Most news station headquarters in New York have building-spanning tickers blasting the breaking news of the day to the street. And recently, some resourceful soul decided to bring the real "fair and balanced" reporting to said ticker, hacking into the mainframe and broadcasting the truth. Some other people with a video camera took the train up to Rockefeller Center to capture the magic, which in all-caps displays such items as "Our country is not broke" and "We are being lied to." Check out the video:
31 May 2011
Military coup possible in Greece
The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency warned in a report that the tough austerity measures and the dire situation could escalate and even lead to a military coup, according to a report by Germany’s popular daily Bild.
According to he CIA report, ongoing street protests in crisis-hit Greece could turn into escalated violence and a rebellion and the Greek government could lose control, said Bild. The newspaper said the CIA report talks of a possible military coup if the situation becomes more serious and uncontrolled.
Ugandan woman branded by iron over sexuality faces deportation from UK
Ugandan woman who was branded with a hot iron in her home country as a punishment for her sexuality, is facing forced removal from the UK.
Last week, the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, said that the coalition had ended the practice of deporting people to countries where they face persecution because of their sexual orientation.
But Betty Tibikawa, 22, who is detained in Yarl's Wood immigration removal centre in Bedford, is awaiting removal directions after her asylum claim was refused.
Human rights organisations have consistently documented abuses against gay men and lesbians in Uganda and say that it's one of the most dangerous countries in the world for gay people.
Tibikawa had just finished high school and was due to go to university in Kampala when she was attacked by three men who taunted her about her sexuality. They pinned her down in a disused building and branded her on her inner thighs with a hot iron. They left her unconscious and when she finally managed to get home she was confined to bed for two months. An independent medical report has confirmed that her scars are consistent with being branded with a hot iron.
Turkey's Great Leap Forward risks cultural and environmental bankruptcy
Thousands of dam and hydropower schemes are being built on almost all of the main rivers in a pharaonic push to make Turkey a world economic power by the centenary of the republic in 2023.
The ruling AK party, expected to win a record third term in next month's elections, is forcing through a series of gigantic public works projects that include three nuclear power plants – despite Turkey being one of the most seismically active nations on earth.
The first plant, a prototype Russian reactor on the Mediterranean coast near the port of Mersin, is close to a highly active faultline. A second, Japanese-built, plant will soon follow on the Black Sea near the city of Sinop.
Prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan raised eyebrows across the world last month by promising to cut a 40-mile canal between the Black Sea and Marmara to relieve the dangerously overcrowded Bosphorus strait, an idea even he calls his "crazy plan". He has since topped that by revealing a blueprint for two new cities to relieve earthquake-prone Istanbul. Critics say they will only further extend Europe's largest megalopolis, home already to nearly 17 million people.
It is Erdogan's declaration that Turkey's rivers must no longer "run in vain" and 100% of its hydroelectric potential be harnessed over the next 12 years that has environmentalists most worried. They claim that the rush for hydropower is likely to be even more damaging to Turkey's delicate ecological balance, where desertification and depopulation are already problems.
30 May 2011
Protesters vow to stay in Madrid square
Protesters decrying Spain's economic woes vowed Monday to occupy a major Madrid square indefinitely as the movement spread to Europe, despite the risk of police action. Thousands of protesters against political corruption, welfare cuts and unemployment had voted by a show of hands late Sunday to stay in the Puerta del Sol square, agreeing to decide later on the duration.
"We have started something in Sol, we have started to spread to the rest of the world, so this is not the time to stop it," said a protest spokesman in the encampment, a sea of blue-plastic tarpaulin covering the square. "The support we received internationally was very important, it was something that moved us in Sol, especially the mobilisation in Paris was a very big support, and also the mobilisation in Greece."
Spain's protests began May 15 and fanned out to city squares across the country as word spread by Twitter and Facebook among demonstrators known variously as "the indignant", "M-15" and "Spanish Revolution".
Seven Year-Old Violently Arrested
Special Israeli police forces raided the house of 7 year-old Ali Siyam this afternoon and illegally arrested him, causing injury requiring hospitalization to both his aunt and father.
At 3 PM this afternoon, Israeli police forces raided the Alabasya neighbourhood of Silwan in East Jerusalem to arrest 7 years-old Ali Siyam from inside his parents’ house. Despite his young age, which is significantly younger than the age of legal responsibity, the boy was taken for questioning at the Russian Compound police station.
When Siyam’s father and aunt tried to protect the boy from the cops, they were violantly assaulted to a degree that required their evacuation to the Hospital. Siyam’s father, Hammouda, was beaten and maced with pepper-spray inside the house and his aunt, Amal, was struck with a rubber-coated bullet in her thigh. The two are currently at the Hadassa Har Hatzofim hospital.
On arrival to the police station, Siyam was taken in for questioning. The boy’s lawyer, Adv. Lea Tzemel, who was already present at the place was denied entry to the station and access to her client. When she proceeded to try and walk through the gate regardless, she was herself detained.
After being questioned for stone-throwing for a number of hours in the presence of his mother, the boy was eventually released from custody at 8 PM.
29 May 2011
Ratko Mladic capture: Was it all an elaborate set-up?
After years on the run with a $10 million tag on his forehead, the last thing anybody expected Ratko Mladic to do was to give himself away cheaply. Why did the man who professed to prefer the instant justice of a bullet to the humiliation of the Hague come so quietly? Why was he protected only by his elderly cousin, Branko, rather than a team of do-or-die bodyguards? And was it really the result of dogged detective work, as Serb officials claim, or did they know where he was all the time?
The remarkable answer, according to Western intelligence sources who have spoken to The Sunday Telegraph, is that far from being a bin Laden-style lightning raid, Mladic’s arrest was an entirely staged event - the result not of police work but of negotiations by diplomats, who spent a whole year hammering out a deal to get him to surrender.
The deal, which suggests Serb intelligence at least had lines of contact to Mladic’s protectors, was sealed by appealing to the Serb hardman’s one known soft spot - his family. Told that they would be looked after properly if he give himself up, the prospect of ensuring the safe future for his wife, Bosiljka, and son, Darko, proved key in changing his mind.
“The negotiations about his surrender lasted slightly more than a year, with mainly French, British and German officials involved,” said one Western diplomat, who asked not to be named. “The Serbs took responsibility to work things out with him, and guaranteed that his family would be taken care of, and that he would get a pension and eventually a decent burial.
Israeli Occupation Forces
Location: An-Nabi-Salih, Date: 13 / 5 / 2011
Why Media didn't Show the brutality against Palestinians and Foreigners ? And why You-tube keep deleting videos like this ? Also filmed by another Cameraman.
By the way, did you know that foreigners are released, but, the Palestinians they are kept in prison and are abused by Israeli Soldiers.
UK training Saudi forces used to crush Arab spring
Britain is training Saudi Arabia's national guard – the elite security force deployed during the recent protests in Bahrain – in public order enforcement measures and the use of sniper rifles. The revelation has outraged human rights groups, which point out that the Foreign Office recognises that the kingdom's human rights record is "a major concern".
In response to questions made under the Freedom of Information Act, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed that British personnel regularly run courses for the national guard in "weapons, fieldcraft and general military skills training, as well as incident handling, bomb disposal, search, public order and sniper training". The courses are organised through the British Military Mission to the Saudi Arabian National Guard, an obscure unit that consists of 11 British army personnel under the command of a brigadier.
Yemen to cartoonist: 'We can squash you'
As the Yemeni standoff continues, dictatorial president Ali Abdallah Saleh stubbornly clings to the seat of power. Few people know this better than Kamal Sharaf, a freelance cartoonist.
Sharaf's cartoons about Yemen and other Arab struggles in countries like Palestine were published in newspapers and on websites. He often mocked President Saleh and consequently received emails warning that he would regret it. "Don't step on people who are above you," said one email.
In August 2010, Kamal was at home breaking the Ramadan fast when "special forces surrounded the house like American marines," he recalls. "They had lasers on their guns. It smelled like America. Even their bodies were different from Yemeni soldiers."
One of the soldiers shouted: "Kamal come down or we will break the house." Kamal and his brothers went out.
A police officer told him there was a warrant for his arrest and he would find out what the charges were later. Two soldiers cuffed his hands behind his back, blindfolded him and forced him to lay down in their vehicle. He could feel their gun barrels touching his head and stomach.
He was eventually interrogated with the blindfold still on by what he guessed were seven people. The interrogation lasted until dawn. They asked about his caricatures of the president and about his relationship with another journalist called Abdelillah Shay'a who specialised in Islamist movements.
Kamal was accused of working for al-Qaeda's media wing along with Abdelillah, as well as with the Zeydi Shia rebels in the north called the Houthis.
28 May 2011
The US Government's War on Cameras
Who will watch the watchers? In a world of ubiquitous, hand-held digital cameras, that's not an abstract philosophical question. Police everywhere are cracking down on citizens using cameras to capture breaking news and law enforcement in action.
Go to Reason.com for links and more articles, including Reason magazine's January 2011 cover story, "The War on Cameras" and the companion piece "How to Record the Cops."
Go to Reason.tv for downloadable versions of the video and subscribe to Reason.tv's YouTube channel to receive automatic notification when new material goes live.
Gil Scott-Heron dies
The musician and poet Gil Scott-Heron – best known for his pioneering rap The Revolution Will Not Be Televised – has died at the age of 62, having fallen ill after a European trip.
Scott-Heron's spoken word recordings helped shape the emerging hip-hop culture. Generations of rappers cite his work as an influence.
He was known as the Godfather of Rap but disapproved of the title, preferring to describe what he did as "bluesology" – a fusion of poetry, soul, blues and jazz, all shot through with a piercing social conscience and strong political messages, tackling issues such as apartheid and nuclear arms. (guardian.co.uk)
The madness of Bradley Manning?
Bradley Manning, the man held over the leaking of confidential cables to WikiLeaks, was a 'mess of a child' who should never have been put through a tour of duty in Iraq, according to an investigative film produced by the Guardian – We don’t trust the blurred man…
One year ago today, on May 26, 2010, the U.S. government quietly arrested a humble young American intelligence analyst in Iraq and imprisoned him in a military camp in Kuwait. Over the coming weeks, the facts of the arrest and charges against this shy soldier would come to light. And across the world, people like you and I would step forward to help defend him.
Bradley Manning, now 23 years old, has never been to court but has already served a year in prison— including 10 months in conditions of confinement that were clear violation of the international conventions against torture. Bradley has been informally charged with releasing to the world documents that have revealed corruption by world leaders, widespread civilian deaths at the hands of U.S. forces, the true face of Guantanamo, an unvarnished view of the U.S.’s imperialistic foreign negotiations, and the murder of two employees of Reuters News Agency by American soldiers. These documents released by WikiLeaks have spurred democratic revolutions across the Arab world and have changed the face of journalism forever.
For his act of courage, Bradley Manning now faces life in prison—or even death.
bradleymanning.org – Also see I Am Bradley Manning
Big Pharma's Secret Agenda Exposed
The Health Ranger Mike Adams gives a special presentation Big Pharma's agenda to make sure you die broke, as well as neo-eugenics and how it ties into food contamination and vaccines. Why are they pushing so hard to get you to take vaccines when the science shows that vaccines doesn't really work?
27 May 2011
Washington D.C. Police abuse homeless man in a wheelchair
Statement by the d.c metro police "the patron resisted arrest which resulted in him falling out of his wheelchair." The Cop Block
The Continuation of the Wars Against American Indigenous People
The Obama administration has sparked outrage in the Native American community following the revelation it used the name of the legendary Apache leader Geronimo as a secret code word during the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. Geronimo was an Apache leader who fought to preserve tribal lands against U.S. and Mexican forces in the 19th century. We get reaction from Native American activist and writer, Winona LaDuke. "The reality is that the military is full of native nomenclature,” says LaDuke. "You’ve got Black Hawk helicopters, Apache Longbow helicopters. You’ve got Tomahawk missiles. The term used when you leave a military base in a foreign country is to go 'off the reservation, into Indian Country.' So what is that messaging that is passed on? It is basically the continuation of the wars against indigenous people."
Patriot Act Extension Signed By Obama
Congress on Thursday passed a four-year extension of post-Sept. 11 powers to search records and conduct roving wiretaps in pursuit of terrorists. Votes taken in rapid succession in the Senate and House came after lawmakers rejected attempts to temper the law enforcement powers to ensure that individual liberties are not abused.
Following the 250-153 evening vote in the House, the legislation to renew three terrorism-fighting authorities headed for the president's signature with only hours to go before the provisions expire at midnight.
With Obama currently in France, the White House said the president would use an autopen machine that holds a pen and signs his actual signature. It is only used with proper authorization of the president. Minutes before the midnight deadline, the White House said Obama had signed the bill.
Obama said he was pleased the act had been extended.
UK government orders protest footage censored
The internet video sharing website YouTube has censored the footage of protests outside Birkenhead county court based on a request by the British government.
Some 600 activists from the British Constitution Group staged protests against a ruling on former member of UKIP Roger Hayes who has refused to pay council tax outside Birkenhead county court. Hayes had challenged the local council to protest the government's moves which he sees as sacrificing Britain to globalist interests.
Censorship of the YouTube footage related to the incident shows the government's fears of wide circulation of such information that could lead to national unrest similar to the 1990 troubles.
But there is more:
The BBC's new censors: The BBC has released a statement proclaiming that late night music shows were not the place for political controversy - young people might be listening. It came after the deliberate censorship of rapper "Mic Righteous" who had dared to utter the words "Free Palestine" in his set. The Palestine Solidarity Campaign called the edit an "extraordinary act of censorship", asking why the BBC did not ban the song "Free Nelson Mandela", back in 1984. On the artist's Facebook page, there is talk of how just the phrase "Gaza Strip" was censored by the BBC. (Press TV)
Serbia arrests Ratko Mladic to 'lift stain' of Bosnia atrocities
Europe's most wanted war crimes suspect, General Ratko Mladic, was arrested in a north Serbian village 16 years after commanding the worst atrocity on the continent since the Nazi era.
The surprise arrest of the genocide suspect, wanted for the mass murder of almost 8,000 men in Srebrenica, turned a page in the history of the Balkans, offering Serbia closure on decades as a virtual international pariah and giving the country a chance to take its place as a pivotal regional democracy eventually anchored in the European Union.
26 May 2011
Dr Helen Caldicott - Fukushima Nuclear Disaster
You won't hear this on the Main Stream News.
Nuclear Facts you'd be more comfortable not knowing from a very clued up professional who will not be bought or intimidated into silence: Dr Helen Caldicott, true to style, tells it as it is/as she sees it/like you wont usually hear it.
To find out more about this Morally Driven Woman.. check out the links below.
HelenCaldicott.com – Wikipedia - YouTube
China used prisoners in lucrative internet gaming work
As a prisoner at the Jixi labour camp, Liu Dali would slog through tough days breaking rocks and digging trenches in the open cast coalmines of north-east China. By night, he would slay demons, battle goblins and cast spells.
Liu says he was one of scores of prisoners forced to play online games to build up credits that prison guards would then trade for real money. The 54-year-old, a former prison guard who was jailed for three years in 2004 for "illegally petitioning" the central government about corruption in his hometown, reckons the operation was even more lucrative than the physical labour that prisoners were also forced to do.
"Prison bosses made more money forcing inmates to play games than they do forcing people to do manual labour," Liu told the Guardian. "There were 300 prisoners forced to play games. We worked 12-hour shifts in the camp. I heard them say they could earn 5,000-6,000rmb [£470-570] a day. We didn't see any of the money. The computers were never turned off."
Memories from his detention at Jixi re-education-through-labour camp in Heilongjiang province from 2004 still haunt Liu. As well as backbreaking mining toil, he carved chopsticks and toothpicks out of planks of wood until his hands were raw and assembled car seat covers that the prison exported to South Korea and Japan. He was also made to memorise communist literature to pay off his debt to society.
Georgia riot police clear Tbilisi protesters
Riot police in Georgia have cleared anti-government protesters from outside the parliament building in Tbilisi. The police fired tear gas and water cannon at the protesters, some of whom fought back with sticks.
Hundreds of people have been demonstrating daily since the weekend, calling for President Mikhail Saakashvili to step down. The protesters say the president has failed to tackle poverty and accuse him of monopolising power.
The police moved in on the protesters shortly after midnight, as heavy rain fell. Police cleared the protest in about 30 minutes, reports said
Backed by armoured cars firing water cannon, large numbers of riot police arrived from several directions, according to witnesses. Clashes broke out with some of the protesters who were armed with long sticks and makeshift shields.
25 May 2011
Deadly Clashes in Hama, Syria
As protests continue in Syria, dramatic footage has been coming out of cities like Hama, where a number of protesters were reportedly killed earlier today. The playlist below contains clips uploaded today said to depict clashes between protesters and Syrian forces in that area Friday. The first shows a soldier firing directly toward the camera.
Warning: some of the videos contain graphic violence:
German troops machine gun Afghan demonstrators killing 12
The German military has corrected its initial statement on protests in Afghanistan this week that left 12 people dead. The Bundeswehr has now admitted that it deliberately fired on demonstrators who were attacking a German base.
Germany's military, the Bundeswehr, has released new and explosive details about a violent altercation between demonstrators and German soldiers in northern Afghanistan on Wednesday that left 12 dead and dozens wounded, including two German soldiers. In a statement posted on its website Friday morning, the military contradicted its earlier claims and admitted that German soldier had deliberately fired upon the demonstrators. The Bundeswehr also said it was possible that the shots had been responsible for at least one death.
The incident occurred Wednesday morning in front of a German military camp in the northern Afghan city of Taloqan, in Takhar province, as a funeral march was being held for four people, including two women, who had been killed by US troops in a nighttime operation against suspected terrorists. The Bundeswehr had previously claimed that German soldiers had only fired warning shots to protect their camp from further attacks by enraged demonstrators taking part in the funeral procession.
Amazon rainforest activist shot dead
Six months after predicting his own murder, a leading rainforest defender has reportedly been gunned down in the Brazilian Amazon. José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva and his wife, Maria do Espírito Santo, are said to have been killed in an ambush near their home in Nova Ipixuna, in Pará state, about 37 miles from Marabá.
According to a local newspaper, Diário do Pará, the couple had not had police protection despite getting frequent death threats because of their battle against illegal loggers and ranchers.
In a speech at a TEDx event in Manaus, in November, Da Silva spoke of his fears that loggers would try to silence him. "I could be here today talking to you and in one month you will get the news that I disappeared. I will protect the forest at all costs. That is why I could get a bullet in my head at any moment … because I denounce the loggers and charcoal producers, and that is why they think I cannot exist. [People] ask me, 'are you afraid?' Yes, I'm a human being, of course I am afraid. But my fear does not silence me. As long as I have the strength to walk I will denounce all of those who damage the forest."
Also see VICELAND
GOP to Hungry Americans: You Can Starve
Hunger and starvation is no excuse to welch off the Federal Government.
That's the Republican response, in any event, to how to deal with the budget deficit. While Republicans defend billions of dollars in subsidies for Big Oil and propose further tax cuts for the wealthy, they see food aid for hungry people here and around the world as a bad idea. Bug Guvmint should get out of the business of keeping people from starving. Now isn't that special:
WASHINGTON -- House Republicans are targeting domestic nutrition programs and international food assistance as they try to control spending in next year's budget.
In a bill released Monday, Republicans proposed cutting $832 million - 11 percent from this year's budget for the Women, Infants and Children program, which provides food for low-income mothers and children. The 2012 budget proposal for food and farm programs also includes a decrease of almost $457 million, or 23 percent, from international food assistance.
Also see Hunger in America on mikemalloy.com
24 May 2011
The Art Of Illumination
The more humanity strays from its’ origin, the more we deny our bond with nature, the farther from perfection we become. We are the only creatures on the planet that use symbols in reference to something else.
Most people are unwilling to seek and create their own interpretations of these symbols. Instead, they blindly submit to preconceived definitions and connotations given by sources unknown. Because of this, many things have been predetermined in our understanding of life without our knowledge. Words can be perverted and used to manipulate rather than to inform. Symbols can be used to segregate rather than unite. And those given the responsibility and authority to disseminate information to the public possess the ability to do with it as they choose.
Obamas declaration for Zionist Israel
In the years between 2000 and 2009, Israel killed over eleven times as many Palestinian children as the other way around. (comment on YouTube)
Sarkozy to host key internet forum ahead of G8 summit
The world's most powerful internet and media bosses are gathering in Paris for a two-day meeting hosted by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
The heads of Google, Facebook and Microsoft are due to attend to discuss the future of the internet. The debate over whether - and how far - to regulate the internet is expected to dominate the forum.
The conclusions of the event are to be presented to the G8 summit later in the week at the French resort of Deauville. This is the first time the internet will be discussed by the leaders of the Group of Eight (G8) wealthy nations, says the BBC's Christian Fraser in Paris.
HAARP
Want to know why we have such strange weather, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions? Watch this:
Informative video on HAARP (High Frequency Active Auroral Reasearch Program)the new weather modification and mind control Star Wars Defense Initiative (SDI)weapon of the US military. HAARP is capable of creating weather like hurricanes and tornadoes and tsunamis and earthquakes. It is also capable of altering peoples moods. From WETA TV a PBS station. Run a Google.com search for HAARP.
23 May 2011
Banking is Legalised Theft and Obama is a Monumental Fraud
David Icke speaking on Croatian television – After two minutes in to this video he is asked a question, he starts speaking and doesn’t stop… (four parts video in a row)
China detains 300 Tibetan monks after self-immolation incident
Security forces have detained about 300 Tibetan monks from a monastery in southwestern China for a month amid a crackdown sparked by a monk's self-immolation, according to two exiled Tibetans and a prominent writer, citing sources there.
Tension in Aba prefecture, a heavily ethnic Tibetan part of Sichuan province, have risen to their highest levels since protests turned violent in March 2008, ahead of the Beijing Olympics, and were put down by police and paramilitary units.
The monks from Aba's Kirti monastery, home to about 2,500 monks, were taken into custody on 21 April on military trucks, according to two exiled monks and a writer, who said their information was based on separate accounts from witnesses who live in Aba.
The detentions come as China's ruling Communist party celebrates 60 years since the "peaceful liberation" of Tibet, and underscores the government's struggle to win the hearts and minds of Tibetan people across the country.
22 May 2011
CIA staged mock execution, wielded power drill in interrogations
The CIA staged a mock execution and brandished weapons, including a gun and a power drill, during interrogation sessions with detainees the agency was desperate to persuade to talk, according to a long-secret internal CIA report expected to be released Monday.
The episodes are part of a catalog of alleged abuses -- a 2004 report by the CIA's inspector general -- that has prompted U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. to consider appointing a criminal prosecutor to investigate cases in which the CIA strayed beyond its interrogation authorities. The prisoner confronted with the gun and power drill was identified by current and former U.S. government officials as Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the alleged plotter of the attack on the USS Cole. Nashiri was also one of three prisoners who was subjected to the simulated drowning interrogation method known as water-boarding.
The IG report also describes at least one instance in which the CIA fired a gunshot in a room next door to a detainee in an apparent effort to convince the prisoner that another terrorism suspect had been executed, the official said.
History of Education, Social Engineering & Indoctrination in the School System
John Taylor Gatto was born in Monongahela, Pennsylvania. Don't miss this excellent interview with John Taylor Gatto as he discusses the school system both past and present, social engineering, and the dumbing down of our children. Topics discussed: history of education, industrialized schooling, justification, religion, protestant reformation, John Calvin, Calvinism, Spinoza, Johann Fichte, coercion, Pavlov, brainwashing the masses, Charles Darwin, "The Descent of Man", conspiracy, third world countries, the school ranks, China, world wide monoculture, collage degree, Francis Collins, LSD, creativity, creative technology, continuous boredom and more.
Twitter row prompts calls for super-injunctions debate in UK
British Judges face a furious backlash from MPs who have demanded a parliamentary debate over the widespread use of superinjunctions. One Tory MP has described the judiciary as an "ass" for its behaviour in recent months.
Growing discontent at the ease with which celebrities have attained injunctions has previously led to members of the House of Commons and the Lords naming those protected by court orders, including the former chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland, Sir Fred Goodwin.
Frustration in parliament reached new heights on Friday when the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, took the unprecedented step of criticising MPs for "flouting court orders" in the Commons. Judge also urged ways to be found to curtail the "misuse of technology" after the identity of a professional footballer hiding behind an injunction was widely leaked on Twitter.
The footballer has since launched a high court action to force the social media site to reveal the identity of those behind the leaks, but users of the social media site responded by swamping the site with posts, repeatedly naming one player at a rate of up to 16 times a minute.
North Sudan army takes control of Abyei
North Sudan's army appears to have gained control of the main town in Sudan's disputed Abyei region after fierce fighting with the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), UN and rebel sources said.
UN officials saw 15 tanks of the Sudanese Armed Forces, the northern army, on Saturday in parts of the key town Abyei where earlier mortars slammed against a UN base, Hua Jiang, the UN spokeswoman said. One of those mortar rounds exploded, but there were no casualties among UN personnel, Jiang said.
"The SAF have entered (the town) Abyei, there is still fighting but they have come with tanks, they are shooting and shooting," Philip Aguer, SPLA spokesman, said. "Our police have been fighting but the SAF have sent many soldiers in," he added, speaking by phone from Juba, the capital of southern Sudan.
He said northern forces bombed at least four villages on Saturday afternoon in continuation of last week's attacks.
Aguer added that two of the bombed villages were Todach and Tagalei which had been already hit on Friday - a reference to the southern army's allegations that the northern army had begun bombing Abyei that day after previous clashes on Thursday.
21 May 2011
The London-Rome Beltane Ritual 2011
David Icke highlights the importance of Rome and London to the global conspiracy and their Satanic ritual connection when he visited Rome on the recent Beltane weekend in which the Royal Wedding in London on April 29th was followed two days later by a major ritual in St Peter's Square related to Pope John Paul II on the key Beltane date of May 1st. A coincidence? Not a chance. A 90-minute documentary.
Youths defiant at 'Spanish revolution' camp in Madrid
Thousands of Spaniards in central Madrid have defied a ban on their protest camp and continued their open-air sit-in. Spain's electoral board had ruled that the gathering could not continue into the weekend.
It argued the protest could unduly influence voters taking part in local and regional elections across the country on Sunday. The decision - and the deadline - were met with jeers in Puerta del Sol, where thousands gather every evening - and hundreds have been camping out for a week now.
Dubbed the "Spanish revolution", the protest began with a march through Madrid on Sunday, led by young Spaniards angry at mass unemployment, austerity measures and political corruption. It turned into a spontaneous sit-in on the square in Sol, which organisers say has now been mirrored in 57 other cities.
The Ride of the Valkyries
Fantasia, The Legacy
Music: Richard Wagner - Ride of the Valkyries (Excerpts from "Die Walküre, Act III")
20 May 2011
Child Labour
Afghan children sorts bricks at the Sadat Ltd. Brick factory, where they work from 8am to 5 pm daily, on May 14, 2010 in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Photo by Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)
Indian farmers commit suicide due to devastation caused by GM crops
Foundational changes that have taken place in the agriculture sector of India have led to a epidemic of farmer suicides over the past 16 years, according to a new report. Released by the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at New York University's (NYU) Law School, the report explains that, on average, one Indian farmer commits suicide every 30 minutes in response to the devastation caused by the effects of globalization on agriculture, and genetically-modified organisms (GMO) in particular.
The report, entitled, "Every Thirty Minutes: Farmer Suicides, Human Rights and the Agrarian Crisis in India," explains that Indian policy has stripped many farmers of their livelihoods by greatly decreasing the value of their crops. Combined with the introduction of GM crops that trap farmers into an endless cycle of debt without providing any substantial benefits, and you end up with a society marked by despair, hopelessness, and an increase in suicides.
What was once an agricultural system based on the diverse cultivation of natural, beneficial food and use crops has morphed into a system of unsustainable cash-crop agriculture. Countless millions of farmers began to adopt crops like Monsanto's Bt cotton, which recent studies have shown provide no benefits, but that lock farmers into a perpetual system of dependence that ends up bankrupting them.
Learn more on naturalnews.com
Israel rejects total pullback to 1967 borders
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu headed for talks in Washington on Friday saying that U.S. President Barack Obama's vision of a Palestinian state on the borders of 1967 could leave Israel "indefensible."
"The viability of a Palestinian state cannot come at the expense of Israel's existence," he said in a statement before flying to the United States for scheduled talks with Obama.
Responding to a major Obama speech on Thursday outlining Middle East strategy, Netanyahu said he expected Washington to let Israel keep major settlement blocs beyond the 1967 lines in the occupied West Bank, under any peace deal with Palestinians.
Israeli officials seemed taken aback by the language in Obama's speech. Asked if Netnayahu had been forewarned by Washington, one said: "No comment." But some Israeli reporters accompanying the prime minister predicted a stormy meeting.
Atheists Best Informed About Religion
Earlier this month Florida pastor Terry Jones caused an international uproar when he threatened to burn copies of the Koran, Islam's holy book, despite the fact that he'd never read the book and doesn't know what it says.
It's one thing to not fully understand the basic tenets of a different religion. But recent research from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that Americans are often woefully ignorant not only of other religions, but of their own faith.
The researchers polled nearly 3,500 Americans and asked them 32 basic questions about world religions, their texts, main figures, and tenets. Most respondents got about half the questions wrong. For example, 45 percent of Catholics polled did not know that the Catholic church teaches that the consecrated bread and wine in holy communion are said to actually and literally become the body and blood of Christ. About as many Americans did not know that the Dalai Lama is Buddhist.
In fact the poll found that atheists and agnostics knew more about religion than religious people. Among religious groups, Jews and Mormons scored highest.
That Americans don't know much about their own faith is hardly news. In one widely-seen video clip, comedian Stephen Colbert interviewed Georgia Congressman Lynn Westmoreland, who co-sponsored a bill to require display of the Ten Commandments in the House of Representatives and the Senate. Colbert asked Westmoreland to name the Ten Commandments.
19 May 2011
Queen offers sympathy to Irish victims of troubles
The British Queen has offered her "sincere thoughts and deep sympathy" to the victims of Ireland and the UK's troubled past.
At a banquet in Dublin Castle she said with hindsight "we can all see things which we would wish had been done differently or not at all". She went on to praise the "lasting rapport" now between the countries.
An apology was not expected, BBC royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell said, but the Queen came "pretty close". The Queen said that the two countries' relationship over the centuries had "not always been straightforward" nor "entirely benign".
Meanwhile, near the castle, gardai clashed with protesters opposed to the visit.
The Queen is the first British monarch ever to visit the Republic.
BBC News - More on The Irish Story
The Strauss Kahn Frame-Up: The Amerikan Police State Strides Forward
Strauss-Kahn was the first IMF director in my lifetime, if memory serves, who disavowed the traditional IMF policy of imposing on the poor and ordinary people the cost of bailing out Wall Street and the Western banks. Strauss-Kahn said that regulation had to be reimposed on the greed-driven, fraud-prone financial sector, which, unregulated, destroyed the lives of ordinary people. Strauss-Kahn listened to Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz, one of a handful of economists who has a social conscience.
Perhaps the most dangerous black mark in Strauss-Kahn’s book is that he was far ahead of America’s French puppet, President Sarkozy, in the upcoming French elections. Strauss-Kahn simply had to be eliminated.
It is possible that Strauss-Kahn eliminated himself and saved Washington the trouble. However, as a well-travelled person who has often stayed in New York hotels and in hotels in cities around the world, I have never experienced a maid entering unannounced into my room, much less when I was in the shower.
In the spun story, Strauss-Kahn is portrayed as so deprived of sex that he attempted to rape a hotel maid. Anyone who ever served on the staff of a powerful public figure knows that this is unlikely. On a senator’s staff on which I served, there were two aides whose job was to make certain that no woman, with the exception of his wife, was ever alone with the senator. This was done to protect the senator both from female power groupies, who lust after celebrities and powerful men, and from women sent by a rival on missions to compromise an opponent. A powerful man such as Strauss-Kahn would not have been starved for women, and as a multi-millionaire he could certainly afford to make his own discreet arrangements.
Paul Craig Roberts on Infowars
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18 May 2011
Charlatan Ink Art Prize 2011 Semi-finalists
Bert Feddema (NDL), HTBT Pharma, Synthetic Endosprem (acryl, 140x100 cm)
The 2011 CHARLATAN INK ART PRIZE's THEME : 'Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?'
'Dozens killed' in Syrian border town
Syria's army and security forces killed at least 27 civilians in a three-day tank-backed attack on the border town of Tel Kelakh to subdue pro-democracy protesters, a rights lawyer told Al Jazeera.
"There are 27 confirmed names. An unknown number of bodies were taken to the main hospital in Tel Kelakh and not handed over to their families," Razan Zaitouna said on Wednesday. Tel Kelakh is a few kilometres from Lebanon's northern border with Syria.
On Tuesday, security agents violently dispersed university students protesting against Bashar al-Assad, the president, in the country's second-largest city Aleppo, a human rights activist said. The AP news agency quoted Mustafa Osso as saying that dozens were injured after the protesting students were attacked with batons on Tuesday.
He said many of the students were chased into their dormitories and badly beaten. The university has seen several anti-regime demonstrations in the past weeks.
Rights activists say a crackdown to crush a two-month wave of protests against Assad has killed at least 700 civilians.
Syrian tanks also moved into a southern city on the Hauran Plain on Tuesday after encircling it for three weeks, activists said. Soldiers fired machineguns as tanks and armoured personnel carriers entered Nawa, a city of 80,000 people 60km north of the town of Deraa, according to activists from the region.
17 May 2011
Ugandan Anti-gay bill shelved
Uganda's anti-gay law has failed! It looked sure to pass last week, but after 1.6 million petition signatures delivered to Parliament, tens of thousands of phone calls to our own governments, hundreds of media stories about our campaign and a massive global outcry, Ugandan politicians dropped the bill!
It was down to the wire - religious extremists tried to push the bill through on Wednesday, and then convened an unprecedented emergency session of Parliament on Friday. But each time, within hours, we reacted. A huge congratulations to everyone who signed, called, forwarded and donated to this campaign - with our help, thousands of innocent people in Uganda's gay community do not wake up this morning facing execution for whom they chose to love.
Frank Mugisha, a courageous leader of the gay community in Uganda sent us this message:
"Brave Ugandan LGBT activists and millions of people around the world have stood together and faced down this horrendous anti-homosexuality bill.The support from the Avaaz global community has tipped the scales to prevent this Bill going forward. Global solidarity has made a huge difference." More on AVAAZ.org
BBC
Avaaz's response to the outcome in the Guardian:
Ugandan President did not back bill because of "criticism of human rights groups"
Secret Weather Weapons Can Kill Millions, Warns Top Russian Politician
A top Duma political leader caused shock waves in a recent television interview when he warned that Russia could deploy an arsenal of new technology to “destroy any part of the planet” and kill over a hundred million people using secret weather weapons if the United States, the UN or Georgia tried to stop Russia’s entry into the WTO.
Vladimir Zhirinovsky is Vice-Chairman of the Russian State Duma and leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), the first officially sanctioned opposition party after the fall of communism. The LDPR has deep links with the former KGB and Communist Party and has become a significant force in Russian politics, despite Zhirinovsky himself being branded as a militant neo-fascist.
The Wayseer Manifesto
ATTENTION: All you rule-breakers, you misfits & troublemakers, all you free-spirits & pioneers... Everything the establishment has told you is wrong with you - is actually what's right with you...
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16 May 2011
Turkish-Dutch Conspiracy against Kurd
This week the Turk Huseyin Baybasin has a revision request to the Dutch Supreme Council. Facts were presented which suggested that the investigation Baybasin was put together, and the alleged facts wrong.
One of the most striking cases is that a Dutch prosecutor may have lied under oath in court. Baybasin is currently serving a life sentence in the Netherlands, including for the incitement of two murders.
Palestinians killed in 'Nakba' clashes
Several people have been killed and scores others wounded in the Gaza Strip, Golan Heights, Ras Maroun in Lebanon and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, as Palestinians mark the "Nakba", or day of "catastrophe".
The Nakba is how Palestinians refer to the 1948 founding of the state of Israel, when an estimated 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled following Israel's declaration of statehood.
At least one Palestinian was killed and up to 80 others wounded in northern Gaza as Israeli troops opened fire on a march of at least 1,000 people heading towards the Erez crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel.
A group of Palestinians, including children, marching to mark the Nakba were shot by the Israeli army after crossing a Hamas checkpoint and entering what Israel calls a "buffer zone" - an empty area between checkpoints where Israeli soldiers generally shoot trespassers, Al Jazeera's Nicole Johnston reported from Gaza City on Sunday. "We are just hearing that one person has been killed and about 80 people have been injured," Johnston said.
Stephen Hawking: 'There is no heaven; it's a fairy story'
A belief that heaven or an afterlife awaits us is a "fairy story" for people afraid of death, Stephen Hawking has said.
In a dismissal that underlines his firm rejection of religious comforts, Britain's most eminent scientist said there was nothing beyond the moment when the brain flickers for the final time.
Hawking, who was diagnosed with motor neurone disease at the age of 21, shares his thoughts on death, human purpose and our chance existence in an exclusive interview with the Guardian today. The incurable illness was expected to kill Hawking within a few years of its symptoms arising, an outlook that turned the young scientist to Wagner, but ultimately led him to enjoy life more, he has said, despite the cloud hanging over his future.
"I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I'm not afraid of death, but I'm in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first," he said. "I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark," he added.
Right-Wing Social Engineering
Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich distanced himself on Sunday from a House GOP plan to make cuts to Medicare, calling it “too big a jump" for the American people.
“What you want to have is a system where people voluntarily migrate to better outcomes, better solutions, better options, not one where you suddenly impose it,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I am against Obamacare imposing radical change, and I would be against a conservative imposing radical change.”
The House GOP budget plan, proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), would effectively turn Medicare into a voucher system in which seniors were given money by the federal government to purchase private insurance, creating a radically different system than the current guaranteed benefit plan for seniors.
Gingrich said he would prefer a system that preserved the current Medicare program and also created a private alternative.
“I don’t think right-wing social engineering is any more desirable than left-wing social engineering,” he said. “I think we need a national conversation to get to a better Medicare solution for seniors."