Sour Grapes: Much to Miss France's Chagrin, Miss Angola Wins 2011 Miss Universe Pageant

25 year old Leila Lopes, an Angolan presently living in the UK, won the Miss Universe title at the 2011 pageant in Sao Paulo Brazil this week. The business student, originally from rhe seaside city of Begeula, is the first Angolan to win the pagent's title.


Miss Ukraine- 22 year old law student Olesya Stefanko from Odessa (above), was named the pageant's runner-up.

Ms Lopes replaces last year's Miss Universe winner Jimena Navarette (Miss Mexico- above) .

The decision to crown Lopes Miss Universe didn't sit too well with some of the other contestants pageant. Miss France (above)- 20 year old Laury Thilleman- was particularly critical in comments to French magazine Premiere.

“She was the only girl I didn’t know very well. We didn’t see her much; she was very discreet. She was often in jeans and not wearing makeup. We were all surprised by her win. Many girls made efforts that were not rewarded. I don’t know, something is missing in her temperament. The fact that the competition was held in Brazil surely played a role.”

Miss Brazil- 25 year old Priscilla Machado (above)- was actually named second-runner up in the 2011 Miss Universe tournament.

US, French Embassies in Damascus Stormed By Assad Loyalists

Nancy Pelosi visiting Bashr Al-Assad in 2007. Know them by the company they keep

An angry mob of Syrians loyal to president Bashr Al-Assad attacked the US Embassy on Monday, breaking windows, spray painting graffiti and raising a Syrian flag on US grounds. No embassy personnel were injured in the incident.

The State Department criticized Syrian authorities for their slow response to the incident and accused a Syrian TV station influenced by senior Ba'ath party officials of inciting the attack.

A French Foreign ministry reported that the France's Embassy in Damascus was attacked by a mob of Assad loyalists that forced their way onto the compound using a battering ram as Syrian security forces looked on. The crowd smashed windows on one of diplomatic vehicles and only dispersed after French guards fired warning shots in the air. Three embassy workers were reportedly injured in that assault.

AFP Photo

The attacks against the US and French embassies come a week after US Ambassador Robert Ford and French Ambassador Eric Chevallier visited Syrian opposition leaders in the restive city of Hama.

D-Day, The Higgins Boat & The Big Easy

Today marked the 67th anniversary of D-Day, the day the Allied assault on fortified coastal German positions in occupied Northern France began in earnest after months of preparation.

The decision to establish a National D-Day Museum in New Orleans, LA was influenced in large part by the then-ubiquitous barges used to ferry troops and supplies to shore for the Allies, not only on D-Day, but throughout the Pacific Theater as well. These craft were called 'Higgins Boats', named after Columbus, NE native Andrew Jackson Higgins.

In the 1920s, the woodworker left his native Nebraska to set up shop in New Orleans where he started an import/export lumber business. He also used some of that lumber to build shallow draft boats for trappers and oil men along the Gulf coast.

During the Great Depression, Higgins used his own capital to start up his own boatmaking business and had persistently lobbied the US Navy to demonstrate small craft of his design. Eventually the Navy relented, and while they were pleased with the performance of his 'spoonbill' bowed-craft during trials in the late 1930s, there was still the matter of men and equipment having to disembark by climbing over the sides of the craft, leaving them exposed to enemy fire in the process.


However, the US Navy learned of Japanese landing craft during the Manchurian invasion that featured a ramp for troops, supplies and vehicles to disembark via the bow once in shallow water or the beach. Higgins and designers from his shop were able to incorporate the front-end ramp into his design. The new craft was approved by the Navy and was known as the LCVP (short for Landing Craft- Vehicle, Personnel). However, the Higgins factory in New Orleans would turn out around 20,000 such boats throughout the course of the war- giving them the moniker 'Higgins Boats'.

International Monetary Fund Head Charged With Sexual Assault in New York City

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the IMF prior to his weekend arrest for sexually assaulting a hotel maid in New York, was released on $1 million bail and will be electronically monitored as well as being under watch by armed guards around the clock a New York judge has ruled on Firday.

Stauss-Kahn, who was considered by many to be a challenger to current French president Nicholas Sarkozy in next year's presidential elections, was arrested NY Port Authority officers at JFK International airport while on board a Paris-bound flight before it departed from JFK International.

According to the NYPD, a hotel maid entered Strauss-Khan's suite on the 28th floor of Manhattan's Sofitel hotel thinking it was vacant. It was there that the 62 year old Strauss-Khan chased her down and pulled her into another bedroom in his suite before sexually assaulting her. The IMF head apparently left in such a hurry that he left his cell phone and a number of personal items behind at the scene after the victim had escaped and called 911. Strauss-Kahn resigned as IMF head earlier in the week (some members of the Brazil-Russia-China-India bloc are hoping the new IMF head coupld be replaces with somebody from one of the aforementioned nations).

The accuser was identified as a 32 year old immigrant from the West African country of Guinea. It was also learned this week that the maid's address was an apartment block in the Bronx that is rented out exclusively to tenants that are HIV positive.

Forces Loyal To Ghdaffi Counterattack, Bombard Rebel Positions

[Map: AFP]

Mummar Ghdaffi's forces struck back at rebel-held cities in the eastern part of Libya with airstrikes, missiles, tanks and artillery this week, retaking the oil port of Ras Lanuf and have made it as far east as Ajdabiya- some 100 miles south of the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.

Earlier in the month, the Libyan rebels- increasingly made up of soldiers who had defected from the Libyan Army- had made their way westward from Benghazi to the outskirts of Tripoli before being steadily pushed back eastward to their stronghold by Ghdaffi's forces.

Since then, the beleaguered Libyan rebels have been requesting assistance from outside the country- including arms and the possible imposition of a no-fly zone against Ghdaffi's Air Force.

In rebel-held eastern Libya, patience for diplomatic niceties is running short. At a checkpoint near the contested town of Ras Lanuf, Saluhaddin Sultan, 38, a rebel who used to work as a kitchen worker at an oil plant, gestured angrily and said: "Why aren't the Americans doing anything? They just watch and talk. Gaddafi has heavy weapons and he is killing us."

There was a personal reason for his anger. His brother-in-law and nephew, also fighters, had died a day earlier when their car was hit by one of Gaddafi's jets.

"We are fighting for our revolution, but we cannot protect ourselves from the planes," he said.

A couple of miles along the road from the checkpoint were two deep craters on the road edge, from another bombing raid which had killed a family in their car as they fled the fighting.

Jalal Elgallal, a Benghazi businessman educated in Britain who supports the revolution, added: "I lived in Britain for years, I admire Britain - as most Libyans do - and I would expect Britain to help the underdog. If we get a no-fly zone he can't bomb us, and our fighters could march on Tripoli and end this.

"We need your help to get rid of Gaddafi. Just think about what he has done to you in the past - Lockerbie, Yvonne Fletcher, terror attacks.

"This is your chance too to get rid of him. We could get rid of him quickly with some foreign help, otherwise doing this could cost tens of thousands of lives."

In Cairo, the Arab League called for the United Nations Security Council to establish and enforce a no-fly zone during an emergency meeting last week.
British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy have also supported a Libyan no-fly zone while President Obama has been ambivalent at best and Germany and Russia have expressed doubts.

The British and Lebanese have put forth a proposed resolution at the United Nations Security Council that would present a 'menu' of options the international community could use to curtail the activities of Ghdaffi's regime and military. However, it's thought that Russia and China- permanent members of the UN Security council- are likely to oppose any external military intervention against the Libyan regime.

Major Richard Winters, Real Life Commander of Easy Company, Passes Away at 92

Major Richard "Dick" Winters, the Pennsylvania native and WWII Commander who's story was recounted in the Band of Brothers book and miniseries passed away in Campbelltown, PA at the age of 92. Winters passed away on Jan 2nd and had been suffering from Parkinson's disease for some time. He was buried in a small, private ceremony on Saturday.

Throughout WWII, Winters was the commander of Easy Company, 506th regiment of the 101st Airborne Division which had fought their way through Western Europe on D-Day, the Battle of the Bulge, the liberation of the Dachau Concentration Camp and Hitler's 'Eagles Nest' Alpine retreat.

After the war, Winters led a relatively quiet life and worked in the agricultural feed business. In the 1990s, Winters was approached by historian Stephen Ambrose who was hoping to chronicle the story of Easy Company's slog through Western Europe for future generations. Ten years ago, Ambrose's Band of Brothers was made into an HBO miniseries produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. Winters was gracious about his new found notoriety, but never entirely comfortable with it. He shied away of any description of himself as a hero, but was quick to add that he 'served in the company of heroes'.

I found out about Winter's passing from Philly blogger Wyatt Earp the other day. A little over a month ago, Wyatt also mentioned that a 9 year old in Western Pennsylvania has begun selling green wristbands marked 'HANG TOUGH' (similar to the Lance Armstrong/LIVE STRONG bracelets) in order to raise funds for building a monument to Major Winters in St. Marie du-Mont, France.

Sanctuary? Beseiged Iraqi Christians May Find New Home in Kurdistan

Overlooked by many in the news leading up to the 2010 mid-term elections was the terrorist massacre of at least 50 worshippers and clergy in Baghdad's Our Lady of Salvation Syriac Catholic Church on November 1st. Terrorists thought to be with al-Qaeda in Iraq initially targeted the Baghdad stock exchange before moving to the church across the street. Iraqi security forces quickly cordoned off the area surrounding Our Lady of Salvation and attempted to negotiate, but the attackers threw grenades and detonated explosive vests when the Iraqi forces stormed the church, killing 49 parishioners and 9 policemen.

In the days following the church attack, more Iraqi christian were targeted by car bombs and mortar attacks, killing at least five more. Some of the survivors of the terrorist attacks were given asylum by France and flown to Paris for medical treatment.

Many of Iraq's remaining Christians are concerned for their own safety after the latest attacks and want to leave Iraq. However, leaders in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq have invited Iraqi Christians to relocate to Kurdistan from elsewhere within Iraq. Kurdistan's autonomy during the final decade of Saddam Hussein's regime and after Operation Iraqi Freedom has meant that for the most part the economic and security situation is far more stable than elsewhere in Iraq.

Iraq's president Jalal Talibani (a Kurd himself) has even raised the possibility of establishing Christian-majority provinces within Iraq in an interview with France 24 television.

Hmm....wait a second. The sanctimonious self-appointed righteous indignation brigades that were out in force preaching tolerance when that douchebag Florida pastor promised to burn a bunch of Korans on September 11 have been pretty quiet since the Our Lady of Salvation massacre.

This would mean Iraqi and Kurdish Muslims have shown more concern over the plight of Iraq's Christians than the professional whiners and victims in their perpetual seethe-apalooza trying to hold up even token opposition to the 9/11 mosque in Manhattan as bigotry and Islamophobia.

Even if the Our Lady of Salvation massacre never took place, there's still the matter of Egyptian Muslims torching the homes of Coptic Christians over rumors a Coptic man was in a relationship with a Muslim woman. Or the Pakistani Christian mother of two who was reportedly sentenced to death for 'blasphemy' after she rebuffed efforts by Muslim co-workers to convert her.

Just some food for though the next time the head of an Islamic organization says that pointing out what's taking place in the Islamic world is akin to '1930s Germany'.

[Hat Tip: Eat it or Wear It; Weasel Zippers]

More Mail Bomb Madness: Parcel Bombs Sent to Foreign Embassies in Greece, French President and German Chancellor

Authorities in Greece say that at least five foreign embassies in Athens were targeted in mail bomb attacks earlier this week. Two of the bombs went off seperately at the two seperate compounds where the Swiss and Russian embassies are located, with no reports of injuries.

Shortly after those explosions, an Athens courier became suspicious of a parcel he was carrying and alerted police on duty at the Greek Parliment building, where it was destroyed in a controlled demolition.

Two more parcel bombs surfaced- one at the Bulgarian embassy and the other at a shipping company in central Athens and were also destroyed by Greek police in controlled blasts.

One of the explosive parcels made it as far as the mail room of German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin before it was intercepted and disarmed by German police.

The rash of bombings in Athens came the day after two Greek men in Athens carrying pistols and ammo in waist packs were arrested with a parcel bomb that was addressed to French President Nicolas Sarkozy and another addressed to the Belgian Embassy.

Police in Athens were responding after a parcel bomb exploded and burned a female employee of a delivery company on Monday when they noticed two suspicious men wearing baseball caps, wigs and sunglasses at a nearby bus stop. The men, aged 22 and 24, were taken into custody and are believed to be members of the Nuclei of Fire- a leftist-anarchist group reposnsible for a rash of arsons and setting off small bombs in Greece over the last two years.

Greece has suspended foreign mail shipments while authorities in the EU are undertaking an emergency review of security procedures for air cargo. The parcel bombs originating in Athens are thought to be unrelated to the recently unearthed Al Qaeda parcel bomb plot that originated in Yemen.