November 21, 2009
November 20, 2009
Europe job was too small for Tony Blair
Faced with a choice for its new president between the traffic-stopping Tony Blair and a capable but little-known Belgian, the EU's 27 leaders settled on Herman Van Rompuy, a man who would scarcely stop two mothers with strollers outside his own country.
Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, who was in charge of the election process, gave the game away when he said that Van Rompuy was a man whose choice would "leave room for everyone."
By insisting that "unity is our strength, diversity our wealth," Van Rompuy has signaled that he intends to be a consensus-building chairman, an agenda assembler, not a leader who will blazon Europe's name across the world and mingle monthly with the likes of Barack Obama and Hu Jintao.
So why has the EU turned its back on the man who might have supplied the stardust, Tony Blair?
The simple answer is that for most of the 27 EU leaders, Blair was too big for the job. They feared he would have his own agenda and overshadow them. Many saw him as an over-close ally of America who had divided Europe when he helped George W. Bush to prosecute the Iraq war.
More on CNN.com – More on Blair here
Climate sceptics seize upon leaked emails
Hundreds of private emails and documents allegedly exchanged between some of the world's leading climate scientists over the past 13 years have been stolen by hackers and leaked online. The computer files were apparently accessed earlier this week from servers at the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit, a world-renowned centre focused on the study of natural and anthropogenic climate change.
Climate change sceptics who have studied the emails allege that they provide "smoking gun" evidence that some of the climatologists colluded in manipulating data to support the widely held view among the world's climatologists that climate change is real and is being largely caused by the actions of mankind. So far the veracity of the emails has not been confirmed and the scientists involved have declined to comment on the story which broke on a blog called The Air Vent.
Postal Service Limits Letter To Santa Program
Starry-eyed children writing letters to the jolly man at the North Pole this holiday season very likely won't get a response from Santa Claus or his helpers.
The U.S. Postal Service is dropping a popular national program begun in 1954 in the small Alaska town of North Pole, where volunteers open and respond to thousands of letters addressed to Santa each year. Replies come with North Pole postmarks.
Last year, a postal worker in Maryland recognized an Operation Santa volunteer there as a registered sex offender. The postal worker interceded before the individual could answer a child's letter, but the Postal Service viewed the episode as a big enough scare to tighten rules in such programs nationwide.
November 19, 2009
Belgian PM Van Rompuy is new EU president
EU leaders have chosen the Belgian Prime Minister, Herman van Rompuy, to be the first permanent European Council President.
The other top job created by the Lisbon Treaty - foreign affairs supremo - has gone to the EU Trade Commissioner, Baroness Catherine Ashton from the UK.
Both are seen as consensual politicians with limited foreign policy experience.
Herman Van Rompuy has called for new eco-taxes and levies on the financial sector to fund a more powerful European Union.
Belgium's prime minister made the controversial proposal, leaked to a Flemish newspaper, during a secret dinner to promote his candidacy hosted by the elite Bilderberg Group.
Italian MEP on Bilderberg and Trilateral nominations for EU President and foreign minister (Video)
The comments have added to a backlash against Mr Van Rompuy who, while still the favourite, has been identified as a federalist who is being championed as part of a Franco-German "stitch up" ahead a summit dinner that will appoint an EU President in Brussels on Thursday.
Zwarte Piet is a racist caracature
“To the good people of the Netherlands, who believe that they are not racist, wrongly, and believe that Zwarte Piet is a harmless, innocent tradition, wrongly, I want to say:
Thank you! I'm American, and I recognize that we owe Santa Claus, the main figure in our primary children's fantasy holiday, directly to the Dutch Sinterklaas. Santa turned Nordic in America, he got fat in America (like so many Americans), and we gave him elves as "helpers" ourselves. But credit for the basic idea goes to the Dutch settlers of New Amsterdam.
In return, we have given you one of our smash-hit cultural exports to use during Sinterklaas: "blackface" and "darky iconography," a racist genre of theater and art that portrays black people as idiots, with exaggerated big lips, woolly hair, and of course, pitch black faces.
You use it on Sint's friend, "Black Pete."
CIA Secret Prison Found
The CIA built one of its secret European prisons inside an exclusive riding academy outside Vilnius, Lithuania, a current Lithuanian government official and a former U.S. intelligence official told ABC News this week.
A former Lithuanian horse stable was converted into a secret CIA detention center, according to a former U.S. intelligence official and a current Lithuanian government official. Some al Qaeda detainees were held at this facility, the officials said.
Where affluent Lithuanians once rode show horses and sipped coffee at a café, the CIA installed a concrete structure where it could use harsh tactics to interrogate up to eight suspected al-Qaeda terrorists at a time.
"The activities in that prison were illegal," said human rights researcher John Sifton. "They included various forms of torture, including sleep deprivation, forced standing, painful stress positions."
November 18, 2009
Nubian fury at 'monkey' lyric of Arab pop star Haifa Wehbe
One of the Arab world's biggest pop stars has provoked a torrent of outrage after releasing a song which refers to black Egyptians as monkeys.
Haifa Wehbe, an award-winning Lebanese diva who has been voted one of the world's most beautiful people, is now facing a lawsuit from Egyptian Nubians claiming the song has fuelled discrimination against them and made some Nubian children too afraid to attend school.
The row has cast fresh light on the position within Egyptian society of Nubians, who are descended from one of Africa's most ancient black civilisations and yet often face marginalisation in modern Egypt.
Countries prepping for Cyberwar
Major countries and nation-states are engaged in a "Cyber Cold War," amassing cyberweapons, conducting espionage, and testing networks in preparation for using the Internet to conduct war, according to a new report to be released on Tuesday by McAfee.
In particular, countries gearing up for cyberoffensives are the U.S., Israel, Russia, China, and France, the says the report, compiled by former White House Homeland Security adviser Paul Kurtz and based on interviews with more than 20 experts in international relations, national security and Internet security.
November 17, 2009
Record numbers go hungry in households in the US
Government report shows 50m people unable to put food on the table at some point last year. More than a million children regularly go to bed hungry in the US, according to a government report that shows a startling increase in the number of families struggling to put food on the table.
President Barack Obama, who pledged to eradicate childhood hunger, has described as "unsettling" the agriculture department survey, which says 50 million people in the US – one in six of the population – were unable to afford to buy sufficient food to stay healthy at some point last year, in large part because of escalating unemployment or poorly paid jobs. That is a rise of more than one-third on the year before and the highest number since the survey began in 1995.
1989 The Sun Article Mentions Using A (Swine Flu) Vaccine To Inject Microchip Implants
The following article was originally published in the August 1st, 1989 edition of The Sun.
CODED MICROCHIPS implanted in every person in the 
country would tie all of us into a master computer that could track anyone down at any moment, and plans for such a system are already under way whether you like it or not!
The secret scheme is being touted as a service for the protection of the people by high government officials, but some insiders who object to the move say it’s just another way for Big Brother to control its subjects.
“But with the astounding technology of today, everything about you could be contained in one tiny microchip, which would be connected to a government computer. Any government agency will know what any person has done and is doing at any time.”
Other sources say the tiny transmitters can be injected painlessly from a tiny gun in humans without them even knowing it through a nationwide vaccination program.
“All the government would have to do is make up something like the swine flu vaccine,” Milerand says.
“The doctors themselves may not even know what they’re injecting. They could be told the microchips are genetic implants that reprogram the body into fighting disease.”
NOT POSSIBLE? WATCH THIS!
Hitachi Unveils Smallest RFID Chip
The Japanese chipmaker recently showed off an RFID microchip that is just 0.3 square millimeter square.
March 14, 2003 - Hitachi, the Japanese semiconductor company, has unveiled a prototype for the next generation of its µ-Chip (pronounced mu-chip). The chip is just 0.3 millimeters square, roughly half the size of the smallest RFID chip on the market.
The chip operates at 2.45 GHz and stores a 128-bit number based on the "mu-chip ID number criterion" developed by Hitachi, which issues the numbers. The number is written to the chip during the silicon fabrication process and cannot be changed. The current (2003!) mu-chip can be read from about a foot away (30 cm). The new version is expected to maintain the same performance standards.
Gangs Making 'Millions of Dollars' Selling Fake H1N1 Drugs Online
Criminal gangs are making millions of dollars out of the H1N1 flu pandemic by selling fake flu drugs over the internet, a web security firm said on Monday.
Sophos, a British security software firm said it had intercepted hundreds of millions of fake pharmaceutical spam adverts and websites this year, many of them trying to sell counterfeit antiviral drugs like Tamiflu to worried customers.
Tamiflu, an antiviral marketed by Switzerland's Roche Holding and known generically as oseltamivir, is the frontline drug recommended by the World Health Organization to treat and slow the progression of flu symptoms. GlaxoSmithKline makes another antiviral for flu, known as Relenza.
November 16, 2009
DNA of protesters could be held for life
Anti-war protesters and train spotters arrested under anti-terror laws could have their DNA kept for life under Home Office plans.
In the UK innocent members of the public detained but not charged or convicted under terrorism legislation may never have their profiles wiped from the national database because they are to be treated differently to all other alleged offences.
The proposal is directed at those arrested for suspected terror offences but could apply to anyone held under a Terrorism Act.
In contrast, those innocent of any other suspected crime will be kept for a maximum of six years.
The proposals have been drawn up in the wake of a European Court of Human Rights ruled last year that a blanket policy of retaining profiles of innocent people indefinitely was illegal.
Up to a million innocent people are currently held on the national database.
Free money. Vive la France?
A company that planned to hand out €100,000 in cash to thousands of people in Paris is facing legal action after the stunt was cancelled at the last minute and turned into a riot.
According to police, about 7,000 people gathered on the Place Joffre at the far end of the Champ de Mars, overlooking the Eiffel Tower, shortly after midday on Saturday for the handout.
The Interior Ministry has begun legal proceedings against Mailorama.fr, which was planning to throw 5,000 packages containing between €5 and €500 in banknotes to the public from red London double-decker buses.
Despite receiving a formal authorisation from police for the handout to go ahead, the company was asked to cancel at the very last minute because police noticed a large number of people were descending on the area and disrupting traffic.
Texas death row chaplain opposes capital punishment
Kerry Max Cook served over 20 years in a Texas prison — most of them on death row. But as DNA evidence would show in 1999, he was innocent. That year, Mr. Cook was released from prison with the help of Princeton-based Centurion Ministries, a secular non-profit that works for the release of innocent prisoners.
”He was a nice guy. I never felt he was guilty,” said Rev. Carroll Pickett, a former death-house chaplain at the Huntsville prison in Texas, who spoke at Princeton Theological Seminary last week.Addressing an audience of about 30 activists and seminarians, Rev. Pickett called Mr. Cook “a victim of Texas justice” but then added: “Throw that out—there’s no such thing as Texas justice.”
”As a Christian, I cannot support the death penalty,” Rev. Pickett said. I used to be in favor of the death penalty because my grandfather was murdered and nothing was done about it. My father taught me, you gotta hang ‘em fast, hang ‘em high. That’s Texas,” he said, in a slow drawl. “But then I went to work at the prison.”
His first day was April 1, 1980. Six inmates came to chapel, out of a prison population of 2200. Frustrated, Rev. Pickett tried to find ways to reach out to the men, who he said had, on average, a seventh grade education. The answer was music. Among other programs, he started several choirs, which drew the inmates to chapel. As he described it, being a prison chaplain was “full time ministry.”
November 15, 2009
Army Sends Infant to Protective Services, Mom to Afghanistan
U.S. Army Specialist Alexis Hutchinson, a single mother, is being threatened with a military court-martial if she does not agree to deploy to Afghanistan, despite having been told she would be granted extra time to find someone to care for her 11-month-old son while she is overseas.
Hutchinson, of Oakland, California, is currently being confined at Hunter Army Airfield near Savannah, Georgia, after being arrested. Her son was placed into a county foster care system.
Hutchinson has been threatened with a court martial if she does not agree to deploy to Afghanistan on Sunday, Nov. 15. She has been attempting to find someone to take care of her child, Kamani, while she is deployed overseas, but to no avail.
Bloody day for Mexico border city
At least 15 people have been killed in a single day of violence in Ciudad Juarez, a Mexican city bordering the United Sates, the Mexican authorities have said.
A child, three women and a university professor were among the dead, according to officials on Saturday. Arturo Sandoval, the state prosecutor's spokesman, said a seven-year-old boy was travelling with his father in a truck when armed men opened fire on Friday killing them both.
Three women were also shot dead in two other separate incidents, he said.
Elsewhere in the city, Professor Jose Alfonso Martinez, a member of the Social Sciences Institute of the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juarez, was shot in front of his wife in an attack by at least four men in a residential area. His wife was unhurt. Martinez is the third professor at the Autonomous University to be killed this year, with a fourth from the Ciudad Juarez branch of the University of Chihuahua.
Another nine men were killed in six separate incidents.
November 14, 2009
Richard Dawkins: an exclusive profile
'Well one would have to be Darwin, and maybe Jesus, to find out what really happened,' is the thoughtful response given by scientist Richard Dawkins when asked what guests he would invite to his perfect dinner party.
More videos like this on www.t5m.com
Also see: RichardDawkins.net - The Official Richard Dawkins Website
Sinister Sites - Illuminati Pyramid in Blagnac, France
Located in a suburb of Toulouse, the “Place de la Révolution” is probably one of the most blatant displays of Illuminati designs in existence: a huge pyramid hovering atop a map of the world. The symbolical meaning of this structure reveals a rather grim and elitist ideology and seems to confirm the conspiracy theorist’s claims: the world is lead by a secret cabal named the Illuminati.
The Place de Revolution is situated on a roundabout in the rather quiet commune of Blagnac in Toulouse, and a constant flow of cars drive around the monument every day. As is the case in diverse parts of the world, most locals find the monument that adorns their town “nice” and “decorative” without having the slightest idea of its deep occult meaning. To those who have “eyes to see” however, the Place de la Révolution clearly and unequivocally reveals the hidden force which shaped the past and is relentlessly working to mold the future. In this apparently simple structure are embedded the goals, the aspirations, the philosophy and the beliefs of the hidden elite who guide the clueless masses towards a New World Order.
More on The Vigilant Citizen
Public Art and the CIA
Kryptos is a public artwork by artist James Sanborn situated on the grounds of America's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Langley, Virginia.
The artwork cost $250,000 and was dedicated on 3rd November, 1990. It is positioned between two buildings and is made of red and green slate, white quartz, petrified wood, lodestone and copper. The most dominant feature of the work is the S-shaped copper screen, that resembles a vertical scroll, with characters punched out of the copper. The characters apparently make up a four-part message, each apparently in code encrypted by a different cipher.
Apparently CIA and other code crackers have only been able to solve three of the four messages and one part remains unbroken code. There is even an on-line group, Kryptos Group, dedicated to cracking the code of the artwork.
The title of the work "Kryptos", which means hidden in Greek, and the work is described as a "a meditation on the nature of secrecy and the elusiveness of truth".
The CIA's purpose is well known as being to collect information and keep secrets, as so many Hollywood movies and crime novels portray for us constantly. So in a strange inversion the CIA maintains a constant public awareness of its secrecy through external perceptions and portrayals.
Nasa finds water on moon
A "significant amount" of frozen water has been found on the moon, Nasa, the US space agency, has said.
The findings boosted hopes of manning a permanent lunar base on the moon which had previously been thought to be uninhabitable, for further exploration to Mars.
"Yes indeed we found water and we did not find only a little bit but a significant amount," Anthony Colaprete, project scientist and principal investigator for the LCROSS mission, said on Friday.
"The discovery opens a new chapter in our understanding of the moon," Nasa said.
The data was found after Nasa sent two spacecraft crashing into the lunar surface last month in a dramatic experiment to probe Earth's nearest neighbour for water.
November 13, 2009
Woody Harrelson On The View
Woody Harrelson was on to discuss his latest movie called "The Messenger." It's about a soldier whose duty it is to make the death notifications to the families of the fallen.
New CNN Skull And Bones Piece
"Not much cause its a secret". This video is hilarious. "The whole idea is to get them into prominent positions of power..." I mean this has to get at least some of the viewers suspicious, no? I mean they are admitting they have a secret society which they use "secret" ways to get into prominent positions of power.” YouTube Commenter
UK Judge rules activist's beliefs on climate change akin to religion
Mr Justice Michael Burton decided that: "A belief in man-made climate change, and the alleged resulting moral imperatives, is capable if genuinely held, of being a philosophical belief for the purpose of the 2003 Religion and Belief Regulations." Under those regulations it is unlawful to discriminate against a person on the grounds of their religious or philosophical beliefs”.
The written ruling, which looked at whether philosophy could be underpinned by a scientific belief, quoted from Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy and ultimately concluded that a belief in climate change, while a political view about science, can also be a philosophical one. The same judge ruled last year that Al Gore's environmental documentary An Inconvenient Truth was political and partisan as he assessed whether it should be shown to schools.
Nobel Peace Laureate Obama Will Send 40.000 More Troops To War
Nobel Peace Prize winner Barack Obama has decided to send close to 40,000 more troops into Afghanistan over the course of 2010, according to insiders.
"Informed sources tell CBS news he intends to give General McCrystal most, if not all, the additional troops he is asking for," the network reported Monday night.
According to the report, Obama has decided to send four combat brigades plus thousands more support troops, bringing the total of new troops to be deployed close to 40,000.
The first troops will arrive in early 2010, and it would take until the end of 2010 before all the additional troops were in position.
Night Of The Lotus Eaters
Official video of "Night Of The Lotus Eaters (Extended Version)" by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. Directed by iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard. Taken from the album 'DIG, LAZARUS, DIG!!!'.
Eating to Save the Environment
Welcome to the ugly side of eating meat. I bet it never crossed your mind to think about what happens to the animals. I think the best way to show this to you is through the use of pictures. Hopefully you don’t have a weak stomach…
Lets take a look at Cows…
One million calves are raised for veal annually in the United States—intensively confined in individual stalls so small they can’t turn around during their entire 16- to 18-week lives before slaughter. Widely known for their inherent cruelty, veal crates are being phased out in Europe—yet remain in use throughout the United States.
Dairy cows are so overburdened that they are considered “productive” for only two years and typically are slaughtered when four years old, their bodies battered and weak.
Just in the United States, approximately 35 million cattle are killed for beef, 9 million cows are raised for milk, and 1 million calves are raised for veal yearly. Now you have to understand, these killings are brutal, and are done without thinking of the animal at all. Most cows are slaughtered when they are 4 years old. Their 4 year life involves them being castrated, dehorned and branded without any anesthesia
More about Eating to Save the Environment on Greenbudget’s Blog
UK Police 'ban' Christmas carol singers because of stranger dangers
The sound of carol singers at the door at Christmas is as traditional as mince pies, mulled wine and roast turkey.
But one town could be dispiritingly silent this festive season after householders were urged to turn Scrooge and ban carollers.
Householders are being handed postcards that warn carol singers will not be welcome this Christmas because many residents are 'uncomfortable' with having groups of strangers at their doors.
The cards can then be affixed to windows and doors urging carol singers to ply their joyful hymns elsewhere.
The move in Penwortham in Lancashire has stunned residents and church leaders who say it goes against the message of Christmas.
November 12, 2009
Cuba: Prominent Blogger Abducted, Beaten
On November 6, Cuba’s most prominent blogger, Yoani Sánchez, together with blogger Orlando Luís Pardo Lazo, were abducted by three men. Sánchez and Pardo were forced into an unmarked vehicle, beaten, and threatened by their captors before being released onto the street.
“The Cuban authorities are using brute force to try to silence Yoani Sánchez’s only weapon: her ideas,” said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director of Human Rights Watch. “The international community must send a firm message to Raul Castro that such attacks on independent voices are completely unacceptable.”
Sánchez and Pardo had been walking to attend a “march against violence” in Havana when they were abducted. When Sánchez called for help and bystanders started to intervene, one of the captors warned the other civilians, “Don’t get involved, these people are counterrevolutionaries.”
Sánchez wrote that, while in the car, “one man put his knee on my chest and the other, from the seat next to me, was punching me in the face.” The captors told Sanchez that her “clowning around” was finished.
Cuba is the only country in the region that continues to repress virtually all forms of political dissent.
more about this on desdecuba.com - Generation Y, Yoani Sánchez's blog in English
Chemical in plastic bottles linked to impotence
Male factory workers in China who got very high doses of a chemical that's been widely used in hard plastic bottles had high rates of sexual problems, researchers reported Wednesday.
Heavy exposure to BPA, or bisphenol A, on the job was linked to impotence and lower sexual desire and satisfaction, according to the study, which adds to concerns about BPA's effects on most consumers.
The men in the study experienced BPA levels about 50 times higher than those faced by typical American men, said researcher Dr. De-Kun Li. "We don't know" whether more typical doses have similar effects, he said.
British soldier faces 10 years in jail after being arrested during anti-war demonstration
A soldier facing charges of desertion for refusing to return to Afghanistan has been arrested and charged with five further offences after joining an anti-war demonstration.
Lance Corporal Joe Glenton led a protest in London last month against the continued presence of British troops in Afghanistan.
He was already facing a court martial but according to the Stop the War Coalition the new charges carry a maximum of 10 years imprisonment.
November 11, 2009
The Vatican joins the search for Alien Life
The Pontifical Academy of Sciences is holding a conference on astrobiology, the study of life beyond Earth, with scientists and religious leaders gathering in Rome this week.
For centuries, theologians have argued over what the existence of life elsewhere in the universe would mean for the Church: at least since Giordano Bruno, an Italian monk, was put to death by the Inquisition in 1600 for claiming that other worlds exist.
Among other things, extremely alien-looking aliens would be hard to fit with the idea that God “made man in his own image”.
Furthermore, Jesus Christ’s role as saviour would be confused: would other worlds have their own, tentacled Christ-figures, or would Earth’s Christ be universal?
However, just as the Church eventually made accommodations after Copernicus and Galileo showed that the Earth was not the centre of the universe, and when it belatedly accepted the truth of Darwin's theory of evolution, Catholic leaders say that alien life can be aligned with the Bible’s teachings.
Murdoch could block Google searches entirely
Rupert Murdoch says he will remove stories from Google's search index as a way to encourage people to pay for content online.
In an interview with Sky News Australia, the mogul said that newspapers in his media empire – including the Sun, the Times and the Wall Street Journal – would consider blocking Google entirely once they had enacted plans to charge people for reading their stories on the web.
In recent months, Murdoch his lieutenants have stepped up their war of words with Google, accusing it of "kleptomania" and acting as a "parasite" for including News Corp content in its Google News pages. But asked why News Corp executives had not chosen to simply remove their websites entirely from Google's search indexes – a simple technical operation – Murdoch said just such a move was on the cards.
November 10, 2009
The World's Foremost Masonic City
Freemasonry Today accurately describes Washington D.C. as the world's most masonic city, as there may be no other place in the world more decorated in masonic symbolism. George Washington (a 33° Freemason) selected a French Freemason named Pierre Charles L'Enfant to design the city's layout. The boundaries of the city, established by Washington in 1791, form a square 10 miles long on each side, centered on the originally proposed location for the Washington Monument. The east-west diagonal of the square crosses over the Capitol building and the north-south diagonal crosses over the White House.
This statue of Washington in the Smithsonian Museum of American History was modeled after descriptions of the statue of Zeus at Olympia, one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. The museum is aligned to the cardinal directions, the statue sits at the western end of the main floor facing east. Compare this portrayal of Washington to the images of Zeus and Baphomet - do you notice any similarities?
Learn more about D.C. symbolism at these pages:
'Saudi fighter jets using phosphorous bombs'
Houthi fighters in Yemen say Saudi fighter jets are using phosphorous bombs to back a deadly Yemeni government offensive against them.
"Saudi combat fighter jets launched intense raids against border areas inside Yemeni territory on Sunday night," the fighters' spokesman Mohammad Abdessalam told AFP by telephone.
"The Saudi military used phosphorus bombs during those night raids, burning mountainous regions," he said adding that "The Saudi air raids resumed this morning (Monday). "
Abdessalam said that the raids targeted Malaheez, seven kilometers (3.8 miles) inside Yemen, as well as the border villages of Hassameh and Shida and several villages around Jebel (mountain) al-Dukhan straddling the border.
November 09, 2009
Nine people executed after China riots
Nine people have been executed in connection with ethnic riots last July that killed about 200 people in western China's Xinjiang region, the state-run China News Service reported Monday.
The executions occurred "recently," said the service, which added no more information about the executions.
Long-simmering resentment between Uyghurs and Han Chinese flared after a June melee at a toy factory in Guangdong province, leading to the July 5 riots, according to Xinhua.
A massive brawl broke out between the ethnic groups at the factory, resulting in the deaths of two Uyghurs, Xinhua said.
In a rare public display of dissatisfaction, thousands of Uyghurs -- many of whom feel they are treated as second-class citizens by the majority Han Chinese -- took to the streets in Xinjiang province, chanting and screaming.
The Uyghurs are mostly Muslims in Xinjiang province. Some Islamists refer to the region as East Turkistan.
Ukraine: Vaccine Ban Blamed For Sweeping Epidemic
Elections may be postponed while martial law continues. Health minister says one in two will get flu because vaccination was halted earlier this year due to deaths
The severity of the mystery epidemic in Ukraine has been blamed on a ban on flu vaccines that was imposed in September after a series of deaths, mostly of children, who had received the shot at government health clinics.
The charge has been made by Oleksy Hromazyn, spokesman for Ukraine's Ministry of Emergency Situations, who said that the effective absence of flu vaccinations in Ukraine since September has helped widen and deepen the impact of the present flu outbreak, according to a report from the German agency dpa.
Hromazyn commented that every second Ukrainian will catch the flu this season because of the recent moratorium on vaccines.
The charge will strengthen calls from President Victor Yushchenko for the Ukrainian population to immediately get inoculated with the new vaccines despite their severe reservations over the safety of the flu shots.
Hromazyn is member of the National Security and Defense Council, the body that has been elevated to the supreme authority in Ukraine by Yushchenko in the wake of an epidemic that is still shrouded in mystery.
