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Cádiz se viste de Carnaval
“Bancos que se han rescatado, por el Estado, con el dinero de nuestros impuestos…”
El Carnaval de Cádiz llega más crítico que nunca. Si vas, no te pierdas nuestra guía.
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Reports of Another Cluster Munitions Strike in Northern Syria.
This time in Azaz. If the images above are authentic, then once again the Syrian Air Force (part of the military of a government that claims not to have used cluster munitions in this war) has dropped an RBK dispenser with PTAB 2.5M submunitions. More about this weapon, and its provenance, here, here and in the NYT report of a similar strike on Marea last month. Video of the Marea strike is here. (The video can also be accessed through the NYT article.)
Initial reports from Azaz today, which are not yet independently confirmed, suggest that eastern side of the city was hit and six people were wounded, including a woman who lost one of her legs.
Remember: Officially, none of this happened, because Syria is not using cluster bombs. (Like the United States, Syria is not party to the international convention banning cluster munitions, and can use them — as the Pentagon has in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Kosovo, and elsewhere — without violating any international agreements.)
ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHS
Screen grabs from two freshly released videos (here and here).
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Breaking News: Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin not seeking re-election US Sen. Tom Harkin will not seek re-election in 2014, the Iowa Democrat said Saturday.
The 73-year-old Harkin told The Associated Press in an interview, “It’s just time to step aside,” noting that by the time he would finish a sixth term, he would be 81.
Harkin said the…
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Could the presidential recess appointment be a thing of the past? A federal court today struck down three of Obama's recess appointments, deciding the case broadly enough that it could change one of the executive branch's biggest workarounds against Congressional inaction. More: The ruling was a blow to the administration and a victory for Mr. Obama’s Republican critics – and a handful of liberal ones – who had accused Mr. Obama of improperly claiming that he could make the appointments under his executive powers. The administration had argued that the president could decide that senators were really on a lengthy recess even though the Senate considered itself to be meeting in “pro forma” sessions.
But the court went beyond the narrow dispute over pro forma sessions and issued a far more sweeping ruling than expected. Legal specialists said its reasoning would virtually eliminate the recess appointment power for all future presidents when it has become increasingly difficult for presidents to win Senate confirmation for their nominees. In recent years, senators have more frequently balked at consenting to executive appointments. President George W. Bush made about 170 such appointments, including John R. Bolton to be ambassador to the United Nations and two appeals court judges, William H. Pryor Jr. and Charles W. Pickering Sr.
“If this opinion stands, I think it will fundamentally alter the balance between the Senate and the president by limiting the president’s ability to keep offices filled,” said John P. Elwood, who handled recess appointment issues for the Justice Department during the Bush administration. “This is certainly a red-letter day in presidential appointment power.”
Think Obama has a hard enough time appointing people now? Imagine how hard it’ll be if the ruling stands. FWIW, it cuts back a loophole in the current law that allows the president to appoint politicians without Senate approval, by scaling back the definition of the word “recess” in regards to executive power.
The ruling could invalidate hundreds of decisions by the National Labor Relations Board, and even set a precedent for striking down the validity of President Obama’s recess appointment of Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Meanwhile, the filibuster remains largely unchanged after a watered-down compromise struck by Senate leaders, leaving intransigent Republicans with the power to block virtually any appointment they see fit.
(via upwithsteve)
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Unsafe Handling: PTAB 2.5M Submunitions in Truck Bed.
Unexploded ordnance should not be handled.
For more about safety and better behaviors around unexploded ordnance, and for downloadable and printable safety posters, including in Arabic, go here, to the site of Responsible Researchers of Munitions & Arms, or RRMA. (Follow RRMA on Twitter, @ArmsResearch.)
DISCLOSURE: I am a member of this informal association of researchers who share an interest in tracking the arms trade and its effects in a safe and responsible fashion.
What is RRMA? This is the quick explanation:
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RRMA is an informal and international association of journalists and private citizens committed to the safe and timely identification of arms and ordnance in use around the world, and to sharing findings with other researchers and the public. Note that we put the word safe before the word timely. These items may be used in crimes, conflicts, wars, or just found in everyday life, at any point from the distant past to the present day.
We believe that the accurate and thorough documentation of specific arms and ordnance in circulation is essential to understanding conflict, crime, public safety, public health and the arms trade, and to informed discussion and debate. In the age of social media and of instant Internet querying of loose ordnance and battlefield finds, which since the war in Libya in 2011 has become an increasingly common pursuit, we came together out of a shared concern for the well-being of many of the people approaching or handling ordnance and weapons in the field.
ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPH
Posted today on the Facebook page of Mahmoud Jabaly of the Syrian Revolution Coordinators Union, after the reported cluster munitions strike in al-Bab. Posters by N.R. Jenzen-Jones, RRMA. (Follow Mr. Jenzen-Jones, @RogueAdventurer)
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At least 30 dead in clashes over verdict in Egypt soccer riots
Reuters: Clashes in Egypt’s Port Said killed at least 30 people Saturday, including two soccer players. The riots erupted after a judge sentenced 21 people to death for a February 2012 soccer fight which killed 74 fans cheering for Cairo’s Al-Ahly team.
After the ruling, residents in Port Said tried to storm the city’s prison and free the defendants in the case.
The clashes follow violence brought on by anger at Egyptian President Morsi on Friday, the two-year anniversary of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. Nine people died in those clashes, bringing the total from both outbursts to 39.
Photo: Al Ahly fans, also known as ‘Ultras,’ celebrate and shout slogans in front of the Al Ahly club after hearing the final verdict of the 2012 Port Said massacre in Cairo Saturday. (Amr Abdallah Dalsh / Reuters)
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An Attack on Darraya, and What It (Might) Tell Us.
I’m late to crop and post these screen grabs from this video, which appeared almost a week back. I do so now for multiple audiences.
For those who follow Syria, what you are seeing should be obvious enough: a clear indication of a strike on an urban area by a large missile or rocket. (I can’t tell from this kind image exactly what it is; I struggle to get a sense of scale and of the length of the fast-moving weapon, and the quality of the video is not high enough to come in tighter and settle these things. And of course the audio recorded in this kind of attack is all but useless. But I would lean toward a tactical ballistic missile, perhaps a Tochka, something similar, or a single shot from a large multiple rocket launcher system.)
For fellow arms researchers, the video and screen grabs have other values, including for comparison to the strike on Aleppo University and for noting the angle of descent and apparent size of the warhead’s blast. (There are different theories about the precise type of ordnance involved in the university attack. One is here. This is another. Whichever theory you prefer, and to me the question of a precise ordnance identification remains open, the evidence strongly points to the hand of the Syrian military.)
Let’s leave it there for now. Watch the video and come to your own conclusions. Deadlines call, and for stories other than this one.
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For the SIXTH time in ONE week, a man was shot at a gun show. -
