PANNEN, PÖBELN, PEINLICHKEITEN

Heute gefunden bei Spiegel.de: eine Auflistung der schlimmsten Fettnäpfchen in die Frankreichs Präsident Sarkozy getreten ist.  So zum Beispiel:

Hamburg - Pöbeleien, penetrantes Turteln und Make-up für Zehntausende Euro: Frankreichs Präsident Sarkozy geht seinen Landsleuten mit seinen Eskapaden inzwischen mächtig auf die Nerven. Immer neue Umfragen belegen wie der Rückhalt des Präsidenten bei den Franzosen schwindet. Treppenwitze, Puderexzesse und eine flüchtige Speckrolle - klicken Sie sich durch die Fettnapf-Serie des Nicolas Sarkozy.

Politik? Nebensache. Frankreichs Präsident Sarkozy macht mehr Schlagzeilen mit seinem Privatleben als mit seiner Staatsführung - und beglückt die Grande Nation mit einer Peinlichkeit nach der anderen. Eine Bestandsaufnahme.

• Luxus-Urlaub, aber sehr günstig
• Speckröllchen, gedämpft
• Schluckauf in Heiligendamm
• Jähes Interview-Ende
• Der Make-up-Exzess
• Gaddafi führt Sarkozy vor
• Rumänischer Treppenwitz
• Die hohe Kunst der Diplomatie
• Turtel-Tour mit Rolex-Uhr
• Die brillante Schmuckidee
• Angefasst

Quelle und kompletter Artikel bei Spiegel.de 
 

If Afghanistan fails, Pakistan could follow

NEW YORK, Feb 26 (Reuters) The United States must focus on securing and rebuilding Afghanistan because if it fails then neighboring Pakistan could follow, U.S. Sen. Joe Biden said on Monday after returning from a tour of both countries. Biden said Pakistan’s cooperation in the fight against extremism was also critical to the success of Afghanistan but had so far been “sporadic at best,” adding that Washington had to move from a policy focused on a personality — Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf — to one focused on the country.

He said the United States needed to triple its nonmilitary assistance to Pakistan and sustain it for a decade focusing on schools, roads and clinics, give the government a “democracy dividend” above this to jump-start progress, help Islamabad develop the country’s northwest provinces and demand transparency and accountability in the military aid provided. Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said more troops are needed in Afghanistan and called for greater focus on basics like roads and power plus giving the military cash for quick projects like digging wells.

“Afghanistan’s fate and Pakistan’s future are joined and America’s security is tied to both,”

Biden told the Council on Foreign Relations.

“If Afghanistan fails, Pakistan could follow, because extremists will set their sights on the bigger prize to the east.”

Biden, Democrat Sen. John Kerry and Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel visited Pakistan, India, Turkey and Afghanistan. Biden also said that if the United States makes Afghanistan its priority, then so will its allies.

Source: dawn.com

Iraq Coalition Casualities Report 26/02/2008

JAKARTA (AP): The fault line that spawned the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami has ruptured nearly 20 times this month, with three strong quakes in the last 24 hours alone. The activity shows the stress the seam is under and could be a harbinger of worse to come, scientists warn.

Kerry Sieh, a U.S. professor who has studied the fault for more than 10 years, likened the seam to a length of rope in an imaginary tug of war between a group of men and an elephant.

“One by one, two by two, the men are getting worn out and are letting go of the rope. That puts more stress on each of the remaining men,” he wrote in an e-mail Tuesday. “Who knows which one will let go next, or whether they will let go all at once?”

Sieh and other scientists using Global Positioning System transmitters to measure the uplift of the quakes say another massive temblor sometime in the next 100 years or so is likely, but they cannot give an exact prediction.

The fault line is the seam in the earth where the Eurasian and Pacific tectonic plates have been pushing against each other for millions of years, causing huge pressure to build up. It runs the length of the west coast of Sumatra about 200 kilometers (125 miles)offshore.

The steady stream of quakes it is has produced this month do not seem to be alarming residents too much. Witnesses say some cause people to flee swaying homes, but few are heeding or are aware of the tsunami warnings that automatically accompany the big jolts.

“People did not really care because such a tremor is nothing new,” Erwin, a receptionist at a hotel in the coastal town of Padang, said minutes after a powerful quake early Tuesday. The 2004 earthquake off Aceh province in northwest Sumatra had a magnitude of 9.2, making it the most powerful temblor in four decades. It triggered a tsunami that killed 230,000 people in 12 Indian Ocean countries, more than half in Indonesia.

Three months after the Asian tsunami, a magnitude 8.6 quake further down the seam killed 1,000 people, while in September last year, an 8.7 quake opposite Bengkulu province damaged thousands of homes, killed about 25 people and sent a 3-meter (10-foot) tsunamicrashing into nearby coastlines.

The most recent events have occurred opposite Bengkulu.

Last Wednesday, a magnitude 7.4 quake killed three people and damaged scores of houses. Since Sunday, four other events strong enough to prompt tsunami warnings by international agencies have jolted the region.

Source and full article at: thejakartapost.com

PALESTINIAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE BUREAU VISITS CAMPS FOR PALESTINE REFUGEES IN JORDAN 

AMMAN, 21 February — “This morning, we saw the real face of Palestine outside of Palestine,” the Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People told the community leaders at the Irbid camp for Palestine refugees in northern Jordan today, capping the conclusion yesterday of the United Nations Seminar on Assistance to the Palestinian People, in Amman.
Joining Paul Badji of Senegal in a first ever official tour of Palestinian refugee camps by a Committee delegation were the other members of the Bureau:  Rodrigo Malmierca Diaz ( Cuba) and Zahir Tanin ( Afghanistan), Vice-Chairmen, and Saviour F. Borg ( Malta), Rapporteur.  The Permanent Observer of Palestine to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, joined the ambassadors, along with the Chief of the United Nations Division for Palestinian Rights, Yuri Gourov, and the Committee Secretary, Wolfgang Grieger.
Ambassador Badji told the group of some 30 Palestinian community leaders, eager to know what the United Nations could do to help and frustrated at what they perceived was the lack of concrete intervention thus far, that the Committee had known their living situation was unacceptable and that, not only Arab countries had to work to solve the problem, but the entire international community had to help the Palestinians live in dignity and peace, in an independent and sovereign State.
What he had seen this morning had convinced him that — “give Palestinians a State, a nation, and they will surprise the world” — because all the Palestinians he had seen, young and old, were taking care of themselves.  What was missing was a State.  “And this Committee is working every day to make that happen.  We understand your frustration, but we also know your faith,” he said.
The two refugee camps visited today — the Irbid and Husn camps — are both in the area of operations of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).  The Agency’s Field Director for Jordan, Sheldon Pitterman, led the tours, with the aid of additional UNRWA staff.  Many of them were Palestinians, who, themselves, had grown up in these camps.
Ten of the fifty-nine Palestine refugee camps in UNRWA’s total area of operations are located in Jordan, which has approximately 500,000 refugees.  Four of those camps were set up after 1948 on the east bank of the Jordan River, and six after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, which had been under Jordanian administration at that time.
The Husn camp, known locally as Martyr Azmi el-Mufti camp, was one of the six emergency camps established in 1968 for 12,500 Palestine refugees and displaced persons who had left the West Bank and Gaza Strip as a result of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.  The camp is situated 80 kilometres north of Amman.  The refugees, initially accommodated in tents in an area of 774,000 square metres, have grown to some 25,000.
To enable the refugees to withstand the harsh winters, the Agency dropped its earlier plans to provide them with stronger tents in favour of prefabricated shelters.  As it does at its other camps, UNRWA provides education, health, relief, and social services at Husn, where it operates nine installations with 167 staff.  The delegates visited a women’s programme centre, an income-generation project and a refugee family there.
Irbid camp was one of the four established after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.  Set up in 1951 for 4,000 refugees in an area of 244,000 square metres, the camp’s inhabitants has grown to 24,833 registered refugees.  Over the years, the refugees replaced the tents and mud shelters with concrete dwellings.  UNRWA’s provision of education, health, relief and social services at Irbid is also through nine installations, operated by 185 staff.  There, the ambassadors visited a rehabilitation centre, a girls’ preparatory school, a health clinic and a camp improvement committee.

Source: domino.un.org/unispal.nsf

I have to ask myself, why do the people of Palestine have to suffer for so long. How long does it take for the civilized world to realize that ignoring the fundamental human rights of millions of people in Palestine and the so called refugee camps, is the same inhumantity as the starvation of the people in the Darfur region, or the ethnic cleansing in the central region of Africa. The Kosovo declared independency just 9 years after the Kosovo war and the U.S. of America under the Bush administration is the very first Nation to recognize this declaration just one day later. What makes the people of Palestine so different that we, the western world, do not grant them the same rights after 60 years of atrocious oppression?

Because we don’t know?

Because we can’t see? No, we dont get away so easily! 

It is clearly visible for every one who seeks information. It is not a secret that is only known to a few recepients of classified documents. We are not blind and  we are not deaf.

We do not want to see it, we simply ignore it, we do that knowingly and that makes us all guilty of inhumanity.

We go to war “Enduring Freedom”, we  send troops into the Darfur region, we give billions of Dollars to people who suffer natural desasters, we are united in a grace of charity spirit, but we seal our mind and our hearts for the people of Palestine.

That makes us all guilty. We are guilty…we are inhumane

Nate Ahearn of ign.com wrote an interesting test about  the Xbox 360 game “Frontlines” and gave it a good 7.6 out of 10 rating.

The war that rages on throughout Frontlines is between the Western Coalition Army (United States and European Union) and the Red Star Alliance (Russia and China) with the bulk of the action happening throughout the Middle East. The cutscenes which bookend each mission are delivered from the perspective of an embedded journalist reporting on the war. While you don’t have a defined squad with character names and specific personalities you still get to hear inspirational speeches and be a part of other moments of reasonably effective drama, but it never reaches the bar that has been set by others.

…continues

Though the multiplayer in Frontlines is clearly the star of the show it is not without a few flaws. First and foremost, there’s only one game mode so you might tire of playing the same thing repeatedly. Then there’s the fact that you can’t run your own Xbox 360 as a dedicated server. Not a huge deal for most, but some will be disappointed. And while it’s not exactly a flaw, it is worth noting the fact that you can’t run your own 50 player Frontlines match, instead THQ will have its own set of dedicated servers to insure that things run as smoothly as possible.
Closing Comments

Frontlines: Fuel of War is clearly deeply dependent on its gameplay to bring home the bacon. Its single-player performs well enough to get players to work their way through for the achievement points it’s the multiplayer that will hook some FPS fanatics. If you can forget about the fact that you’ve been playing this style game for years with the Battlefield franchise then Frontlines will hook you for some time with its gargantuan battles, but for most Fuel of War will likely be too generic to truly sink their teeth into.

Source and full article at uk.xbox360.ign.com/

Die Entscheidung ist gefallen: Die Games Convention zieht nach Köln und wird dort “GamesCom” heißen. Erwartet werden mehr Publikum, bessere Verkehrsanbindung und ein modernisierter Event. Dies meldet Tomshardware.com/de auf ihrer Website.

Ab 2009 heißt die Games Convention »GamesCom« und findet in Köln statt. Das hat der Bundesverband Interaktive Unterhaltungssoftware gemeldet. Nach dem Willen des BIU wird die Games Convention im August diesen Jahres somit die letzte in Leipzig sein, ab nächstem Jahr versammeln sich Spielehersteller dann jeweils im September in Köln: »Mit dem Standortwechsel sichern wir die Zukunft der deutschen Branchenmesse als europäische Leitveranstaltung. Nur wenn wir eine internationale Wachstumsperspektive eröffnen, werden wir die europäische Leitmesse mittelfristig in Deutschland halten können«, so Olaf Wolters vom BIU.

Die Namensänderung war nötig, weil die Messe Leipzig die Markenrechte an »Games Convention« besitzt - und nicht daran denkt, diese her zu geben (siehe hierzu »Zieht die Games Convention nach Köln?«). In Leipzig war die äußerst erfolgreiche Messe bereits an ihre Wachstumsgrenze gestoßen - 2002 startete die Messe mit 166 Ausstellern (80.000 Besucher), 2007 waren es 503 Aussteller und 185.000 Besucher -, vor allem bei der Infrastruktur. Für Köln erhofft sich der BIU weiter steigende Zahlen dank einer besseren Verkehrsanbindung und höheren Hotelkapazitäten.

Für die KölnMesse freilich eine positive Entscheidung. Das dürften die Leipziger Messebetreiber nicht so sehen. Wie sie dazu stehen, soll noch am heutigen Montag öffentlich werden. Eine Möglichkeit wäre beispielsweise, die »Games Convention« als solche wie bisher in Leipzig zu veranstalten, dann allerdings ohne die die Unterstützung des BIU.

Quelle: Tomshardware.com/de
 

Iraq Coalition Casualities Report 25/02/2008
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Rawalpindi blast kills top Pakistan army medical officer, seven others

ISLAMABAD, Feb 25 (Reuters): A suicide bomber attacked a Pakistani military vehicle in Rawalpindi Monday, killing the army’s top medical officer and two of his staff and five passers-by, officials said. “Surgeon general Lieutenant-General Mushtaq Ahmed Baig, his driver and a guard were killed in the attack,” said a military official who requested anonymity. Five civilians were also killed and 25 people were wounded, he said. Monday’s blast was outside an office of the government’s national data registration agency, on a main road crowded with mid-afternoon traffic. “The bomber was apparently on foot and as the car stopped on the main mall road, he hit it,” senior city government officer, Irfan Ellahi, told Reuters. Police and troops cordoned off the site of the attack, a witness said.

Source: dawn.com

Death toll from bombing near Iraq’s Iskandariya rises to 63

HILLA, Iraq, Feb 25 (Reuters): The death toll from Sunday’s suicide bomb attack on Iraqi pilgrims heading south of Baghdad has risen to 63, a health official said Monday. The bomber exploded a suicide vest packed with metal ball bearings in a refreshment tent full of pilgrims heading to the annual Arbain festival in the southern city of Kerbala. Sattar al-Jashami, spokesman for the health department in Babil province, said the blast near the town of Iskandariya, 40 km south of Baghdad, had killed 63 people. He had no details about the numbers wounded.

Source: dawn.com