Australia could also withdraw troops in Iraq

With the recent announcement that Britain will withdraw troops from Iraq, it looks like it might have a domino effect.

Over in the pacific rim, Australian Prime Minister John Howard has spent weeks lashing the Labor wing over its plan to begin withdrawing Australian troops from Iraq – only to have one of the original coalition war partners now prepare to withdraw its forces.

The opposition party has been pressuring Mr Howard to withdraw troops from Iraq prior to the British’s announcement. In early Feb 2007, Mr Howard attacked US Democrat presidential hopeful Barack Obama plans to withdraw troops in Iraq by March 2008 but I guess he will be singing a different tune with the withdrawal from Britain.

“The British position and our position is actually identical. That is that we believe that a withdrawal should be conditions-based, not time-based,” Mr Downer told ABC TV.

Australia currently has about 1,450 personnel in the Middle East, including about 900 inside Iraq. The Australian and British are overseeing the same area in Southern Iraq where violence is relatively low. The Australian troops rely on the British for help with medical evacuation and treatment.

Source:  http://www.thewest.com.au/

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Britain to withdraw troops from Iraq

The main ally of US is looking at withdrawing from Iraq. Britain will be withdrawing 1,500 soilders from Iraq in several weeks. Tony Blair will announce on Wednesday a new timetable for the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq.

Blair will also tell the House of Commons during his regular weekly appearance before it that a total of about 3,000 British soldiers will have left southern Iraq by the end of 2007, if the security there is sufficient, the British Broadcasting Corp. and The Sun newspaper said, quoting government officials who weren’t further identified.

This does not look too good cos with the withdrawal, guess who is going to propose for a troop increase again???

I know that UN will not send in any blue hats.

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Satellite Merging – XM and Sirius looking at Merging

Satellite Merging, that is Satellite Radio stations. Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio said Monday that they would merge to create a $13 billion entity, a scenario that would end an expensive bidding war for talent that the two have been waging but also would invite extensive scrutiny from lawmakers and terrestrial radio broadcasters.

Laws prohibiting the two to combine have been in place since each were granted licenses about a decade ago, in effect creating a mandated duopoly because regulators had no intention of allowing other satellite radio operators to spring up in the U.S. Nevertheless, laws can be tweaked to grant permission for the two money-losing companies to merge, and that has competitors nervous.

(Source: CNN)

Las Vegas Animal Shelter ending its ‘low-kill’ policy – 1,000 euthanized

An animal shelters has just gone from low kill to high kill. This is due to an outbreak of parvovirus and some other nasty stuff which is due to mismanagement of the facility. The name of the facility is Lied Animal Foundation. Since last week, the shelter has euthanized 1,000 cats and dogs that had highly contagious diseases….

It was featured on CNN–

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (AP) — An outbreak of contagious diseases at a shelter where officials admit they kept animals for too long without destroying them has forced the killing of about 1,000 dogs and cats, officials said.

Visiting inspectors from The Humane Society of the United States discovered the outbreak of the diseases — distemper and Parvovirus in dogs and panleukopenia in cats — Lied Animal Shelter spokesman Mark Fierro said.

The mass culling, which began February 9, is believed to be the largest in the city’s history and has prompted shelter officials to change their methods of caring for animals.

Animal rights activists said they were outraged by the killings.

“It’s unforgivable in light of the fact that it was absolutely preventable,” said Holly Stoberski, legal counsel for Heaven Can Wait Sanctuary, a group that has worked with Lied to find homes for impounded animals.

“They were not properly vaccinating the dogs and cats in a timely manner.”

Shelter officials vowed to adopt new policies when it reopens Friday, including euthanizing animals after 72 hours at the shelter — as the Humane Society recommends — and improving conditions for the animals, including vaccinating them when they arrive.

Not all of the 1,000 animals were infected. Some were put down because they had gone unadopted for more than 120 days and were contributing to overcrowding that Humane Society officials said helped spread the diseases.

Lied Animal Shelter officials have said they did not realize animals were infected until the Humane Society team noticed animals with intestinal and respiratory problems.

The foundation contracts with Clark County and the cities of Las Vegas and North Las Vegas to handle abandoned, neglected and stray animals at Lied. The shelter annually adopts more than 7,000 dogs, cats, rabbits, gerbils, guinea pigs and other animals.

–What can you do?
1) Adopt a pet.
2) Donate.
Here is a link to the Vegas SPCA
http://nevadaspca.org/donate.htm

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Lisa Nowak pictures raking in thousands on eBay

With the frenzy of getting more information or anything about the diaper NASA’s Astronaut that tried to kidnap a lady, some Houstonians are profiting from the bizzare story.

In Houston, the command center for NASA’s Johnson Space Center, residents like Joachim Horvitz are seeing a profit for a signed of autographed of astronaut Lisa Nowak. Horvitz nearly threw out the glossy photo Lisa Nowak two weeks ago, but he decided to list it on eBay. As of Thursday (2/8/2007), the bidding for Horvitz’s autographed Nowak photo was at $1,825.50, and there’s four more days of bidding left (source: Houston Chronicle).

Other residents in U.S. with signed autographs of Lisa Nowak are seeing more success than that. A seller from New Jersey with the Nowak frenzy autographed picture is seeing the item selling for more than $10,000 with 16 bids (ebay Item number: 320079982329). Here is a cache version of her auction with 5 days left.

I am not sure if that picture is worth that much but I guess a picture is worth thousands of words dollars…

NASA’s Astronaut Charged With Attempted Kidnapping

Some of the smartest and brightest work for NASA but apparently, some are not able to handle the pressure and love life.

The woman astronaut that flew in NASA’s July 2006 mission was arrested without bail for trying to kidnap another astronaut she also was in love with.

U.S. Navy Cpt. Lisa Nowak was charged with attempted kidnapping, attempted vehicle burglary with battery, destruction of evidence and battery.

Police said Nowak drove from her home in Houston to the Orlando International Airport in diapers to prevent stopping and going to the toilet so that she can confront Colleen Shipman, who the astronaut believed was romantically involved with U.S. Navy Commander William Oefelein, who was a pilot during space shuttle Discovery’s trip to the space station last December. 

Source: http://www.golfer-review.com/articles.php?ar=217%20Police%3A+Astronaut+Charged+With+Attempted+Kidnapping

Deplorable act after the Orlando tornado

Often, you will see the best in us after a natural disaster such as heroic stories after 9-11 or Katrina but the thousands of good deeds seldom was often overshadowed by the actions of a few. The worst of people was reflected in the action of a few that took advantage of those in dire needs.

 In the recent tornado that swept across Lady Lake, Florida, this individual took the opportunity to ransack the house of an elderly lady. Edward McAteer, who is in his 40s, after he allegedly presented himself as a Red Cross help worker and offered to retrieve medications for a disaster victim at a shelter. McAteer apparently obtained the victim’s house keys, proceeded to the victim’s house and ransacked it. He did return with the victim’s medicine but when authorities questioned him about not wearing a Red Cross ID, he fled the scene. (Source: Local 6 TV channel news)

Although the police are looking for him, this deplorable act puts an overcast on the thousands of good deeds that is going on. And if he is caught, he might get a couples of months in jail or maybe a few weeks after time served or good behavior. If he is in the middle east, I think he would have gotten his left fingers cut off..

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FairfieldGetaway.com to re-brand website to Wyndham Vacation Resorts

Wyndham Vacation Resorts (previously Fairfield Resorts), which is one of the largest vacation resorts in U.S. is working at re-branding their program – FairfieldGetaway.com. That website is one of their flagship website that promote mini discounted vacations to over 28 destinations in U.S.

Their website is one of the many channels that drives vacationers to visit the Wyndham Resorts. Those vacation packages are highly discounted and they have vacation packages to places such as Las Vegas, Orlando, San Francisco and many other destinations.

Here is what their new logo will look like: