Tag Archives: International

Death of Hugo Chavez could set off shock waves across region

Posted on by

The likelihood that Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez is close to death will pitch rivals against one another in a battle for power and oil riches, and trigger political shock waves across the region. — The Telegraph

On Thursday, Hugo Chavez is set to be inaugurated after his re-election, but it is reported that he may currently be kept alive with a respirator while being treated for cancer.

The Venezuelan leader and full-time hater of the United States is famous for his praise of Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Jesus Christ as revolutionary socialists.

As Philip Sherwell describes in his article on The Telegraph:

The orchestra played and loyal lawmakers erupted in adulatory applause as Hugo Chavez invoked Fidel Castro and Jesus Christ as his revolutionary role models.

His right hand raised, the fiery Venezuelan leader echoed the famous call to arms of his Cuban mentor. “Fatherland, socialism or death,” he proclaimed, then added with a typical flourish: “I swear by Christ, the greatest socialist in history.” That was six years ago as “El Commandante” was sworn in for his third term as president and blew kisses to rose petal-tossing crowds when he returned in an open-topped car to his palace to watch a military parade.

The Chavez regime has been financing terrorist socialist causes with his oil money and set up an alliance with Iran.

Chavez has not been seen or heard from since he left Venezuela in December for his operations in Cuba.

The death of Hugo Chavez could set off a Constitutional struggle to control the oil rich South American country. The Los Angeles Times reports:

Constitutional law expert Carlos Ayala agreed that Chavez can be granted two oath-taking postponements for a total of 180 days in the event he is “temporarily incapacitated.” But he said Venezuelans are entitled to proof that Chavez is alive, is tending to his duties and has a positive prognosis.

“The citizenry has a legitimate right to know the facts surrounding the mental and physical condition of the head of state,” said Ayala, a professor at Andres Bello Catholic University in Caracas. “If he cannot exercise his duties and obligations under the constitution, then that leads to constitutional consequences.”

If Chavez is so ill that he cannot competently carry out his duties, then he could be declared “permanently incapacitated.” That would trigger a constitutional requirement for the National Assembly president to call a new presidential election within 30 days, Ayala said.

Vice President Nicolas Maduro is the hand-picked successor of Chavez and he is reporting that Chavez is simply resting comfortably after emerging from a “delicate postoperative phase.” Maduro indicated that his inauguration could be sworn in by Supreme Court appointees of Chavez at a later date and unspecified location if still alive. Re-elected National Assembly leader Diosdado Cabello puts him next inline to become caretaker president if Mr Chavez does not recover.

This has infuriated the opposition who insist on new elections in thirty days if Chavez does not take the oath on January 10th. With no even pretended separation of powers in the government, that is not likely to happen.

Loyal Italian Cat, Toldo, Brings Gifts To Owner’s Grave

Posted on by

toledoA loyal cat has been bringing his owner small gifts everyday in a show of affection. The catch? The cat’s owner has been dead for over a year.

Meet Toldo — a cute, 3-year-old black and white cat living in Montagnana, northern Italy. According to the Corriere Fiorentino, Toldo has been visiting his owner — Iozzelli Renzo, who died on September 22, 2011, aged 71 — everyday for the past year and leaving small presents at the grave.

The gifts usually consist of leaves, sticks, twigs, plastic cups or paper towels.

Read more at Huff Post

Pakistan mob burns man accused of desecrating Koran alive

Posted on by

(Reuters) – A mob broke into a Pakistani police station and burnt a man accused of desecrating the Koran alive, police said Saturday, in the latest violence focusing attention on the country’s blasphemy laws.

The man was a traveler and had spent Thursday night at the mosque, said Maulvi Memon, the imam in the southern village of Seeta in Sindh province. The charred remains of the Koran were found the next morning.

“He was alone in the mosque during the night,” Memon said. “There was no one else there to do this terrible thing.”

Villagers beat the man then handed him over to police. A few hours later, a crowd of around 200 stormed the police station, dragged the man out and set him on fire, said Usman Ghani, the senior superintendent of police in Dadu district.

Read more at Reuters.

Semper Fi, Unless It’s Not Convenient

Posted on by

By Bill O’Reilly

Jon Hammar saw combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, but his most brutal foreign experience was in Mexico. Last August, the 27-year-old former Marine corporal was incarcerated by Mexican authorities in Matamoros for trying to register an antique shotgun with customs agents. Foolishly, Cpl. Hammar followed instructions given to him by U.S. Border Patrol agents in Brownsville, Texas. He registered the gun with them and brought the paperwork to the Mexicans to get their stamp of approval in order to carry the gun through the country. Hammar and a friend were driving a Winnebago, hoping to have a nice surfing vacation with some hunting on the side.

Even though the Mexican authorities clearly saw that Hammar was trying to follow the rules, they seized the Winnebago and locked the corporal up in the notoriously corrupt CEDES prison anyway. There he was threatened by other inmates and told by guards that he could buy his way out of the hellhole by paying money to the “right people.”

Hammar’s parents, who live in South Florida, immediately contacted the State Department and were told to be patient. And so they were. Three months later, Hammar was still incarcerated and had not even seen a judge, and things were becoming increasingly desperate.

That’s when his parents gave up on the State Department and contacted the media.

Read more at Townhall.

‘Habitable’ planet discovered circling Tau Ceti star

Posted on by

A planet with conditions that could support life orbits a twin neighbour of the sun visible to the naked eye, scientists have revealed.

The world is one of five thought to be circling Tau Ceti, a star just 12 light years away that is almost identical to the sun.

Astronomers estimate the Tau Ceti planets to be two to six times bigger than Earth. One of them, with five times the Earth’s mass, lies in the star’s “habitable zone”.

Also known as the “Goldilocks zone”, this is the orbital region that is neither too hot nor too cold to allow liquid surface water and, potentially, life. Details of the discovery are to appear in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Because of the difficulties involved in detecting extra-solar planets, most found so far have had high masses. The Tau Ceti planetary family is thought to be the lowest-mass solar system yet detected.

Read more at The Guardian

Former classmate reveals school gunman had ‘online devil worshiping page’

Posted on by

‘I am the devil’: Former classmate reveals school gunman had ‘online devil worshiping page’ as childhood barber recounts how he never spoke and just stared at floors

The Sandy Hook gunman worshiped the devil and had an online page dedicated to Satan, a former classmate revealed, as his childhood barber recalls Adam Lanza never spoke and would stare at the floor every time he had his hair cut.

Lanza’s worshiping page had the word ‘Devil’ written in red, Gothic-style letters against a black background, Trevor L. Todd told The National Enquirer, something which he said was ‘weird’ and ‘gave him the chills’.

The FBI are trying to piece together his smashed up hard drive to see if his online footprint will reveal any motive for the killing, but they strongly believe he made use of devil-worshiping and suicide sites and boasted of his murder plans on message forums.

Adam Lanza’s childhood barber Bob Skuba revealed today that Nancy Lanza stopped bringing her son in for haircuts a few years ago so he thought he had moved away from the area.

Read more at the MailOnline

The US opposes demonopolization of the Internet

Posted on by

This week’s conference of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Dubai failed to produce an agreement on country-level Internet governance. After heated debates, the conference passed a vague-worded resolution calling on the ITU to play a more active role in the development of the Internet.

Russia and China suggested giving partial control over the allocation of web addresses either to ITU member states or to a specialized agency under the aegis of the United Nations. At present, this is the exclusive monopoly of the United States it exercises through the U.S.-based Internet Corporation for Assigned Names (ICANN) controlled by the U.S. Commerce Department.

The United States is visibly unprepared to share this monopoly with anybody else. All main IT resources, servers and transfer protocols are located in the United States, notes Russian IT expert Anton Korobkov-Zemlyansky.

Read more at The Voice of Russia.

SEE ALSO: US rejects UN telecom treaty over Internet rift

Navy Cancels Nativity over Atheist Complaint

Posted on by
Photo from God and Country web site.

Photo from God and Country web site.

By Todd Starnes

The website Christian Fighter Pilot first exposed the controversy – and noted sarcastically that service members in Bahrain “have now experienced the friendly influence of atheism on their holiday.”

The Navy directed service members serving in Bahrain to cancel and dismantle a “Live Nativity” after receiving a complaint from a military atheist group who said the manger scene endangered Americans serving in a Muslim country and violated the U .S. Constitution.

The chaplain at Naval Support Activity (NSA) Bahrain confirmed to Fox News the nativity scene was cancelled – but referred any further comments to the NSA’s public information officer.

The “Live Nativity” was a long-standing tradition at NSA Bahrain that featured the children of military personnel dressed as shepherds, wise men, along with Mary and Joseph. It was part of a larger festival that included a tree lighting, Christmas music and photographs with Santa Claus and a camel.

But the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers objected to the Nativity and filed a complaint with the Navy’s Inspector General. They argued the Nativity promoted “Christianity as the official religion of the base.”

Read more at FOX News

The Facts of the Attack in Benghazi Are Far Worse Than Reported

Posted on by

Matt Bruce, NMJ News

According to highly trusted sources, US Ambassador Christopher Stevens was targeted by al Qaeda of the Magreb, lured to Benghazi by al Qaeda operatives in the Libyan Security Forces, and kidnapped in the course of a diversionary attack on the consulate. He was missing for eight hours, during which time he was beaten and brutalized before he was murdered, not unlike the way that Muammar Ghadhaffi was murdered. Photographs are too graphic to reproduce here.

The Obama Administration was actually warned that “possible” attacks were looming on the 11th anniversary of September 11th as soon as September 4th during a White House Intel briefing run by National Security Advisor, Tom Donilon.

Extremely sensitive documents were taken from the Consulate in Benghazi, including lists of operatives and locations of safe houses in Libya. One of these so-called “safe house” in Benghazi, where the staff had retreated, came under sustained mortar fire during the attack. Other such refuges across the country are no longer considered to be “safe,” because of the capture of the documents. It is now assumed that a breach in security led to the attack, which was carried out on the eleventh anniversary of the September 11, 2001, al Qaeda attacks on the United States.

According to senior diplomatic sources, the US State Department received credible intelligence of the planned operation 48 hours before the attack on the Consulate in Benghazi, and the embassy in Cairo.They were warned that American missions might be targeted, but no warnings were given for diplomats to go on “high alert” and put their facilities and personnel in “lockdown,” under which movement is severely restricted. We now hear our US Marines in Cairo were armed with pepper gas and stun guns but no live ammunition to defend themselves in case of an armed attack per a US State Department directive.

Read more at The New Media Journal

SEE ALSO: WH Won’t Release Photos of Obama Team During Benghazi Attack