Gaddafi's Son Wife Burnt the Face of Ethiopian Woman - CNN

The video shows the actual results of the attack. Watch at your discretion

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- The badly burned former nanny of two of Moammar Gadhafi's grandchildren was receiving medical treatment Tuesday in the burn unit of a Tripoli hospital.
Shwygar Mullah says the wife of Gadhafi's son Hannibal poured boiling water on her for failing to keep a child quiet.
She is being treated for an infection with antibiotics. Her burns are dressed.
CNN first met Mullah on Sunday while visiting the luxurious former home of Hannibal Gadhafi.
As a CNN crew was about to leave, one of the staff members mentioned a nanny who worked for Hannibal Gadhafi. He said that Hannibal's wife, Aline, had burned the nanny.

Six In The Morning

The Lightning Advance That Ended Gadhafi's Rule
How Tripoli Was Taken
By Clemens Höges
The man is finally sitting on the fine sandy beach of Tripoli. The sea is calm and the water a deep turquoise blue. He says that he's a very good marksman, and has a black rifle lying across his knees. Now, after all that's happened, it doesn't bother him anymore to shoot black Africans he believes are mercenaries. But shooting Libyans, says Abu Bakr Uraibi, is still difficult for him. And the first time he killed someone was the most difficult of all.

It happened during the first few weeks of the war, in Jabal Nafusa, a rugged mountain chain southwest of Tripoli. Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's generals had dispatched 150 soldiers to close the border to Dahiba in Tunisia. The rebels were bringing in much of their supplies through the small border crossing, and a nearby mountain offered a good vantage point to control the road below.

Chinese general's sensitive spy talk leaked online
Video of general talking about cases kept secret because they were too embarrassing to make public appears on YouTube
Associated Press
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 30 August 2011

Footage of a Chinese general discussing sensitive spying cases has been leaked on to YouTube in what appears to be an embarrassing failure of secrecy for the usually tightlipped military.

It was not clear when or where Major General Jin Yinan made the comments and China's defence ministry did not respond to questions about the video. Calls to the National Defence University, where Jin is a lecturer, went unanswered.

While some of the cases had been announced before, few details had been released, while others involving the military had been entirely secret.

Julius Malema supporters clash with South Africa police
South African police have fired stun grenades at supporters of controversial ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema ahead of his disciplinary hearing.


Mr Malema, 30, is accused of "sowing divisions" in the party and bringing it into disrepute by calling for Botswana's government to be overthrown.

Once a close ally of President Jacob Zuma, the populist Mr Malema has become a fierce critic.

His supporters threw missiles at police who were blocking them in Johannesburg.

The police have erected a steel gate and barbed wire to close the main street leading to Luthuli House, the African National Congress headquarters where the hearing is being held.

Hundreds of Mr Malema's supporters are outside, chanting and setting rubbish on fire.

'The Crisis Will Be Over in Two to Three Years'
Head of Euro-Zone Bailout Fund

　By Christian Reiermann　
The picture, a Balinese island landscape, is still leaning against the wall where it was a year ago. Back then, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) had just recently been set up, and its chief executive officer, Germany's Klaus Regling, was too busy to hang the souvenir from Indonesia on the wall.

He is still just as busy today. Three European bailout packages later, it is clear that the EFSF and the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), which will succeed it in 2013, will have even more to do in the future. European heads of state and government recently decided to substantially upgrade both funds.
What is now taking shape at the EFSF's offices at 43, Avenue John F. Kennedy in Luxembourg City is the nucleus of a super-authority with which the 17 countries in the euro zone hope to save their currency.

Libya rebels demand Algeria return Gaddafi's family

SAMIA NAKHOUL TRIPOLI, LIBYA - Aug 30 2011
Algeria's Foreign Ministry said Gaddafi's wife Safia, his daughter Aisha and his sons Hannibal and Mohammed had entered Algeria on Monday morning.

The development threatened to create a diplomatic rift just as the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) worked to consolidate its position as Libya's new government.

An NTC spokesperson accused Algeria said the council would seek to extradite the Gaddafis.

A senior rebel officer also said Gaddafi's son Khamis, a feared military commander, had been killed in a clash outside of Tripoli. The report could not be independently confirmed.

Afghan Taliban victory predicted in letter
　Purportedly written by Mullah Mohammed Omar, leader of the Afghan Taliban, the statement tries to appeal to Afghan moderates and suggests the Taliban doesn't seek to monopolize power.
By Aimal Yaqubi and Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times
Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan, and New Delhi— A message allegedly written by the leader of the Afghan Taliban predicts imminent victory as more foreign troops die and Taliban fighters better understand NATO tactics, acquire more weaponry, shoot down more aircraft and kill more senior officials.

The lengthy statement released Monday, signed by Mullah Mohammed Omar, the movement's reclusive, one-eyed leader, follows President Obama's announcement in June that 10,000 American troops will leave this year.

The U.S. drawdown is part of an accelerated withdrawal by foreign troops ahead of a 2014 deadline for transferring security to the Afghans.

Six In The Morning

On Sunday

10 dead as Hurricane Irene churns up Atlantic
Winds begin to blast Northeast; storm downs trees, leaves millions without power
NBC, msnbc.com and news services
A weakened but still dangerous Hurricane Irene shut down New York and menaced other cities more accustomed to snowstorms than tropical storms as it steamed up the East Coast, unloading a foot of rain on North Carolina and Virginia and knocking out power to 2 million homes and businesses. At least 10 people were dead early Sunday.
By early Sunday, the storm had sustained winds of 80 mph, down from 100 mph on Friday. That made it a Category 1, the least threatening on a 1-to-5 scale, and barely stronger than a tropical storm.
Nevertheless, it was still considered highly dangerous, capable of causing ruinous flooding across much of the East Coast with a combination of storm surge, high tides and six inches to a foot of rain.

Goldman Sachs targeted as 'Jaws' joins battle over banking crash
Adrift in a sea of lawsuits as shareholders sue for millions, the bank is a soft target for mocking critics
Paul Harris in New York
The Observer, Sunday 28 August 2011

He is known as"Jaws", the perfect nickname for a lawyer entangled in a lawsuit filed against a massive investment bank that has been dubbed a "vampire squid" by its critics. But Jacob Zamansky, a renowned Wall Street defender of the little guy, with a record of extracting large settlements from giant firms, does not fear the tough reputation of Goldman Sachs.

Indeed, he is happy to be helping on a class-action lawsuit against the bank taken out on behalf of a group of shareholders seeking millions of dollars in damages for alleged illegal behaviour. "Goldman misled these investors. So they came to me," Zamansky said.

Tripoli runs out of food and fuel

HADEEL AL-SHALCHI TRIPOLI, LIBYA - Aug 28 2011
In a call to the Associated Press, the regime's spokesperson said Gaddafi was still in Libya.

The rebels, who now control most of Libya, said they are preparing for an assault on Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte, his last major bastion, if negotiations with tribal leaders there fail. Rebels deployed in Bin Jawad, a town about 160km east of Sirte, said they are waiting for Nato to bomb Scud missile launchers and possible weapons warehouses there.

Earlier this month, two Scuds were fired from near Sirte, a first in Libya's six-month-old civil war.

"What we fear most is chemical weapons and the long-range missiles," said Fadl-Allah Haroun, a rebel commander. Once Nato has cleared the path, rebels will advance toward Sirte, he said.

Anna Hazare: India campaigner ends hunger strike
Indian anti-corruption campaigner Anna Hazare has ended a high-profile hunger strike in Delhi after 12 days.

The BBC 28 August 2011
He accepted a glass of fruit juice from a five-year-old girl.

His move came a day after MPs expressed support for proposed changes to anti-corruption legislation.

After nearly nine hours of debate, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee told parliament the "sense of the House" was behind Anna Hazare's key demands.

However, an expected vote on the proposals did not take place.

Mr Hazare, 74, had vowed not to stop until a tougher bill was passed, but doctors have warned that his health is deteriorating rapidly.

He has so far lost 7kg (15lbs) in weight and has refused medical advice to be put on an intravenous drip to help him rehydrate.

Secret river discovered under the Amazon

Alok Jha
August 28, 2011

THE Amazon basin covers more than 7 million square kilometres in South America and is one of the biggest and most impressive river systems in the world. But it turns out that - until now - we have only known half the story.

Brazilian scientists have found a new river in the basin - around four kilometres underneath the Amazon River. The Rio Hamza, named after the head of the team of researchers who found the groundwater flow, appears to be as long as the Amazon but up to hundreds of times wider.

From Zeros to heroes... the rise and rise of a superband
If you have seen Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, you will know they are the next big thing. As they tour the festivals of Europe, Sarah Morrison meets them in Paris
Sunday, 28 August 2011
Alexander Ebert's preoccupation from a young age with founding a community, a "posse", or a group of his own, has found a harmonious home. The singer has stopped worrying. The 33-year-old Los Angeles musician now finds himself at the helm of the 10-piece musical collective known as Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, a 1960s-inspired folk-pop band that is rapidly achieving cult status.

Likened to Arcade Fire and The Polyphonic Spree, Ebert's ensemble of musical minstrels first made it mainstream in 2009, appearing on David Letterman's chat show in the US with their aptly titled first album, Up from Below. The free-spirited gang has since headlined festivals across the country, being handpicked earlier this year by the actor Kevin Spacey to perform five shows in London's Old Vic Tunnels, all of which sold out. On Tuesday they are set to play a sold-out gig at London's Shepherds Bush Empire. And all this without having yet achieved major conventional chart success.

Funding Islamophobia In America

The Center for American Progress has released a report, titled “Fear Inc.: The Roots Of the Islamophobia Network In America”

Which is a detailed report of a six month investigation into how Islamophia is spread through America through various foundations and fake scholars.

THE FUNDERS	THE AMOUNT	THE RECIPIENTS
Donors Capital Fund	$20,768,600	Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT), Middle East Forum (MEF), Clarion Fund (Clarion), David Horowitz Freedom Center (Horowitz)
Richard Scaife foundations	$7,875,000	Counterterrorism & Security Education and Research Foundation (CTSERF), Center for Security Policy (CSP), Horowitz
Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation	$5,370,000	MEF, CSP, Horowitz

FRANK GAFFNEY, Center for Security Policy – “A mosque that is used to promote a seditious program, which is what Sharia is…that is not a protected religious practice, that is in fact sedition.”

DAVID YERUSHALMI, Society of Americans for National Existence: “Muslim civilization is at war with Judeo-Christian civilization…the Muslim peoples, those committed to Islam as we know it today, are our enemies.”

DANIEL PIPES, Middle East Forum: “All immigrants bring exotic customs and attitudes, but Muslim customs are more troublesome than most.”

Evidence of 'mass execution' in Tripoli

Al Jazeera correspondent finds bodies of men reportedly killed by Gaddafi forces just as rebels closed in on capital.

Visiting a hospital in Tripoli on Thursday, Al Jazeera's James Bays said he saw the bodies of 15 men suspected to have been killed a few days earlier as the rebels closed in on the Libyan capital.

"The smell here is overpowering," Bays said from the hospital where a number of bodies lay.

"I have counted the bodies of 15 men we were told there were 17 here. Two bodies were taken away by relatives for burial."

"We are told these men were political activists who have been arrested over the last few days and weeks and being held near the Gaddafi compound. When the opposition fighters started to enter the compound we are told they were killed.

"Everyone I have spoken to who has looked at these injuries, all the medical staff, they say they believe that the injuries they see on the bodies of these men have the hallmark of a mass execution."

Bays said there were no forensic scientists at the hospital. Doctors there had taken photos of the exit and entry wounds on the bodies, with the intention of showing it to an expert at a later stage

Asian brides for sale

The mail order bride industry is flourishing in Asia, but is it also leading to sex trafficking and domestic violence?

More than a third of South Korean men in rural areas married foreign brides last year. While some unions are happy, the industry has also led to sex trafficking, domestic violence and murder.

Authorities are cracking down on illegal agency activities but the Korean government is facing calls to implement a stricter screening of interracial marriages.

Random Japan

SIC TRANSIT
ANA unveiled a passenger jet festooned with images of the Pokemon character Pikachu at Sendai Airport. The aircraft, dubbed the “Peace Jet,” is intended as a pick-me-up to the victims of the March 11 disaster.

Authorities in Thailand deported a Japanese man who is accused of bilking an insurance company out of ¥11 million in an arson scheme in Sapporo.

JR West was ordered to pay ¥6.2 million in compensation to 61 employees for “psychological distress” caused during a disciplinary program. The staff were forced to “clean toilets and cut weeds” as punishment for bad behavior.

A visually impaired man from Yokohama was killed after being hit by a Den-en-toshi line train at Tsukushino station in Machida. The man, who was seen “walking unsteadily” before the accident, fell onto the tracks and was trying to climb back up when he was pinned between the train and the platform.

Police from Hokkaido raided the offices of an aviation school in Miyazaki in connection with the crash of a light plane that killed two people and injured a third during a training session in Obihiro.

Stats

80
Percent of Japanese manufacturers whose production has returned to pre-quake levels, according to the trade ministry

4.7 years
Average time it takes pharmaceutical drugs released overseas to become available in Japan, according to the Office of Pharmaceutical Industry Research

1.2 years
Average time it takes for drugs from abroad to become available in the US

17 years, 11 months
Age of high school wrestler Kanako Murata, who captured the gold medal in the women’s 55kg division at last month’s world junior championships in Buchares

GETTING THE HELL OUT OF DODGE
A group of 23 victims of the March 11 disaster arrived in Taiwan for a free two-week vacation sponsored by the local tourism board. The program, which runs through mid-November, will eventually host 1,000 people from the affected regions.

Meanwhile, a group of 35 children aged 5-12, mostly from Fukushima, arrived in Rome for a five-week visit sponsored by an Italian NPO.

The SDF concluded its 144-day relief operations in Miyagi Prefecture. Its mission there included rescue operations, debris removal and pest control.

According to the justice ministry, the population of areas directly affected by the earthquake and tsunami dropped by 10.5 percent from March 11 to March 31.
JTB says it has invited 100 Chinese journalists and travel agents on a six-day jaunt to Tohoku next week.

It's Not Fake

It Just Seems That Way

The Camera In The Toilet

And The Policeman

TEPCO to add more than 4,000 radiation experts

2011/08/19
The government and TEPCO plan to bring in more than 4,000 experts to measure radiation levels and manage workers' exposure to radioactivity to end the crisis at the quake-crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said it will need more experts to measure radiation levels not only at the Fukushima plant, but in municipalities around the plant where residents will return once evacuation orders are lifted.

Under the plan to bring the nuclear crisis to an end, which was revised on Aug. 17, about 4,000 experts will be trained in radiation measurements and about 250 in exposure management.

Fighting At Qaddafi Compound

1817: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called for "reconciliation" in Libya, in a telephone call with opposition leader Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, a UN spokesperson says.
On that same theme, Rowan Cole tweets: I wonder if #Gadaffi will be found in a hole like Saddam in a few weeks/months time?

1811: The BBC's Security Correspondent, Gordon Corera, says British intelligence agencies will be keeping an eye out for the elusive Col Gaddafi - whose whereabouts remain unknown. Will the hunt end with Col Gaddafi emerging from a hole in the ground as Saddam Hussein did; or will he end it all in his bunker like Hitler did?

1806: If you're just joining us, welcome to the BBC's live coverage of events in Libya. We're bringing you the latest updates from our correspondents, expert analysis and your reaction from around the world. You can contact us via email, text or twitter. We'll publish what we can. You can also follow the unfolding events on BBC Arabic.com.

Jody Raynsford tweets: Good to see the rebels have found the obligatory bust of the dictator to give a good kicking to in front of the cameras. #libya
1752: Mr Gamaty says rebels believe Mr Gaddafi is either still in the Libyan capital or close by.
1751: Rebel spokesman Guma el-Gamaty tells the BBC that the images of rebels in the Gaddafi compound, climbing on the golden fist, are hugely symbolic for opponents of the Libyan leader.
Channel 4's Chief Correspondent Alex Thomson tweets: Much of Tripoli is quiet at the moment but the situation is volatile and it changes hour by hour #libya #c4news

Live pictures show parts of the compound is on fire

Al Jazeera is currently broadcasting live pictures from inside Gaddafi's compond.

James Bays of Al Jazeera is reporting 1km from Bab Al Aziziya stating that the Rebels control most of the city. The latest pictures from Al Jazeera clearly show Rebel Fighters inside the compound.

Al Jazeera's James Bays is reporting the Rebel Fighters have entered Bab Al Aziziya


From The BBC

1613: Pro-Gaddafi forces defended the compound but that defence has now stopped, Reuters reports.

1610: And that rebels have been seen inside the compound firing into the air in celebration.

1608: Reuters is now citing its reporters as saying that rebels have entered Bab Al-Aziziya.

1607: The Tripoli skyline a little earlier, with smoke rising near the Bab Al-Aziziya compound.

1559: Humanitarian update: Robin Waudo of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Tripoli that there are increasing numbers of casualties. "Some of the medical facilities are being overwhelmed, because the medical workers are not able to come in due to the security situation," he told the BBC World Service.

1555: Baroness Ashton relayed details of a conversation with rebel council chairman Abdel Jalil, who told her that rebels are in control of 80% of Tripoli. "He anticipates it will take a while for that to move further forward," she said.

Al Jazeera's as he was reporting live was shot at by a sniper while speaking to the current fighting.


3.05pm: Al-Jazeera's James Bays, reporting from a roof top in Tripoli, says he saw Grad missiles being fired from Gaddafi's compound at rebel positions.

He also confirms seeing Nato planes flying overhead but said he did not see Nato airstrikes against the compound. Bays said the rebels may control more of Tripoli than Gaddafi forces, but but "the reality is that there really is no control."
2.54pm: British and Nato military commanders are planning what they hope will be a final onslaught on Gaddafi's forces, write Richard Norton-Taylor, Luke Harding in Tripoli, Julian Borger and Christopher Stephen in Misrata.

After being caught by surprise by the speed of the rebel advance on Tripoli, Nato chiefs have ordered what defence officials on Tuesday called a "tactical pause" in the bombing campaign.

But the pause will not last long and the bombing of what strategic targets are left in Tripoli will resume possibly as early as Tuesday night, alliance officials said.

The Guardian has learned that a number of serving British special forces soldiers, as well as ex-SAS troopers, are now advising rebel forces, though their presence is officially denied.

Two thousand rebel reinforcements arrived in Tripoli on Monday night, after breaking through government lines near Zlitan, according to Guma al-Gamaty, the London representative of the rebel National Transitional Council. "They should make a difference," he said.

More rebel fighters arrived by boat, and a separate convoy of rebel jeeps and artillery was heading west from Misrata, according to rebels in the eastern city which had been besieged by government forces for five months.

The sudden advance on the Libyan capital suggests that co-ordination between the rebels and Nato planners is not as effective as has been widely assumed.

Al Jezeera's Zeina Khodr reporting from the front of Qaddafi's compound that NATO has verified that they have bombed a wall opening the way for the rebels to advance. She further stated that snipers had been hiding in trees om a hill just in front of the compound. Rwbel fighters where taking refuge under an expressway overpass.


From The BBC

1459: Here are some suspected pro-Gaddafi fighters being led away earlier. There have been widespread calls for rebels to avoid retribution - including from the rebel leadership.
1451: And on Col Gaddafi: "Catching him of course will allow a lot of people to kind of address their grievances... but to be honest, having him or not having him, catching him or not catching him, it's neither here nor there. It think it's more important that we get on with our lives."
1449: More from rebel spokesman Hany Hassan Soufrakis on Saif al-Islam Gaddafi: "He was captured and apparently he escaped; that's the information we're getting. To be honest, it's an embarrassment," he told the BBC World Service.
1438: And Nato's Col Roland Lavoie on the mystery surrounding Col Gaddafi's whereabouts: "Where is Gaddafi? If you know let me know. We don't know. I don't have a clue and I'm not sure actually that it really does matter... He is not a key player anymore."

Six In The Morning

On Sunday

Operation Mermaid: 'Rebels in Tripoli have risen up'
Fighting reported in capital; Gadhafi's former No. 2 urges government troops to join the opposition
NBC, msnbc.com and news services

TRIPOLI, Libya — Explosions and gunfire rocked Tripoli through the night as opponents of Moammar Gadhafi rose up in the capital, declaring a final push to topple the Libyan leader after a six-month war reached the city's outskirts.
"The zero hour has started," said Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, vice-chairman of the rebel leadership council. "The rebels in Tripoli have risen up."
However, a defiant Gadhafi said an assault by "rats" had been repelled.

"Those rats ... were attacked by the masses tonight and we eliminated them," Gadhafi said in an audio message broadcast over state television early Sunday.

Intense gunfire erupted after nightfall. Reuters journalists in the center of the capital, a metropolis of 2 million people, said it subsided somewhat after several hours. Fighting was reported early Sunday in several neighborhoods.
NATO aircraft made heavy bombing runs after nightfall, The Associated Press reported.

Food aid reaches only one in five of Somalia's starving
Civil war and Islamist militias are preventing convoys from bringing relief to the most needy
By Emily Dugan Sunday, 21 August 2011

A month after famine was first declared in Somalia fewer than one in five of the 2.8 million starving people in the south are getting help. Continued conflict and the banning of aid organisations by the al-Qa'ida inspired Islamist group al-Shabaab has made it impossible for large-scale aid to get through.

The lucky ones make it to refugee camps in Mogadishu or in neighbouring Kenya, Ethiopia or Djibouti, but for the majority help is still a long way off. Many have been forced to remain in Somalia by al-Shabaab militias, who believe it is better to die than take to food from infidels.

The hilltop Spanish town overshadowed by a debt mountain
Regional elections in Spain earlier this year ushered in a new crop of mayors and councillors, determined to revive their struggling local economies. But as the mayor of one town tells The Sunday Telegraph, the problem is worse than they ever imagined.
By Harriet Alexander, Moia8:00AM BST 21 Aug 2011
Nestling in the pine-clad hills above Barcelona, the ancient terracotta-tiled town of Moia could be straight out of a fairy tale. Narrow cobbled streets wind up towards the honey-coloured church in the centre, where the main plaza is decked with streamers and flags from the recent fiesta.
But for all its Disney-esque charm, Moia is rotten to the core.
"We are broke," said Dionís Guiteras, the town's newly-elected mayor. "We managed to pay the council staff on July 31, but I don't know if we will be able to on August 31. We haven't got any money to pay the electricity company, so maybe the street lights will go out. All of our buildings could be for sale."

Bahrain government fires hundreds of employees for political views
More than 100 government employees have been dismissed in recent weeks, joining 2,500 workers – nearly all Shiites – who have been fired since Bahrain's pro-democracy uprising.

By Kristen Chick, Correspondent
More than 100 Bahraini government employees have been fired in recent weeks for their political views, signaling an ongoing campaign to crush dissent in the wake of a pro-democracy uprising this spring.

They join 600 workers who have already been forced to leave government ministries and universities and about 1,900 workers sacked by private businesses this spring. While the Ministry of Labor has reinstated about a fifth of those fired, the most recent dismissals challenge official portrayals of the kingdom as going back to normal following the government's brutal crackdown, in which at least 30 people were killed and hundreds detained.

South Korea churches' beacons an eyesore to some
Red neon crosses are a common sight atop churches in South Korea. Church leaders say they are an important symbol of faith, but critics see them as an annoying source of light pollution.
By John M. Glionna, Los Angeles Times

Reporting from Seoul— For a quarter of a century, Kim Un-tae has found comfort in the red neon cross that sits atop the steeple of the Protestant church he founded here.

For the 70-year-old holy man, the soft glow of the religious icon has always signified that his faith was open for anyone willing to enter the doors of his church. "It's like a coastal lighthouse for passing ships in the dark," Kim said.

Yet critics say church crosses like Kim's are just another form of light pollution.

U.S. scholars say their book on China led to travel ban

By Daniel de Vise, Sunday, August 21
Thirteen American scholars say they have been barred from traveling to China because of a book they wrote, an incident that raises awkward questions about academic freedom at a time of unprecedented collaboration between U.S. and Chinese universities.

The academics have taken to calling themselves the Xin­jiang 13 to emphasize their shared misfortune. Seven years ago, they assembled a book about Xinjiang, a vast region of western China that has a large Muslim population and an occasionally violent separatist movement.

Bahrain Further Alienates Its Shi'a Majority

More than 100 Bahraini government employees have been fired in recent weeks for their political views, signaling an ongoing campaign to crush dissent in the wake of a pro-democracy uprising this spring.
They join 600 workers who have already been forced to leave government ministries and universities and about 1,900 workers sacked by private businesses this spring. While the Ministry of Labor has reinstated about a fifth of those fired, the most recent dismissals challenge official portrayals of the kingdom as going back to normal following the government's brutal crackdown, in which at least 30 people were killed and hundreds detained.

Its these types of policies aimed at an ethnic group that has led to insurgencies and civil wars just a few examples.

Following independence in 1948, G. G. Ponnambalam and the party he founded, the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (Tamil Congress), joined D. S. Senanayake's moderate,[citation needed] Western-oriented, United National Party Government. This Government pass the Ceylon Citizenship Act of 1948, which denied citizenship to Sri Lankans of Indian origin and resulted in Sri Lanka becoming a majoritanian state. Sri Lanka's government represented only the majority community, the Sinhalese community,[citation needed] and had marginalized the minorities, causing a "severe degree of alienation" among the minority communities.[9] When this Act was passed, the Tamil Congress was strongly criticized by the opposition Marxist groups and the newly formed Sri Lankan Tamil nationalist Federal Party (FP). S. J. V. Chelvanayakam, the leader of this new party, contested the citizenship act before the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka, and then in the Privy council in England, on grounds of discrimination towards minorities, but he did not prevail in overturning it. The FP took two seats in the 1952 election, against the Tamil Congress' four, but in the 1956 election it became the dominant party in the Tamil districts and remained so for two decades. The FP's came to be known for its uncompromising stand on Tamil rights.[10] In response to the parliamentary act that made Sinhala the sole official language in 1956, Federal MPs staged a non violent sit in (satyagraha) protest, but it was broken up by a nationalist mob. The police and other state authorities present at the location failed to take action to stop the violence. The FP was cast as scapegoats and were briefly banned after the 1958 riots in which many were killed and thousands of Tamils forced to flee their homes.
Another point of conflict between the communities was state sponsored colonization schemes that had the effect of changing the demographic balance in the Eastern province in favor of majority Sinhalese that the Tamil nationalists considered to be their traditional homeland. It has been perhaps the most immediate cause of inter-communal violence.[11]

In the 1970s importing Tamil language films, books, magazines, journals, etc. from the cultural hub of Tamil Nadu, India was banned. Sri Lanka also banned local groups affiliated with groups such as the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagham (DMK) and the Tamil Youth League. Foreign exchange for the long established practice of Tamil students going to India for university education was stopped. Equally, examinations for external degrees from the University of London were abolished. This had the effect of culturally cutting off the links between Tamil Sri Lankan and Tamils from India. The then government insisted that these measures were part of a general program of economic self-sufficiency as part of its socialist agenda and not targeted against the Tamil minority.[citation needed]
In 1973 the policy of standardization was implemented by the Sri Lankan government to what they believed was to rectify disparities created in university enrollment in Sri Lanka under British colonial rule. It was in essence an affirmative action scheme to assist geographically disadvantaged students to gain tertiary education. The resultant benefits enjoyed by Sinhalese students also meant a significant fall in the number of Tamil students within the Sri Lankan university student populace.[12]

"When it comes to the Kurdish question, the courts in Turkey are all too quick to label political opposition as terrorism," said Emma Sinclair-Webb, Turkey researcher at Human Rights Watch and author of the report. "When you close off the space for free speech and association, it has the counterproductive effect of making armed opposition more attractive."

"Ending the prosecution under these laws of most child demonstrators was an important step forward," Sinclair-Webb said. "But allowing laws clearly aimed at terrorism to be used against adult demonstrators inflicts immense damage on free expression, assembly, and association in Turkey."

Among the cases cited in the report are the following. In each case, the court concluded that the individual joined the demonstration under PKK orders because of news reports in advance of the demonstrations saying the PKK urged people to take part.

A university student, Murat Işıkırık, is serving a sentence of six years and three months for making a victory sign at the March 2006 funeral procession in Diyarbakır for four PKK members, and clapping during a March 2007 protest on the campus at Diyarbakır's Dicle University.
A mother of six, Vesile Tadik, was sentenced to seven years for holding up a banner with a slogan "The approach to peace lies through Öcalan" during a December 2009 protest in Kurtalan, Siirt, against the prison conditions of the imprisoned PKK leader. Her case is on appeal.
Medeni Aydın shouted, "Long live Chairman Öcalan" at a similar demonstration on the same day in Eruh, Siirt, and was sentenced to seven years. He is in prison pending his appeal. At the same demonstration Selahattin Erden was similarly punished for holding the edge of a banner with a pro-PKK slogan. He too remains in prison pending his appeal.

Iran gives US men eight-year sentences for spying, entering the country illegally

BREAKING NEWS: Ir an jails US hikers for eight years for spying — local media via BBC News

A court in Iran has sentenced two U.S. men — who said they were hikers who strayed over the border accidentally — to eight years in prison, Iranian state television reported Saturday.
Only on msnbc.com
American's abduction in Pakistan puzzles U.S.
Dog pollution? Study finds fecal bacteria in air
20 years ago: Trembling in midst of Soviet coup
PhotoBlog: Kansas takes Joplin tornado debris
Demolished schools in Beijing leave 40,000 students stranded
Reviewing the 'Great Brawl of China'
Tainted wipe maker sues vendor who won't pay
Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal got five years on the spying charges plus a further three for illegally entering the country, the TV station said on its website, according to BBC News.
Sarah Shourd, who was arrested with them, was released on bail last September and subsequently left Iran.
Bauer and Fattal have denied the accusations, insisting they simply made a mistake while hiking near the border in July 2009.

The world's longest ongoing war

World Media And Michele Bachmann

On Saturday August 13 an event took place in the American state of Iowa which in the scheme of things political and presidential was utterly meaningless. The happening? The Ames Iowa Straw Poll. Started in 1979 the first poll was won by George H.W. Bush who did not become the Republican nominee for president. Which was Ronald Reagan. Given all the hyperventilating by the worlds media you woud have thought she had just become President of the United States even though that election is more than a year away. How important is the Ames Straw poll to Republican politics? About zero. Those oh so important votes and voters are bought and paid for by those willing to particpate. Each vote costs $30 of which Michele Bachmann's purchased 6,000 handing them out to those who wished to take part in this complete farce.

The worlds media outlets acted like they just seen a miracle when all they witnessed was the purchase of victory by woman who what said that certain members of the House of Representatives should be investigated for being Un-American or once told her supporters not to fill out the 2010 U.S. Census Forms because it was unconstitutional even the census and the reasons for are written into the U.S. Constitution. It wasn't until she realized that the Census determined the number of house seats allocated to each stae by population size that Michele Bachmann suddenly changed her mind.

The worlds media loving the Lunatic Fringe.

Japan's Political Leaders Live In Denial Over World War II

August 15 is an important day in Asia it marks the end of World War II and Japan's defeat. In Tokyo there is a place where all the atrocities committed by the Japanese Imperial army during the war are ignored. OK completely denied Yasukuni shrine. By comparison it would be like Germany having a museum honoring the Nazi's. Yet, every year Japan's cabal of ignorant politicians go forth and visit this place of dishonor because they are also in denial about the atrocities committed by the army during World War II.

Lawmakers who visited Yasukuni include former internal affairs and communications minister Kazuhiro Haraguchi of the DPJ, Kokumin Shinto (People's New Party) leader Shizuka Kamei and party colleague Takashi Morita, a parliamentary secretary of the internal affairs ministry.

"Personally, I feel sad," Morita told reporters, regretting that the Cabinet didn't visit the shrine. "This year, we experienced the Great East Japan Earthquake. I prayed for the unity of the country and the people."

Toshiei Mizoochi, a Liberal Democratic Party member and an executive of a lawmaker group promoting Yasukuni visits, agreed.

LDP President Sadakazu Tanigaki, ex-Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara went there separately.

Six In The Morning

On Sunday

Aung San Suu Kyi in first political trip beyond Rangoon
Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has made her first political trip outside Rangoon since her release from house arrest last November.
The BBC 14 August 2011

She called for national unity as she visited Bago, about 80km (50 miles) north of Burma's main city.

Hundreds of people lined the streets as her convoy made its way to Bago.

The Burmese authorities had earlier warned that such a trip could trigger unrest and security agents were monitoring the convoy.

However, the BBC's South-east Asia correspondent, Rachel Harvey, says recent moves have suggested a thaw in relations could be under way.

Elephant and rhino poaching 'is driven by China's economic boom'
The ivory trade has doubled in Guangzhou and Fuzhou, a study has found, adding to fears for Africa's elephant and rhino populations
Greg Neale and James Burton
The Observer, Sunday 14 August 2011

Elephant poaching in Africa and Asia is being fuelled by China's economic boom, according to a study of the ivory trade.

Authors of the new report found that the number of ivory items on sale in key centres in southern China has more than doubled since 2004, with most traded illegally. The survey comes amid reports of a dramatic rise in rhino poaching across Africa, and a spate of thefts of rhino horns from European museums and auction houses.

FBI investigates secret payments to Fifa whistleblower
Months after his bribery claims shocked the football body, Chuck Blazer finds himself in the spotlight
By Andrew Jennings Sunday, 14 August 2011
The man credited with blowing the whistle on bribery and corruption in Fifa, the body that runs world football, is now himself the subject of an FBI inquiry. US investigators are examining documents appearing to show confidential payments to offshore accounts operated by an American Fifa official, Chuck Blazer.

Mr Blazer sparked an investigation into allegations of bribery in the Fifa presidential election two months ago. He claimed his long-term ally Jack Warner was involved in a plot to hand $1m in cash to Caribbean officials to vote for Qatar's Mohamed bin Hammam, who was running against the sitting president, Sepp Blatter.

Bitter battle as Libyan rebels take key town


BIR SHAEB, LIBYA - Aug 14 2011

Zawiya, 50km from the capital, is a key target for rebels waging a new offensive launched from the mountains in the far west of Libya, an attempt to break the deadlock in combat between the two sides that has held for months in the centre and east of the country.

A credible threat from the rebels in the west could strain Gaddafi's troops, which have been hammered for months by Nato airstrikes. Defending Zawiya is key for the regime but could require bringing in better trained forces who are currently ensuring its hold over its Tripoli stronghold or fighting rebels on fronts further east.

Kidnapping of American in Lahore highlights risks for US aid efforts in Pakistan
US citizen Warren Weinstein was abducted from his home in the city of Lahore, Pakistan early Saturday morning.
By Issam Ahmed, Correspondent, Ben Arnoldy, Staff writer
Lahore, Pakistan; and New Delhi, India
Armed gunmen kidnapped an American development consultant from his home in Lahore early Saturday, highlighting the difficulty of US aid efforts in Pakistan.

The abducted man, Warren Weinstein, heads the Pakistan office for consulting firm J.E. Austin Associates, Inc. The firm is working here on US Agency for International Development (USAID) projects, including one to set up small businesses and create jobs in the restive tribal areas. The US has pledged some $7.5 billion in civilian aid over a five year period in a bid to stem militancy and improve relations with the nuclear-armed state.

Shammi Kapoor passes away

Agencies | Aug 14, 2011, 09.33AM IST

MUMBAI: Veteran actor Shammi Kapoor, hailed as 'Elvis Presley of India' and whose famous yell 'Yahoo' signified the arrival of a rebel star against the reigning trio of his time Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand and Dilip Kumar, passed away here on Sunday morning due to chronic renal failure.

The 79-year-old legend, who was often compared to Elvis Presley due to his looks, was in the ICU of Breach Candy Hospital and breathed his last on Sunday morning, family sources said.

The funeral will take place on Monday morning, they informed.

Papuans remain under Indonesia's menacing grip

Read the secret Indonesian military intelligence report

It would seem, to most observers, to be a singularly unremarkable venture. A group of American tourists visiting a cultural centre in the Papuan town of Abepura, just outside the capital Jayapura. On the agenda was an opportunity to view some historical artefacts and watch a traditional dance.

But, as the group of some 180 visitors toured the facility and enjoyed the performance, they were being watched. In the shadows was an informant for Indonesia's elite special forces unit, Kopassus.

American tourists are so "Dangerous" so watch out

But it is also instructive of what the material in its entirety reveals: the Indonesian government runs a network of spies and informants in Papua that is staggering in its scope and range of targets. And infecting all the reporting and analysis is a deep paranoia that is both astonishing and disturbing.

Then there are these people

A worker at a car rental agency tips off his Kopassus handler whenever a suspicious customer visits the establishment or talks about ''M'', shorthand for ''merdeka'' or freedom. A phone shop employee ''often provides information on the phone numbers of people purchasing phone credits''.

Journalists, university students, bureaucrats, church leaders, teachers, motorcycle taxi drivers, clan leaders, village chiefs, farmers and forest workers are all on the books of Kopassus. One leader of the OPM-TPN has eight Kopassus informants within his network, including a 14-year-old family member.

US 'supercop' Bill Bratton warns riot arrests not only answer

The BBC 13 August 2011
Communities cannot "arrest their way out" of gang crime, the prime minister's new crime adviser, US "supercop" Bill Bratton, has warned.

The former New York police chief meets David Cameron next month to discuss violence in English cities and says the issue is for society as a whole.

About 1,600 people have been arrested after days of riots, arson and looting.

However, Chancellor George Osborne has ruled out a rethink of police funding cuts in the wake of the riots

Berlin remembers its wall of history
Fifty years after construction began on the barrier that defined the Cold War, Germans are looking back with mixed feelings on the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall. Tony Paterson reports
Saturday, 13 August 2011
Fifty years ago this morning, Berliners awoke to the sound of pneumatic drills digging up the road in front of the city's famous Brandenburg Gate.

They watched incredulously as squads of labourers, guarded by armed Communist militiamen, unrolled huge reels of barbed wire and pinned them to the tarmac with giant staple guns.

The barrier erected on 13 August 1961 was the beginning of that infamous structure which even today – nearly 22 years after its fall – remains one of the Cold War's most potent symbols: the Berlin Wall.

Libya rebels eye Brega oil installations

Opposition fighters control some residential areas outside of oil port city, as rebels capture western town of Tawurgha.

Last Modified: 13 Aug 2011
Libya's opposition fighters are continuing their push to capture a strategic oil terminal in Brega, which is still in control of forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi.

The rebels took over the residential zone of New Brega, located about 15km from the central oil terminal and port area, on Thursday.

Mohammed Zawawi, the opposition spokesman, told the Reuters news agency on Friday it was still not safe to go into the city.

"Now we are trying to clear that area. There are some Gaddafi troops still there," Zawawi said.

Troops loyal to Gaddafi are holding on to the oil facilities and firing rockets at rebel positions. At least eight rebel fighters have been killed and another 25 wounded in the latest fighting.

Flash Points Across the Continent
Europe's Angry Youth
By SPIEGEL ONLINE Staff
For four days earlier this week, young people in Britain rioted, marauding through the streets of England's big cities. Prime Minister David Cameron called off his summer holiday in Tuscany to deal with the situation, and members of parliament were recalled from their recess.

Cameron's government has described the rioters as criminals looking to plunge the country into chaos, but that's only part of the truth. A recent study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reveals another piece of the puzzle: Of all the European Union countries, only Portugal is home to greater wealth disparity than Great Britain.

South African in Malawi treason case

THERESA CHAPULAPULA & SAM SOLE JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
The two are South African Graham Raymond Alistair Minnaar and Malawian Thomas Elias Ndlovu.

Chilumpha and his co-accused, Yusuf Matumula, have pleaded not guilty to charges of treason and of conspiracy to murder.

Chilumpha was arrested in 2006, a few months after Mutharika dumped the United Democratic Front (UDF), the party that ushered him into office, and formed the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). His vice-president, Chilumpha, remained in the UDF.

Yes! You Have No Rights

Getting Promoted: This Is The Police

America Where Corporations Are People Too!

That headline isn't joke its completely true the original United States Supreme Court case involved Santa Clara County California suing the Southern Pacific Railroad over taxes on railroad properties which led to ruling declaring that corporations were people.

Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company, 118 U.S. 394 (1886) was a United States Supreme Court case dealing with taxation of railroad properties. The decision was instrumental in laying the foundation for modern laws regarding corporate personhood, ruling that the Fourteenth Amendment equal protection clause granted constitutional protections to corporations as well as to natural persons. For its opinion, the Court consolidated three separate cases

In his dissent in the 1938 case of Connecticut General Life Insurance Company v. Johnson, Justice Hugo Black wrote "in 1886, this Court in the case of Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad, decided for the first time that the word 'person' in the amendment did in some instances include corporations. [...] The history of the amendment proves that the people were told that its purpose was to protect weak and helpless human beings and were not told that it was intended to remove corporations in any fashion from the control of state governments. [...] The language of the amendment itself does not support the theory that it was passed for the benefit of corporations

SANTA CLARA COUNTY v. SOUTHERN PAC. R. CO., 118 U.S. 394 (1886)
118 U.S. 394

COUNTY OF SANTA CLARA
v.
SOUTHERN PAC. R. CO. 1

PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
v.
CENTRAL PAC. R. CO.

SAME
v.
SOUTHERN PAC. R. CO.

Filed May 10, 1886

These several actions were brought-the first one in the superior court of Santa Clara county, California, the others in the superior court of Fresno county, in the same state-for the recovery of certain county and state taxes claimed to be due from the Southern Pacific Railroad Company and the Central Pacific Railroad Company under assessments made by the state board of equalization upon their respective franchises, road-ways, road-beds, rails, and rolling stock. In the action by Santa Clara county the amount claimed is $13,366.53 for the fiscal year of 1882. For that sum, with 5 per cent. penalty, interest at the rate of 2 per cent. per month from December 27, 1882, cost of advertising, and 10 per cent. for attorney's fees, judgment is asked against the Souther Pacific [118 U.S. 394, 398] Railroad Company. In the other action against the same company the amount claimed is $5,029.27 for the fiscal year of 1881, with 5 per cent. added for non-payment of taxes and costs of collection. In the action against the Central Pacific Railroad Company judgment is asked for $25,950.50 for the fiscal year of 1881, with like penalty and costs of collection. The answer in each case puts in issue all the material allegations of the complaint, and sets up various special defenses, to which reference will be made further on. With its answer the defendant, in each case, filed a petition, with a proper bond, for the removal of the action into the circuit court of the United States for the district, as one arising under the constitution and laws of the United States. The right of removal was recognized by the state court, and the action proceeded in the circuit court. Each case, the parties having filed a written stipulation waiving a jury, was tried by the court. There was a special finding of facts, upon which judgment was entered in each case for the defendant. The general question to be determined is whether the judgment can be sustained upon all or either of the grounds upon which the defendants rely.

In January 2010 the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed that corporations are people in the following case:
Citizens United v. FEC, 08-205

The Court rules that the government may regulate corporate political speech through disclaimer and disclosure requirements, but it may not suppress that speech altogether. Specifically, in an action brought by a nonprofit corporation, the makers of a documentary critical of Hillary Clinton's presidential candidacy, challenging the constitutionality of a federal law prohibiting corporations and unions from using their general treasury funds to make independent expenditures for speech that was an "electioneering communication" or for speech that expressly advocated the election or defeat of a candidate, a denial of a preliminary injunction for plaintiff is reversed in part where Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce, 494 U.S. 652 (1990), is overruled, and thus provides no basis for allowing the government to limit corporate independent expenditures. Hence, the part of McConnell v. Federal Election Comm'n, 540 U.S. 93 (2007), that upheld the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act section 203's extension of section 441b's restrictions on independent corporate expenditures is also overruled. However, the order is affirmed in part where BCRA sections 201 and 311 were valid as applied to the ads for the documentary and to the movie itself because disclaimer and disclosure requirements may burden the ability to speak, but they imposed no ceiling on campaign-related activities, or prevented anyone from speaking.

Six In The Morning

Riots: Cameron under attack
Boris Johnson calls for U-turn on police numbers, while No 10 ridiculed over plans to use water cannon
By Oliver Wright, Whitehall Editor and Cahal Milmo, Chief Reporter Thursday, 11 August 2011

David Cameron appeared increasingly isolated last night after senior police officers, MPs and even the Conservative Mayor of London united in a call for him to reconsider police cuts in the face of four days of sustained rioting.

In an attempt to regain the political initiative the Prime Minister had declared that a police "fightback" was under way, and that water cannon were being made available at 24 hours' notice. But senior police chiefs said these would be ineffectual and the real question was not whether they could cope with the current disturbances, but whether they would be able to deal with similar civil disturbances in future with thousands fewer officers.

How Ai Weiwei lost his voice
The dissident Chinese artist, recently released from jail, gives the impression of having had the fight knocked out of him
By Clifford Coonan Thursday, 11 August 2011
It was just eight months ago that the dissident Chinese artist, Ai Weiwei, told me that revolution was the only way to solve China's problems, and he felt change was in the air. Soon after that, he was taken away by security officials, emerging frail and subdued in June after three months of incarceration on alleged tax violations.

Now, in his first full interview since his release, Ai Weiwei is communicating again. But fans of the man who once called China's Communist Party a group of "gangsters" may have been surprised to read some of the sentiments expressed by the 54-year-old in his conversation with the Global Times – the only organ he has spoken to at length.

Secret peace talks between US and Taliban collapse over leaks
Secret exploratory peace talks between the United States and the Taliban leadership have broken down after details of the negotiations were leaked, Western diplomats have told The Daily Telegraph.
By Dean Nelson, Ben Farmer in Kabu
The breakdown in the talks at such an early stage has led to recriminations and claims that the details of the meetings and the identity of the Taliban's chief negotiator were deliberately leaked by 'paranoid' Afghan government figures.
Absolute confidentiality had been a key condition for the meetings which were held in Germany and Qatar earlier this year between Tayeb Agha, Taliban leader Mullah Omar's former private secretary, and senior officials from the US State Department and Central Intelligence Agency. The meetings were chaired by Michael Steiner, Germany's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Troops take Syrian oil hub after siege lasting four days
The Irish Times - Thursday, August 11, 2011

MICHAEL JANSEN

SYRIAN TROOPS have taken control of the eastern oil hub of Deir al-Zor after a four-day siege, moving into two northeastern towns near the Turkish border, reportedly killing one person and wounding 13.

Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan responded by saying his foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who met President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday, had called for an end to the crackdown, but Mr Erdogan also said he expected political reforms to be enacted within 15 days.

Deir al-Zor, 450km from Damascus, is inhabited by 600,000 mainly well-armed Sunni tribesmen with Iraqi connections. The government apparently decided to move after 500,000 people from the city and surrounding areas were said to have staged a protest against the regime.

Arab Revolution Caught Between Euphoria and Despair
Halting Steps Toward Democracy
By SPIEGEL Staff.
Gilamo's donkey was a cheerful sign of hope in Hama. Its owner had hoisted the animal up onto the empty pedestal that had supported a statue of former Syrian President Hafez Assad until June 10. The regime's troops had withdrawn from the city in western Syria. It was there in 1982 that Hafez Assad, the father of current president Bashar Assad, had set a brutal example when he crushed an uprising led by the Muslim Brotherhood. An estimated 20,000 people died in the massacre.

It was ironic that in that June week, government troops were pulling out of Hama, a city that had been burned into the collective memory of Syria's multiethnic society as a symbol of the regime's capacity to commit atrocities. The city, in which sons bear the names of fathers and uncles murdered in the 1982 massacre, had taken its fate into its own hands.

Ugandan police crack down on new Besigye gathering

ELIAS BIRYABAREMA MASAKA, UGANDA - Aug 10 2011 21:06
The east African nation was rocked by widespread anti-government protests in April and May, sparked by rising prices. At least nine people were killed in the government's clampdown and Besigye was arrested and badly beaten by security agents.

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni, in power for 25 years, had vowed to crush the Besigye-led protests, blaming the rising food and fuel costs on drought and global increases in crude oil prices. He accused the opposition of being desperate for power.

Museveni won February elections that Besigye and other opposition leaders said were rigged. Since the vote, opposition leaders have led a series of often violent protests against high food and fuel prices.

Random Japan

CAN’T SAY WE BLAME THEM
Barbecued beef restaurants in Japan found sales were down after reports surfaced that caesium-laced beef had been distributed across the country.

Bombastic Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara said a new power plant will be built in Tokyo “with the electricity generation capacity of at least 1 million kilowatts,” but he refused to provide any details.

PM Naoto Kan came under fire from members of his own Cabinet for “advocating a society free of nuclear power in the aftermath of the crisis in Fukushima.” That’s news to us, claimed members of his cabinet.

South Korea voiced “strong regret and disappointment” over Japan’s month-long ban on its diplomats flying Korean Air. The ban was put in effect to protest a special flight by the airline above some disputed islets.

Yukari Miyamae, a 61-year-old Japanese-American female, has achieved a cult-like following after being arrested for grabbing the boob of an airport security agent in Phoenix and, according to the police report, “squeezing and twisting it with both hands without the victim’s permission.”

Meanwhile, a Facebook page dedicated to acquitting Miyamae of the sexual abuse charges apparently drew over 1,000 supporters, “with some calling her a hero.”

Stats

27.7
Percent of viewers watching the women’s World Cup final in Tokyo at one point during the live TV broadcast that started at 3:35 a.m. local time, according to Video Research Ltd.
74
People who were treated for heatstroke at an event in Miyagi Prefecture as temperatures soared past 38ºC
¥420 million
Stolen from ATMs near the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant between mid-March and the end of June, according to the National Police Agency
20
Percent of smokers in middle and high schools in Japan who quit after a cigarette price hike last October, a government survey revealed
711,837
Criminal cases “reported to or detected by” police in Japan in the January-June period, down 7.1 percent from a year earlier and the ninth straight year of decline for the first half of the year, the National Police Agency said

SNAP OUT OF IT, BOYS!
For the first time in 11 years in the major leagues, the batting average of Seattle Mariners star outfielder Ichiro Suzuki was below .300 at the All-Star break (.270).

Meanwhile, another once-mighty ballplayer from these shores, Hideki Matsui of the Oakland A’s, was mired in the worst slump of his nine-year MLB career with an anemic .209 batting average at the break.

The only representative of Japan at this year’s Midsummer Classic in Arizona was a batting practice pitcher—San Francisco Giants trainer Taira Uematsu, who threw BP for the National League.

The Sauber Formula One team was fined €20,000 for an incident in the pits involving driver Kamui Kobayashi at the British Grand Prix, when he banged into Pastor Maldonado’s Williams.

A blind man in Iwate Prefecture has been scarred psychologically after experiencing the deadly March 11 tsunami, saying the smell of seawater now brings him back to that horrible day.

Due to a poor harvest for the second straight year, the price of eel—a traditional summer dish—was up in Japan.

Sentence of the Week: “But for an increasing number of adventurers seeking a laid-back, low-cost lifestyle, the dream can turn to disillusionment, loss of vital organs or even death.”—From an Asahi Shimbun story on Japanese men hooking up with younger Philippine women and moving to the Philippines.

Headline of the Week: “14 children pronounced brain dead in past year did not donate organs despite legal changes”—Courtesy of The Mainichi Daily News

Hear No Evil Speak No Evil

See No Evil

When Is A Pen

A Camera?

Cranes For

Survivors

Tepco redress: from tourism to tea
Education ministry panel wants damages awarded across a wide spectrum of industries
By TAKAHIRO FUKADA
Staff writer
Tokyo Electric Power Co. must compensate travel agencies, inns and hotels nationwide for cancellations made by foreign travelers fearing radiation from Tepco's stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, a government panel said Friday.

The panel under the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry also said, in an interim report on the scope of Tepco's compensation, that the utility must expand its compensation to the tea, flower, beef and manufacturing industries.

The amount of damages was not specified, nor was how a utility that has suffered a massive net-worth devaluation and vast other redress demands would be able to cough up the compensatory funds.

Lockerbie: The Pan Am bomber

Will The Truth About Fukushima Ever Be Told?

From the beginning TEPCO and the Japanese government have lied about the effects of the nuclear disaster at Fukushima. To this day the lies continue with the Foreign Ministry has been told to quit lying about the safety of food exported from Japan. Yet, the governments unwillingness to tell the Japanese public about the real dangers posed by the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

FUKUSHIMA, Japan — The day after a giant tsunami set off the continuing disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, thousands of residents at the nearby town of Namie gathered to evacuate.

Given no guidance from Tokyo, town officials led the residents north, believing that winter winds would be blowing south and carrying away any radioactive emissions. For three nights, while hydrogen explosions at four of the reactors spewed radiation into the air, they stayed in a district called Tsushima where the children played outside and some parents used water from a mountain stream to prepare rice.

The winds, in fact, had been blowing directly toward Tsushima — and town officials would learn two months later that a government computer system designed to predict the spread of radioactive releases had been showing just that.

The day Hiroshima turned into hell

Sixty-six years after the atomic bomb was dropped, survivor Keijiro Matsushima tells of a day of death and destruction.

Sixty-six years ago, Hiroshima was turned into a burning inferno as the Americans dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city.

Keijiro Matsushima was 16 years old when he witnessed the attack which claimed roughly 100,000 lives in one day.

He recalls how August 6, 1945, was a beautiful day, with a blue sky. Matsushima had returned to school only a week earlier, after he and his peers were mobilised to work for a year and a half in a factory producing military uniforms.

At 8.15 in the morning, his class had just started. He was listening to his teacher explaining a question on differential and integral calculus.

"I was looking out through the window and saw two American B-29 bombers. I just thought 'American planes again', assuming they were out for some routine work."

When he looked back at his books, the bomb exploded.

"There was a very strong flash and a heat wave. The whole world turned into something orange. I felt like I was thrown into an oven for a moment".

Later, he learned that temperatures on the ground near the hypocentre, 2km from his school, had reached at least 3,000 degrees centigrade.

Australia's boomtown curse

When you travel what is the worst thing that could happen? Some might say missing a flight, others might say you get crammed into the centre seat on a full flight. But when you are part of a film crew, one of the more difficult challenges is travelling with 181 kilogrammes of camera equipment.　

When an international film crew from Al Jazeera English calls you and says they want to come to Australia and film a story about the mining industry in two weeks time, the first thing you say is "I would love to be a part of this incredible story". The second thing you do? Start working fast.

The scope and depth of the mining industry, its impact on the country and the state can be broken down into small digestible chunks as political, economic and social, but the bigger picture is a great deal more complicated. The Australian mining industry has seen exponential growth over the last 10 years with increasing exports to China.

Six In The Morning

On Sunday

Brown blames US and Europe for 'throwing away' recovery
Former prime minister mounts an extraordinary attack on world leaders for mishandling economic crisis and risking 'a decade of joblessness'
By Matt Chorley, Jane Merrick, Stephen Foley and Margareta Pagano Sunday, 7 August 2011
Gordon Brown today launches an extraordinary attack on the leaders of America, France and Germany, accusing them of being "wrong" on the big economic decisions and failing to heed his warnings over the EU debt crisis.

The former British prime minister breaks his silence to claim wrong-headed EU leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, had "thrown away" another chance of economic recovery. They ignored his warnings about their banks' debt levels and are exacerbating the financial crisis which, in turn, risks condemning millions of people to a decade of joblessness.

Emergency talks called to calm global financial crises
Finance chiefs from major powers are to hold emergency talks by telephone to discuss ways to contain the latest turmoil on world financial markets, reports say.
The BBC 7 August 2011
Twin debt crises in the eurozone and the US have caused sharp falls.

Analysts say world leaders want to calm international markets ahead of exchanges reopening on Monday morning.

The rating agency Standard & Poor's on Friday downgraded America's top-notch AAA rating to AA+.

Markets have also been rocked by suggestions that the debt crisis in the eurozone could spread to Italy and Spain.

Sources in Rome quoted by AFP news agency said finance ministers of the G7 nations - the US, Germany, the UK, Japan, France, Canada, and Italy - would hold a telephone conference call to discuss the situation.

Muslim Brotherhood holds first open vote in Egypt

SARAH EL DEEB CAIRO, EGYPT - Aug 07 2011

After decades spent underground because of an official ban, the public vote is also part of a concerted push by the Islamist group to show off its organisation and dispel its reputation as a secretive and closed group. It looks poised to win big at the November polls, largely because of its well-organised political machine and social outreach programs.

Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie hailed Saturday's vote -- which chose three new members to the group's executive board -- saying "the open and transparent elections show the world that the Brotherhood works in the open, to restore Egypt's freedom and standing".

Five myths about Africa
Matt Damon, listen up: After five years of covering Africa, our departing correspondent tells how his perceptions have changed about a complex continent, including why some Africans resent celebrity visits.

By Scott Baldauf, staff write
Johannesburg, South Africa
Here we were, stuck axle-deep on a muddy road in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, after a very impressive midafternoon rainstorm. Ten miles behind us was a small village with a deep hole in the ground where the village men would dig up chunks of tin and sell them to traveling salesmen. This was the last village under government control before the tin trade fell into the hands of a genocidal rebel group called the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda.
So, with dusk falling, the rain starting, and a mile or two to walk to the closest friendly village, there was nothing to do but get on the cellphone to inform my wife I wouldn't make it to the hotel that night in Bukavu. Later, in the village, my colleague Stephanie Nolen of the Toronto Globe and Mail would send an e-mail from her BlackBerry to her paper's editors, explaining that she was safe.

Hip-hop moments that shook the world
From Kool Herc spinning in the Bronx to Jay-Z blinging in the mud, Matilda Egere-Cooper counts down the flash points that turned hip-hop from a marginalised inner-city culture into a global phenomenon
Sunday, 7 August 2011
It wasn't meant to last. When hip-hop emerged in the 1970s, it aspired simply to capture the sentiments, camaraderie and frustrations of inner-city New York. Yet, refusing to give in to early prophecies that it would come and go, the genre continues to thrive 35 years on, spilling over from music into art, fashion, TV and film. How Hip Hop Changed the World, a new documentary airing this week on Channel 4, will examine the story of the movement and how it has influenced pop culture – but for those who don't know their hips from their hops, here's a quick primer of the 10 most notable moments in the genre's history.

Albert Camus might have been killed by the KGB for criticising the Soviet Union, claims newspaper
Car crash in which French literary giant was killed in 1960 was no accident, claims new theory
Kim Willsher in Paris
The Observer, Sunday 7 August 2011
When the French philosopher, author and inveterate womaniser Albert Camus died in a car accident in 1960 just two years after winning the Nobel prize for literature, France's intellectual beau monde mourned what seemed an almost freakish tragedy.

In Camus's pocket was an unused return train ticket from his home in Provence to Paris. The 46-year-old writer had intended to travel back after the Christmas holidays by train with his wife Francine and their teenage twins Catherine and Jean. Instead, his friend and publisher Michel Gallimard offered to drive him.

Bahrain Shouting In The Dark

On February 15 the peaceful uprising began in Bahrain's Pearl Roundabout these people the Shiite majority are ruled by a family that are Sunni. When it all ended in March the monument at Pearl roundabout had been destroyed, hundreds were injured and unknown number were killed. With the help of the Saudi National Guard all dissent was crushed. Among those arrested and tried for crimes against the state included the medical personal who tried to help the injured.

Philanthropist Izzat Majeed's Sachal Orchestra pulls off unlikely musical coup

The rich strains of eastern music have for centuries wafted across the rooftops of old Lahore. But listen today and you might hear something new: jazzy riffs and a bossa nova beat.

An ensemble of veteran Pakistani musicians have pulled off an unlikely coup with an innovative jazz album which has topped western charts – prompting comparisons with the Buena Vista Social Club which rediscovered a generation of lost Cuban musicians.

The Sachal Studios Orchestra has captured imaginations with a catchy interpretation of Dave Brubeck's Take Five which blends sweeping classical violins with sitars, tablas and other eastern instruments.

The piece has brought praise from jazz greats – Brubeck, now 90, says it is "the most interesting" version of Take Five he's ever heard – and propelled the orchestra's album to the top of the iTunes jazz charts in the US and UK. The album, which includes versions of The Girl from Ipanema, Misty and Desafinado, reached the top 10 in both countries

Wealth Gap: Keeping The Poor Poor

Though this program focuses on the income disparity in America and its return to the Gilded Age of the late 19th and early 20th century the reality is this. Income inequality isn't endemic to the United States. China, South Korea, Japan and Thailand are just a sample of countries that face the growing problem of income inequality. China which has sustained almost double digit economic growth for almost ten years has failed to come to grips with the problem as millions are left behind to scrape the bottom of the economic ladder just to survive. Without mentioning the word in the program what those interviewed didn't say is that a new oligarchy has emerged. One not founded on manufacturing as happened 100 years ago but one based on control of the financial markets thereby giving them control of governments and the political power that comes with it.

Some clarification: In 2005 the last full year of Junichiro Koizumi's Premiership the Japanese Diet at the behest of their corporate masters passed the Temporary Workers Dispatch Law creating an employment underclass. A group of workers hired on short term contracts completely beholden to the corporations that employed them. When the 2008 financial crisis struck Japan almost 1 million people found themselves with concealed contracts and no means of financial stability. This all happened in less than 8 weeks.

In the China this underclass was created by internal migration with millions of Chinese living in the rural eastern parts of that country uprooting themselves seeking employment in the Pearl River Special Economic Zone. Because the Chinese government requires its citizens to register with local governments to prove they actually lived in the city in which they were employed to receive any form of benefits the local and provincial governments would refuse all permanent resident requests which continue to this day leaving these workers on he margins of society.

With so much despair and seeing no way out governments and the wealthy had better heed the warning signs or there will be a an uprising and it will be televised.

Random Japan

BREAKTHROUGHS

Tohoku University Hospital will begin testing a drug that may delay the progression of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

Researchers from three Japanese universities published a paper in the British journal Nature that “revealed the three-dimensional structure of the central part of human chromosomes.” The finding could help scientists better understand Down’s syndrome and cancer.

It was announced that a 4,300-year-old pottery shard unearthed in Aomori in 1993 may contain the “oldest depiction of a shaman on an artifact uncovered in Japan.”

The University of Tokyo asked the education ministry if it would be OK to begin the academic year in the fall, just like schools overseas.

Leading Japanese e-tailer Rakuten announced that it will open an online shop for electronic books early next month. Panasonic will provide the tablet device for the service.

Stats

66.4
Percent of female university graduates who found full-time employment this spring, according to a newspaper survey

57.7
Percent of male graduates who found jobs, according to the same survey

2996
Number of suicides in Japan in June, according to the National Police Agency. That’s the highest for the month since the NPA began recordkeeping in 2008

TO PROTECT AND SERVE
Police officers in Gifu admitted that they dealt with rowdy detainees by serving them tea spiked with “excessive doses of a hypnotic drug.”

The government was ordered to pay ¥80 million to the family of an Air Self-Defense Forces officer who committed suicide after his superior “abused him and gave him a huge amount of assignments.”

Police in Nagoya believe that a man arrested for robbing two Sukiya beef-bowl restaurants researched his crimes by consulting an online manual that offers tips for stealing from the fast food outlet.

While being investigated for insider trading, the former deputy head of the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy blamed the crimes on his wife.

Nationalistic

And Stupid

They Couldn't

Find Their Way

Taking The Taxi

Wasn't Cheap

Utility says NISA sought 'plants' to talk up MOX bid

By KAZUAKI NAGATA
Staff writer
Chubu Electric Power Co. said Friday it was asked by the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency to set up supportive or neutral questions from the audience at a 2007 symposium about a plan to use a controversial fuel mix at the Hamaoka nuclear plant.

According to Chubu Electric, NISA orally requested that it draft such questions and give them to people who would attend the symposium to make sure not all the questions would be against the use of plutonium-uranium mixed oxide (MOX) fuel