NEWS,22.09.2012

Afghanistan in flux as U.S. surge troops exit

The U.S. military says it has now fully withdrawn the last of the 33,000 "surge troops" sent to pacify Afghanistan two years ago, but they are leaving behind an uncertain landscape of rising violence and political instability that threaten to undo considerable gains in security, particularly in the former Taliban strongholds in the south and southwest.As the troops head for home, a good week ahead of schedule, the U.S. coalition and its Afghan partners are bedeviled by a host of problems.The tempo and audacity of Taliban attacks have increased. Insider killings of Americans by Afghan troops have raised tensions between the allies, forcing severe cutbacks in strategically vital training programs. Both governments are arguing publicly over whether to keep battlefield prisoners locked up without trial, while nervous officials on all sides are worrying that riots over an inflammatory anti-Muslim video, which have killed dozens in other countries, will break out in Afghanistan.Friday's milestone, which still leaves 68,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, was announced on the other side of the planet by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, during a trip to New Zealand, while both U.S. and Afghan officials in Kabul studiously ignored the moment, at least in public.Some pro-government Afghans boasted it showed their own forces were ready to take over, while pro-Taliban forces exulted that they were not, but most Afghans just worried about what it would really mean for the final two years of the U.S. presence in the country."What did the surge give us?" a senior U.S. official reflected Friday, speaking anonymously as a matter of military policy. "We're going to hit a point where, I won't say that's as good as it gets, but now it's up to them to hold what we gave them. Now, really, it's Karzai's turn."No one claimed there was not a great deal yet to be done against an insurgency that its foes describe as tenacious and determined. "They're not going to go away for years," the senior official said. "Every fighting season the Taliban, or some number of them, come out of the corner and they're ready to fight again."Both U.S. and Afghan officials have acknowledged the seriousness of the green on blue attacks, which this year have seen the killings of more than 50 U.S. soldiers at the hands of their Afghan allies.

US Navy's new floating base gets a workout in Gulf 

A new, key addition to American-led naval efforts to ensure Mideast oil keeps flowing has emerged as an unusual mix of a ship combining decades' worth of wear and tear with state-of-the-art technology and a largely civilian crew.After winning a reprieve from the scrapyard, the USS Ponce was reborn through a rush retrofit earlier this year and turned into a floating base prowling the waters of the Persian Gulf. It is now getting its biggest workout since refurbishment as the centerpiece for sweeping naval exercises under way that serve as a very public warning to Iran. The Islamic Republic has threatened to shut the Gulf's entrance at the Strait of Hormuz, the route for a fifth of the world's oil supplies, and would likely use mines to do so.Anti-mine divers on practice drills deployed in small boats off the Ponce's stern gate early Saturday, and MH-53 minesweeping helicopters launched from the ship kicked up sea spray as they hauled mine-detecting equipment through the water. Later in the day, a U.S. destroyer pulled alongside, fighter jets roared past and gunners fired thunderous rounds from .50 caliber machine guns during a simulated encounter with a hostile vessel.Senior Navy officials in the Gulf are quick to downplay talk of conflict with Iran, which is locked in a dispute with the U.S. and its allies over Tehran's disputed nuclear program. The West suspects Iran aims to develop a nuclear weapon; Tehran denies the charges.U.S. military officials in the region insist the exercises, which include forces from more than 30 countries, are defensive and not directed at any country. They prefer to focus instead on the Ponce's role as an innovative new tool to help ensure security in the region, and on the need to train with allies to keep sea lanes open.Still, the message is clear."Any extremist group, any country that puts mines in the water would be cautioned" by the exercises, said Marine Gen. James R. Mattis, the U.S. Central Command chief, during his first visit onboard the Ponce since it deployed June 1. "We do have the means to take mines out of the water if they go in. We will open the waterways to freedom of navigation."Military leaders believe the Norfolk, Va.-based Ponce is central to that mission.More than half the length of most U.S. aircraft carriers, the Ponce can accommodate multiple helicopters on deck and small boats in a well deck below.The ship was originally an amphibious transport dock built at the height of the Vietnam War. Those types of vessels are typically used to carry landing forces of Marines.It's now known as the Navy's first "afloat forward staging base-interim," a name given because the Ponce is meant to be a stopgap until a similar base built from scratch is delivered. That won't happen until at least 2015."This will more or less act as a test for using floating platforms in the sea for military operations," Riad Kahwaji, chief executive of the Dubai-based Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis, said of the reconfigured Ponce. "There'll be a lot of defense industry officials observing the performance of this."Much of the original ship remains, including the tight Marine-style bunks stacked four high from floor to ceiling in some parts of the ship. But there are plenty of 21st Century additions too.Berths for around 100 people were removed and replaced with a high-tech joint operations center, where streaming video and data feeds can be shown on flat-screen displays.Powerful MK-38 guns installed during conversion include remotely controlled digital cameras that let operators zoom in on far-off targets of interest. And a ScanEagle surveillance drone launched from and recovered by the ship keeps an eye on the sea for miles around all day long.In its new role, the Ponce is initially intended to be a close-to-the-action support hub for mine-clearing ships, coastal patrol vessels and helicopters. Ships can take on fuel and supplies without having to return to port, and a wide range of repairs can be handled by machinists onboard. That means far less downtime for minesweepers and other vessels using the Ponce as a stopping-off point, according to analysts and Navy officials.The Ponce's Spartan accommodation can also handle hundreds of additional personnel, such as the French anti-mine divers in distinctive camouflage shorts currently onboard. In theory, special operations forces could also fill bunks aboard the Ponce, which is able to launch the small boats and helicopters they often use.There is also the benefit of not needing to secure approval from allied countries where U.S. troops are based before conducting operations from an offshore staging base such as the Ponce."A country that's believed to be friendly to the U.S. could overnight become hostile to the U.S., and this could pose a threat to U.S. operations," Kahwaji said, citing recent violence directed at American embassies in response to an anti-Islam film.Although it is under the command of a Navy captain, most of the Ponce's crew are civilians. It has more than 155 civilian crew members from the Military Sealift Command and 55 Navy sailors, according to the ship's commanding officer, Capt. Jon Rodgers. The number of civilian crew can fluctuate depending on who is onboard.The MSC is normally responsible for running about 110 supply ships and other non-combat vessels for the Navy, but the Ponce's hybrid crew is unusual.Visitors arriving by helicopter are met on the flight deck by some crew in uniform and others in civilian coveralls. Civilian employees keep the floors and toilets clean, and dish out corned beef hash and French toast on the mess deck. Some of the MSC crew members have dreadlocks  a no-no for enlisted sailors and many are in their 40s or beyond. A handful are older than 60.It's not just the civilian crew that's showing its age. The Ponce is among the Navy's oldest ships. Construction began in 1966, and it was commissioned during the Nixon administration in 1971.Rust is prevalent throughout the ship, and many of the fittings retain a Cold War feel."Just walk around and you can see," said Kevin Chavis, 45, a retired Navy electronics specialist from Brooklyn who is now part of the Ponce's civilian crew. "Yeah, it's old. But just like a car, if you change the filters and the oil, it'll keep running."

Chavez's record: an oil bonanza squandered?

 

On the streets of Caracas, vast slums blanket the hillsides while squatters hang laundry in the windows of abandoned buildings. Trash-strewn alleys are riddled with potholes and lined with broken streetlamps. The city's main waterway, the polluted Guaire River, is known more for sewage than swimming.While oil has ushered in spectacular construction projects for glittering Middle Eastern cities, including the world's tallest building in Dubai and plans for branches of the Louvre and Guggenheim museums in Abu Dhabi, it's brought relatively meager changes to Venezuela, which holds the world's largest proven oil reserves.Nearly 14 years after President Hugo Chavez took office, and despite the biggest oil bonanza in Venezuela's history, there's little outward sign of the nearly one trillion petrodollars that have flowed into the country.Venezuela has undoubtedly changed during Chavez's tenure. The populist president has used the oil wealth to buttress his support through cash handouts, state-run grocery stores and a gamut of other social programs. With more money in the economy, incomes are higher and the number of people living in poverty has fallen.Unemployment has dropped from more than 13 percent in 1999 to about 8 percent. The country has also achieved rapid improvement on the U.N. Human Development Index, which measures a range of indicators from living standards to life expectancy."We're applying a successful program successful politically, successful socially, successful economically," Chavez said at a news conference. "With flaws, of course, but it's successful. We're laying the foundations of a historic project that will take our entire lifetime."All of which makes him a tough incumbent to beat in the upcoming Oct. 7 election.Yet some experts say Chavez could have done much more to improve the country's infrastructure, boost its economy and invest in the very oil industry that keeps Venezuela afloat."It's overwhelmingly clear that Venezuela has wasted the windfall," said Francisco Monaldi, an economist and director of the International Center of Energy and the Environment at Caracas' IESA business school. "You should have had much greater economic growth, much greater reduction of poverty."Among Latin American countries, the economies of Brazil, Chile, Peru and Argentina all have expanded more rapidly than Venezuela's since Chavez took office in 1999, recording average growth between 3 and 5 percent a year.Venezuela, by contrast, averaged a 2.8 percent annual increase of gross domestic product between 1999 and 2011, according to International Monetary Fund figures. By that measure, the country was outperformed by every other member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries except Libya. Even war-torn Iraq posted higher growth.Some Venezuelans, such as tennis instructor Naybeth Figueroa, say Chavez has simply channeled money toward his "Chavista" supporters while neglecting deeply ingrained problems such as soaring murder rates, inflation, crumbling infrastructure and poor government services. Venezuela now ranks among the most violent and corrupt places on earth."The country is falling to pieces," Figueroa said. "Where is the oil money going?"On a rutted unpaved road in the countryside outside Caracas, unemployed housewife Moreli Gonzalez lives in a shack with a dirt floor and walls made of rusting sheets of zinc. She is thankful to Chavez that she now receives a $280-a-month cash benefit through a program called "Mothers of the Neighborhood Mission.""Now we have everything," said Gonzalez, who credits a government education program with helping her learn to read and a state-run grocery down the road that has made food more affordable."We eat better," she said, showing off cupboards filled with bags of rice and pasta. "My children didn't used to eat snacks. Now they eat well."

Finding Poland's sunken royal treasures

Capitalizing on low water levels in Warsaw's Vistula River, police are teaming up with archaeologists to recover gigantic marble and alabaster treasures that apparently were stolen from royals in Poland by Swedish invaders in the mid-17th century.A police Mi-8 helicopter hovered over a riverbed on Thursday, lifting ornaments such as the centerpiece of a fountain with water outlets decorated with satyr-like faces.For police, it was gratifying to provide the chopper and assist Warsaw University archaeologists in "this very important mission of retrievingpriceless national treasures,"saidMariusz Mrozek, a spokesman for Warsaw police.Archaeologists have long known that such well-preserved treasures were located in the riverbed in the Warsaw area, but not exactly where.The archaeologists and frogmen, led by Hubert Kowalski, have previously retrieved some of the stolen stone ornaments from the Vistula riverbed in three years of searching for the sunken treasures. Butonly now, with the river much lower than normal, thanks to recent heat waves and droughts, their findings have become spectacular."This is a precious find. These elements were stolen from Warsaw's royal residences and palaces," said Marek Wrede, a historian at the Royal Castle.The valuable artistic objects marble floor tiles, parts of archways and columns  were robbed from Warsaw by the Swedes who overran the nation in mid-17th century and took heavy loads of spoils from across the country. Today's items probably came from the Royal Castle and from a royal country residence, the Kazimierz Palace.The artifacts probably were being carried by a barge that sank, one of the many such vessels that ferried loot down the river to the Baltic Sea and to Sweden.The find is precious for Poland, which has been repeatedly plundered by neighboring armies over the centuries, including Nazi Germany and the Soviet Red Army during World War II.Kowalski said he knew about the hidden artifacts from 17th century letters that mentioned barges that had sunk in the area.First word of where the treasures might be came in 1906 when sand barge operators discovered some items, but could retrieve only a few.Kowalski said his team is now busy cleaning the newly retrieved items, which are "very well preserved, given the 350 years in water."

Iran accuses Siemens of nuclear sabotage

Iran accused Germany's Siemens on Saturday of implanting tiny explosives inside equipment the Islamic Republic purchased for its disputed nuclear program, a charge the technology giant denied.Prominent lawmaker Alaeddin Boroujerdi said Iranian security experts discovered the explosives and removed them before detonation, adding that authorities believe the booby-trapped equipment was sold to derail uranium enrichment efforts."The equipment was supposed to explode after being put to work, in order to dismantle all our systems," he said. "But the wisdom of our experts thwarted the enemy conspiracy."Siemens denied the charge and said its nuclear division has had no business with Iran since the 1979 revolution that led to its current clerical state."Siemens rejects the allegations and stresses that we have no business ties to the Iranian nuclear program," spokesman for the Munich-based company Alexander Machowetz said.Boroujerdi, who heads the parliamentary security committee, alleged that the explosives were implanted at a Siemens factory and demanded the company take responsibility.Any sale of nuclear equipment to Iran is banned under U.N. sanctions, raising the possibility that if it indeed has some, it may have been acquired through third parties. Boroujerdi did not say when or how Iran obtained Siemens equipment. Despite a wide array of international sanctions, Germany remains one of Iran's most important trading partners.The U.S. and its allies suspect Iran's nuclear work is aimed at producing weapons. Iran says it only wants to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes, and asserts it has been the target of a concerted campaign by Israel, the U.S. and their allies to undermine its nuclear efforts through covert operations.Some Iranian officials have also suggested in the past that specific European companies may have sold faulty equipment to Iran with the knowledge of American intelligence agencies and their own governments, since the sales would have harmed, rather than helped, the country's nuclear program.According to Iran, the alleged campaign has included the abduction of scientists, the sale of faulty equipment and the planting of a destructive computer worm known as Stuxnet, which briefly brought Iran's uranium enrichment activity to a halt in 2010.Iran's nuclear chief, Fereidoun Abbasi, said Monday that separate attacks on Iran's centrifuges through tiny explosives meant to disable key parts of the machines were discovered before the blasts could go off on timers.Abbasi also told the U.N. nuclear agency in Vienna that "terrorists and saboteurs" might have infiltrated the International Atomic Energy Agency, after the watchdog's inspectors arrived at the Fordo underground enrichment facility shortly after power lines were blown up through sabotage on Aug. 17.Iran has repeatedly accused the IAEA of sending spies in the guise of inspectors to collect information about its nuclear activities, pointing to alleged leaks of information by inspectors to U.S. and other officials.Five nuclear scientists and researchers have been killed in Iran since 2010. Tehran blames the deaths on Israel's Mossad spy agency as well as the CIA and Britain's MI-6. Washington and London have denied any roles. Israel has not commented.Boroujerdi said the alleged leaks of nuclear information to its adversaries by the IAEA may finally push Tehran to end all cooperation with the agency."Iran has the right to cut its cooperation with the IAEA should such violations continue," he said.

NEWS,21.09.2012

What Business Is Wall Street In? 

 

Wall Street doesn't know what business it is in. Regulators don't know what the business of Wall Street is. Investor/shareholders don't know what business Wall Street is in.The only people who know what business Wall Street is in are the high frequency and automated traders. They know what business Wall Street is in better than everyone else. To traders, whether day traders or high frequency or somewhere in between, Wall Street has nothing to do with creating capital for businesses, its original goal. Wall Street is a platform. It's a platform to be exploited by every technological and intellectual means possible.The best analogy for traders? They are hackers. Just as hackers search for and exploit operating system and application shortcomings, high frequency traders do the same thing. A hacker wants to jump in front of your shopping cart and grab your credit card and then sell it. A high frequency trader wants to jump in front of your trade and then sell that stock to you. A hacker will tell you that they are serving a purpose by identifying the weak links in your system. A trader will tell you they deserve the pennies they are making on the trade or the rebate they are getting from the exchange because they provide liquidity to the market.I recognize that one is illegal, the other is not. That isn't the important issue.The important issue is recognizing that Wall Street is no longer serving the purpose that it was designed to. Wall Street was designed to be a market to which companies provide securities (stocks/bonds), from which they received capital that would help them start/grow/sell businesses. Investors made their money by recognizing value where others did not, or by simply committing to a company and growing with it as a shareholder, receiving dividends or appreciation in their holdings. What percentage of the market is driven by investors these days?I started actively trading stocks in 1992. I traded a lot. Over the years I've written quite a bit about the market. I have always thought I had a good handle on the market. Until recently.Over just the past five years, the market has changed. It is getting increasingly difficult to just invest in companies you believe in. Discussion in the market place is not about the performance of specific companies and their returns. Discussion is about macro issues that impact all stocks. And those macro issues impact automated trading decisions, which impact any and every stock that is part of any and every index or ETF. Combine that with the leverage of derivatives tracking companies, indexes and other packages or the leveraged ETFs, and individual stocks become pawns in a much bigger game that I feel increasingly less comfortable playing. It is a game fraught with ever increasing risk.So back to the original question. What business is Wall Street in?Its primary business is no longer creating capital for business. Creating capital for business has to be less than one percent of the volume on Wall Street in any given period. (I would be curious if anyone out there knows what percentage of transactions actually return money to a company for any reason). It wouldn't shock me that even in this environment that more money flows from companies to the market in the form of buybacks (which I think are always a mistake), than flows into companies in the form of equity.My two cents is that it is important for this country to push Wall Street back to the business of creating capital for business. Whether it's through a use of taxes on trades (hit every trade on a stock held less than one hour with a 10 cent tax and all these problems go away), or changing the capital gains tax structure so that there is no capital gains tax on any shares of stock (private or public company) held for one year or more, and no tax on dividends paid to shareholders who have held stock in the company for more than five years. However we need to do it, we need to get the smart money on Wall Street back to thinking about ways to use their capital to help start and grow companies. That is what will create jobs. That is where we will find the next big thing that will accelerate the world economy. It won't come from traders trying to hack the financial system for a few pennies per trade.And solutions won't come from bureaucrats trying to prevent the traders from hacking the system. The only certainty when bureaucrats step in is that the law of unintended consequences will smack us all in the head and the trader/hackers will find new ways to exploit the system that makes them big money and even more money for the big institutions that develop products for the other institutions that are desperate to play the game.Regulators have got to start to recognize that traders are not investors and vice versa and treat them differently. Different regulations. Different tax structure. Different oversight. Individual investors and the funds that just invest in stocks and bonds are not going to crash the market. Big traders who are always leveraging up and maximizing the number of trades/hacks theymake will always put the system at risk. We need to recognize that they do not serve much of a purpose other than to add substantial risk to the global economy. That their stated value add of liquidity does not compensate the U.S. and world economy nearly enough for the risk of collapse they introduce into the system.Wall Street as a whole needs to be in the business of creating capital for companies and selling shares to investors who believe they are shareholders. The government needs to create simple and obvious incentives for this business and extract compensation from the traders/hackers for the systemic failure risk they introduce.There will be another flash crash, and probably a crash far worse than the May 2010 flash crash simply because there are too many players looking for the trillion dollar score. They can't all win, yet how many do you think wouldn't risk everything, even what is not theirs, for that remote chance to score big? Put another way, there is zero moral hazard attached to any trade. So why wouldn't traders take the biggest risk possible? There is value to trading automation. It is here to stay. There is absolutely NO VALUE to high frequency trading. None. We need to bring our markets back to their original goals of creating capital for business. It's impossible to guess how many small to medium size companies have been held back from growing and creating jobs and wealth because of lack of access to capital from the stock market. It's not impossible to know that our economy has suffered because Wall Street equity markets are no longer a source of equity for helping companies grow, it is not a platform for hackers and that needs to change. Quickly.

Iran parades military, warns Israel

Iran warned Israel and the United States against any aggression, as it proudly paraded its troops and military hardware on Friday under the gaze of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and top brass.The Tehran parade, involving thousands of military personnel, dozens of tanks and missiles borne on trucks, marked the anniversary of the start of the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.Ahmadinejad, in a speech broadcast on state television, said that Iran was using "the same spirit and belief in itself" shown in that war to "stand and defend its rights" today against pressure from world powers.Top Iranian generals said the show of military might should be digested by Israel, which in recent weeks has ramped up threats that it could hit Iranian nuclear facilities."We do not feel threatened by the nonsense uttered by that regime's leaders," the chief of Iran's armed forces, General Hassan Firouzabadi, told the Fars news agency, adding that Iran's response to any attack would be "immediate and unstoppable".General Ataollah Selehi, the commander of Iran's army, told the ISNA news agency that "us holding a military parade is for deterrence and not a threat".US Navy war games He and other military leaders renewed their pledge that Israel would be annihilated if attacked.The head of the Revolutionary Guards' aerospace division in charge of missile defence, Brigadier General Amir Ali Hahjizadeh, repeated Iran's promise to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz if the Islamic republic were attacked or Western sanctions halted its crude exports."If one day the Strait of Hormuz has no benefit for us, then we will deprive others from benefiting from it," he said.However he added that "under current conditions, there is no problem".Hahjizadeh also dismissed navy war games currently being held by the United States and 30 other nations in the Gulf as "no threat to us".Iran is locked in a showdown with the UN Security Council over its controversial nuclear programme.Ahmadinejad on anti-Islam filmThe West, led by the United States, has tightened the vice on Iran by implementing crippling economic sanctions, while Israel - the Middle East's sole if undeclared nuclear weapons state - has underlined its threats of possible air strikes on Iranian atomic facilities, with or without US help.In his speech, Ahmadinejad also touched on an anti-Islam film made in America by an extremist Christian group that has fuelled violent protests in parts of the Muslim world.He said US government claims it could do nothing to censor the film was a "deception" exploiting the pretext of freedom of expression.He called the film an Israeli-hatched plot "to divide [Muslims] and spark sectarian conflict".Ahmadinejad implicitly referred to his often expressed opinion that the Holocaust never happened to lambast the West for perceived selective censorship."They stand against a question about a historical incident... they threaten and put pressure on nations for posing the question while at the same time in regards to the obscenest insults to the human sanctities and prophets... they shout adherence to freedom [of expression]," he said.Ahmadinejad's stance challenging the facts surrounding the killing of six million Jews by the Nazi regime during World War II is shared by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is the country's commander-in-chief.Early this week, Khamenei told naval cadets: "In some Western countries, no one dares to question the unknown incident of the Holocaust or for that matter some of the morally obscene policies like homosexuality... but insulting Islam and its sanctities under the pretext of freedom of expression is allowed."

 

 

 

NEWS 29.12.2011.

Plane flew from the runway, overturned and caught fire, no one was killed

Tupolev TU-134 was flying from the capital Bishkek to Osh. The airplane crashed a runway while landing, overturned and caught fire. 31 passengers are injured and 17 of them ended in hospital

 

Airplain - Kyrgyz airlines is on Wednesday's missed the runway by landing in cityOshu, and rolled over. In the plane crash in which there were 95 passengers and six crew members, fortunately there were no deaths.

Out of 31 injured passengers, 17 of them were hospitalized, according china.org. A spokesman of the airport said that the Tupolev Tu-134 by landing has problem who was creating a dense fog, and by sinks off the plane a broken wings. There were heard a strong explosion and, after the plane caught fire.

The plane, which is used in many Asian countries, was flying from Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan.

 

Unveiled a poster for the 84th Oscars

Academy where the winners of the most famous film awards - the Oscar in his speeches regularly thanks, rewild the poster for the next award.

On the poster for the 84^th  Oscars are scenes from the movie "The Godfather," "Gladiator" and "My songs, my dreams."

Poster is very interesting, since it calls for celebration of films.

With the slogan "Celebrate the movies in all of us", the Academy was intended to awaken an emotion that every person make connected with the film.

Announcement of nominations were announced for the 24^th  January 2012, and the award itself is on 26^th February next year, traditionally in the California Kodak Theatre.

U.S. threatens response if Iran closes the Strait of Hormuz

The Iranian navy in the passage that connects the Persian Gulf of Oman held ten days of military exercises. Previously, threatened to close the passage because of the sanctions

U.S. will not tolerate close of Hormuškog Strait, announce the U.S. Navy to Iran, who maintains the strait military exercises. Iran has already threatened that in case of further sanctions because of developing a nuclear program,will close the Strait, which is one of the most important channel for the transportation of oil in the world.

Spokeswoman for the U.S. Navy Mrs. Rebarich Rebecca, told for the BBC, that the free flow of goods and services through the strait that connects the Persian Gulf of Oman, and Indian Ocean, is of the vital importance to the prosperity of the region, and around the world.

Rebarich also pointed, that the Navy is ready to respond if necessary. The U.S. Navy is usually  present in the Persian Gulf to ensure that the passageway for the transport of oil is remaining open.

Caught him before taking off: Czech smuggler in the bag was carrying 247 snakes and endangered reptiles

Officials on the airport in Buenos Aires, ware surprised by what they find in the bag of  Karela Abelovskyja (51), who was just supposed to board a plane for Spain, says Huffington Post.

Abelovsky has carried in a bag hundreds of poisonous snakes and endangered reptiles, which he packed in plastic containers, plastic bags and even socks, and on each was written their Latin name.

We found 247 exotic and endangered species, a smuggler is now faceing up to 10 years in prison.

It is believed Abelovsky is part of smuggling group that resells endangered species, because in Argentina, he came just a few days ago, so he didn’t had time to collect so many animals.