odds not only over its Gallic neighbour, but also Iraq and Afghanistan. At 10/1, Kenya is reckoned a more likely first stop than Israel or Japan.
Update WMD, founding father of NAROP, says “WHAT ABOUT CANADA!!! Not even on the list!”
I’d say Canada’s odds are 33/1, between Spain and Cuba. I could be wrong.
News · The harsh lesson of Afghanistan: little has changed in 200 years
The “interval between sobriety and absolute stupefaction”.
The harsh lesson of Afghanistan: little has changed in 200 years
by Ben Macintyre
13 November 2008 The Times
Two hundred years ago this month, in the middle of the Great Indian Desert that separated British India from the uncharted lands to the northwest, British soldiers encountered Afghan warriors for the very first time.
The British force, led by a Scottish diplomat with the splendidly imperial name of Mountstuart Elphinstone, consisted of several hundred near-mutinous sepoy (native Indian) troops, a handful of white officers, 600 camels, and a dozen elephants loaded with gifts.
Elphinstone, the first European diplomatic envoy sent to Afghanistan, had been dispatched from Delhi to coax the “King of Caubul” into an alliance against Napoleon, to explore this terra incognita, and – in the unlikely event that he survived – to report back to London on the “wild and strange” land beyond the mountains.
For a month Elphinstone slogged through the desert wastes, encountering bandits, warring clans and ferocious tribal chiefs off their heads on opium and alcohol who could be spoken to only in the early afternoon, that being the “interval between sobriety and absolute stupefaction”. For guidance, he had to rely on accounts of Alexander the Great’s expedition, written more than 2,000 years earlier.
Just inside the border of what is now Pakistan, on November 21, 1808, Elphinstone was met by a body of 150 Afghan mounted troops, riding two to a camel, terrifying bearded figures each carrying a glittering matchlock musket. “Their appearance,” he recorded with fine Scots understatement, “was altogether novel and striking.” No one in his party could understand a word that they were saying.
So began the first formal contact between the British crown and the fractured state of Afghanistan. The latest chapter in that story will be written today, when the Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, arrives in Britain for the Prince of Wales’s birthday party.
I loved that place and sure hope it doesn’t go up in flames. I don’t have too many pictures of the place handy…. Some pics here of Charlie were all taken there. Some coyotes that lived across the street. Chuck and Ivan in the living room jumping around. Chuck’s ears in the back yard And the best for last
News · Globe and Mail - The first 100 days for the new president
The article below, on style vs. substance, reminds me of the first boxing match I ever went to. Dad, remember it? Maybe 15 years ago? We drove into San Francisco to watch the fight between my grade-school PE teacher, Eddie “Prime Time” Croft, and some other unlucky bastard.
When the announcer introduced the fighters the other dude came dancing, prancing and bouncing into the stadium with the glittery robe, pretty women, loud music and huge posse of other tough guys. LOTS of style.
When Eddie was introduced he came walking into the stadium in a grey hoodie with one other guy. Maybe his trainer? No shadow boxing. No hopping and skipping. No loud music. I was afraid my PE teacher’s face was about to get punched in given his lame entrance.
But then came the lesson in style vs. substance. Eddie whooped the other guy.
There isn’t a perfect relationship between boxing and being commander-in-chief. But I hope Obama choses substance over style. Exactly the opposite of what the article below argues.
The first 100 days for the new president
by Paul Koring
5 November 2008 Globe and Mail
Look for bold and popular announcements in the first 100 days of the presidency of Barack Obama.
Symbolism will trump substance. Far-reaching change may have to wait. The grim reality is that Mr. Obama is headed to the Oval Office with the nation in dire straits. He may have the mandate, but there won’t be money over the near term to make good on promises for big-ticket items like near-universal health care.
News · Jogger runs mile with rabid fox locked on her arm
Thu Nov 6 (AP) PRESCOTT, Ariz. – Authorities in Arizona say a jogger attacked by a rabid fox ran a mile with the animal’s jaws clamped on her arm and then drove herself to a hospital. The Yavapai County sheriff’s office said the woman told deputies she was on a trail near Prescott on Monday when the fox attacked and bit her foot.
She said she grabbed the fox by the neck when it went for her leg but it bit her arm.
The woman wanted the animal tested for rabies so she ran a mile to her car with the fox still biting her arm, then pried it off and tossed it in her trunk and drove to the Prescott hospital.
The sheriff’s office says the fox later bit an animal control officer. He and the woman are both receiving rabies vaccinations.
Damn!
News · Nightly News with Brian Williams - Highway of Heroes
Secret Order Lets U.S. Raid Al Qaeda in Many Countries
By Eric Schmitt and Mark Mazzetti New York Times
The United States military since 2004 has used broad, secret authority to carry out nearly a dozen previously undisclosed attacks against Al Qaeda and other militants in Syria, Pakistan and elsewhere, according to senior American officials.
These military raids, typically carried out by Special Operations forces, were authorized by a classified order that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld signed in the spring of 2004 with the approval of President Bush, the officials said. The secret order gave the military new authority to attack the Qaeda terrorist network anywhere in the world, and a more sweeping mandate to conduct operations in countries not at war with the United States. ...
Bush administration officials have shown a determination to operate under an expansive definition of self-defense that provides a legal rationale for strikes on militant targets in sovereign nations without those countries’ consent. ...
News · California gives green light to high-speed train
Voters in California this week agreed to bankroll a multi-billion dollar high-speed railway system, with technology to come from either Japan or Europe.
The California High-Speed Rail Authority said on its website Tuesday that voters in a referendum held across the state Tuesday gave their backing to financing the startup of the project.
The train would connect San Francisco to Los Angeles and would cost some 45 billion dollars, according to news reports, which said the measure was approved by a vote of some 52 percent to about 48 percent.
Hallelujah!
The website for the The California High-Speed Rail Authority is pure awesomeness. Maps. Pictures. Videos.
Complete with a photo of Governor Schwarzenegger.
That reminds me I need to renew my drivers license while home for Christmas. Which reminds me the last time I was at the California Department of Motor Vehicles they had two small framed pictures on the wall, one of President Bush and one of Governor Schwarzenegger. Standard practice for any state building in California I think. For someone who has seen all of Schwarzenegger’s movies, and who isn’t fond of President Bush, it was a photo juxtaposition to behold.
Back to the train. They estimate San Francisco to Los Angeles (432 miles / 695 km) in 2 hours 38 minutes for just $55.
If you have the time their website is worth checking out. (Pics of the Terminator aside)
Or you can just check out some youtube promo videos:
10 min overview:
3 mins:
News · Nightly News with Brian Williams - DHL's demise
