"Mother they are going to execute me, please save me."

Delara Darabi knew the end was close when she made a panic-filled call to her mother from prison to say that she could see the hangman's noose from her window

Iran executes woman for alleged murder committed as a juvenile
Telegraph

The Iranian artist was executed on Friday for a murder allegedly committed when she was a juvenile and for which she retracted her brief confession, claiming she was covering up for her boyfriend.

The prison authorities hanged Miss Darabi, 23, even though the head of Iran's judiciary granted her a two-month stay of execution on April 19 amid international outrage over her case. They also did not give her lawyer the required 48 hours notice.

Horrific new details have emerged of her last desperate plea for help from Rasht prison as jail guards came to lead her away.
Miss Darabi made a tearful call early on Friday to her parents to say she could see the gallows and noose, according to media reports from Tehran.

"Mother they are going to execute me, please save me," she pleaded. But a prison official then grabbed the phone and told her distraught mother: "We are going to execute your daughter and there's nothing you can do about it."

The execution of a young woman whose case has become an international cause célèbre is a further damaging blow to President Barack Obama's attempts to thaw US relations with the Islamic regime. Roxana Saberi, an American-Iranian journalist, is on hunger strike in a Tehran prison after being convicted of espionage in a show trial last month.

Miss Darabi's case gained widespread attention after moving paintings and drawings that she made in her prison cell were shown around the world. She developed her talent as a painter behind bars.

Iran, Saudi Arabia and Yemen are the only countries to execute people for crimes committed when they are under 18. Miss Darabi was 17 when she admitted killing her 58-year-old uncle in a burglary in 2003 but she quickly retracted the confession, saying she had taken the blame to save her boyfriend.

Amnesty International, the human rights group that campaigned vigorously to save Miss Darabi, led the condemnation.
"Amnesty International is outraged at the execution and particularly at the news that her lawyer was not informed," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, deputy chief for the Middle East and North Africa.

"This appears to have been a cynical move on the part of the authorities to avoid domestic and international protests which might have saved Delara Darabi's life.

"This indicates that even decisions by the Head of the Judiciary carry no weight and are disregarded in the provinces."
The Iranian authorities said that Miss Darabi confessed to the murder because she believed she would be pardoned as the crime was committed when she was a minor. But her lawyer said that new forensic evidence and the explanation for her confession cleared her, but the court declined to hear the testimony.

"Amnesty International does not consider her trial to have been fair, as the courts later refused to consider new evidence which the lawyer said would have proved she could not have committed the murder," Mr Sahraoui added.

Iran has executed at least 42 juvenile criminals since 1990, including seven in 2007, according to human rights groups. Iran says it only carries out the death penalty when a prisoner reaches the age of 18.

Iran's existing penal code holds a nine-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy to be legally responsible if involved in crime.
Capital offences in Iran include murder, rape, armed robbery, apostasy, blasphemy, serious drug trafficking, repeated sodomy, adultery or prostitution, treason and espionage.

Iran stepped up its use of the death penalty last year in what it says is a bid to improve security in society.

The Obama Car-Talk Show Begins.

This will be choice. Obama is proposing that that senior secured lenders will be subordinated to union workers in ownership of the Chrysler company.

Eight US plants are to be closed and sold. These same plants are obviously in areas where the UAW workers live. The factories are at the epicenter of the major problem, which is unsustainable union demands, work rules and ethics.

The workers at these factories are being promised transfers to other Chrysler factories.

Questions

Who is going to buy these factories? To get the highest value, they would have to be used for what they were designed and that is automobiles or trucks. Anyone think that BWM or Toyota is going there?

The machinery equipment will be sold into a worldwide glut of used and obsolete depreciated capital equipment. There is more of that available than there are deserted sub prime houses. Most of it will be bought for scrap and end up being cut up to be used in China. They will not recover more than 5% of the original cost, most of which was spent on setup and installation.

Who is going to buy the cars?

While the bankruptcy case drags on will the Chrysler line up get better?

Will their service and parts be more available?

Will Team Obama allow the payment of retainage bonuses to demoralized but skilled people?

How about affirmative action on hiring and promotion, staffing and suppiers?



Here is what a modern car assembly plant looks like. Where are the workers? Are the UAW and government owners going to allow Chrysler to build a factory such as this?

The UAW workers and future shareholders point of view. They have some legitimate complaints, but how are you going to change this culture to a dynamic and profitable company? At what cost?

__________________________

May 2, 2009

Bankruptcy reality settles in at Chrysler

Automaker warns of likely trouble ahead

BY JUSTIN HYDE and GREG GARDNER
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS

The promise of a surgical bankruptcy turned into a gritty reality for Chrysler LLC and its workers Friday, as the company outlined its immediate hurdles and workers dealt with plant closings and -- in some cases -- canceled pension checks.

The factory shutdown will push the critical launch of the 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee back by up to six months. Replacement parts for repairs on some Chrysler vehicles could run low in the next 60 days. And Chrysler needs court approval to spend $753 million in the same period on incentives for dealers to sell its vehicles.

Lawyers submitted more than 150 separate filings in the first full day since the filing, underlining the complexity that will challenge all parties to complete the process in the desired 30-60 days.

Chrysler is to use $10.5 billion from the U.S. and Canadian governments to consummate a marriage with Fiat SpA, in which Fiat eventually will own 35% of Chrysler while a health care trust fund for UAW retirees owns 55% and the United States and Canada own the rest.

The first day of hearings in the bankruptcy court in New York moved quickly. More serious objections could arise Monday, when Chrysler begins legal moves to seal the Fiat deal.

To bolster its position, Chrysler outlined the lack of options in its bankruptcy case.

Vice Chairman Tom LaSorda said the company had held talks with several automakers -- including General Motors Corp., Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Volkswagen -- that failed to produce a partner.

In recent weeks, Chrysler held what amounted to a five-day bazaar for Chinese companies, offering to sell engines, transmissions and entire vehicle lines.

All of this, LaSorda said, shows that the Fiat deal is the only way out for Chrysler.

"With Fiat, Chrysler has a way forward," he said.

Plant closings

As part of its filing, Chrysler named eight U.S. plants that would be closed by 2010 and sold to settle debts of the old Chrysler.

Three of the plants are in metro Detroit -- Detroit Axle, Conner Avenue Assembly and Sterling Heights Assembly.

Chrysler said Friday that virtually all of the workers at the affected plans would be offered jobs at the new Chrysler.

Frank Ewasyshyn, Chrysler's executive vice president of manufacturing, outlined the delay in the Grand Cherokee and other dangers from the immediate hibernation of its factories.

The government has guaranteed Chrysler's warranties, but Ewasyshyn warns that Chrysler dealers could run short of parts such as oil filters, usually built by the company or its suppliers, within 28 days if payments aren't restored and some production restarted.

"So, four weeks from today, a customer who purchased a Chrysler 300 will pull into his local dealer to have a taillight repaired ... and will be unable to get the parts necessary," he said.

He added, "The longer the sale to Fiat is delayed, the more likely this devastating scenario will occur."

Surprise realizations

Dealers learned Friday that Chrysler Financial, which is independent of Chrysler, no longer would finance their inventories. That work has been turned over to GMAC, also an independent company, as part of the bankruptcy.

About 1,800 Chrysler retirees were shocked to discover that their benefit payments were voided Friday morning.

Lynn Feldhouse of Rochester Hills actually saw the deposit disappear as she checked her bank account online. "This can't be good," Feldhouse said. "I called the bank, and they told me there was nothing they could do because they got a message from Chrysler telling them to reverse the entry."

The problem affected people who have a supplemental pension, which is not insured by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. Because that portion is backed only by Chrysler, it becomes part of Chrysler's asset base in the bankruptcy.

Chrysler is aware of the problem and is telling those affected that they will receive the PBGC-insured portion by May 18.

Contact JUSTIN HYDE: 202-906-8204 or jhyde@freepress.com. Free Press columnist Susan Tompor contributed to this report.

Additional Facts
Chrysler's judge has dealt with big cases before
The judge overseeing Chrysler's bankruptcy filing is no stranger to high-profile cases.

Arthur Gonzalez presided over the closely followed bankruptcy cases of energy company Enron and telecommunications giant WorldCom.

But the Chrysler case presents a new twist for the New York bankruptcy judge: the involvement of the federal government and President Barack Obama. The president describes the case as a "surgical bankruptcy" and hopes for a quick resolution of the case.

Richard Armitage , on Obama, Pakistan and the Taliban

Part of my misspent multi-million dollar military education  was an assignment to  a large TAC base which rotated pilots back and forth to Da Nang, Viet Nam. This was in early 1966. F-4 phantoms were replacing F-104's at Da Nang and it was quite common for multiple temporary duty assignments. Da Nang had both marine and air force fighter squadrons at that time.

The air force had hot showers and the marines did not.

I was always interested in politics and enjoyed the good natured back and forth of political argument. There was one NCO in particular who had served in Korea and was on his second TDY to Viet Nam. In his good natured way and fondness for beer  he explained  to us juniors that the military war in  Viet Nam could be won, but never would be because of the politics.

Many Democratic politicians at the time, would have done well to talk to  men like the good sergeant, who had no political angle but actually experienced the fighting. That included both the pilots and the young marines that fought and beat the NVA at Chu Lai south of Da Nang, late summer in 1965.

Had they done so, a whole lot of things would have been different.

They may have found many non-political but realistic assessments of the immensity and messiness that was before them. Some of the men were very supportive and others just as adamantly opposed with most unsure. One thing they all agreed on and that was the politics were a mess and the South Vietnamese government and military establishment  was corrupt and suspect.  

It amazes me to this day, the ignored wisdom, of those who actually do the fighting.

_________________________

Military solution won't end Afghan war: Veterans

WASHINGTON (AFP) — As fresh US troop reinforcements prepare to deploy to Afghanistan, veterans of the war Thursday decried past mistakes and warned the conflict cannot be solved by military means alone.

"By the time I left Afghanistan, I felt that the US being there was a big mistake," retired US Marines corporal Rick Reyes told the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee.

"I feel strongly that military intervention is not the answer."

His comments echoed congressional testimony given by committee chairman John Kerry as a Vietnam War veteran in 1971, when he had famously asked: "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"

Now as then, veterans voiced their reservations about the already costly and protracted conflict in Afghanistan, although they argued against a rapid withdrawal of troops.

"If we leave without providing the security, propping up the government, propping the local villages and the people that are there, giving them some sense of structure, some sense of stability and security, then we will be back," said Genevieve Chase, a retired US Army Reserve sergeant.

"If we don't do this now, we will be back."

During the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, the United States provided financial and military backing to Muhajedeen Islamist fighters, but withdrew its involvement after Soviet forces left the country. The vacuum helped bring the Taliban to power.

Reyes blasted US President Barack Obama's decision to deploy 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan as "a big mistake." Some 40,000 US troops are already in the country with about 32,000 other foreign allied forces deployed under NATO authority.

"At a minimum, this occupation needs to be rethought," Reyes said.

But three other Afghanistan veterans argued for more US commitment to the conflict.

"We are underfunded and undermanned in Afghanistan," retired US Army captain Westley Moore told the Senate panel.
But he also stressed the importance of more non-military aspects of the US strategy.

"If we increase security aspects ... then we can actually start allocating more resources to make not only Afghanistan not a safe haven for Al-Qaeda, but also provide the security and safety and the future for the Afghan people," he said.

Former army staff sergeant Christopher McGurk recalled the dying moments of 19-year-old Evan O'Neill, who apologized for not completing the mission after being shot near the Pakistani border.

"My own anger and sense of betrayal comes from the possibility that we may not come to a resolution in Afghanistan and that the blood that has been shed by the victims of 9/11, the Afghan people and men like O'Neill would be in vain," McGurk said.
Republican lawmakers expressed skepticism about Obama's strategy for Afghanistan, which focuses on rooting out Al-Qaeda, boosts civilian efforts to rebuild the impoverished country and places nuclear-armed Pakistan at the center of the fight.

"I have no idea what it is, other than sending additional troops," said Republican Senator Bob Corker. "I hope we dig a lot deeper."

Some Democrats also showed concern about the plan.

"The escalation may further destabilize the situation in Afghanistan to the detriment of US security," said Senator Russ Feingold.

"We may be sending our troops in the eye of the storm without addressing the greatest threat to our security, which lies on the Pakistani side of the border."

Kerry acknowledged that "there is much still to be done in Afghanistan and Pakistan."

Kerry drew an analogy between the war in Afghanistan and the Vietnam War.

"Once again, we are fighting an insurgency in a rural country with a weak central government. Our enemy blends in with the local population and easily crosses a long border to find sanctuary in a neighboring country," said Kerry.
"We ignore these similarities at our peril."

The drum beats for US torture trials continue.

Chrysler

Mexico shuts down Mexico. Obama leaves border open. Where's the common sense?

In Mexico City, a metropolis of 20 million, all schools, restaurants, nightclubs and public events have been shut down to try to stop the disease from spreading, bringing normal life to a virtual standstill, yet when Obama was asked about closing the US border, the all knowing one said, "At this point, (health officials) have not recommended a border closing," ... "From their perspective, it would be akin to closing the barn door after the horses are out, because we already have cases here in the United States.

Think about this. 

All roads point to Mexico. The Mexicans in their desperation and wisdom say,  "hold commerce and travel for five days." The President of Mexico, Calderon, states, "There is no safer place than your own home to avoid being infected with the flu virus."

Bush was harshly criticised for not acting promptly after Hurricane Katrina. Obama has chosen not to act swiftly and decisively with a common sense approach being used by the Mexicans in Mexico. The borders should have been closed. There were still plenty of infected horses left in the barn. A horse's ass on a thoroughbred is still a horse's ass.

Swine flu prompts Mexico to shut down economy

Thu Apr 30, 2009 2:37am EDT
By Catherine Bremer

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Felipe Calderon told his people to stay home from Friday for a five-day partial shutdown of the economy, after the World Health Organization said a swine flu pandemic was imminent.

Calderon ordered government offices and private businesses not crucial to the economy to stop work to avoid further infections from the new virus, which has killed up to 176 people in Mexico and is now spreading around the world.

"There is no safer place than your own home to avoid being infected with the flu virus," Calderon said in his first televised address since the crisis erupted last week.

Eleven countries have reported cases of the H1N1 strain, and Texas officials said a 22-month-old Mexican boy had died in Texas while on a family visit, the first confirmed swine flu death outside Mexico.

Switzerland confirmed on Thursday its first case, saying a man returning from Mexico had tested positive for the flu.

The WHO raised the official alert level to phase 5, the last step before a pandemic.

"Influenza pandemics must be taken seriously precisely because of their capacity to spread rapidly to every country in the world," WHO Director General Margaret Chan told a news conference in Geneva on Wednesday.

"The biggest question is this: how severe will the pandemic be, especially now at the start," Chan said. But she added that the world "is better prepared for an influenza pandemic than at any time in history."

WORLD STOCK MARKETS RALLY

Mexico's peso currency weakened sharply early on Thursday after the government called for chunks of the economy to close. The peso fell 1.6 percent to 13.83 per dollar.

But world stocks struck a four-month peak, powered by gains in Asia on Thursday, as investors took heart from signs of improvement in the U.S. economy.

Markets earlier in the week had taken fright and fallen on worries that a major flu outbreak could hit the struggling global economy. Almost all those infected outside Mexico have had mild symptoms, and only a handful of people have been hospitalized.

In Mexico City, a metropolis of 20 million, all schools, restaurants, nightclubs and public events have been shut down to try to stop the disease from spreading, bringing normal life to a virtual standstill.

Spain reported the first case in Europe of swine flu in a person who had not been to Mexico, illustrating the danger of person-to-person transmission.

Both U.S. and European officials have said they expect to see swine flu deaths.

President Barack Obama said during an evening news conference at the White House on Wednesday there was no need for panic and rejected the possibility of closing the border with Mexico.

"At this point, (health officials) have not recommended a border closing," he said. "From their perspective, it would be akin to closing the barn door after the horses are out, because we already have cases here in the United States."

Obama also praised his predecessor for stockpiling anti-viral medication in anticipation of such an outbreak.

"I think the Bush administration did a good job of creating the infrastructure so that we can respond," Obama said. "For example, we've got 50 million courses of anti-viral drugs in the event that they're needed."

EXPERT SAYS VIRUS RELATIVELY WEAK

Masato Tashiro, head of the influenza virus research center at Japan's National Institute of Infectious Disease and a member of the WHO emergency committee, told Japan's Nikkei newspaper it appeared the H1N1 strain was far less dangerous than avian flu.

"The virus is relatively weak and about the same as regular influenza viruses passed on via human-to-human contact. I don't believe it will become virulent," he was quoted as saying.

"The threat to health from the avian influenza and its fatality rate is much greater than the new flu," he said.

"I am very worried that we will use up the stockpile of anti-flu medicine and be unarmed before we need to fight against the avian influenza. The greatest threat to mankind remains the H5N1 avian influenza."

The WHO's Chan urged companies who make the drugs to ramp up production. Two antiviral drugs -- Relenza, made by GlaxoSmithKline and Tamiflu, made by Roche AG and Gilead Sciences Inc -- have been shown to work against the H1N1 strain.

Mexico's central bank warned the outbreak could deepen the nation's recession, hurting an economy that already shrank by as much as 8 percent from the previous year in the first quarter.

France said it would seek a European Union ban on flights to Mexico. The EU, the United States and Canada have advised against non-essential travel to Mexico, and many tourists were hurrying to leave, crowding airports

.

(Reporting by Maggie Fox and Tabassum Zakaria in Washington; Jason Lange, Catherine Bremer, Alistair Bell and Helen Popper in Mexico City; Laura MacInnis and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva and Yoko Nishikawa in Tokyo; Writing by Andrew Marshall and Dean Yates; Editing by Bill Tarrant)

Pakistan is getting serious about the Taliban, sort of.

Pakistan drops troops behind Taliban lines
Wed Apr 29, 2009 7:05am BST

BUNER, Pakistan (Reuters) -

Pakistani troops dropped from helicopters onto hillsides behind Taliban fighters holding entrances to the Buner valley, according to witnesses, as the second day of an offensive began on Wednesday.

Pakistan's demonstration of military resolve will reassure U.S. President Barack Obama and Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai, when they meet Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari in Washington on May 6/7 to discuss regional strategy.

The Taliban's entry into a region just 100 km (60 miles) northwest of Islamabad earlier this month had sent shivers through Pakistan and sparked alarm in the United States.

The army, however, said a few hundred militants holed up in the mountains did not represent a real threat to the capital of the nuclear-armed Muslim nation, despite their proximity.

Residents could see and hear the fighting on the slopes overlooking Buner town on Wednesday, and several saw troops rappelling down ropes from helicopters in a drop behind enemy lines.

"We saw a helicopter dropping troops on the hills early this morning. It came about seven or eight times," said Arshad Imran standing in the town's central bazaar.

"We hear sound of explosions off and on and we can see helicopters flying over the mountains."

The military estimated some 500 militants were in Buner, and that it might take a week to clear them out. Jet fighters and helicopters gunships provided air support for army and paramilitary troops leading the offensive on Tuesday.

U.S. ENCOURAGEMENT

Pakistan is desperate for military and economic support to fight the insurgency.

But allies had feared Zardari's government was too ready to appease the militants after he signed off on a regulation to introduce Islamic sharia courts in the Malakand division in the North West Frontier Province.

Malakand has a long history of Islamist fervour going back to the British Raj in pre-Partition India, even though in earlier times the Swat valley had been a centre of Buddhism and until a couple of years ago had been a favourite destination for honeymooners, hikers and skiers.

While Buner is located south of Swat, the first military operation began southwest of Swat, in Lower Dir district on Sunday.

The government had hoped that meeting demands for sharia courts would quieten the militants in Swat.

But the Taliban instead became emboldened, fanning out of Swat into other parts of Malakand, including Buner, Lower Dir and Shangla districts.

A military spokesman said 10 soldiers and around 70 militants were killed in three days of fighting in Dir, though there were no independent casualty estimates.

The Pentagon urged Pakistan to remain on the offensive.

"The key is to sustain these operations at this tempo and to keep the militants on their heels and to, ultimately, defeat them," Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said.

"The test of all of these Pakistani military operations -- because we've seen them from time to time in the past -- is always their sustainability," he told reporters in Washington.

Washington is considering rushing hundreds of millions of dollars in emergency aid to Pakistan, the U.S. Senate's second-ranking Republican, Jon Kyl of Arizona, told reporters.

There have been signs of a sea change within Pakistan's fractious polity, with even conservative religious parties recognising the need to push the Taliban back.

A police official in Buner, speaking on condition of anonymity, said militants briefly took dozens of policemen and Frontier Constabulary personnel hostage in the district's Pir Baba area but released them on condition they would stay out of the fight. There was no official confirmation of the incident.

(Additional reporting by Junaid Khan and Augustine Anthony in Pakistan; Writing by Simon Cameron-Moore; Editing by Bill Tarrant)

Vestas, world's biggest wind energy group, losing sail.

A Danish Nordtank wind turbine suffers a brake failure 

( manufactured by Vestas ). Hard to understand why anyone would object to this in their neighborhood.

Care to speculate how many billions will get blown in US wind dreams and boondoggles?

_____________________

Britain's only wind turbine plant to close

Vestas is to shut down its Isle of Wight factory in the face of collapsing demand from a wind-farming industry hobbled by the recession and red tape

Tim Webb
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 28 April 2009 13.13 BST

The UK's only wind turbine manufact uring plant is to close, dealing a humili ating blow to the government's promise to support low-carbon industries.

Vestas, the world's biggest wind energy group, said today that it would close its Isle of Wight facility, which employs about 700 people and makes blades for wind farms in the US.

The group had planned to convert the factory in Newport so it could make blades for the British market, but said this morning that the paralysis gripping the industry meant that orders had ground to a halt. Such low demand could not justify the investment, Ditlev Engel, the chief executive, told the Guardian.

He said the group would consult with the workers for the next two to three months, adding that there was a glimmer of hope investment in the plant could still go ahead if orders picked up soon.

Engel said last week's budget, which increased subsidies available for offshore wind farms, as well as recent moves to free up the sluggish planning process, could boost the industry but it was too early to say whether orders would pick enough to rescue the plant.

"The government has tried to improve the situation," he said. "Whether it's enough I don't know."

In early March, Gordon Brown convened a low-carbon industrial summit aimed at finding ways to help low-carbon manufacturers lead the UK out of recession. Vestas representatives attended the meeting.

Engel said the group was in "constant dialogue" with the government and had informed it of today's move. He admitted that no aid or assistance had been offered by Whitehall to try to save the plant. But he reserved his fiercest criticism for local politicians who he said were holding up projects, particularly onshore, giving the UK one of the lengthiest planning processes for developers wanting to build wind farms anywhere in the world.

"Since last summer, the order intake in the UK market has dropped significantly. Therefore it would be very difficult to substantiate the investment as we had already planned.

"The UK has large wind resources and it's a priority for the government but the orders didn't move. That's why we're telling employees that we're not reinvesting there.

"We are waiting to see in the coming period if the government initiative announced last week will get the market to move again. At least it gives some hope but it's too early to tell."

Engel said the weakness of the pound had also had an effect, making it more expensive to build wind farms in the UK, but the major problem lay in planning application.

"It is extremely time consuming and extremely complicated. Some of our developers, customers, will tell you it is so difficult. In the UK nimbyism is a huge challenge. This is outside of Whitehall territory.

"People talk about big offshore parks. Why not put in onshore parks? The cost of installation is half compared to offshore."

The Isle of Wight facility will stop making blades in June. The R&D department, which employs about 150 people, will remain open.

Engel admitted that if Vestas makes its skilled workers redundant but sees a pick-up in orders later in the year, it would be harder to reopen the plant because it would have to find a new skilled workforce.