Tortured and killed: Hamza al-Khateeb, age 13

The mutilation and death in custody of a 13-year-old child has sparked further furious protests in Syrian city of Daraa

Hamza al-Khateeb used to love it when the rains came to his small corner of southern Syria, filling up the farmers' irrigation channels enough so that he and the other children could jump in and swim.

But the drought of the last few years had left the 13-year-old without the fun of his favourite pool.

Instead, he'd taken to raising homing pigeons, standing on the roof of his family's simple breeze-block home, craning his neck back to see the birds circling above the wide horizon of fields, where wheat and tomatoes were grown from the tough, scrubby soils.

Though not from a wealthy family himself, Hamza was always aware of others less fortunate than himself, said a cousin who spoke to Al Jazeera.

The child had spent nearly a month in the custody of Syrian security, and when they finally returned his corpse it bore the scars of brutal torture: Lacerations, bruises and burns to his feet, elbows, face and knees, consistent with the use of electric shock devices and of being whipped with cable, both techniques of torture documented by Human Rights Watch as being used in Syrian prisons during the bloody three-month crackdown on protestors.

Hamza's eyes were swollen and black and there were identical bullet wounds where he had apparently been shot through both arms, the bullets tearing a hole in his sides and lodging in his belly

Six In The Morning

Karzai: NATO risks being seen as 'occupying force'
Afghan president says he will no longer allow airstrikes on homes
msnbc.com news services
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan President Hamid Karzai angrily warned NATO forces fighting in his country that they risk becoming seen as an "occupying force" if they do not stop attacking Afghan homes with air strikes as they hunt insurgents.

Karzai said he would no longer allow NATO airstrikes on houses because they have caused too many civilian casualties.
A recent strike that mistakenly killed a group of children and women would be the last, he added.

Food prices to double by 2030, Oxfam warns
Charity says era of permanent food crisis will hit poorest people hardest and spark social unrest
Felicity Lawrence
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 31 May 2011

The average price of staple foods will more than double in the next 20 years, leading to an unprecedented reversal in human development, Oxfam has warned.

The world's poorest people, who spend up to 80% of their income of food, will be hit hardest according to the charity. It said the world is entering an era of permanent food crisis, which is likely to be accompanied by political unrest and will require radical reform of the international food system.

Serbia 'certain' to reject plea for Mladic trial to be halted
Defence stalls as nationalists take to streets over general's extradition
By Andrew MacDowall in Belgrade Tuesday, 31 May 2011

Ratko Mladic looks certain to be extradited to The Hague within days to face trial for war crimes, despite a last-minute appeal and protests by Serbian nationalists.

Mladic will be transferred to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) from his Serbian prison cell if the appeal, lodged on grounds of ill health, fails as expected.

Mladic faces 15 indictments related to the killing of around 7,500 Bosnian Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995 and the 1,400-day siege of Sarajevo, during which 10,000 civilians died. From 1992 to 1996, Mladic was commander of the main staff of the Bosnian Serb forces held responsible for a number of

Yemeni ceasefire deal ends


irishtimes.com - Last Updated: Tuesday, May 31, 2011

"The cease-fire agreement has ended," a government official said today.

The weekend agreement took effect after more than 115 people were killed when the two sides battled with machine guns, mortars and rocket propelled grenades during fights in capital city in Sanaa.

Global powers have been pressing Mr Saleh to sign a Gulf-led deal to handover power aimed at stemming the growing chaos in Yemen, home to al-Qaeda militants and neighbour to the world's biggest oil exporter, Saudi Arabia.

Gaddafi calls for truce, but on his own terms

DIAA HADID TRIPOLI, LIBYA - May 31 2011
Zuma, said Gaddafi is ready to accept an African Union initiative for a ceasefire that would stop all hostilities, including Nato airstrikes in support of rebel forces. "He is ready to implement the road map," Zuma said.

Zuma said Gaddafi insists that "all Libyan be given a chance to talk among themselves" to determine the country's future. He did not say Gaddafi is ready to step down, which is the central demand of the rebels. He was speaking to reporters from South African and Libyan TV, which broadcast his remarks late on Monday

TEPCO waited 12 hours to announce pump failure at No. 5 reactor

2011/05/31
Tokyo Electric Power Co. acknowledged it delayed announcing a pump failure at the No. 5 reactor of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, and that its backup plan did not run smoothly.

The utility learned of the failure at 9 p.m. on May 28, but it did not disclose the problem to the public until 9 a.m. the following day, during which time water in the reactor neared the boiling point.

Six In The Morning

Yemeni forces storm protest camp, killing 20
A medical volunteer says troops fired indiscriminately into a crowd.
By Iona Craig
Special to The Times
May 30, 2011, 1:08 a.m.
Reporting from Sana, Yemen— Yemeni security forces stormed a protest camp in a southern city early Monday morning, shooting indiscriminately, setting fire to the camp and killing at least 20 people, a medical volunteer said.

The city of Taiz has seen large anti-government protests calling for President Ali Abdullah Saleh's ouster since early February.

Sadek Shugaa, a volunteer medic at the field hospital at the protest camp in Taiz, said he watched as snipers took up positions around the camp while other Yemeni forces used water cannons to clear the area early Monday.

Germany pledges nuclear shutdown by 2022
Germany's ruling coalition says that it has agreed to shutdown of all of its nuclear power plants by 2022
Reuters
guardian.co.uk, Monday 30 May 2011
Germany will shut all its nuclear reactors by 2022, parties in Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition government agreed on Monday, in a reaction to Japan's Fukushima disaster that marks a drastic policy reversal.

As expected, the coalition wants to keep the eight oldest of Germany's 17 nuclear reactors permanently shut. Seven were closed temporarily in March, just after the earthquake and tsunami hit Fukushima. One has been off the grid for years.

Who cares in the Middle East what Obama says?
President Obama has shown himself to be weak in his dealings with the Middle East, says Robert Fisk, and the Arab world is turning its back with contempt. Its future will be shaped without American influence
Monday, 30 May 2011
This month, in the Middle East, has seen the unmaking of the President of the United States. More than that, it has witnessed the lowest prestige of America in the region since Roosevelt met King Abdul Aziz on the USS Quincy in the Great Bitter Lake in 1945.


While Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu played out their farce in Washington – Obama grovelling as usual – the Arabs got on with the serious business of changing their world, demonstrating and fighting and dying for freedoms they have never possessed. Obama waffled on about change in the Middle East – and about America's new role in the region. It was pathetic.

Japan PM to face confidence vote


irishtimes.com - Last Updated: Monday, May 30, 2011
Seventy per cent of Japanese voters want to get rid of Prime Minister Naoto Kan, a survey showed today, marking more bad news for the unpopular government leader who is likely to face a no-confidence vote as early as this week.

Mr Kan is under fire for his handling of the humanitarian aid to victims of an earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan's northeast on March 11th and the world's nuclear crisis triggered by the disaster.

Japan's biggest opposition Liberal Democratic Party said last week it would submit a no-confidence motion to parliament to force Mr Kan to resign or call a snap election.

The motion could be submitted as early as this week, a senior LDP lawmaker said yesterday and all opposition parties, except for tiny Social Democratic Party, have said they will back it.

Preaching peace, Zuma heads to Libya

May 30 2011

Zuma is scheduled to meet Gaddafi on Monday, amid intensified Nato strikes on the embattled Libyan leader's regime, as part of an African push to end the conflict, with sources saying the talks would focus on an exit plan.

The ANC said it supports African Union (AU) efforts to peacefully resolve the unrest "through negotiations by all parties involved in the conflict" in the uprising against Gaddafi's regime.

Pump failure nearly brings No. 5 to a boil
Tepco installs backup unit 15 hours later for halted reactor
By REIJI YOSHIDA
Staff writer
The seawater pump in the cooling system for the Fukushima power plant's No. 5 reactor broke down Saturday evening, prompting repair crews to install a backup pump 15 hours later on Sunday afternoon, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said.

Tepco discovered the pump had stopped at 9 p.m. Saturday but didn't announce it to the public until Sunday morning.

The beleaguered utility said it notified the local and central governments of the situation on Saturday evening.

Japan Lacks Political Leadership

As another Japanese government starts circling the drain is there a leader residing within its political class capable of actually leading? Can anyone rise above the usual mendacity of old men lacking in vision and completely captured by the system. Probably not as the old axiom the nail that sticks out gets hammered is really true.

2009 saw an historical change in Japanese politics when for the first time in the post-war era as an opposition party the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) won a landside victory replacing the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) after more than 50 years in power. Even in this major change Yukio Hatayama President of the (DPJ) who became Prime Minister failed spending less than a year in office. Like any out of power party they made promises that they were unable to keep. Most importantly was Hatayama’s pledge to have the U.S. Marine Corp Air station at Futenma moved out of Okinawa to Guam. Because he staked his political fortunes on this issue when failure became apparent with the U.S. governments complete refusal to even consider the idea his government collapsed.

Naoto Kan succeeded Hatayama as Prime Minister and immediately committed a huge political gaffe when for reasons only known to him proposed an increase in the consumption tax just two months ahead of an Upper House election that was to take place in August. The now opposition LDP trounced the DPJ and regained control of the House of Councilors giving Japan its first divided Parliament. Kan’s problems continued into September when a Chinese trawler rammed a Japanese Coast Guard vessel leading to the arrest of the trawlers captain. China retaliated by detaining Japanese business men accusing them of industrial espionage and cutting off exports of rare earth minerals to Japan. Even though video emerged clearing showing the trawler deliberately ramming the coast guard ship the captain was released having never been charged over the incident. Then came the March 11th earthquake, tsunami and the disaster at the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant.

To believe that the opposition Liberal Democratic Party and its leader Sadakazu Tanigaki are any better would be foolish in the extreme. After former Prime Minister Yukio Hatayama gave is first major speech to the Diet Tanigaki compared it to Adolph Hitler speaking at a Hitler Youth rally. It was under the LDP and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi that Japan Post was privatized leading allegations that it was done to enrich the board of governors through a public stock offering and the selling Japan Post real estate holdings. Koizumi’s government passed Japan’s temporary worker law at the behest of Japan’s largest employers creating a large pool of workers unable to find fulltime employment living from contract to contract. It was also under the leadership of the LDP that saw what is called Japan’s Lost Decade after the collapse of the Bubble Economy because strong leadership failed to materialize. When intervention finally occurred Japan’s banking sector was near complete failure. As for the current problems at the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant look no further than the nuclear industries complete ownership of the LDP.

Japan needs dynamic leadership a person or persons willing too completely overhaul its moribund political system. Without these changes Japan will become a second tier nation unable to reach its full potential.

Six In The Morning

The unstoppable march of the tobacco giants
How the industry ruthlessly exploits the developing world - its young, poor and uneducated
By Emily Dugan Sunday, 29 May 2011

More than half a century after scientists uncovered the link between smoking and cancer – triggering a war between health campaigners and the cigarette industry – big tobacco is thriving.

Despite the known catastrophic effects on health of smoking, profits from tobacco continue to soar and sales of cigarettes have increased: they have risen from 5,000 billion sticks a year in the 1990s to 5,900 billion a year in 2009. They now kill more people annually than alcohol, Aids, car accidents, illegal drugs, murders and suicides combined.

Honduran police turn a blind eye to soaring number of 'femicides'
Women are being murdered at the rate of one a day, yet a report by Oxfam accuses the police of 'systematic indifference'
Annie Kelly in Tegucigalpa
The Observer, Sunday 29 May 2011
According to those who loved her, Grace González was a hard-working, happy woman who liked to laugh too loudly and dress too brightly. Her enchiladas, she declared, were the best in the barrio. Last month, neighbours watched in silence as her bloodstained body was wheeled out of the front door of the small house she shared with her two daughters on the outskirts of the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa.

Hours earlier, a man had come into her house and tried to rape her 15-year-old daughter, Rosa. When Grace tried to protect her child, he held her down and slit her throat.

Kung Fu Panda 2: Hollywood works harder to win Chinese audiences
Kung Fu Panda 2, which opened May 27 in China, includes references that will be familiar to Chinese audiences – part of a broader Hollywood effort to flourish in the booming marke
By Jonathan Landreth, Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

A decade ago, as China closed in on membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO), key negotiators now say, it wasn't talk of opening a huge market to grain or machinery that threatened talks: It was haggling over movies, the ultimate soft-power export.
Today, Chinese consumer confidence has soared. That has lifted movie ticket sales, which jumped 64 percent in 2010 to $1.5 billion, thanks partly to a 3-D craze and a mushrooming of cinemas in China. But what's also grown is official wariness of the influence of foreign media, so much so that Beijing – a WTO member since 2001 – has all but ignored a March WTO deadline to open film distribution to greater foreign participation, and has refused to discuss the annual cap of 20 imported films.

Industry wobbles in Zimbabwe's second city


GODFREY MARAWANYIKA BULAWAYO, ZIMBABWE - May 29 2011
Empty factories are now a common sight in Bulawayo's industrial district as the economy struggles to recover from a decade-long crisis, with firms downsizing, closing or relocating to the capital for better opportunities.

"Companies are closing here, Bulawayo needs money," said Ruth Labode, who runs a textile mill.

"A banker openly told us that if they receive a loan application to fund a restaurant business from Bulawayo, they would not fund it.

India may approach NY court to prove ISI as terror group

PTI | May 29, 2011, 11.00am IST

NEW DELHI: India may approach a New York court to be a party to a lawsuit, filed by the family of 26/11 victims Rabbi Gavriel Noah Holtzberg and his wife Rivka, to declare Pakistan's spy agency ISI as a terrorist group.

Armed with many documents, which prove the ISI's links with terror groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba, India may implead itself in the lawsuit filed in the federal court to help the petitioners as well as declaring ISI as a terrorist outfit.

Osama raid avenged CIA deaths, a secret until now
2 agents among 44 U.S. Embassy workers killed in 1988 bomb blast in Kenya
By ADAM GOLDMAN, MATT APUZZO

For a small cadre of CIA veterans, the death of Osama bin Laden was more than just a national moment of relief and closure. It was also a measure of payback, a settling of a score for a pair of deaths, the details of which have remained a secret for 13 years.
Tom Shah and Molly Huckaby Hardy were among the 44 U.S. Embassy employees killed when a truck bomb exploded outside the embassy compound in Kenya in 1998.
Though it has never been publicly acknowledged, the two were working undercover for the CIA. In al-Qaida's war on the United States, they are believed to be the first CIA casualties.

TEPCO's One Page Disaster Plan

With each passing day the arrogance and complete incompetence of TEPCO is revealed to the public. The Associated Press has obtained a memo under Japan's Public Records Law which shows Tokyo Electric paid little attention to the structural safety of its Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant why else would there be single page disaster plan gathering dust since 2001 having never been updated.

In the Dec. 19, 2001, document — one double-sized page obtained by The Associated Press under the public records law — Tepco rules out the possibility of a tsunami large enough to knock the plant offline

TEPCCO simply stuck its corporate head in the sand believing that Fukushima was impervious to such a disaster

"This is all we saw," said Masaru Kobayashi, who now heads NISA's quake-safety section. "We did not look into the validity of the content."

The memo has Japanese text, boxes and numbers. It also has a tiny map of Japan indicating where historical earthquakes are believed to have struck. Tepco considered five quakes, ranging from 8.0 to 8.6 magnitude, in the northeast, and 9.5 magnitude across the Pacific near Chile, as examples of possible tsunami-causing temblors.

Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency which over sees Japan's nuclear industry has no statutory power to enforce regulations or to force power plants to come into compliance when safety regulations are changed or updated.

Six In The Morning

Pakistan’s top military officials are worried about militant collaborators in their ranks

By Karin Brulliard, Saturday, May 28,
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Embarrassed by the Osama bin Laden raid and by a series of insurgent attacks on high-security sites, top Pakistani military officials are increasingly concerned that their ranks are penetrated by Islamists who are aiding militants in a campaign against the state.

Those worries have grown especially acute since the killing of bin Laden less than a mile from a prestigious military academy. This week’s naval base infiltration by heavily armed insurgents in Karachi — an attack widely believed to have required inside help — has only deepened fears, military officials said.

WikiLeaks accused Bradley Manning 'should never have been sent to Iraq'
Guardian exclusive: Soldier held over US intelligence leak was known to be mentally fragile and unsuited to army life
Maggie O'Kane, Chavala Madlena and Guy Grandjean
guardian.co.uk, Friday 27 May 2011 22.25 BST

The American soldier at the centre of the WikiLeaks revelations was so mentally fragile before his deployment to Iraq that he wet himself, threw chairs around, shouted at his commanding officers and was regularly brought in for psychiatric evaluations, according to an investigative film produced by the Guardian.

Bradley Manning, who was detained a year ago on Sunday in connection with the biggest security leak in US military history, was a "mess of a child" who should never have been put through a tour of duty in Iraq, according to an officer from the Fort Leonard Wood military base in Missouri, where Manning trained in 2007.

Chairman Mao may not be the author of his 'Little Red Book'

By Clifford Coonan in Beijing Saturday, 28 May 2011

Mao Tse-Tung's "Little Red Book" is the closest thing to a bible that Marxist-Leninist, materialist and atheist Chinese society can have.

By some estimates, five billion copies of The Thoughts of Chairman Mao were published during its heyday, the Cultural Revolution, that violent period of ideological fervour in the 1960s and 1970s. But questions have now been raised about whether the Great Helmsman actually wrote it himself, or got a ghost writer to do it for him.

Egypt eases restrictions at Gaza's Rafah border
Egypt has opened its border with the Gaza Strip, easing restrictions and allowing more Palestinians to cross.

The BBC 28 May 2011
Women, children and men over 40 are now allowed to cross freely. Men aged between 18 and 40 will still require a permit, and trade is prohibited.

The move - strongly opposed by Israel - comes some three months after Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak lost power.

Israel and Egypt both closed borders with Gaza after the militant movement Hamas took power in 2007.

Israel retains concerns that weapons will be imported into Gaza through the Egyptian frontier, but Egypt insists it will conduct thorough searches of all those crossing.

Paying with Life and Limb for the Crimes of Nazi Germany
A Time of Retribution
By Christian Habbe
It was a deceptively beautiful summer. Never before had the light of East Prussia seemed so bright, the sky so high, the countryside so vast, as in 1944, wrote Hans Graf von Lehndorff, a doctor and chronicler, in his diary. And yet the streets were already filling with columns of refugees; Germans from Lithuania, whose abandoned cattle roamed the countryside. Light tremors echoed distant detonations. Sometimes at night, a red glow was visible in the east, where border towns along the Niemen River were burning: Unmistakable signs that Soviet forces were moving inexorably closer.

Libya rejects G8, open only to AU peace talks

TRIPOLI, LIBYA - May 28 2011
"The G8 is an economic summit. We are not concerned by its decisions," said Libya's deputy foreign minister, Khaled Kaaim, after Russia joined NATO calls for Gaddafi's departure.

Tripoli also rejects Russian mediation and will "not accept any mediation which marginalises the peace plan of the African Union," he said. "We are an African country. Any initiative outside the AU framework will be rejected."

Kaaim said it had no confirmation of a change in Russia's position.

Six In The Morning

Mladic health questions halt court hearing
Officials say interrogation will continue on Friday, despite former Bosnian Serb general's poor physical condition.
Last Modified: 27 May 2011
Former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic, captured in Serbia, has appeared in a Belgrade court, but his hearing was halted for doctors to assess his health, according to local media reports.

Mladic appeared frail and haggard during his court appearance on Thursday evening, and Serbian television station B92 reported that Milan Dilparic, the judge, had suspended the interrogation due to Mladic's poor physical and mental health.

Mladic, who is accused of multiple war crimes charges, faces extradition to The Hague where he would be tried by a tribunal prosecuting cases relating to conflicts during the 1990s in the former Yugoslavia.

The 69-year-old, who commanded Bosnian Serb forces during the 1992-95 Bosnian war, is alleged to have orchestrated the killing of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica in 1995, as well as the four-year siege of Sarajevo.

Poland: Immigration to UK is back for good life despite economic crisis
Migration from eastern Europe on the rise again, with return to UK 'driven by disappointment at home'
Helen Pidd The Guardian, Friday 27 May 2011
The conventional narrative of the last three years suggested that as soon as the clouds of financial doom descended over the UK, Poles were on the first flight home. Many believed the do widzenia (Polish for "see you later") was a permanent goodbye.

The Polish delis would quietly shut down, Boddingtons would return to the shelves where the cans of Lech once stood, and it would yet again be difficult to get a reliable plumber.

But things have not quite panned out that way. The UK economy may still be in the doldrums, but according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), net migration to the UK from Poland is on the up again, and Poles are now the biggest group of foreign nationals in the UK.

The Antarctic island that's richer in biodiversity than the Galapagos
Divers last year came up with so many examples of sea life that they still don't know how many they found
By Lewis Smith Friday, 27 May 2011
An "inhospitable lump of rock" several days sailing from the nearest civilisation has been revealed as more valuable to wildlife than the Galapagos Islands.


South Georgia is the last stop before the icy wastes of the Antarctic and is battered by the elemental forces of the Southern Ocean. Yet beneath the surface of the chill waters that surround the island lives a greater range of wildlife than on the Galapagos, which seemingly offers a much more benign environment.

Alliance of China and North Korea a 'precious thing'
The Irish Times - Friday, May 27, 2011

CLIFFORD COONAN in Beijing
NORTH KOREA’S Kim Jong-il and China’s communist leadership vowed that their alliance, “sealed in blood”, would span the generations, as the secretive leader completed his week-long visit to China.

“Kim Jong-il stated that the friendship between China and North Korea and their peoples is a truly precious thing,” China’s official Xinhua news agency reported

“We must relay this friendship on from one generation to the next. That is our great historic task.”

Khartoum militia heading south, UN says

PETER MARTELL JUBA, SUDAN
Heavily armed fighters of the nomadic Arab Misseriya tribe, key allies of the Khartoum government in the 1983 to 2005 civil war between north and south, were moving towards the soon-to-be-independent south, UN peacekeepers said.

UN mission spokesperson Hua Jiang said: "Militia that appear to be Misseriya are moving southwards. Abyei town is deserted of civilians."

Southern officials say that the pro-northern Misseriya, a cattle-herding people who traditionally move through Abyei each year with their animals for water and pasture, are now entering Abyei in large numbers.

Hashimoto stalks anthem foes
Friday, May 27, 2011
By ERIC JOHNSTON Staff writer

OSAKA — Osaka Gov. Toru Hashimoto has stepped up his long-running feud with teachers opposed to the "Kimigayo" national anthem by pushing his political group to propose an ordinance that would force them to stand when the song is sung at school ceremonies.
Hashimoto's Osaka Restoration Group, which consists of socially conservative politicians and older, former members of the Liberal Democratic Party, sent the proposal to the prefectural assembly Thursday.

Ratko Mladic arrested: Bosnia war crimes suspect held

Ratko Mladic, wanted by UN prosecutors for war crimes during the Bosnian civil war, has been arrested in Serbia after a decade in hiding.

Serbian President Boris Tadic confirmed the arrest of the former Bosnian Serb army chief at a news conference.

Gen Mladic is accused of a key role in the massacre of at least 7,500 men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995.

He was the most prominent Bosnian war crimes suspect at large since the arrest of Radovan Karadzic in 2008.

President Tadic said work was under way to extradite Gen Mladic to the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
The detention, he said, had closed one chapter in Serbian history, bringing the country and the region closer to reconciliation.

It had also opened the doors to membership of the European Union, he added.

Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen hailed the arrest, saying it finally offered "a chance for justice to be done".

Six In The Morning

India courts Africa, long wooed by China
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh takes a six-day trip to the continent, in an effort to boost business ties and drum up support for New Delhi in its bid for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council.
By Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrives Thursday in Tanzania on the last stop of a six-day Africa trip designed to underscore his nation's growing stature on the global stage, lobby for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council and signal to China that the South Asian giant is also a player on the resource-rich continent.
China has long targeted Africa under its "Going Out" strategy launched in 1998, and India, as part of a bid to make up for lost time, this week participated in the India-Africa Forum Summit, its second in three years. New Delhi said it would extend a $5-billion line of credit, fund 22,000 scholarships, set up a "virtual university" and support infrastructure and training programs on the continent.

G8 summit: aid package for Arab spring tops agenda
Two-day summit will also examine impact of the Japanese nuclear meltdown, climate change and the world economy
Patrick Wintour
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 26 May 2011
A multibillion package of aid, loans and trade access for the fledgling democracies of north Africa will top a sprawling agenda for world leaders when they gather as the G8 in Deauville, Normandy under the chairmanship of the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy.

The G8 is expected to organise financial support through global financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The two-day summit in France is also due to examine the impact of the Japanese nuclear meltdown, climate change and the state of the world economy.

Exclusive: Battered Libya sues for peace
As President Obama vows 'We will not relent until the shadow of tyranny is lifted', Gaddafi's Prime Minister offers Nato a ceasefire, amnesty for rebels, reconciliation, constitutional government – and an exit strategy
By Kim Sengupta and Solomon Hughes Thursday, 26 May 2011
The Libyan regime is preparing to make a fresh overture to the international community, offering concessions designed to end the bloodshed of the three-month-long civil war.

The Independent has obtained a copy of a letter from the country's Prime Minister, Al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi, being sent to a number of foreign governments. It proposes an immediate ceasefire to be monitored by the United Nations and the African Union, unconditional talks with the opposition, amnesty for both sides in the conflict, and the drafting of a new constitution.

Georgian police crack down on protesters on Independence Day
Georgian riot police have clashed with protesters demanding the resignation of President Mikhail Saakashvili. The demonstrations were meant to block an Independence Day parade in the capital Tbilisi.

GEORGIA | 26.05.2011
Riot police used teargas, water cannon and rubber bullets to disperse protesters early on Thursday after mass demonstrations in Tbilisi against President Saakashvili. The interior ministry said one policeman and a former security forces officer were killed, and 37 people were in hospital with minor injuries.

Interior Ministry Spokesman Shota Utiashvili said the policeman who died had been struck by a vehicle in a convoy of cars, one of which was carrying opposition leader Nino Bujanadze.

Wave of Roma Rejected as Asylum Seekers
From Serbia to Germany -- and Back
By James Angelos in Berlin 05/26/2011
By most European standards, the Marienfelde Refugee Center on the southern edge of Berlin is not luxurious accommodation. But the three-story buildings that house asylum seekers do feature heating, hot water and ceiling lights -- things that for 33-year-old Sashko Tomovski and his family are lavish amenities.

"This for us is Las Vegas," Tomovski, an asylum seeker from the Republic of Macedonia, said as he stood outside his modest apartment building at the center. Until recently, he said, he and his wife and their three young daughters lived in a flimsy shelter with no electricity, heat, or running water in a Roma settlement in eastern Macedonia he called "hell."

UN rights chief slams 'racist' Australia

May 26, 2011
The United Nations's top human rights watchdog has attacked Australia's tough refugee policies and the treatment of outback Aborigines, saying there was a strong undercurrent of racism in the country.

Long-standing policies of locking up asylum seekers had "cast a shadow over Australia's human rights record", and appeared to be completely arbitrary, UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay said.

Communists Capitalists Or Just Gangsters

So, we have all these prisoners who are obviously provided with extended periods of free time after a long day’s labor of breaking large rocks into small rocks. In need of further punishment to offset their lazy tendencies we’ll force them to play on-line games to better improve our financial situation and it they underperform thus not meeting the established nightly quota severe physical punishment shall be meted out.

"Prison bosses made more money forcing inmates to play games than they do forcing people to do manual labour," Liu told the Guardian. "There were 300 prisoners forced to play games. We worked 12-hour shifts in the camp. I heard them say they could earn 5,000-6,000rmb [£470-570] a day. We didn't see any of the money. The computers were never turned off."

It is known as "gold farming", the practice of building up credits and online value through the monotonous repetition of basic tasks in online games such as World of Warcraft. The trade in virtual assets is very real, and outside the control of the games' makers. Millions of gamers around the world are prepared to pay real money for such online credits, which they can use to progress in the online games.

The emergence of gold farming as a business in China – whether in prisons or sweatshops could raise new questions over the exporting of goods real or virtual from the country.

"Prison labour is still very widespread – it's just that goods travel a much more complex route to come to the US these days. And it is not illegal to export prison goods to Europe, said Nicole Kempton from the Laogai foundation, a Washington-based group which opposes the forced labour camp system in China.

The full extent of India's 'gendercide'

In Asia boys are no.1 the most recent census completed by the Indian government showed a growing gender imbalance with 915 girls for every 1,000 boys a decrease since the previous census was taken. Why the imbalance?

With no social safety net in India boys are coveted because they will remain in the family after marriage bringing a large dowry from the brides family insuring that his parents will be taken care once they have reached retirement age. Yet with such a large and growing gender disparity significant social problems await India if the trend isn't reversed. Given peoples attitudes there seems little chance of that as this paper published in the Lancet points out.

Latest research shows selective abortion is concentrated in families where the first child has been a girl. Parents welcome a first daughter but want their second child to be a son. In these families the gender ratio for second births fell from 906 girls per 1,000 boys in 1990 to 836 in 2005, implying between 3.1 million and 6 million female foetuses have been aborted in the past decade.

Think about that number: 3.1 million to 6 million female fetuses aborted in a single decade

Wealthier, better-educated couples are the worst offenders, the findings show, putting paid to hopes that socio-economic progress would lead to a change in attitude. Although all strata of Indian society share a preference for sons, better-off families have access to and can afford the ultrasound tests to reveal the sex of a foetus.

Usually the better educated a person is they are less likely to abide to these types of cultural mores.

The fact that doctors are complicit in furthering this disturbing trend is just ethically wrong

The market for sex determination is said to be worth at least $100m (£62m) a year, with 40,000 registered ultrasound clinics. Although attempts have been made to increase penalties under the act, out of 800 court cases against doctors in 17 states there have been only 55 convictions.

In a commentary published alongside the paper, Dr S V Subramanian of the Harvard School of Public Health, said: "The demand for sons among wealthy parents is being satisfied by the medical community through the provision of illegal services of sex-selective abortion. The financial incentive for physicians to undertake this activity seems to be far greater than the penalties associated with breaking the law."

Random Japan

FOREIGN INTRIGUE
The defense ministry said that the number of sorties flown by the ASDF “to intercept foreign aircraft flying near Japanese airspace” surged by 29 percent in 2010.

Ten Japanese tourists were injured when their sightseeing bus hit a wall in Seoul.

After the Japanese Embassy in France lodged a complaint with a local TV station for airing a program that mocked the March 11 disaster, the network responded by saying that its show “criticizes anything and is not a news program.”

The University of Arkansas-Fort Smith has set up a scholarship fund for “two Japanese students who want to study abroad but face financial difficulties because of the [March 11] disaster.”

Three North Koreans who had been granted asylum at a Japanese consulate in northeastern China were given permission by Beijing to leave for Japan.

Two mountain climbers died in an avalanche on Mt. Shirouma in Nagano Prefecture, but nine others escaped with their lives.

During a visit to Tokyo, the Dalai Lama warned that a “cultural genocide is taking place” inside Tibet.

A meeting of environment ministers from Japan, China and South Korea was held in Busan to discuss bird flu, yellow sandstorms and the need “to promote information-sharing” during extreme natural disasters.

Talk about dumb luck: it is now believed that the hydrogen explosion at the no. 4 reactor of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on March 15 might have helped prevent a meltdown “by causing a flow of water into the pool the rods are stored in.”

The Japan Business Federation announced that 80 percent of its members plan to enact some type of energy-saving program to meet government power-consumption reduction targets by this summer.

The government has also pitched in by extending its “Cool Biz” promotion for office workers to wear casual clothes by two months.

Stats

30
Percent of Japanese who say they are in favor of ditching the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution

22,000
Okinawa residents who have filed a lawsuit seeking a ban on nighttime flights at the US’ Kadena Air Base

21,000
People who gathered for a May Day rally at Yoyogi Park

5
Pacific Nations Cup matches that the International Rugby Board relocated from Japan to Fiji due to the March 11

YOU’VE COME A LONG WAY, BABY
After beating out hundreds of other hopefuls to earn a spot on the Oakland Raiders’ cheerleading squad, 22-year-old Kisato Nishimura said, “I would like Japanese people to know more about the NFL through dance.”

A report by the Asian Development Bank and the International Labor Organization found that the lack of job opportunities for women in Asia was costing the region at least $42 billion annually.

If Japan’s Fair Trade Commission approves the merger of Nippon Steel Corp. and Sumitomo Metal Industries, it will result in the creation of the world’s second-largest steelmaker.

Mitsubishi says it has developed a forklift that is “the world’s first with a cabin that shields against radiation.”

A Japanese IT industry group said that domestic shipments of new PCs have regained the levels they were at before the 2008 global financial crisis.

Four Japanese were reportedly injured in an explosion at a café in Marrakesh, Morocco. Fourteen others were killed in the blast, 11 of them foreigners.

Fifty-eight people were sickened and four died of E. coli poisoning after eating raw beef at a yakiniku chain in Toyama.

ANA said that it failed to announce an incident in which five people were hurt by turbulence last month because “it initially thought all five had suffered only minor injuries.” In fact, a flight attendant is in serious condition.

How Do you Eat?

Alone Again Naturally

The Bank

That Wasn't A Bank

Inspection

Club?

Kashima's Iwamasa trying to make the best of a difficult situation

By ANDREW MCKIRDY
Staff writer
KASHIMA, Ibaraki Pref. — The effects of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami have reached into every corner of Japanese soccer, but Kashima Antlers defender Daiki Iwamasa is determined not to let them smother his team's title challenge this season.

The seven-time J. League champions have long since returned to their damaged training facilities, but ongoing repairs to their stadium have forced a continuing life on the road. Tokyo's National Stadium is providing refuge until Kashima Stadium reopens on June 4, but recent results have betrayed a team desperately yearning for home.

Six In The Morning

Researchers see a pattern in rise of deadly tornadoes

By Brian Vastag and Ed O’Keefe, Tuesday, May 24
The extraordinary Joplin twister — the single deadliest tornado since officials began keeping records in 1950 — was a rare destructive phenomenon known as a “multi-vortex,” hiding two or more cyclones within the wider wind funnel.

Sunday’s storm smashed the southwest Missouri city’s hospital, left nothing but splintered trees where neighborhoods once stood, and killed at least 116, with the death toll expected to rise. The storm injured another 500 and and damaged or destroyed at least 2,000 buildings.

Pakistan humilated by Bin Landen revenge attack

By Omar Waracih in Karachi Tuesday, 24 May 2011
Pakistan was last night conducting a major manhunt for the two terrorists who managed to escape after mounting the one of the most brazen attacks yet on the country's powerful military.

President Asif Ali Zardari has ordered an inquiry into how six attackers besieged the Mehran naval base in Karachi on Sunday, a raid that lasted for 17 hours. The six managed to slip into the base unnoticed, damage two military aircraft, kill 10 security personnel and wound 15 others before commandos were able to overpower them.

Libya: Nato steps up air strikes on Tripoli

The BBC's Andrew North says there is a large plume of smoke rising from near Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi's compound
The BBC
Libyan officials say three people were killed and dozens injured in an attack on the barracks of the popular guard.

The strikes came after France announced it and the UK would also deploy attack helicopters to escalate strike power.

Nato is enforcing a UN resolution to protect Libyan civilians, following the uprising against Col Gaddafi's rule.

Thunderous explosions shook the city; as one strike ended, more jets were heard overhead coming in for the next, says the BBC's Andrew North in Tripoli.

Greek cabinet agrees on radical privatization plan
Greek politicians have agreed to press ahead with an unprecedented program of privatization to meet the requirements of the country's multibillion bailout package. Ports and airports are among the assets to be sold.
ECONOMY | 24.05.2011
Greece has pledged to press ahead with a radical privatization plan in an effort to help reduce its high level of debt.

Prime Minister George Papandreou announced an immediate sale of state assets on Monday evening, including its shares in the telecom operator OTE and the ports of Piraeus and Thessaloniki.

Following a cabinet meeting, Papandreou announced 1.6 billion euros ($2.3 billion) in savings along with the privatization measures.

Remains of Salvador Allende exhumed in Chile
The Irish Times - Tuesday, May 24, 2011
TOM HENNIGAN in São Paulo
AUTHORITIES IN Chile exhumed the remains of Salvador Allende yesterday in a bid to discover whether the former president committed suicide or was murdered by soldiers during a bloody coup in 1973.

The move was ordered by a judge seeking to resolve the mystery that has surrounded Allende’s final hours and is part of a wider investigation into the murder of hundreds of people during the first weeks of the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

Sudan's Abyei burns as north goes on looting spree

PETER MARTELL JUBA, SUDAN
The UN Mission in Sudan, or Unmis, warned Khartoum it was responsible for law and order amid reports thousands of civilians were fleeing southwards after northern Sudan Armed Forces troops and tanks overran the border town Saturday.

"Unmis strongly condemns the burning and looting currently being perpetrated by armed elements in Abyei town," it said.

The mission also called on the "government of Sudan to urgently ensure that the Sudan Armed Forces fulfil their responsibility and intervene to stop these criminal acts".

Syrian Protester Proves The Lie Is A Lie

After protests began in Syria the government made claims that (according to the dictator’s handbook) outside groups or governments instigated the trouble. Then film of Syrian security forces were filmed in a small northeastern city beating demonstrators naturally (according to the dictator’s handbook) the government announced that it was fake having been filmed in Kurdistan. Something interesting happened in the process of screaming fake by the government in Damascus. The young man who uploaded the film to the internet was angered by the blatant lie and set-out to prove otherwise.

In an amazing act of bravery – an act which has amassed him a devoted Facebook following – he finished the video by standing in front of the camera and holding up his national ID card, thus proving to the world that he was the Syrian national in the original video.

But his bravery came at a terrible cost. Earlier this month, Ahmad was arrested by one of Syria's most feared intelligence units. Human-rights activists – who received reports last week that he had died under torture – told The Independent that had been held in a secret-service headquarters in Damascus.

Then word started spreading that Ahmad Biasi had died after being detained by security forces.

But his bravery came at a terrible cost. Earlier this month, Ahmad was arrested by one of Syria's most feared intelligence units. Human-rights activists – who received reports last week that he had died under torture – told The Independent that had been held in a secret-service headquarters in Damascus.

Before the weekend started, many people in Syria thought that Ahmad Biasi was dead. Human-rights organisations were receiving reports that he had suffered a terrifying final few hours at the hands of Syria's secret police.

In an act of udder illogic Syrian state television broadcast an interview with Ahmad Biasi proving not only that he was alive but that the video he and his friends had made wasn’t faked.

Dialoque With North Korea Has Achieved What?

Beginning with the discovery of North Korea's nuclear programs in the early 1990's dialog has accomplished little but frustration. Having come close to military action over these programs it was decided that North and South Korea with the United States would reach an agreement to construct a light water reactor which upon completion would provide much needed electrical power but end the North Korea's weapons production. Called the Agreed Framework which collapsed in 2002.

In October 2002, a U.S. delegation led by Assistant Secretary of State James A. Kelly visited North Korea to confront the North Koreans with the U.S. assessment that they had a uranium enrichment program.[27] Both parties' reports of the meeting differ. The U.S. delegation believed the North Koreans had admitted the existence of a highly enriched uranium program.[28] The North Koreans stated Kelly made his assertions in an arrogant manner, but failed to produce any evidence such as satellite photos, and they responded denying North Korea planned to produce nuclear weapons using enriched uranium. They went on to state that as an independent sovereign state North Korea was entitled to possess nuclear weapons for defense, although they did not possess such a weapon at that point in time.[3][29][30] Relations between the two countries, which had seemed hopeful two years earlier, quickly deteriorated into open hostility.[8]

The Six Party Talks between North and South Korea. the United States, China, Japan and the Russian Federation have led to nothing. Convened after the failure of the Agreed Framework these negotiations were meant to find a solution which would close down North Korea's nuclear weapons programs. As with all previous negotiations involving the North Koreans the only accomplishment has been more frustration.

3rd phase (8 Feb – 13 Feb 2007)

Joint Statement issued on Tuesday 13 February 2007, 3pm
North Korea will shut down and seal the Yongbyon nuclear facility, including the reprocessing facility and invite back IAEA personnel to conduct all necessary monitoring and verifications
In return, the other five parties in the six-party talks will provide emergency energy assistance to North Korea in the initial phase of 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil, to commence within 60 days.
All six parties agree to take positive steps to increase mutual trust, and make joint efforts for lasting peace and stability in Northeast Asia. Directly related parties will negotiate a permanent peace regime on the Korean Peninsula at an appropriate separate forum.
All six parties agree on establishing five working groups - on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, normalization of North Korea-U.S. relations, normalization of North Korea-Japan relations, economy and energy cooperation, as well as a joint Northeast Asia peace and security mechanism.
The working groups will form specific plans for implementing the September 19 statement in their respective areas.
All parties agree that all working groups will meet within the next 30 days

Even though the Yongbyon nuclear facility was decommissioned the North Koreans continued its weapons program at secret underground facilities which culminated in two more weapons tests.

Today

China says dialogue only way to solve Korea crisis

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said on Sunday that dialogue is the only way to resolve the crisis on the Korean Peninsula, but Japan stressed that North Korea must first show sincerity in addressing concerns over its uranium enrichment activities before talks can resume.
Wen, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak also agreed at an annual summit to cooperate on disaster relief and nuclear safety.
"We are happy to see that at present, the developments on the Korean peninsula are easing slightly. We've also noticed that there are a lot of uncertain factors. The foundation is still fragile," Wen told a joint news conference.

How does negotiating with one party that will never abide to any agreement reached achieve tangible results?

Six In The Morning

Al-Qaida eyed oil tankers as bombing targets
Bin Laden documents show the idea had reached group's upper echelons
By EILEEN SULLIVAN, MATT APUZZO
Osama bin Laden's personal files revealed a brazen idea to hijack oil tankers and blow them up at sea last summer, creating explosions he hoped would rattle the world's economy and send oil prices skyrocketing, the U.S. said Friday.
The newly disclosed plot showed that while bin Laden was always scheming for the next big strike that would kill thousands of Americans, he also believed a relatively simpler attack on the oil industry could create a worldwide panic that would hurt Westerners every time they gassed up their cars.

Spain protesters defy ban to remain in Madrid square
Some 25,000 Spanish protesters have defied a government ban and camped out overnight in a square in the capital, Madrid.

The protesters are angry with the government's economic policies and have occupied the area for the past week.

Spain's electoral commission had ordered them to leave ahead of local elections on Sunday.

But as the ban came into effect at midnight, the crowds started cheering and police did not move in.

The protest began six days ago in Madrid's Puerta del Sol as a spontaneous sit-in by young Spaniards frustrated at 45% youth unemployment.

Pulling their punches: How Bolivia’s street-fighting women became a sporting sensation
They started out as a novelty act. Now Bolivia's female wrestlers are a sporting phenomenon – with a cultural message
By Peter Popham Saturday, 21 May 2011
Her visiting card reads "Carmen Rosa: elegance and distinction in la lucha libre – freestyle wrestling". And in her frilly petticoats, layered skirts, dainty pumps and bowler hat, the claim is no exaggeration. In the ring in El Alto, a high, freezing-cold suburb of the Bolivian capital La Paz, Carmen and her colleagues have no contenders for the title of the world's best-dressed wrestlers.

Las cholitas, as Bolivia's indigenous women are called, are relatively new to the fighting ring. Most of them come from families where the men are fighters, and when women's wrestling was first introduced in 2001, it was a commercial gimmick intended to pull in bigger crowds.

Values of revolution must be utilised, says Egyptian writer
The Irish Times - Saturday, May 21, 2011
IAN BLACK in Cairo
ON JANUARY 28th, a young Egyptian man urged the novelist Alaa al-Aswany to write a book about the revolution then gathering momentum in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. minutes after their brief conversation, the protester was shot dead by a government sniper from a nearby roof.

Such killings, along with the bravery of revolutionaries motivated by “a profound sense of injustice”, are seared into the memory of Egypt’s most celebrated living writer, as is clear when he articulates his feelings about the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak and what it means.

China's rich fly in the face of the law as they take to the skies

Michael Wines May 21, 2011
WENZHOU: In the nouveau-riche heart of entrepreneurial China, the latest sign that one has really made it is not a Mercedes-Benz, or even a Bentley. It is a helicopter. Perhaps 10 of Wenzhou's super-rich have one. Guan Hongsheng has three.

''For us, a work week is 80 hours or more. So you know what we need? Fast,'' said Mr Guan, a yacht-sailing titan who made a fortune as a trader.

If only it were legal.

Advertisement: Story continues below
Mr Guan and his friends are black flyers - part of a minuscule group of wealthy Chinese who fly, quite literally, in the face of the law.

Time for Libya to tell the truth about Hammerl

NEW YORK, UNITED STATES - May 21 2011
The 41-year-old photographer's death was confirmed on Thursday by journalists who saw him shot and killed by government forces on April 5. The journalists had been held by Libyan forces since the shooting but only made the news of his death public upon their release.

"Libyan government forces killed Anton Hammerl six weeks ago and then lied about what happened," Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director at Human Rights Watch said. "They had his passport and they knew he was dead. Now they should at least release his body and provide some truthful answers about his fate."

I Want My Rapture

I'm beyond disappointed that there was no Rapture for me. What does it take? Having extremist views like today's Republicans or did I not hate enough those who are not like me? Should I have joined a fundamentalist church or should I have stuck with I see gods everywhere? Perhaps this is the answer.

TEPCO's Chief Ass-hat Steps Down

Yes, Masataka Shimizu head ass-hat is resigning as president of TEPCO for reasons that one can barely fathom.

Could it be because TEPCO has lied about almost everything that has taken place at the Fukushima-Daichi nuclear power since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
The amount of radiation released into the environment

What the actual levels of radiation were in side the plant its self

Lying about and covering-up past accidents and safety violations

Shimizu disappearing for six weeks before going to the stricken areas and apologizing

When the meltdown of the core at Fukushima No.1 took place

TEPCO has been struggling since March 11, when the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant was heavily damaged by an earthquake and tsunami and began leaking radiation. Some 80,000 people living within a 12-mile radius of the plant were evacuated from their homes afterward and many are living in gymnasiums.
The disaster is the world’s worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986, analysts say.
The company may owe disaster victims in the tens of billions of dollars in compensation and has asked the government for help in paying the bill.
The company has come under harsh criticism, including from Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan, for its handling of the nuclear disaster.

Six In The Morning

U.S. Was Warned on Vents Before Failure at Japan’s Plant

By MATTHEW L. WALD
Published: May 18, 2011
WASHINGTON — Five years before the crucial emergency vents at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant were disabled by an accident they were supposed to help handle, engineers at a reactor in Minnesota warned American regulators about that very problem.Anthony Sarrack, one of the two engineers, notified staff members at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that the design of venting systems was seriously flawed at his reactor and others in the United States similar to the ones in Japan. He later left the industry in frustration because managers and regulators did not agree.

New Yorkers sue China over internet censorship
Eight people accuse China's biggest search engine firm, Baidu, of conspiring with government to censor pro-democracy content
Reuters
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 19 May 2011
Eight New York residents are suing China and its biggest search engine company, accusing Baidu of conspiring with the government to censor pro-democracy content.

The lawsuit claims violations of the US constitution, and according to the plaintiffs' lawyer, is the first of its type. In an unorthodox move, it names not only a company but also the Chinese government as defendants.

The lawsuit was filed on Wednesday, more than a year after Google declared it would no longer censor search results in China, and rerouted internet users to its Hong Kong website.

The ultimate status symbol: How does Unesco whittle down the contenders for the World Heritage list?
Chris Beanland visits Darwin's Kent home - a future candidate - to find out
Thursday, 19 May 2011
As you survey the rolling Kentish Downs at the point where the garden of Charles Darwin's former home gently shades into the green hills, you can easily imagine the man himself stood on the same spot, inspired by the natural world around him.


Down House, pictured right, and its gardens have been lovingly restored since being acquired for the nation by English Heritage in 1996. Darwin would recognise every nook.

The birthplace of the theory of evolution is one of a tranche of places hoping to be eventually designated a world heritage site by the United Nations' cultural division, Unesco.

Autocrats Gain Ground in Middle East
Has the Arab Spring Stalled?
By Alexander Smoltczyk and Volkhard Windfuhr
According to the "Fundamental Law of Revolution," regimes fall when those at the bottom are fed up with the status quo and those at the top are no longer capable of remaining in power.


That was the experience of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.

But difficulties arise when there is one thing those at the top are still quite capable of doing, namely deploying tanks to deal with their opponents -- as is the case in Syria and Libya.

Last week, the Syrian regime sent heavy artillery into the rebel city of Dara'a, while its forces attacked protesting students with clubs in the previously calm city of Aleppo, in Banias on the Mediterranean coast and in the northwestern Syrian town of Homs

Swaziland financial reform panned by IMF

MBABANE, SWAZILAND - May 19 2011

"A large fiscal adjustment is needed to bring the programme back on track and reduce the fiscal deficit in line with available financing," said mission head Joannes Mongardini in a statement at the end of an IMF visit to assess the government's belt-tightening measures.

Swaziland's government is teetering on the brink of financial collapse and may run out of money in the next two months. The small Southern African country needs the IMF's blessing to borrow much-needed cash from the World Bank and the African Development Bank.

It will now have to hope for a favourable IMF assessment in August to access loans totalling more than $100-million.

Why Estonia may be Europe's model country
The world's first cyberstate embraced austerity without whining even though its Soviet-era memories are still fresh.
By Isabelle de Pommereau, Correspondent

An 82-foot-high billboard wrapping Estonia's finance ministry building in its capital, Tallinn, boasts: "The euro, my money." It stands just blocks from the city's cobbled, winding medieval streets and baroque churches, in a downtown where skyscrapers have replaced Russian bunkers, as a symbol of Estonia's transformation from poor Soviet republic to the European Union's rising star.
When Estonia was accepted into the eurozone in January, seven years after joining the EU and two decades after the fall of the Soviet Union, it was another big step for the small Baltic nation away from its imposing neighbor to the east, Russia.

Over the next five years, it's expected to have Europe's fastest-growing economy. It emerged from the global financial crisis wounded, but has rebounded after adopting austere measures few other countries would accept.

Bin Laden Speaks From The Grave Or The 12 Level Of Hell

Al Qaeda today released a 12 minute message recorded by Osama Bin Laden sometime before his death in Pakistan on May 1 when he was shoot by U.S. Navy Seals.

In a sad attempt to jump on the Arab Spring Band Wagon Bin Laden praises the successful revolutions which took place in Tunisia and Egypt. One, problem Al Qaeda had nothing to do with the success of either up-rising even though they tried to involve themselves but were rebuffed. One can only speculate that the people of North Africa and the Middle East had no overt desire for a return to the 12 century. What's not like about a complete lack of freedom or civil rights as you are ruled over by a despot whose very word is law.

"The sun of the revolution has risen from the Maghreb. The light of the revolution came from Tunisia. It has given the nation tranquility and made the faces of the people happy."

Tunisia's president was overthrown in January, followed by Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak after mass protests centred on Cairo's Tahrir Square.

"Tunisia was the first but swiftly the knights of Egypt have taken a spark from the free people of Tunisia to Tahrir Square," said bin Laden, adding: "It has made the rulers worried."

He predicted that the winds of change would blow over the entire Muslim world.

"I think that the winds of change will blow over the entire Muslim world, with permission from Allah.

"A delay may cause the opportunity to be lost, and carrying it out before the right time will increase the number of casualties,"

Random Japan

EXTREME MEASURES
A Maritime Self-Defense Force member whipped out his tool in a Yokohama video shop in a successful bid to get arrested for exposing himself in public. He was not keen on being sent to Iwate to retrieve bodies killed by the March 11 tsunami.

A Japanese fashion blogger/medical student “Tokyo Panda,” extremely popular on Chinese online shopping site Taobao, is doing her part for tsunami victims by posting photos of herself in various outfits online and then selling the clothes to raise money for charity.

Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea are “under pressure to reduce electric power consumption in anticipation of a power shortage this summer.” The theme parks reportedly use 10 times more power than the Tokyo Dome.

A fundraising effort organized by Tokyoite Gary Bremermann raised ¥100 for every beer sold with the money going to help kids in Tohoku.

Meanwhile, a new internet phenomenon known as “slacktivism” has sprung up in the wake of March 11, gaining popularity in Japan. Combining slacker and activism, the term means “to casually engage in social activism at little cost or effort … leisurely philanthropic activities.”

Stats
21
Mini FM radio stations who obtained provisional broadcasting licenses after the March 11 quake/tsunami, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications

59
Years it took director Kaneto Shindo’s acclaimed film Children of Hiroshima to make its US premiere. The movie was screened as part of a Shindo retrospective in New York last month

250
Urns being kept at a temple in Iwate Prefecture after the tsunami washed away part of a graveyard

44
Foreign ALTs who quit their teaching jobs after the March 11 quake, according to the Council of Local Authorities for International Relations

¥1.85 billion
Compensation requested from TEPCO by a group of farmers who suffered huge losses in the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear crisis

1,546
The average calorie intake, in kilocalories, of evacuees at 90 percent of the 266 shelters in Miyagi Prefecture, short of the 2,000-kilocalorie target

WHAT A DIFFERENCE 70 YEARS MAKES
Japan and Germany have adopted a resolution saying they “share the same basic values of freedom, democracy and respect for human rights” and will “work together for peace and prosperity throughout the world.”

The Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit brought against Nobel Prize-winning author Kenzaburo Oe, who claimed in a 1970 book that the Japanese army ordered Okinawans to commit group suicide. The court recognized the army’s “deep involvement” in the suicides.

It was reported that the Diet is likely to pass a resolution authorizing the “return of 1,205 volumes of Korean historical texts looted during Japan’s colonial rule.”

Norio Ohga, the former president and chairman of Sony, died of natural causes in Tokyo at the age of 81. Ohga was instrumental in developing the compact disc and is credited with spurring Sony’s drive into video games and music.

Yahoo Japan reported that, for the 14th consecutive year, it has increased its revenue and operating profit in fiscal 2010.

Officials in Okinawa have discovered that about 20 percent of locally grown papayas are using a type of genetically modified seed “that has yet to be approved under an international treaty.”

Japan Tobacco said it took its biggest-ever hit in sales in fiscal 2010, with business down 11.3 percent from the year before. Still, the company did manage to move 134.6 billion cigarettes.

Panasonic announced it would unveil a lithium-ion battery factory in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu next year.

In response to a drop in demand for flat-screen TVs, Sharp will start using one of its LCD factories in Mie Prefecture to manufacture smaller screens for mobile devices.

Discussing plans for its magnetic-levitation bullet train line, JR Tokai said it hopes “to build a mag-lev station in every prefecture.”

During an official state visit, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard cemented a deal with Japanese PM Naoto Kan to hold minister-level talks on security issues “as early as this autumn.”

A group of mystery men doled out some ¥30 million in cash in envelopes at several shelters and evacuation sites in Miyagi Prefecture from April 20-23. The men “claimed to belong to organizations in western Japan.”

Go On

Take The Money And Run

What A Minute?

This Isn't My House

A Real Imitation

Of A False Report

Consumers, not TEPCO shareholders, to cover huge compensation bill

2011/05/13
Consumers will cover a large portion of the compensation bill for victims of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant crisis, but the plant operator's shareholders and supporting financial institutions will not be hit hard.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan and his Cabinet were expected to officially approve the damages framework totaling at least 5 trillion yen ($62 billion) on May 12. Approval will enable Tokyo Electric Power Co. to announce its consolidated financial results for fiscal 2010 on May 20.

TEPCO is expected to post a net loss of 700 billion yen to 800 billion yen for fiscal 2010.

When An Apology Really Matters

In Japan apologies are part of everyday life from trying to get on a crowed train, speaking to loud on the phone to leaving work before others. So culturally ingrained is the apology that foreigners can at times wonder why someone is apologizing to feeling uncomfortable about all the apologies they here in day. Yet they are needed to help maintain group cohesiveness in nation where being in close proximity to others is an everyday occurrence.

Sato had fled his home during the nuclear emergency at the Tepco-operated Fukushima Daiichi power plant. He left behind his job and almost all of his possessions. His new outfit came from a discount store — angry rebel’s attire that seemed fitting to him when Masataka Shimizu came by unannounced to say he was sorry.

NHK reported on this visit but when the video showing Yoshio Sato speaking with TEPCO president Masataka Shimizu audio of what Sato said was not broadcast instead what one heard was the voice over from the NHK reporter.

So Sato, with the cameras rolling, exploded in anger.

He said he didn’t believe the company’s projection that it could stabilize the reactors within six to nine months. He said the company hadn’t been treating its workers properly, taking insufficient steps to ensure their safety. He said it was “ridiculous” to imagine he could have his life back anytime soon.

“We’ll try our best,” Shimizu said, and he kept his head bowed, and he never tried to argue.

Sato later said he felt like a prop, used for Tepco’s image rehabilitation. He didn’t want to play the part. During a rant of several minutes, the Tepco executives had listened dutifully. They’d relied on basic answers: We’ll try our hardest. We’ll do everything we can. We’re sorry.

A layman's guide to the situation at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant

From the Asahi Shinbun

Q: What does this talk of a "meltdown" at the No. 1 reactor of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant mean?


A: A situation in which nuclear fuel rods have melted, fallen and accumulated on the bottom of a pressure vessel is called a "meltdown." The May 16 report from Tokyo Electric Power Co. indicated a high likelihood of meltdowns not only at the No. 1 reactor but at the plant's No. 2 and No. 3 reactors.


Q: We may be dealing with multiple meltdowns?


A: Nuclear fuel rods produce intense heat for some time after power generation has halted. The No. 2 and No. 3 reactors have not been supplied with sufficient cooling water since the tsunami triggered by the Great East Japan Earthquake crippled the plant. That is the same as the situation at the No. 1 reactor. It is very likely that most of the fuel rods at these reactors have melted.


Q: The incident happened two months ago. Why did TEPCO not know it was facing this situation much earlier?


A: When TEPCO repaired a water-level gauge at the reactor on May 10, it found little water was left in the pressure vessels. Nevertheless, the temperature inside the vessels was only about 100 degrees. If the fuel rods had been fully exposed, the temperature would have been much higher. That indicates that all fuel rods fell and have been submerged in water on the bottom (of the vessels).


Q: What happens if fuel rods melt?


A: Melted fuel rods cannot be easily cooled by water because they are completely deformed. They become like a chunk of concrete. Cooling them requires the continued injection of water. In this case, intense heat from melted rods on the bottom made holes in the metal pressure vessel, causing the contaminated water to leak.


Q: What are these holes like?


A: There are several of them. Their total size is about the same as a circle with a diameter of a few centimeters, according to TEPCO. As well as contaminated water, the melted fuel rods themselves could have passed through holes of that size.


Q: What if parts of the melted fuel have leaked?


A: In the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986, nuclear substances were scattered over a wide area, carried in smoke produced by the large fire at the plant. The Fukushima incident is not as grave as the Chernobyl accident, but it is much worse than the Three Mile Island nuclear incident in 1979. In the case of Three Mile Island, meltdown also occurred, but the nuclear fuel rods were contained in the pressure vessel. That prevented substantial amounts of nuclear material from leaking.

Japanese Officials Ignored Nuclear Safety Concerns

Over the years collision between the government (until 2009 the Liberal Democratic Party), independent nuclear regulators and the nuclear industry has slowly come to light What no realized was that the judiciary long thought to free of involvement in this type of corruption may have helped the government and its nuclear industry backers from facing public scrutiny over failures to insure that Japan's nuclear facilities were safe.

The nuclear power plant, lawyers argued, could not withstand the kind of major earthquake that new seismic research now suggested was likely.
If such a quake struck, electrical power could fail, along with backup generators, crippling the cooling system, the lawyers predicted. The reactors would then suffer a meltdown and start spewing radiation into the air and sea. Tens of thousands in the area would be forced to flee.

One may believe they were indicating the threats residents around Fukushima might face it such an even were to occur. You would be incorrect. The lawsuit in question was brought to prevent the building of the Hamaoka nuclear power plant in Shizuoka which is built directly over a known earthquake fault.

The lawsuits reveal a disturbing pattern in which operators underestimated or hid seismic dangers to avoid costly upgrades and keep operating. And the fact that virtually all these suits were unsuccessful reinforces the widespread belief in Japan that a culture of collusion supporting nuclear power, including the government, nuclear regulators and plant operators, extends to the courts as well.

While courts in Japan are not known for ground breaking decisions they been until now to be fair in dealing with such issues.

1976

That year, as Hamaoka’s No. 1 reactor started operating and No. 2 was under construction, Katsuhiko Ishibashi, a seismologist and now professor emeritus at Kobe University, publicized research showing that the plant lay directly above an active earthquake zone where two tectonic plates met. Over the years, further research would back up Mr. Ishibashi’s assessment, culminating in a prediction last year by the government’s own experts that there was a nearly 90 percent chance that a magnitude 8.0 quake would hit this area within the next 30 years.

Fukushima No.1 Core Melted 16 Hours After The Earthquake

As more information comes forward concerning TEPCO's Fukushima-Daichi following damage sustained after being hit by a 10 meter tsunami and the 9.0 earthquake on March 11. It's apparent TEPCO from the start held back or hid information about the threats posed to the Japanese public. Such behavior is part of the corporate culture in Japan but especially pervasive in the nuclear industry which colludes with the government to insure its continued existence.

On Saturday the Asahi Shinbun published an internal TEPCO memo which describes the amount of radiation being admitted by the damaged power plants. At the time TEPCO insisted that radiation levels while high didn't exceed government levels of exposure. Expect it was a lie as levels were hundreds of times higher than the public was led to believe.

Today the Japan Times is reporting that the meltdown at Fukushima's number plant occurred less than 24 hours after the earthquake and tsunami.

The core of the heavily damaged reactor at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant is believed to have melted 16 hours after the March 11 mega-quake and tsunami rocked the complex in northeastern Japan.

Preliminary analysis shows that No. 1 had already entered a critical state by 6:50 a.m. on March 12, with most of its fuel having melted and fallen to the bottom of the pressure vessel, the plant operator said. Tepco released data Thursday showing some of the fuel rods had melted

TEPCO's incompetence and inability to deal with the situation at Fukushima leaves one wondering why outside experts haven't been brought in to take control of crisis management removing TEPCO from any further dealings with resolving any present or future problems which may occur.

Blackwater To Create Mercenary Army In The U.A.E.

Xe Services which began life as Blackwater Worldwide founded by Erik Prince a former Navy Seal from the state of North Carolina in America. Blackwater came to worlds attention after an incident in Fallujah Iraq where four of its personnel were killed. Blackwater stated its personnel were delivering food for caterers operating in the area. Iraqi eyewitnesses claimed the four men were raping women and breaking into homes. Throughout America's involvement in Iraq and elsewhere in Asia Blackwater has been implicated in what any reasonable person would call criminal wrong doing.

Baghdad

On February 16, 2005, four Blackwater guards escorting a U.S. State Department convoy fired 70 rounds into an Iraqi's car. The guards stated that they felt threatened by the car's approach. The fate of the car's driver was unknown because the convoy did not stop after the shooting. An investigation by the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service concluded that the shooting was not justified and that the Blackwater employees provided false statements to investigators. The false statements claimed that the one of the Blackwater vehicles had been hit by insurgent gunfire, but the investigation found that one of the Blackwater guards had actually fired into his own vehicle. John Frese, the U.S. embassy in Iraq's top security official, declined to punish Blackwater or the security guards, stating that "any disciplinary actions would be deemed as lowering the morale" of the Blackwater contractors.[93]

As Blackwater's legal troubles continued to mount Erik Price changed its named to Xe Services and moved all operations to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. Prince has always believed that a well trained mercenary army could operate throughout the world at the behest of which ever government might hire them.

Late one night last November, a plane carrying dozens of Colombian men touched down in this glittering seaside capital. Whisked through customs by an Emirati intelligence officer, the group boarded an unmarked bus and drove roughly 20 miles to a windswept military complex in the desert sand.
The Colombians had entered the United Arab Emirates posing as construction workers. In fact, they were soldiers for a secret American-led mercenary army being built by Erik Prince, the billionaire founder of Blackwater Worldwide, with $529 million from the oil-soaked sheikdom.

“The gulf countries, and the U.A.E. in particular, don’t have a lot of military experience. It would make sense if they looked outside their borders for help,” said one Obama administration official who knew of the operation. “They might want to show that they are not to be messed with.”


Just what the world needs a return to mercenary armies controlled by the wealthy operating outside the control of any national government. Given Erik Princes past and his dream of building of mercenary has come true. But how long before the servant attacks the master.