Utah highway shut after 20m bees escape from lorry

A highway in the US state of Utah was temporarily closed after a lorry carrying at least 20 million bees overturned, freeing the insects.

The bees were being transported to California, ready to pollinate an almond crop next spring.

Interstate 15 was closed down for several hours while local beekeepers worked overnight to recapture the bees.

The trip was among the last of 160 truckloads of bees being sent south from Adee Honey Farms in South Dakota.

Authorities closed the southbound lanes of the highway, near the Arizona border, for several hours on Sunday night. The road reopened early on Monday morning, but officials have warned drivers to keep their windows closed.

"The driver lost control, hit the concrete barrier and rolled over," said Corporal Todd Johnson of the Utah Highway Patrol. "Of course, we then had bees everywhere."

'Complete loss'

Driver Louis Holst and his wife Tammie were dragged out of the overturned trailer by first responders, but were swarmed by the escaped bees on the highway.

"We just started swinging our clothes," Mr Holst told the Associated Press news agency. "They stung her all up and down her neck."

Mr Holst said he was stung about a dozen times and suffered a gash on his forehead. His wife also was both stung and bruised.

Two police officers were also stung.

Richard Adee, owner of Adee Honey Farms, said this truckload, worth approximately $116,000 (£72,500) was "pretty much a complete loss".

Local beekeepers worked overnight to capture the bees, but on Monday most of the inhabitants of the 460 hives were gone or dead.

"We tried to move them [the bees] as far out of the metropolitan area as we could," beekeeper Melvin Taylor told the Reuters news agency. "Because when those bees come alive today, they are going to be mad that their house is all [broken] apart."

Earlier this summer, an estimated 14 million bees escaped from an overturned truck on a Idaho highway.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15439754

Image: No life threatening injuries were reported after the bees escaped

Shakespeare signs covered in protest of Anonymous film

Shakespeare's name is being removed from signs in Warwickshire in a campaign against a new film which questions whether he wrote his plays.

The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust is taping over nine road signs for the day to coincide with the premiere of Anonymous at the London Film Festival.

It criticised the film as an attempt to "rewrite English culture and history".

A memorial in William Shakespeare's home town of Stratford-upon-Avon is being covered with a sheet.

The sign on The Shakespeare pub in Welford, where the Bard is said to have enjoyed his last drink, is one of 10 pub signs that are being covered.

'Enormous legacy'

The trust said it wanted to highlight the potential impact of the film's

"conspiracy theory" that William Shakespeare was the "barely literate frontman for the Earl of Oxford".

Anonymous stars Rafe Spall as the Bard, Rhys Ifans as the Earl of Oxford, Vanessa Redgrave as Queen Elizabeth I, and asks "Was Shakespeare a fraud?"

It reignites the age-old debate over the authorship of Shakespeare's work, taking the view that it was Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, and not William Shakespeare who was in fact the true author of the famous plays.

“Start Quote

This film flies in the face of a mass of historical fact”

Dr Paul EdmondsonShakespeare Birthplace Trust

Dr Paul Edmondson, head of knowledge and research at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, said: "This film flies in the face of a mass of historical fact, but there is a risk that people who have never questioned the authorship of Shakespeare's works could be hoodwinked.

"Shakespeare is at the core of England's cultural and historical DNA, and he is certainly our most famous export.

"Today's activity barely scratches the surface, but we hope it will remind people of the enormous legacy we owe to William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-15440882

Image: Nine road signs have been temporarily taped ove

To live is to struggle to be happy

And you got to reach the human being's ambition, the paradise of being, and you are in your eighth amazes of the world. He lives your happiness now so that later you remember of her. Because they are these moments that lead us to the state of the permanent memory of our soul. Never forget: to live is to struggle to be happy.

Global hypocrisy

Anyway the global hypocrisy expired once again. It is also true that the global manipulation is an acquired case, and us no longer we are part of the pieces of the chess game. Now we are corpses in the global cemetery. We are graves, no longer we are alive, but very dead.

China is major supplier of heavy artillery for African countries

The Angolan army is in contact with Chinese defense manufacturer Norinco, seeking to buy heavy artillery, armored vehicles and ammunition.

Posted by ThunderBolt on February 4th, 2009

China already has been supplying an extensive range of light weapons and ammunition to Zimbabwe and Angola. African militarysources told United Press International that Norinco recently exported a number of 155mm howitzers to North African countries, including Algeria, Sudan and Egypt.

One source told UPI that Algeria purchased enough 155mm auto-propulsion howitzers to equip a battalion. Algeria traditionally has not been a purchaser of Chinese ground-force equipment, but seems to have taken its lead from Sudan, which first bought the howitzers.

One company of Chinese auto-propulsion 155mm howitzers consists of six artillery vehicles, one 704-1 positioning radar and one 720-D meteorological radar. One battalion is composed of 18 155mm howitzers, one command vehicle and onesurveillance vehicle.

This type of auto-propulsion 155mm howitzer originated from the 45-caliber PLL01 towed howitzer, which uses extended range full bore, base bleed or rocket-assisted — ERFB-BB/RA — ammunition with a maximum range of 50 kilometers (30 miles).

Other ammunition used for the howitzer includes the 30-kilometer (18 mile) range ERFB/HE — high explosive — and the 39-kilometer (24 mile) range ERFB-BB/HE. The weight of the artillery weapon is 13 tons.

Analysts from the African military industry believe China has fitted Russian Krasnopol semi-active laser-guided gun launch projectiles on its 155mm howitzers. The United Arab Emirates uses the Chinese-version Krasnopols, which are almost one-third cheaper than the Russian originals.

A military source also told the author that Norinco has delivered WMZ-551 6X6 wheeled armored vehicles to both Zambia and Kenya in the past three years.

Kenya is not a traditional market for Chinese ground-force equipment, but as China has been competing fiercely with Russia and South Africa in selling arms in Africa, it appears to be opening up new markets.

The Royal Guards of Oman have imported 50 of these vehicles, and the Sudanese army also has them.

The WMZ-551 uses a new turret and is equipped with the 2A72 30mm gun produced under license from Russia. The armored vehicle can be fitted with a 12.7mm machine gun, 105mm smooth-bore gun, 120mm mortar and four HJ-8 anti-tank missiles.

It has been reported recently that the Chinese army’s light mechanized brigades have received batches of WMZ-551 wheeled armored vehicles fitted with 120mm mortar guns, 105mm smooth-bore guns and 2A72 30mm cannon guns. A source from theChinese military industry told United Press International that the turrets of the WMZ-551 can be transferred to 8X8 wheeled vehicles once those have been developed.

Aside from the weapon systems fitted on board, the WMZ-551 has a combat weight of 13.5 to 19 tons. It is powered by one 235-kilowatt diesel engine, has a maximum speed of 85 kilometers per hour, a maximum duration of 600 kilometers (360 miles), a length of 6.69 meters, width of 2.86 meters, and its speed in water is 8 kilometers per hour. ( UPI )

IN http://www.armybase.us/2009/02/china-is-major-supplier-of-heavy-artillery-for-african-countries/

Corruption in Angola: an Impediment to Democracy. Rafael Marques de Morals

Introduction

On April 1, 2011, the National Assembly of Angola voted for a bill criminalizing the use of the Internet and mobile phones to send information, photographs, or text messages without the prior written consent of those mentioned in the contents. The “Law to Combat Crime in the Area of Information and Communication Technologies and of Information Company Services” establishes a maximum penalty of twelve years in prison for such violations, while online child pornography is given a more lenient maximum sentence of two years. To date, the proposed legislation is in a state of political limbo.

Two weeks later, on April 19, 2011, the National Assembly established one million US dollars as the minimum threshold investment for any individual to qualify as a private investor and receive state incentives. The rationale for the “Law on Private Investment” was that it would attract bigger foreign investments and enable Angolans to be more competitive with their foreign counterparts.

These two legal initiatives illustrate both the current state of democratization in the country and its political economy. Examining these laws is critical in addressing what has become the most defining issue in Angola, both in official discourse and for the society at-large: the untrammeled, high-level corruption in the country. Following the purging years of the Marxist-Leninist era and the continuous civil war (1975-2002), this paper argues that violence is no longer the key feature of governance in Angola: corruption is. At a time when citizens’ demands for democratic reform, economic opportunity, and political accountability have led to upheaval in the Middle East and North Africa, both laws demonstrate the government’s response to the fundamental question of how it plans to rule Angola within this period of regime change and democratic transformation.

This paper is divided into three sections. The first section discusses the consolidation of presidential power in Angola, demonstrating that the power of the executive has been historically strengthened through the use of constitutional and legal measures. This shows that Angolan law rarely serves as a check on power, but instead is used as a tool to enable an environment of high-level corruption and impunity.

The second section introduces the proposed “Law to Combat IT, Communications and Information Society Services’ Crimes” as a case study illustrating the shrinking space of civil society and independent voices in Angola.

The third section addresses the role of the new “Law on Private Investment” in ensuring a presidential monopoly over the levers of Angolan economic power. This section will also present an overview of available legal mechanisms to combat corruption and provide a narrative of the country’s current political economy and its modus operandi in the banking and oil sectors. The expansion of private banking ventures in the country necessitates close scrutiny, as high-ranking public officials who comprise the shareholding structures of these private banks increasingly use these ventures as venues for money laundering. On the other hand, oil is increasingly central to the nation’s realpolitik. In 2010, Angola was the largest oil producer in Africa, with an estimated output of 1.9 million barrels a day. Crude oil represents more than 95% of the country’s total exports.

In conclusion, the paper reflects on the current state of governance in Angola, and what it would take for Angolans to engage in a nation-building process anchored in the separation of powers and its attendant checks and balances, as well as public accountability.

http://makaangola.org/2011/10/english-corruption-in-angola-an-impediment-to-democracy-3/?lang=en

Where the hypocrisy reigns

It is above all don't forget, never she let to dominate for the hypocrisy. At this time there are hypocrites that try at the whole cost to impose us their false moralities. It is that we are in the ideal moment for the victory of the wolves disguised of lambs. She don't let to drag for the populist currents of the chaos and of immense so many revolutionaries. The true, the genuine revolutionary appear along the History just a, or other, very few, now suddenly so many, so many, is the revolution like this confused, who is not known is who, it is not?!

Let us avoid to fall in the temptation of one more Victory of the Pigs. Where the hypocrisy reigns, that it is the case, it will come because the decline.

The Republic of the a hundred thousand dollars

Until the fúnji they stole me

I am corrupt!

Here is the built homeland

enclosed, electrified, with weapons, without moonlight

Oh! This spectacular Luanda

of million of having spoiled

in home prison

I am corrupt!

Glorious, eternal and blessed dictatorship whose people

illiterate persists.

The independence still didn't arrive

who usurped her?!

A handful

of daggers treacherous slave traders

sold to the foreigners by some moneys

And who this to denounce

a hundred thousand dollars will have to pay

Or a year of prison will be hit

And they have dogs Pitbull

that they eat children

how to know

I am corrupt!

No longer in the surplus a piece of our earth

The independence of the corruption arrived

but it still didn't finish

Nor in the streets we can move ourselves

because a safety is going us

to question and to threaten

I am in the poverty, without country

without to know that did

To steal some thing of the petroleum

that I also spoiled

I am really a zero

Electricity, water, marries, health, job

only for who bought Angola

plus the foreigners than they govern us

It is still fake elections that we already know

they are electoral frauds that beforehand

we already expired

And who this to denounce

a hundred thousand dollars will have to pay

Or a year of prison will be hit

And they have dogs Pitbull

that they eat children

how to know

I am corrupt!

Until the banana, the peanut, the jimboa

the fúnji stole me

Do they steal me, thieves are not?!

And me when I steal

they throw me to kill!

They freed everything but they forgot

of freeing the people

That he shows and it denounces

the corruption

They have white banks

that they spoil us, they kill us!

And the dam of Kapanda doesn't have enough capacity

to supply Luanda

but potency doesn't lack her

to supply the corruption

Nobody is not arrested

while the military committee

to enslave us

The water is also to decrease

and it will end, to lack

The final moment approaches

tumbling

The clamor of the people

he is in the air

I am corrupt

And who this to denounce

a hundred thousand dollars will have to pay

Or a year of prison will be hit

And they have dogs Pitbull

that they eat children

how to know

Image: SOS WILLIAM TONET. It kills himself the man but never their ideas

10Out11. Dr William Tonet, the national hero of the Angolan democracy.

Condemned by the military committee of Angola to the payment in the period of five days of a hundred thousand dollars, or a year of prison.

Collect of bottoms to pay the fine requested by the Tribunal of Luanda, in favor of the journalist's freedom, director of the weekly publication FOLHA8 and pled Dr William Tonet. The deposit is to be done in the Banco de Fomento de Angola in the bill number: 383111031009.

After all we thought

Philosopher is the individual that ends philosophically after endless interior dissertation that we were born, we died and that we acted as the internal incentives attack us and external that they stroll to our turn. And that we reached the incommensurable truth when leaned over about the abstractions of the endless Universe, because that the more vast to least conclusions we arrived. And that after all due to the such smallness got lost confined us universes. And that after all the cosmoses are the key of the truth of the philosophy. And that in being able to of that key we didn't get to decipher the door, how to open her. And when finally the door is disappointed, oh discovered addition, oh last evidence. The door stands back from us to the speed of the light, she was surprised, it was stunned because it also sought the truth of the cosmogony and it deciphered her: that after all we thought.

And you see the distant love

He goes; it follows your steps, the last of your ephemeral destiny that, disguised there is a lot desire for you. In spite of the masks that you invented, that you inculcated in your face, to the end of your terrestrial adventure, he will close up the last mask of your misfortune. Oh! Only now, in the end, you don't want to perish, you resist, you don't want to go, and in your last moment probes an inhuman effort, reinforcement of living. You go definitively and you see the distant love to waive you for sinking of your Titanic.

Meditate: the love is the only winner.

Until already in our refuge, leaned us disenchanted. The waves of the sea challenge the immutableness of the venereal time, and they whip us with beating metal basins. Actually, in the Nature everything gets lost and anything if it transforms. And the waves of the sea air cross the more discharges and daring human protections in the challenge: everything that the human being projects and it builds, always stronger, more powerful, the waves of the marine fantastic cavalcades more they strengthen, and so easily they penetrate, they leave rocks and they smile at the men's bad projects that fall so without mercy for the storm. It is that the humans persist in the fundamentalism of the matter, of the material. For everything to resist to the fury of the elements it is necessary, fundamental, primordial a raw material: the fortress of the LOVE. It builds your projects with love and you will never be expired. The forces of the Nature will follow you and forever they will obey you. Meditate: the love is the only winner. He thinks about that.