Coss

Iraq Says It Found 50,000 'Ghost Soldiers' on Payroll BAGHDAD — Iraq's new government has discovered 50,000 "ghost soldiers" who received army salaries without showing up for work, a practice which accelerated the military's collapse in the face of ISIS fighters six months ago. The names were uncovered in an investigation launched by Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi, who took office in September, his spokesman Rafid Jaburi said. "Ghost soldiers" were men on the army payroll who paid their officers a portion of their salaries and in return did not show up for duty, enriching their commanders and hollowing out the military force. "Those 50,000 soldiers were revealed after an intense search through military documents and there will be a field search in order to put an end to this phenomenon and any other form of corruption," Jaburi said. Local officials in Mosul said the city should have been defended from an ISIS attack in June by 25,000 soldiers and police, but in reality the number was at best 10,000. ISIS militants took over the city with barely a fight. Since taking over as premier from Nuri al-Maliki, Abadi has sacked dozens of military officials appointed during Maliki's eight-year rule and pledged to root out corruption. On Monday Abadi's office announced he had retired 24 senior Interior Ministry officials and replaced them with new officers under a reform plan to make the security forces "more effective in confronting terrorism."

Avatar Extended version (3 hrs) 2009. Still 'dances with smurfs' but a good view on a hi def screen.

I'll remember - - Cheers

One could mix with pig's blood and crop-dust it over I -S- I- S ?

The outpouring of emotion in this part of the world has been phenomenal, you'd think that Princess Di had risen from the grave and been raped and killed again... The NZ Cricketers, openly Macho men they are, whinged about not wanting to be on the pitch whilst playing a test match, their emotions being so fragile you see. They went on to win, not something that happens very often for the NZ Cricket Team.

Keep the reports coming Good to have on the ground reports, they've been missing for many a year...

"Why they took the blood samples is unknown If these thieves handle this blood, it will be dangerous Roadside bandits" Use as a bio weapon?

If they put seats like that on a flight I want to go on, they lose my dollar.

Flash, like my Dad, you always seem to have problems with Windows, so do I, when I am forced to use it for some piece of software or file that doesn't wanna play nice with the rest of the world. Please get a Mac The learning curve is approximately the same amount of effort, as the resolution to one of the Windows crises you seem to suffer regularly. JMHO

Ian Kilmister ?

Quite right!

Whilst I only ever fish for food, I do see, mainly on TV, the tossers you may be referring to, who hunt or fish in a competitive manner, and their behaviour is execrable. For them it's all about being able to 'high five' and shriek like teenage girls whenever anything happens. I imagine they do the same for building brick walls or taking out the rubbish...

Like fishing, the satisfaction is not in the killing, it's in the eating.

Not surprising. What is surprising is that any one is doing anything about it ...

The Last Man on Earth 1964 - Vincent Price - Not bad, Worth a watch.

BTW, men teaching in NZ comprise less than 15% of the teacher population. How's that for equality?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-related_death_rate See NZ, quite good gun control, still plenty of hunting going on, relatively easy to comply with the laws, not so much murder by gun. Now Honduras, there's a dangerous place.

Sorry, I should have demarcated my post more clearly. I'm not defending Cosby, I don't know the truth, he may be a drugging predator, it probably is true if we believe the news. My other comments are general in nature, describing the difficulty men in stardom situations find themselves. Even in non stardom situations. I know a teacher, whose class included a girl who sat in the front row, she'd open her legs and make suggestive faces at him. When he complained to the school authorities, he was lucky to escape with his job. The attitude was, that even though entirely innocent of any untoward behaviour, somehow it was his fault, that the little tramp was trying to get him into trouble.

Jean-Paul Sartre is sitting at a French cafe, revising his draft of "Being and Nothingness." He says to the waitress, "I'd like a cup of coffee, please, with no cream." The waitress replies, "I'm sorry, Monsieur, but we're out of cream. How about with no milk?"

Man's wife is in a coma in the ICU. Nothing has worked for her. The doc takes the husband aside and says, "we've tried everything. Nothing has worked. However, sometimes if you perform oral sex on them, they snap out of it. Are you willing to try it?" The husband says, "of course, if you think it will help." So, he walks in and they draw the curtains to give them privacy. A minute or two later the EKG flat-lines. She codes and dies. The doctor says "I don't understand, what happened." The guys says, "Well I'm no doctor, but I think she choked."

"All of this overlooks the allegations of drugging. One simply does not use "date rape" drugging to get what one wants, no matter who one is." I quite agree, but if celeb parties are anything like they are supposed to be, the issue would not be one of being drugged without one's permission, but to find one person amongst the guests who hadn't taken drugs and booze in one form or another. With two divorces under my belt, I've had first hand experience of women changing the facts to suit their view when there's money in it, so even though I don't judge Cosby one way or the other, I do have doubts when there's not much evidence in the offing and a Gravy Train building up steam. 17 women so far, how much evidence? I would think that if you're rich enough and hetero, you'd get stunners throwing themselves at you daily. If it were me, I'd take them. And then thirty years later regret not getting a witnessed consent form.

The other side to these allegations, is that they are just that, allegations. I read a good article from a lady journo who'd spent a (platonic) day or two with Mick Jagger. From the tone of the article she was as star-struck, as it was possible to be, he was a consummate gentleman. Even though he was enjoying her company he drew the line at having a photo with her, "One photo and suddenly there's a relationship, or I'm father of her children or something else..." He offered to write a note in a book or something as a memoir - no photos. So Cosby is worth megabucks, he's in America. The puzzling thing is not that he's subject to unsubstantiated allegations, it's that there are not more of them. I note that one of the high profile allegations is from a former model whose plastic surgery has not been kind to her over the years... Someone who would have been able to hold sway in the media, if she'd made these allegations at the time. I guess the mind set is, "Hey, I'll go to the party, take coke and get smashed, have sex with a celeb, all good for the career, and who knows, maybe a lawsuit in thirty years time..."

In a related matter, there's a NZ celebrity, who made her "Splash" by falling for the charms of David Bowie, and trading her way through the women's mags afterwards. Interestingly her story was all consensual, I don't think the evil male had found a way into the court room in the 80's, that was to come in the 90's and afterwards.

"It's all so puzzling, since he should have been able to get all the women he wanted by just showing some interest. " And he probably did.. Not judging this case, but IMHO, there are a significant number of women who've let their knickers down in the past, who now feel entitled, to some of, their previous paramour's wealth and fame. Anyone who's had a free shag in the past, is liable to be sued for said shag, if there's a dollar in it.