Eideard

A former Beefeater at the Tower of London has reportedly been thrown out of his local pub for talking German to his daughter.

Tom Sharp, 71, said he was talking to his half-German daughter in the Packhorse pub in the Peterborough village of Northborough when their conversation slipped into German.

Mr Sharp…said the pub’s landlady flew into a rage when she heard the language being used on Wednesday evening.

He claims she told him: “We are white, you are English so you speak English in my pub otherwise get out.” Other drinkers who witnessed the row and spoke up for Mr Sharp and his 49-year-old daughter Nichole Falconer were also ejected, he said.

“I honestly couldn’t believe she was telling us we couldn’t speak German. Now and again the odd German phrase slips up – it is my daughter’s mother tongue. It is natural,” he said…

“I think it is a sad reflection of her attitude to life that she can be upset about speaking a language she can’t understand. It’s outrageous. She was just like a mad woman completely possessed.”

The incident has been reported to police as a hate crime…

“I served in the army for 26 years before joining the beefeaters for 20 years. I guarded the Tower of London…Should a father not speak to his daughter in her mother tongue..?”

The landlady of the pub, which is owned by Scottish and Newcastle but managed by LT Pub Management, declined to comment.

A police spokesman said…”Officers attended and spoke to both parties.”

Well, there’s local coppers with an aggressive approach to dealing with bigotry.

To arrest one foreign car-making executive under Alabama’s new tough immigration laws may be regarded as a misfortune; to arrest a second looks like carelessness.

A judge has acted to put a Japanese employee of Honda Motor Company out of his misery by dismissing immigration charges against him, three days after he was booked under Alabama’s new immigration laws that have been billed as the most swingeing in America. Ichiro Yada is one of about 100 Japanese managers of the company on assignment in southern state.

Yada was stopped in Leeds, Alabama, at a checkpoint set up by police to catch unlicenced drivers. He was ticketed on the spot, despite the fact that he showed an international driver’s licence, a valid passport and a US work permit.

Bamalama coppers probably think an international driver’s license is just for driving outside Dixie.

Key parts of the new immigration law, HB56, came into effect in late September, including the driving provisions. Under them, the police are required to check up on the immigration status of anyone they stop who they suspect of being in the country illegally…

Yada is the second foreign car executive to fall foul of the new law. Last month police officers arrested a German director of Mercedes-Benz for failing to carry a valid driver’s licence. The move exposed Alabama to widespread criticism and ridicule…

The St Louis-based Post-Dispatch newspaper revelled in Alabama’s embarrassment by publishing an open letter to foreign car companies encouraging them to pack their bags and move to the rival car-producing state of Missouri.

“We are the Show Me State, not the Show Me Your Papers State,” it wrote, telling auto bosses: “You’ve got two choices. Either ask your executives to carry their immigration papers at all times, or move to a state that understands gemüchlichkeit…”

Between redneck idiots, Tea Party idiots and the new Republikan Party idiots, freedom to travel in a free country is only a memory in the Confederate States of America. That includes all the old boundaries plus the states outside of Dixie run by the latest clan of fools dedicated to voodoo economics and ethnic hatreds to match.

If you see a large glowing object plummeting from the sky late Saturday or early Sunday, duck.

A defunct European satellite called ROSAT is headed straight for Earth this weekend—and chances are even higher that a piece of space debris could hit someone than the odds placed on a NASA satellite that fell from orbit last month.

The German Aerospace Center, which led the development and construction of ROSAT, estimates that the chance of anyone being harmed by debris from the satellite is 1 in 2,000. For NASA’s UARS, the injury risk was roughly a third lower, at 1 in 3,200.

ROSAT is currently estimated to make an uncontrolled reentry during the early morning hours on Sunday, Greenwich Mean Time, said Heiner Klinkrad, head of the European Space Agency’s space debris office. But Klinkrad cautions that the satellite could enter Earth’s atmosphere up to 24 hours earlier or later than the estimated time…

Unfortunately, neither Klinkrad nor anyone else can say exactly where on Earth ROSAT is headed.

Debris could come down anywhere between 53 degrees north latitude and 53 degrees south latitude, an area that includes most of Earth’s land mass…That could be a worry, because the satellite’s 1.5-ton mirror is likely to survive the superheated trip through the atmosphere all the way to the ground, where it could make a major dent in whatever it strikes…

If bits of the satellite do land in a populated area, “they will be extremely hot,” added the German Aerospace Center’s Roland Gräve. “This is why we recommend not touching any satellite parts” that do make it to the ground.

And any ROSAT debris, no matter where it’s found, belongs to the German government, he said.

There are people like Jonathan McDowell from the Center for Astrophysics who are planning reentry parties. It’s tough keeping it on a schedule. He has a blanket email ready to go when he has concrete location numbers – just fill in the blanks and send it off into the Web.

We all can go “whoopee” while it crashes and burns.

Unlike many of the thousands of people who smuggle wildlife into Los Angeles every year, the authorities say, Sven Koppler chose not to conceal his exotic tarantulas under his clothing. They say he bundled them in multicolored straws or plastic containers and sent them in boxes through the United States Postal Service.

Mr. Koppler, 37, arrived in Los Angeles from his native Germany on Wednesday intending to meet an associate in the tarantula trade, said Mark Williams, an assistant United States attorney here with the environmental crimes section. Agents from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service took him into custody as he left the airport. “This will definitely have a significant impact on the tarantula trade, given the volume of tarantulas this guy was selling,” Mr. Williams said.

Tarantulas can fetch up to $1,000 each for females of breeding age.

Mr. Koppler was charged Thursday morning with one count of illegally importing wildlife into the United States, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine. Mr. Koppler remained in federal custody, and a public defender was assigned to him.

The tarantulas that were confiscated — more than 1,000 of them — remained in federal custody as well, designated as evidence for the remainder of the investigation, said Mr. Williams. Their next stop will be local zoos…

Fish and Wildlife Service agents and postal investigators posed as buyers and contacted Mr. Koppler at his home in Wachtberg, Germany, to request tarantula shipments in the spring and summer. Mr. Koppler complied, federal agents said, sending a package in April of about 71 tarantulas (one was dead). In November, he sent four more batches with a mix of live and dead cargo, they said, adding that each purchase included Mexican red-kneed tarantulas.

Federal agents said their review of records of Mr. Koppler’s transactions show he had earned about $300,000 selling tarantulas to people in more than 40 countries, including nine buyers in the United States…

“He made really good money doing that,” Mr. Williams said of Mr. Koppler. “He had clients in every continent in the world and several states. He was a prolific wildlife smuggler.”

Yes, he’s very good at being a creep, exploiting endangered wildlife, avoiding rules designed to protect critters from sleazy bastards who sell them to equally ill-bred buyers.

Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

Germany’s top army officer has resigned over the disclosure that the defence ministry had withheld information about civilian casualties caused by a Nato air strike in Afghanistan.

The resignation of Wolfgang Schneiderhan, the Bundeswehr’s chief of staff, along with that of ministry state secretary Peter Wichert, was announced by Germany’s new defence minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg during a parliamentary debate on the future of Germany in Afghanistan.

Schneiderhan’s resignation amounts to an admission by the defence ministry that it suppressed information about civilian casualties which was ordered by the Bundeswehr – even though it had numerous sources of information, including from its own military police.

According to Nato information, 142 insurgents and civilians were killed in the attack on 4 September on two oil tankers, which had been seized by the Taliban in the northern region near Kunduz.

The then defence minister, Franz Josef Jung, initially dismissed reports that civilians had been among the victims. The ministry later backtracked, saying some civilians had been killed.

Now, Former German Defense Minister and current Labor Minister Franz Josef Jung has resigned over the fatal Afghan airstrike…

The German newspaper, Bild, said it had access to confidential documents and it posted a video of the airstrike on its Web site. It said German Col. Georg Klein was not able to rule out the possibility of civilian victims before he ordered the strike.

The newspaper said a report dated Sept. 6 — two days after the strike — made clear that it was impossible for Klein to verify information his informant had provided before he called in the airstrike.

Jung said Friday he was taking responsibility for miscommunication following the incident.

Bild reported that for days after the incident, Jung — who was then defense minister — repeated that there had been no civilian victims. That was despite Jung having videos and documents that proved the defense ministry knew about civilian victims and also had insufficient information before the strike was ordered.

The Fog of War claims victims at the top as well as on the battlefield. Though, of course, those at the top don’t get bloodied except in the metaphor.

Pakistani forces found a passport of a militant linked to two hijackers involved in the Sept. 11 attacks during an offensive against Taliban strongholds near the Afghan border, DawnNews reported.

The passport of Said Bahaji, a German of Moroccan origin, was among documents, weapons and militant literature seized by the government forces during their operation in South Waziristan and was shown to a group of journalists during an official trip.

Bahaji’s name appeared in the 9/11 Commission Report…The report said Bahaji spent eight months with hijackers Mohamed Atta and Ramzi Binalshibh between Nov. 1998 and July 1999.

‘Described as an insecure follower with no personality and with limited knowledge of Islam, Bahaji nonetheless professed his readiness to engage in violence,’ it said…

Educated in Morocco, Bahaji returned to Germany to study electrical engineering at the Technical University of Hamburg-Harburg. He spent five months in the German army before obtaining a medical discharge, the Commission said.

Convergence applies to a lot of things. In the world of bandits and terrorists, there isn’t always a great deal of distinction.

I admit that I’m waiting for a qualitative increase in intelligence, reconnaissance – and UAV armaments precision.

Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

A rift between the US and Germany over the conduct of the war in Afghanistan widened today as both countries sought to shift blame over a botched bombing raid that led to scores of civilians being killed.

Berlin defended the raid as “militarily necessary” to protect German troops, even though it went against the express orders of the new US commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, to safeguard civilians…

The strike was called in by a senior German officer. The German government said the officer feared two hijacked oil tankers, stuck in a riverbed, were to be used for a suicide bombing of the German base at Kunduz, in the north of the country.

While the US has expressed most of its criticism in private, the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, did not hold back today, siding with the US in condemning the German decision.

“What an error of judgment! More than 90 dead all because of a simple lorry that was, moreover, immobilised in a riverbed. Why didn’t they send in ground troops to recover the fuel tank? … General McChrystal telephoned me to apologise and to say that he himself hadn’t given the order to attack,” Karzai said, in an interview with the French newspaper Le Figaro.

The folks on the ground aren’t especially concerned with which uniform was worn by whom – when they’re burying their dead.

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So, I said – Bring the car. We’ll have a good time. Do a little sightseeing.
Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

Germany’s Social Democrat health minister came under pressure Sunday to explain why she took her official limousine, complete with chauffeur, to Spain where the vehicle was stolen.

Thieves stole the keys from the chauffeur’s accommodation near Alicante, a ministry spokeswoman said on Saturday, adding Ulla Schmidt had used the Mercedes for official meetings to discuss healthcare and pensions with Germans who had retired to Spain.

German media reported that Schmidt had paid for her own flight to Alicante, where she was also taking a holiday, but a driver had brought over her limousine to Spain from Berlin.

“I would like to know which of Mrs Schmidt’s appointments required an official car and chauffeur in Alicante and why it was not possible for the embassy to arrange transportation,” Otto Fricke, an opposition Free Democrat, told Bild am Sonntag.

Greens budget expert Alexander Bonde told the Saarbruecker Zeitung: “Why does the minister need an armored limousine in Spain? The budget committee will insist that just referring to official appointments is insufficient and implausible.”

Doesn’t anyone in the German press have as cynical an outlook as mine?

How close was the minister’s accommodation – to the chauffeur’s, eh? Connecting doors?

Twenty blue chip German companies are pooling their resources with the aim of harnessing solar power in the deserts of north Africa and transporting the clean electricity to Europe.

The businesses, which include some of the biggest names in European energy, finance and manufacturing, will form a consortium next month. If successful, the highly ambitious plan could see Europe fuelled by solar energy within a decade.

The consortium behind what would be the biggest ever solar energy initiative will first raise awareness and interest among other investors for the project, known as Desertec, which is estimated to cost around €400 billion…

The companies – including Siemens, Deutsche Bank, and the energy companies RWE and E.on – will meet on July 13 in Munich to draw up an agreement. German government ministries as well as the Club of Rome, a Zurich-based NGO of leading scientists, managers and politicians which advocates sustainable development, are also expected to be present.

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A hunt for a killer in Germany was hampered because police were chasing DNA that belonged to a factory worker who packaged the cotton used to collect evidence.

Authorities said the factory worker’s DNA was found at 39 crime scenes. Police pursued the trail for two years before realizing that the DNA collected at the crime scenes came from the cotton ball maker.

Bild reported Thursday that police had linked the killer to seven homicides, including a 2007 slaying in which a 22-year-old policewoman in Heilbronn was shot dead and her colleague was seriously injured.

Bernd Meiners, a spokesman for the public prosecutor’s office in Saarbrucken, acknowledged the mistake Wednesday. “There are considerable doubts about the existence of the ‘phantom killer’. The DNA has instead been linked to investigation materials,” he was quoted as saying.

These guys will never get a job in CSI.