I must be out of the loop, ’cause I didn’t know that Myanmar (AKA Burma) has moved its capital from Rangoon (AKA Yangon) to Pyinmana, 400 km to the north. Apparently the move – which happened last November – took everyone by surpirse. Civil cervants were given one day notice, and then abruptly bused with their belongings to the new capital.
Apparently the move to the new capital may be linked to a re-establishment of the monarchy, with Than Shwe, the top military general, as the new king. The location also has strategic advantages, however, as it has better access to the country’s borders with India, China and Thailand – where ethnic rebel groups often take refuge. It also isolates the civil servants from the public discontent evident in the streets of Rangoon. In 1988 government workers joined students and monks to call for democracy. To make the move sweeter to them, the government has announced a ten-fold increase in government salaries. Inflation is expected and an acute economic crisis is likely.
Myanmar has also intensified its isolationist practices, including persecution and interference of international and non-governmental organizations. The ICRC has been impeded from visiting prisons and the ILO office received a number of death threats. Activists who lodge a complaint about forced labor with the ILO have been prosecuted for their actions.
For more information see:
Asia Times Online : Uneasy lies the crown in Myanmar
Asia Times Online :
Myanmar’s generals build their ‘Xanadu’
Page 150 of 177
March 31,2006 | WAYNESVILLE, N.C. — At least six men came to western North Carolina, some from as far away as South America, to have their genitals mutilated in what police described Friday as a sadomasochistic “dungeon.”
Three men have been charged with illegal castration in the case, Haywood County Sheriff Tom Alexander and District Attorney Michael Bonfoey said. The sheriff and prosecutor said the victims were willing participants in the procedures.
The men met through a Web site produced in North Carolina that published photographs of men engaging in sadomasochistic behavior at a house in Waynesville. Investigators found DVD recordings of the castrations during a search of the house Wednesday, authorities said.
“This right here beats everything I have ever seen,” Alexander said.
Michael Mendez, 60, Richard Peter Sciara, 61, and Danny Carroll Reeves, 49, each are charged with castration without malice, maiming without malice and practicing medicine without a license.
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It has taken several years and a travesty of a trial, but the truth about Zacharias Moussaoui finally seems to be out. He was a pest.
“An Al Qaeda operative known as Khallad said he cut off contact with Moussaoui when Moussaoui repeatedly called his telephone number after being instructed to use it only in an emergency.” He “managed to annoy everyone he came in contact with” said Hambali, a former leader of a South Asian terrorist group. He described Moussaoui as “very troubled, not right in the head and having a bad character”. Eventually he bought him a $2000 plane ticket just to get rid of him. Meanwhile, senior al-Qaeda leaders testified that Moussaoui had no involvement in the 9/11 plot.
And I, for one, am inclined to believe them. Anyone who has been involved in any kind of movement, organization or club, for that matter, has come across people like Moussaoui. At first they can appear very earnest and dedicated to whatever cause. Only later you realize that there is just something wrong with them, they come up with outlandish conspiracy theories and plots, they have to have everything done their way and have grandiose ideas of what should be accomplished. They need to be the center of attention – something which Moussaoui has shown time and again in his trial. If you have ever dealt with someone like that, you can almost feel sad for al-Qaeda. Almost.
Moussaoui was not part of 9/11 plan, ex-Al Qaeda officials say
Last month I found out I had a kidney stone. After a week of feeling very crampy, the cramps turned into an intense and constant pain in my lower right back side. The pain increased and decreased in intensity, but it was always there. After a night of agony I went to the emergency room, where they found out I had a 8 mm stone blocking my urether. The urine couldn’t get through and thus my kidney was swollen. Some morphine followed by percocet helped me get through the next couple of days (vicodin didn’t help at all), until the urologist put a stent that pushed the stone back into the kidney and allowed for the free flow of urine back into the bladder. A week later, they blasted the stone with shock waves and I’ve been passing it ever since. Finally this week they removed the stent.
I’m blogging about this because my doctor wasn’t very clear in describing how painful and uncomfortable having a stent would be and none of the information I found on the internet was very illuminating. So I figure I’d warn others in similar situations.
For the six weeks I had the stent on, urinating was extremely painful. As the stent was constantly touching the walls of the bladder, I felt like I had to urinate all the time – specially when I was walking or excersising. When I did urinate, it was extremely painful, it was like an intense burning sensation in my urinary track followed by a crinching pain in my kidney. I didn’t know if all this pain came from the stent, the stones I was passing or if I had a UTI (the pain was very similar to that of a UTI) – and I was worried. Alas, now that it’s over I know it was the stent – thanks god it’s out!
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