Monday, February 28, 2005

Bucharest, Romania — The construction of the oil pipeline linking Constan?a, Romania with Trieste, Italy could commence as soon as 2007, claims Eugen Tapu, the Romanian State Secretary in the Economy and Trade Ministry. The exact date will depend on how fast the countries involved in the project can sign the project.

The pipeline will run from Constan?a, Romania’s largest port on the Black Sea, through Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia before ending up in Trieste, northern Italy. Tapu named Chevron Texaco, British Petroleum and OMV among the companies interested in the project.

The oil pipeline is expected to cost Romania 1.9 billion euro.

Thursday, April 27, 2006

On March 23, 2006 the Federal Reserve ceased publication of the M3 monetary aggregate, in line with an announcement it made in November, 2005. The M3 is a measure of money supply in the United States,

The M3 is most general of the many measures of money supply, the quantity of money available within the economy for purchasing goods, services, and securities. The money supply is monitored and adjusted by a central bank, to keep inflation in check, because money supply has to change in tune with real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to prevent inflation (or deflation).

In November last year, the US Federal Reserve announced that it would cease publishing M3 data, saying, “[the] M3 does not appear to convey any additional information about economic activity that is not already embodied in M2 and has not played a role in the monetary policy process for many years”, adding that the costs of collecting the data required for the index outweighed its benefits.

Some commentators have questioned this decision and have speculated that this would allow the Federal reserve to covertly fund the US budget deficit and its negative balance of trade or hide the fall in international demand for the US dollar. In March, 2006, Rep. Ron Paul introduced a bill (HR 4892) requiring the Federal Reserve to reverse its decision.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

A fire on Saturday destroyed the main hall of the Egyptian National Theatre in Cairo. Six people have been injured including three firefighters. No one was in the theatre at the time as it was closed for the weekend.

Egyptian state culture minister Faruq Hosni, said “The fire broke out in the main hall of the theatre. It was probably caused by an electrical short circuit.”

Ataba Square was filled with thick white smoke just after sunset as a total of 22 fire engines responded. Egyptian riot police were also deployed to keep crowds of people back while the firefighters attempted to extinguish the blaze.

A civil defence officer described the fire as being almost contained, following a brief burst of high winds which blew the flames towards neighbouring shops and other buildings. The three firefighters were admitted to hospital suffering from the effects of smoke inhalation.

Brig. Gen. Nasr Zakaria, a senior officer of the Civil Defence Service, later confirmed Minister Hosni’s earlier statement, telling MENA (Middle East News Agency) that an electrical short had indeed caused the fire, by triggering an explosion in the theatres air conditioning system.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Aung San Suu Kyi, the detained leader of the National League for Democracy in Myanmar marked her 62nd birthday today, still under house arrest, where she has spent most of the past 17 years.

About 250 supporters met at the National League for Democracy (NLD) headquarters in Yangon, not far from Suu Kyi’s home, and held a rally calling for her release. Doves and balloons were released into the air, under the watchful eyes and video cameras of around 50 plainclothes police officers, who were stationed across the street.

The police force was augmented by a dozen truckloads of members of the Union Solidarity and Development Association, the political arm of the State Peace and Development, the junta that rules Myanmar.

“The doves symbolise peace. We also released colourful balloons, which rise like her prestige when they fill the sky,” NLD women’s wing leader Lai Lai was quoted as saying by Agence France Presse.

With the party marking marking Suu Kyi’s birthday as “Myanmar Women’s Day,” Lei Lei read out a statement at the ceremony, calling Suu Kyi “irreplaceable” and praising her “honesty, bravery and perseverance.”

Security was beefed up around Suu Kyi’s lakeside home on University Avenue, which is usually open to traffic during daytime, but is closed on significant anniversaries such as Suu Kyi’s birthday or the May 30 anniversary of her detention.

NLD supporters said police were also watching their homes.

“Plainclothes police circled around my house on their motorcycles last night until dawn,” Su Su Nway, 34, was quoted as saying by Agence France-Presse. She was arrested on May 15 with 60 others during a prayer rally for Suu Kyi in Yangon, and was released for health reasons on June 7. She said around 52 NLD supporters were still in custody.

Suu Kyi is generally barred from receiving visitors, so she spent the day alone. Except for her maid, a personal physician, a dentist and an eye specialist, the only other person to visit with Suu Kyi in the past year was United Nations Undersecretary-General for Political Affairs Ibrahim Gambari, whom she met for one hour last November at a government guest house.

Winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for 11 of the past 17 years, continuously since 2003. Her National League for Democracy won a landslide election in 1990, but the military, which has ruled Myanmar since 1962, refused to honor the results. The country is also known as Burma, but the military government renamed it Myanmar in 1989.

Calls for Suu Kyi’s release have been issued by the NLD, various world bodies and other countries, but the pleadings have been met by no response from the generals.

“In our view, until their constitution is ratified, she will not be released,” Sann Aung, a Bangkok-based leader of the Burmese government-in-exile was quoted as saying by Reuters.

“They are worried that she will be a threat to the National Convention and the referendum,” he told Reuters, referring to the planned national referendum on a new constitution that is being written by the generals.

The Nation newspaper in Bangkok marked Suu Kyi’s birthday with an editorial, saying that sanctions against the Myanmar regime have been ineffective.

“The junta has earned huge amounts of foreign revenue from oil and gas exports, with prices jacked up many times over. With rich mineral resources, energy hungry countries have been attracted to Burma despite the repressive nature of the junta,” the editorial said, also making note of a recent deal that Russia has made to build nuclear reactor in Myanmar.

The paper also said Myanmar bodes ill for the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations regional grouping.

“As long as Aung San Suu Kyi remains incarcerated, ASEAN’s reputation and the group’s international standing will be tarnished. Asean leaders have repeatedly appealed to the Burmese junta to free her, but to no avail … today, Burma is the black sheep of ASEAN. Without any current provisions for sanctions, Burma will remain as intransigent in the future as it is today.”

Monday, March 21, 2005A piece of driftwood in the shape of a crucifix is listed for sale on eBay with a starting bid price of $25,000. The seller, known as “Marzipanda,” from Scottsdale, Arizona lists its description as a “Natural Found Wood Jesus Christ Crucifix Cross Easter.”

Maripanda describes the discovery of the piece as, “My very dear friend found this amazing natural driftwood while hiking a few years ago. So striking because it clearly resembles the Lord and all the details.”

Expensive found art Christiana made international headlines in November 2004 when a Florida woman named Diana Duyser sold a partially eaten grilled cheese sandwich on eBay for $28,000 to Canadian online gambling website, GoldenPalace.com, after claiming she saw the likeness of the Virgin Mary burned onto the toast.

But not all high-priced Christian fare on eBay is of dubious value. A perusal of Christian-themed items as of March 20, showed 13,944 for sale on eBay. They ranged from other found art to some very expensive and authenticated rare art.

One such item has an eBay seller from Tel-Aviv, Israel listing a 19th century iron wall plaque with a starting bid of $30,000 and a shipping cost of $2,000, making it the most-expensive Christian religious item listed for sale on the auction web site.

Under the “Christian Icons” section of the site, the 14 cast iron plaques are advertised to have been made in 1855 and portrays “Jesus in Jerusalem” with the 14 stations of Christ.

Another high-priced Christian-themed item is a set of chalices and paten in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida for $3,550. The gold-plated silver is thought to have been made in the 1870s.

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Friday, September 26, 2008

Lieutenant Colonel Darrel Vandeveld, a prosecutor in the Guantanamo Military Commissions resigned Wednesday, citing ethical issues.

Vandeveld had recommended to his superiors that a plea bargain be offered to Mohammed Jawad, the Pakistani youth he was prosecuting. He felt that it was appropriate for Jawad to receive an early release, and be offered assistance in re-integrating into civilian life. His superiors had over-ruled him, and wanted to seek a life sentence.

Vandeveld has not spoken publicly about his concerns. Jawad’s defense counsel, David Frakt, plans to call upon him to testify that the Prosecution had been withholding potentially exculpatory evidence.

Jawad was a minor at the time of the incident;Jawad had been subjected to sleep deprivation through Guantanamo’s frequent flyer program;Jawad had testified, during his 2004 Combatant Status Review Tribunal that he had accepted a job clearing land mines, only to have his employers drug him, and use him to carry objects he was later informed were bombs. Two other individuals had confessed to throwing the grenade Jawad was being tried for throwing. Their confessions had been withheld from Jawad’s Defense counsel.

Although his four-page resignation letter has not been officially released, Carol Rosenberg of the Miami Herald, and other journalists have quoted from it.

Vandeveld wrote:

“My ethical qualms about continuing to serve as a prosecutor relate primarily to the procedures for affording defense counsel discovery. I am highly concerned, to the point that I believe I can no longer serve as a prosecutor at the Commissions, about the slipshod, uncertain ‘procedure’ for affording defense counsel discovery.”

Current Chief Prosecutor Colonel Lawrence Morris asserted: “All you have is somebody who is disappointed that his superiors did not agree with his recommendation in a case.”

Four Prosecutors resigned in 2004 over scandalous promises made by Chief Prosecutor Fred Borch.Three of Borch’s subordinates wrote letters to Borch’s superiors, asking to be reassigned from the Office of Military Commissions because Borch had told them:All the exculpatory evidence would be classified, so the suspect’s Defense counsel would never get to see it;All the Commission members who would be serving as the judges were to be picked from officers who could be counted on voting for conviction.

Robert Preston, John Carr, Carrie Wolf were reassigned. Fred Borch resigned from the military. Thomas Hemingway, Legal Advisor to the Convening Authority, the civilian head of the Office of Military Commissions, asserted that Borch’s resignation was unconnected to the memos from his subordinates. Borch was subsequently rehired as a civilian after he resigned from the military.

In 2005 Stuart Couch resigned from prosecuting Mohamedou Ould Slahi. Couch stated that even though he suspected Slahi had played a role in activities that otherwise were triable offenses, he should no longer be tried, because he had been subjected to extreme interrogation techniques.

In 2007 Guantanamo third Chief Prosecutor, Morris Davis, resigned after publicly challenging the role Legal Advisor Thomas W. Hartmann was trying to play in choosing cases to try. Davis had argued that choosing the cases to prosecute was his role, and that Hartmann had an obligation to remain objective, because he was also supposed to give advise to the head of the Office of Military Commission about the performance of the Defense. Hartmann’s role required him to give objective advice after the Commissions made their rulings — and his objectivity would be in doubt.

An inquiry looked into Davis’s concern, and directed Davis to follow Hartmann’s orders. Davis resigned from the Office of Military Commissions shortly thereafter.

Hartmann was called to testify before three of the Military Commissions, over his role in choosing cases to prosecute, where he testified he thought he was doing his job, and where he stated that he refused to resign.

Hartmann was reassigned a more junior role on September 20, 2008.