Bankers Laugh As Athens Burns

Greece's ruling socialist party has passed a second austerity bill needed to implement an austerity package to secure more funds from the European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The vote saw 155 members of parliament voting in favour of the bill, 136 voting against and five abstentions. Politicians voted on Thursday on the second of two austerity bills that are key to receiving funding, after endorsing an initial law on Wednesday to slash $40bn off the national debt.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

French woman sues Opus Dei over brainwashing

A French woman claiming to have been brainwashed by the secretive Catholic society Opus Dei is suing it for allegedly keeping her illegally as a domestic servant, she told AFP Tuesday.

Catherine T., who asked not to be identified by her family name, said she joined a hoteliers' school in northeastern France in 1985, aged 14, which she later discovered was run by associates of Opus Dei.

She said she was forced to take vows and made to work as a domestic servant for virtually no pay.

Opus Dei responded in a statement that it was "not involved in the charges being brought" and had "nothing to be guilty about."

The Raw Story – Wikipedia - Opus Dei Alert - The Opus Dei Awareness Network

Organized Crime

Adbusters Culturejammer Headquarters

Pfizer Drug Tests Kills 11 Children In Nigeria

Meet the Most Extreme of the American Radical Christians

From the Army of God to the Hutaree Militia to Gary North and his Christian reconstructionists, radical Christianity is alive and well in the United States—and Christianists aren’t shy about turning up the heat when it comes to fighting the "culture war." Some radical Christianists have employed bully tactics and hate-mongering rhetoric without resorting to actual violence (Repent Amarillo, the Rev. Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church), while others have committed acts of terrorism and said the culture war will have to be won with bombs and bullets.

When religion is discussed, it is important to make a distinction between radical and non-radical practitioners. Radical Christianity is not representative of Christianity any more than al-Qaeda is representative of Islam. The average Lutheran or Episcopalian minister is no more a threat to public safety than the average member of Islam’s Sufi sect, who are arguably the Hare Krishnas of Islam. Not all Christians are Christianists; not all Muslims are Islamists. But an abundance of disturbing events bear out the fact that radical Christianity, like radical Islam, is quite capable of violence—and contrary to what Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter would have us believe, the examples are numerous.

Read full story on AlterNet – More on Hutaree militia on TPM

Is Greece Being Blackmailed to Put the Brakes on Gaza Flotilla?

The 50 passengers and crew on the U.S. boat to Gaza have converged in Athens, Greece, ready to head out to sea to join an international fleet of ships that will challenge the Israeli-imposed naval blockade of Gaza. But on Thursday, June 23, when the boat was scheduled to leave its port outside Athens and move closer to an international meeting point, the boat’s owner was suddenly served with a complaint by an unknown individual that the boat was not seaworthy. The captain, convinced that the complaint was bogus, was nevertheless told by Greek authorities that he could not set sail until they did a thorough inspection.

Also on Thursday, Greek port authorities issued an unusual warning to all ship captains to steer clear of the coordinates that correspond with Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza. The advisory said there will be continuous electronic surveillance of the region to “record the movements of ships that will possibly participate in such an action.”

It appears that the Greek government is bowing to intense pressure from the Israelis—and possibly the U.S. government—to try to block the flotilla. The American passengers on the U.S. boat, called The Audacity of Hope, are pushing the Greek government to do a quick inspection, as they are convinced the ship would pass muster. “The boat we are leasing for this journey has been worked on for months by qualified technicians and is ready to sail,” said organizer and passenger Ann Wright. “We do not believe it needs to be re-inspected, but we are open to the Greek authorities doing this quickly so that there will be no further delays.”

Full story on AlterNet – More on USTOGAZA

Muammar Gaddafi subject to ICC arrest warrant

The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi, accusing him of crimes against humanity. The court had grounds to believe he had ordered attacks on civilians during Libya's four-month uprising, it said.

The Hague-based court also issued warrants for two of Col Gaddafi's top aides - his son Saif al-Islam and intelligence chief Abdullah al-Sanussi. Thousands of people are believed to have been killed in the conflict.

More on BBC News

Where to go if you're corrupt and wanted…

The former finance minister in Hosni Mubarak's ousted Egyptian government has reportedly found safe haven in the UK. That's despite the fact he's been sentenced in absentia to 30 years in jail for corruption, profiteering and abusing state assets by a Cairo court.

US Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann in israeli Arse-Licking Contest

US Republican Michele Bachmann, a favourite of Christian conservatives and Tea Party activists, has formally launched her presidential campaign.

15 Shocking Lines & Unforgettable Moments From Michele Bachmann

The Misguided Notion Of What Patriotism Is

"It's not your country that you're fighting for when you go to war, it's your government.". American Historian Howard Zinn on his books: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train - A personal History of Our Times, and Failure To Quit - Reflections of an Optimistic Historian.

The New Face Of War

The assassination of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden did more than knock off U.S. Public Enemy Number One. It formalized a new kind of warfare, where sovereignty is irrelevant, armies tangential, and decisions are secret. It is, in the words of counterinsurgency expert John Nagl, “an astounding change in the nature of warfare.”

This type of war requires a vast intelligence apparatus, which now constitutes almost a fourth arm of government that most Americans are almost completely unaware of. According to The Washington Post, this murky world includes 1,271 government agencies and 1,931 private companies in more than 10,000 locations across the country, with a budget last year of at least $80.1 billion.

“At the heart of this new warfare,” notes The Financial Times,” is high-tech cooperation between intelligence agencies and the military” that blurs the traditional borders between civilians and the armed forces. This fits with the U.S. penchant for waging war with robots and covert Special Forces.

But, by definition, the secrecy at the core of the “new warfare” removes decisions about war and peace from the public realm and relegates them to secure rooms in the White House or clandestine bases in the Hindu Kush. When the Blackhawk helicopters slipped through Pakistani airspace en route to bin Laden’s compound, they did more than execute one of the greatest U.S. bugbears — they essentially said another country’s sovereignty was no longer relevant and consigned Congress to the role of spectator.

Full story at Foreign Policy In Focus

OK Go: 'We don't take ourselves too seriously, but we take what we do really seriously'

See The Observer for explanation...

Torture an option for US

David Petraeus, Barack Obama's choice to be the next director of the Central Intelligence Agency, says the US should consider using special interrogation techniques when a captive is withholding information that is immediately needed to save lives.

In the vast majority of cases, General Petraeus said, the ''humane'' questioning standards mandated by the US Army field manual were sufficient to persuade detainees to talk. But while he did not use the word torture, General Petraeus said ''there should be discussion … by policy makers and by Congress'' of something ''more than the normal techniques''.

The Sydney Morning Herald

China frees dissident Hu Jia

One of China's most prominent dissidents, Hu Jia, has been released after serving more than three years in jail on subversion charges. "He is back home with his parents and me," his wife, Zeng Jingyan, told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Hu Jia was arrested in December 2007 after a long period of confinement at his home. He was sentenced in April 2008 for "incitement to subvert state power." Hu had written a series of articles ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games criticising the Chinese government on the state of human rights in China.

His long-scheduled release in the early hours of Sunday followed the freeing of prominent artist and activist Ai Weiwei. The releases came while Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao was visiting Europe on trips to Hungary, Britain and Germany. But activists worry that despite their release, the dissidents will not be free in their movement or expression.

Al Jazeera

Sprogø – Danish Prison of Women For Being Women

This crime AGAINST some Danish women stemmed from the ideas of Eugenics. No doubt about it. However, it also was fed by obsolete ideas of women and sexuality. In both cases it was an attempt to keep society free of "degenerate individuals" which meant people who suffered from inherited illnesses, especially of a mental character. To let these "sub-humans" breed would be to endanger society and that had to be stopped at all costs.

It happened in the beginning of the 1900th century and officially it stopped in 1961 when the infamous habit of interring women who were considered "retarded" ended. Up till then the morally suspects - i.e. "lose" women - ended up on the small island of Sprogoe (: Sprogø). Men were sent to another island by the name of Livoe (: Livø). Part of this must have been for punishment of "immorality", but the main reason for this cruelty was the wish to protect the society at large against "bad, defected genes". For them to be allowed to have children was a fight which they were bound to lose. Their reality was that they were not let lose from the island without being sterilized and those of them who already had children most often lost the right to even see them. Also because these children were put up for adoption and were expected to break off connections with their immoral mothers.

Some of these women left the island on their own which cost them their lives: They set out on an attempt to escape by swimming. However, none seems to have succeeded in this dangerous exploit. What is so sad is that what earned the women the name of "retarded" was their way of living. To be a woman and to have lovers was in itself an indication that they were mentally defective. It is a backward way of thinking rooted in old fashioned considerations about women and sexuality. One's wish to think that this happened several hundred years back in time is assailed by facts: It did not end until 1961 which means 9 years before the "Redstockings" started their feministic actions which went on into the 1980'ies.

Full story on ezinearticles.com

Outcry in America as pregnant women who lose babies face murder charges

Rennie Gibbs is accused of murder, but the crime she is alleged to have committed does not sound like an ordinary killing. Yet she faces life in prison in Mississippi over the death of her unborn child.

Gibbs became pregnant aged 15, but lost the baby in December 2006 in a stillbirth when she was 36 weeks into the pregnancy. When prosecutors discovered that she had a cocaine habit – though there is no evidence that drug abuse had anything to do with the baby's death – they charged her with the "depraved-heart murder" of her child, which carries a mandatory life sentence.

Gibbs is the first woman in Mississippi to be charged with murder relating to the loss of her unborn baby. But her case is by no means isolated. Across the US more and more prosecutions are being brought that seek to turn pregnant women into criminals.

"Women are being stripped of their constitutional personhood and subjected to truly cruel laws," said Lynn Paltrow of the campaign National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW). "It's turning pregnant women into a different class of person and removing them of their rights."

More on The Guardian

UK top surgeon who interrupted photo opportunity for Cameron and Clegg put on indefinite leave

David Nunn, a leading hip replacement specialist, burst in on the pair when they were visiting patients at Guy's Hospital in Central London last week. Mr Nunn complained about some of the Prime Minister's aides and journalists covering the visit not having their sleeves rolled up - a hospital hygiene stipulation - before being ushered outside.

Yesterday one of Mr Nunn’s patients claimed he was told the surgeon had been ‘suspended’ for his intervention, which was filmed by a BBC camera crew. Peter Hodgson, 63, from Clapham, South London, was seen by Mr Nunn on the morning of the Prime Minister’s visit on June 14. He returned for a follow-up appointment this week, and said: ‘The registrar said Mr Nunn was on gardening leave and had been reprimanded for what he did last week.’

Read more on Mail Online

A Victory for Domestic Workers

Domestic workers -- nannies, housekeepers, and caregivers -- are some of the most exploited workers in the world. But a new international treaty has been adopted to help protect them, thanks in part to 10 years of Human Rights Watch research and advocacy. The treaty is the first of its kind.

The 50 to 100 million domestic workers worldwide often face a range of abuses, from long working hours with no days off to sexual harassment or violence from their employers. Many work for months without getting paid, or are not paid at all.

This landmark treaty gives these workers the dignity they are due and the same rights other workers have under the law. This includes earning a minimum wage, a weekly day off, and limits to their working hours. It also obliges governments to protect them from violence and to monitor and enforce these provisions. 

Human Rights Watch

Indonesia is to stop allowing its citizens to work as domestic servants in Saudi Arabia after the execution of a maid for murder last week.

BBC - More maid abuse on Undhimmi.com

Top 10 Most Sinister PSYOPS Mission Patches

Mission patches are used by military and space organizations to identify, symbolize and describe a mission’s objectives and its crew. This tradition is also observed in the shady world of PSYOPS where each secret mission of the Pentagon gets its patch. These patches offer a rare glimpse into the Pentagon’s secret operations and the symbolism on them is rather striking: ominous and cryptic phrases, dark occult symbolism, references to secret societies, and sometimes even a rather dark sense of humor. See the top 10 most sinister PSYOPS patches on The Vigilant Citizen

Belarus cracks down on growing protests

Belarus security services detained at least 450 protesters in the wake of rallies across the country against the strong-armed measures of President Alexander Lukashenko.

Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko is making good on his promise to "strike hard" against any Belarussian citizens heeding social-network appeals to protest against growing economic hardships. By Thursday, more than 450 people who took part in flash-mob rallies in more than 30 towns around Belarus had been rounded up by the KGB security services, and accused of using Twitter, Facebook, and the Russian-language Vkontakte to facilitate illegal gatherings, according to the independent Belapan news agency. According to the agency, many face up to 15 days in prison for "hooliganism."

More on CSMonitor.com

Fukushima Nuclear Plant Remains 'Ticking Time Bomb'

Though global fears about radiation emissions from the heavily damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power facility have calmed in the weeks since Japan's devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami, famed physicist Michio Kaku insists the situation remains a "ticking time bomb."

A professor of theoretical physics at the City University of New York and the City College of New York, Kaku discussed some recent revelations about the disaster's impact, and noted that Japanese officials still don't yet have control at the site. "In the last two weeks, everything we knew about that accident has been turned upside down," Kaku says. "Now we know it was 100 percent core melt in all three reactors...now we know it was comparable to the radiation at Chernobyl."

Among Kaku's other distressing notes: Fukushima workers are exposed to a year's dose of radiation within minutes of entering the site, and cleanup will take between 50 to 100 years. "It's like hanging by your fingernails," he says. "It's stable, but you're hanging by your fingernails."

Huffingtonpost.com

'Uncontacted' Amazon tribe found in Brazil

Government researchers in Brazil say they have found one of the world's last uncontacted tribes in a remote corner of the Amazon rainforest.

Aerial pictures revealed by the Brazilian government's agency of indigenous affairs (Funai) showed four large thatched huts fully surrounded by various crops in the Vale do Javari region. Aloysio Guapindaia, a Funai director, also said they would work to keep the tribe isolated and safe. The tribe is thought to belong to the Pano linguistic group that straddles the border between Brazil, Peru and Bolivia.

Al Jazeera

Ai Weiwei released from detention

After 81 days in detention, China's best-known artist, Ai Weiwei, returned home a considerably thinner and noticeably quieter man.

"I'm fine. I'm out," the 54-year-old artist told the Guardian in a telephone call shortly after his release on bail. "I'm back with my family. I'm very happy."

The state news agency, Xinhua, said police had released him "because of his good attitude in confessing his crimes" and a chronic illness. Speaking from his home in north Beijing, the usually outspoken artist said he could not comment any further, adding: "I'm on bail. Please understand." Ai's sister Gao Ge said: "I'm very, very happy … we thank everyone, including our media friends, for all their help and support so far."

See The Guardian for full story

Survival launches tourist boycott of ‘human safari park’

Survival today called for tourists to boycott the main highway in India’s Andaman Islands – an illegal road which cuts through the land of the endangered Jarawa tribe.

The Andaman Trunk Road is both illegal – India’s Supreme Court ordered it closed in 2002, but it remains open – and highly dangerous for the Jarawa, who number just 365. The hunter-gatherer Jarawa have only had friendly contact with outsiders since 1998 and so tourists risk passing on diseases to which the tribe has little immunity. An epidemic could decimate the tribe.

Thousands of tourists, both Indian and international, travel along the road each month. Rules supposed to protect the Jarawa are routinely broken, and the Jarawa reserve is in effect a human safari park.

Survival International - More about the tribe here

Dutch state to answer for 1947 bloodbath

On 9 December 1947, Dutch troops on Java raided the village of Rawagede, around 100 kilometres east of the Indonesian capital Jakarta. The Dutch military campaign to put an end to the Indonesian independence struggle has always been referred to rather euphemistically as the “police actions”. Indonesian proclaimed its independence in August 1945, after the end of the Japanese occupation during World War II. It took The Hague until the end of 1949 to give in to international pressure and recognise the independence of its former colony.

Eye witnesses say the men of the village were lined up and shot dead. The Committee of Dutch Debts of Honour claims 431 people were killed, in a report written 1969 on the campaign’s excesses this figure is put at just 150 victims.

It was 20 years before the report was published, but the United Nations concluded in January 1948 that the military operation in Rawagede was deliberate and ruthless. However, there were no consequences for the Netherlands. This made it easier for the Dutch legal authorities to avoid prosecuting the Dutch officer responsible for ordering the bloodbath, Major Alphons Wijnen.

More on Radio Netherlands Worldwide and attorney statement here (pdf)

Bahrain activists jailed for life

Bahrain has sentenced eight prominent activists to life in prison for plotting a coup during protests that rocked the Sunni-ruled Gulf island kingdom earlier this year.

The court on Wednesday also sentenced other defendants, from among the 21 suspects on trial, to between two and five years in jail. The Bahrain News Agency says the life sentences were issued against prominent Shia political leader Hassan Mushaima; activists Abdulhady al-Khawaja, Abduljalil Al Singace and five others. Mushaima returned to Bahrain in February, from self-imposed exile in the UK after authorities dropped charges against him.

Ibrahim Sharif, the Sunni leader of the secular leftist group Waad, was sentenced to five years. Waad had joined the largest Shia opposition group Wefaq in calling for reforms to the constitutional monarchy. Authorities claimed the activists had sought to overthrow Bahrain's Sunni monarchy and have links to "a terrorist organisation abroad" - a veiled reference to Iran.

Al Jazeera

BeautifulPeople.com Invaded By 30,000 Uglies

Today in fact or fiction: BeautifulPeople.com, a dating website so vain it probably thinks this article's about it (and it is!), was briefly invaded by 30,000 "ugly" people who were granted membership thanks to a Shrek virus, likely planted by a reject.

Typically, BeautifulPeople.com hopefuls submit photographs to the site, which are then voted on by its 700,000 existing members. However, Greg Hodge, managing director of BeautifulPeople.com, said in a press release, "We got suspicious when tens of thousands of new members were accepted over a six-week period, many of whom were no oil painting." The unattractive additions (including 11,924 Americans) were cast off the "island," as Hodge calls it, and a hotline was set up to handle any hurt feelings.

huffingtonpost.com

The Solution is . . . US

Fukushima: Strontium levels up to 240 times over legal limit near plant

Representing the first time the substance has been detected at the crippled plant, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) reported on Sunday that seawater and groundwater samples taken near the ravaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power facility in Japan have tested positive for radioactive strontium. And according to a recent report in The Japan Times, levels of strontium detected were up to 240 times over the legal limit, indicating a serious environmental and health threat.

Radioactive strontium, which is known to accumulate in bones and eventually lead to diseases like cancer and leukemia, is one of at least three "hot particles" being continually released by the damaged plant, according to experts. The others include radioactive cesium and plutonium, both of which are implicated in causing birth defects, cancer, and death.
"We are discovering hot particles everywhere in Japan, even in Tokyo," said Arnold Gundersen, a former nuclear industry senior vice president with 39 years of nuclear engineering experience, to Al Jazeera. "Scientists are finding these everywhere. Over the last 90 days these hot particles have continued to fall and are being deposited in high concentrations. A lot of people are picking these up in car engine air filters."

Natural News

World's oceans in 'shocking' decline

The oceans are in a worse state than previously suspected, according to an expert panel of scientists.

In a new report, they warn that ocean life is "at high risk of entering a phase of extinction of marine species unprecedented in human history".

They conclude that issues such as over-fishing, pollution and climate change are acting together in ways that have not previously been recognised. The impacts, they say, are already affecting humanity.

The panel was convened by the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO), and brought together experts from different disciplines, including coral reef ecologists, toxicologists, and fisheries scientists.

More on BBC News - Also see Tip the Planet

Fluoride Is Good For You

JFK Assassination

JFK Assassination-A new look at the evidence part 2

Refugee

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers at Live Aid - World Refugee Day

UNHCR report finds 80 per cent of world's refugees in developing countries

UNHCR report released today reveals deep imbalance in international support for the world's forcibly displaced, with a full four-fifths of the world's refugees being hosted by developing countries – and at a time of rising anti-refugee sentiment in many industrialized ones.

UNHCR's 2010 Global Trends report shows that many of the world's poorest countries are hosting huge refugee populations, both in absolute terms and in relation to the size of their economies. Pakistan, Iran and Syria have the largest refugee populations at 1.9 million, 1.1 million and 1 million respectively.

Pakistan also has the biggest economic impact with 710 refugees for each US dollar of its per capita GDP (Gross Domestic Product), followed by Democratic Republic of the Congo and Kenya with 475 and 247 refugees respectively. By comparison, Germany, the industrialized country with the largest refugee population (594,000 people), has 17 refugees for each dollar of per capita GDP.

UNHCR - World Refugee Day

Jon Stewart Live On Fox News Tells Host 'You're Insane'

The Daily Show's Jon Stewart entered the proverbial lion's den, appearing live on Fox News Sunday to debate "media bias" with host Chris Wallace.

Early in the interview, Wallace flashed a previous quote of Stewart's calling Fox News a "relentless agenda-driven 24 hour news opinion propaganda delivery system," and asked Stewart, "Where do you come up with this stuff?"

Stewart responded, "Uh, it's actually quite easy."

Watch the full, unedited interview on Huffington Post

World Revolution Not Seen on TV- Rallies Around the World

Worldwide rallies cry for peace and gather in solidarity. Western media ignores these peaceful gatherings and if they report, they focus on a few who act out (negatively). They don't show you the thousands of videos taken by real people around the world chanting for peace and freedom.

Syrians seek sanctuary on Turkish border

Syrian troops are said to be tightening their grip on villages in the north of the country. Military checkpoints have reportedly been set up there in an attempt to stop the flow of refugees heading into neighbouring Turkey.

BBC correspondent Matthew Price is one of the few Western journalists to have crossed the border into Syria. He sent this report from the town of Hibud al Jouz.

BBC News

Brian Haw : January 7th 1949 - June 18th 2011

Brian Haw website

Dozens killed in Burma amid clashes over Chinese dams

A bloody outbreak of fighting that has ended a 17-year ceasefire between Burmese government forces and a tribal militia was partly caused by the expansion of Chinese hydropower along the Irrawaddy river, conservationists claim.

Dozens of people in northern Burma have reportedly been killed in the clashes between government troops and the Kachin Independence Army. Thousands more are trying to flee across the border after fierce fighting erupted this month around the construction sites of two Chinese-financed dams in the region.

Amid growing fears that the conflict could escalate, the Burma Rivers Network said China's massive hydropower investments had widened the gulf between the government – which wants to benefit from cross-border electricity sales – and Kachin independence groups, which fear the dams will bring environmental, cultural and social disruption.

More on The Guardian

Chronology of the Kachin Conflict

Obama Launching World War III

In this critically important update, Alex warns how the international banking cartel is using Obama and the US military to start World War III. The controllers of the New World Order believe they can achieve their one world government by destabilizing every country in the the middle east and northern Africa which will draw Russia and China into crisis to create a world-wide catastrophe. Once this event occurs, and the world is brought to the brink of total obliteration, the global banking cartel plans to move in with their final phase: a one world government and eugenics agenda.

TheAlexJonesChannel

Town in terror of violent elf in a pointy hat

A violent elf is terrorising a town by stalking locals and beating them up, it emerged yesterday.

The creature is said to have big ears and always wears a pointy hat. It is believed to be behind up to a dozen brutal attacks on kids and old men. The gnome has even knocked people off their bikes and rained punches on them.

Cops in the Argentinian town of Suncho Corral have been flooded with so many complaints they have declared a state of alarm.

The Sun – Video’s here

Another Gnome in Argentina (2008):

Police At Work

avaxnews. part I – part II

Russian human rights activist Yelena Bonner dies at 88

The Russian human rights activist Yelena Bonner has died at the age of 88 after a long illness. She married the nuclear scientist and fellow human rights activist Andrei Sakharov, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975. Mrs Bonner became active in the human rights movement in the 1960s, and was a founding member of the Moscow Helsinki Group, a rights monitoring body. She swiftly became one of the Soviet Union's leading rights activists.

When her husband was sent into internal exile for his activism, it was Mrs Bonner that made sure his writing got out, and when he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975, it was his wife who collected the award on his behalf.

She was arrested for anti-Soviet agitation in 1984 and exiled to Gorki, but she was allowed to travel to the US a year later. Sakharov died in 1989, but Yelena Bonner continued her political activism and criticism of the Russian political system.

BBC News – Sakharov Center

Fagbug

Srebrenica Mapping Genocide

Connect the dots on Srebrenica Mapiranje Genocida

Cute Roulette: Cutest videos on the web

Click to see the Cute Roulette in action

Women drivers arrested in Saudi Arabia

Saudi authorities detained six women for driving cars in the capital in defiance of laws allowing only male motorists on the conservative kingdom's roads.

Saudi Arabia has no formal ban on women driving. But as citizens must use only Saudi-issued licences in the country, and as these are issued only to men, women drivers are anathema. Outcry at the segregation, which contributes to the general cloistering of Saudi women, has been fuelled by social media interest in two would-be female motorists arrested last month.

TV NZ

This World is Bloody Insane!!

Japanese scientist creates edible meat alternative made from recycled human waste

If you think meatless, genetically-modified (GM) soy food products are a poor alternative to real meat, wait until you see the latest in vegetarian meat replacement technology. According to a recent Inhabitat report, Japanese researcher Mitsuyuki Ikeda has developed a new kind of meatless burger made from soy, steak sauce essence, and -- brace yourself -- protein matter extracted from human excrement.

Ikeda's poop burger is literally derived from "sewage mud," which is just a nice way of saying that it was created from human waste. By extracting the protein and lipids from this "mud," Ikeda was able to take these components, add a reaction enhancer to them, and process the slurry into a meat-like product. Ikeda then added a steak flavoring agent, soy sauce, and food coloring to the mix, and voila, an imitation meat product that he says tastes just like real beef.

Natural News

Vancouver riot 'kiss' photograph sparks mystery

Lying in the street and seemingly locked in a kiss as chaos erupts around them, a young couple appear oblivious to the charging crowds and baton-wielding riot police.

The photograph, taken amid Vancouver's hockey riots, has been tweeted around the world. But the photographer who took it is still not sure what the picture really shows.

Canada-based photojournalist Richard Lam took the photograph while covering the riots that followed the Vancouver Canucks' 4-0 loss to the Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup.

More on The Guardian

We think its fake…

Another Brazilian anti-logging activist shot dead‬‏

A landless peasant activist has been found dead in Brazil's Amazon state of Para, the fifth murder in a month believed to be linked to the conflict over land and logging in the country’s rainforest region. The body of the victim, Obede Souza, was found over the weekend in the dense forest surrounding his home in the landless settlement of Esperanca, near the town of Pacaja. Police said on Tuesday that the activist was killed by a gunshot to his head outside his home and that an investigation was under way.

Amazon killings Timeline:

May 24: Jose Claudio Ribeiro and wife Maria do Espirito Santo

May 27: Adelino Ramos

May 28: Eremilton Pereira dos Santos

June 2: Marcos Gomes da Silva

June 9: Obede Souza

Al Jazeera - Al Jazeera YouTube

Cops’ drug blitz at Royal Ascot

Cops have launched a massive anti-drug crackdown at Royal Ascot to stop racegoers getting high in front of The Queen.

Officers with sniffer dogs have been patrolling the grounds to ensure punters don't indulge in illegal substances at the Berkshire course.

And racecourse bosses have even installed a drugs HONESTY box for the first time - giving race-goers the chance to give up their narcotics before they enter the turnstiles.

The drugs blitz saw two arrests for suspected cocaine possession on day one of the five-day Royal meeting - a favourite with high society and big-name celebrities.

The Sun

The Secret Caves of Giza

Beneath the pyramids of Egypt lies a lost underworld of catacombs, hewn chambers and cave tunnels that have remained unexplored for hundreds of years. They are alluded to in ancient texts and Arab legends, but have been left unexplored until today. They have now been rediscovered and investigated for the first time.

UFO TV

Cynthia McKinney from Tripoli

New documentary shows Sri Lanka 'war crimes'

Britain's foreign ministry says Sri Lanka must look into new allegations of war crimes, or face possible international action, after a video of the apparent killing of Tamil prisoners by government forces was aired in a UK documentary.

The Channel 4 programme also showed the bodies of female Tamil fighters who appeared to have been sexually assaulted by government forces.
"I was shocked by the horrific scenes," said Alistair Burt, a minister from the UK's foreign ministry. Burt said on Wednesday that a failure to probe the claims of human rights abuses at the end of the 26-year war with fighters from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) could lead to international action against Colombo. The government of Mahinda Rajapaksa, the Sri Lankan president, says the video material is fabricated.
"Sri Lanka's Killing Fields" was aired on Tuesday and appeared to show the summary execution of Tamil prisoners by government soldiers during the end of the civil war in 2009.

Al Jazeera

Watch the documentary here

Generation OS13: The new culture of resistance

Generation OS13 is an explosive insight into the attack on civil liberties occurring in western democracies and how artists, musicians, journalists and authors encourage the peoples right to resist against Banker occupation.

YouTube

Parent 'Trigger Law' in New York would allow Parents to fire Teachers and Principals

A proposed state law would give New York parents significantly more power over their children's schools.

The so called "trigger law" would allow parents who gather a majority at any persistently failing school to either fire 50 percent of the teachers, fire the principal, close the school or turn it into a charter school.

From TIME:

When people first hear about the radical-sounding law, they are almost always taken aback. But what they might not know is that failing schools can already be shut down by school districts under the No Child Left Behind law. The parent trigger simply takes the option provided to the school board and hands the power to the parents

Carl Korn, a spokesman for New York State United Teachers, said parents should be involved in education decisions, but their participation should come before the school is failing.

"We think the time to involve parents is before a school is identified [as persistently lowest-achieving]. Allowing a petition by parents would ignore the research, the other stakeholders, and leave the decision open to politics. Would we have an election-style campaign where we have advertising and mailings and money being spent on both sides, lobbying parents?"

huffingtonpost.com

Chinese Spying Devices Installed on Hong Kong Cars

For years now Chinese authorities have been installing spying devices on all dual-plate Chinese-Hong Kong vehicles, enabling a vast network of eavesdropping across the archipelago, according to a Hong Kong newspaper.
The report in Apple Daily states that the recording devices began being installed as “inspection and quarantine cards” in July 2007. They were installed without charge by the Shenzhen Inspection and Quarantine Bureau on thousands of vehicles.

Smugglers were the first to note something strange about the devices. A source told Apple Daily that after the cards were installed mainland authorities had no trouble picking off the cars carrying illicit goods.
“For every ten cars we ran we only had [smuggled goods] in three or four to reduce the risk, but the border agents caught all of them. The accuracy was unreal!” Apple Daily quoted the smuggler saying.
The device, no larger than a PDA, is taped onto the vehicle’s front window. Protective tape covers the screws, presumably to prevent tampering—though it didn’t stop Apple Daily from removing the devices, taking them to experts for inspection, and presenting pictures of them splayed open on their website, with neat graphics indicating the various internal components.

Epoch Times

Meet Kenny, An Inbred White Tiger

Kenny is a white tiger ‘selectively’ inbred while in captivity in the United States. As zoo’s and exotic pet stores have increased the demand for white tigers, breeders have attempted to recreate the ideal white tiger — large snout, blue eyes, white fur — through relying on a limited pool of captive white tigers. The result? An astoundingly high rate of deformities and health issues. For example, Kenny is mentally retarded and has significant physical limitations.

PBH2

2011 Syrian uprising

Bashar Al-Assad unleashed his thugs to suppress freedom seekers in Al-Maydaan area - Damascus city in Syria (10.06.2011 ) See LiveLeak.com for more disturbing video.

Sterilisation: North Carolina grapples with legacy

More than 60,000 Americans were sterilised, many against their will, as part of a eugenics movement that finished in 1979, aimed at keeping the poor and mentally ill from having children. Now, decades on, one state is considering compensation.

In 1968, Elaine Riddick was raped by a neighbour who threatened to kill her if she told what happened. She was 13, the daughter of violent and abusive parents in the desperately poor country town of Winfall, in the US state of North Carolina. While she was in hospital giving birth, the state violated her a second time, she says.

A social worker who had deemed her "feeble-minded" petitioned the state Eugenics Board to have her sterilised. Officials coerced her illiterate grandmother into signing an "x" on an authorisation form. After performing a Caesarean section, doctors sterilised her "just like cutting a hog", she says.

Full story on BBC News

More about forced sterilization (in other countries) on Wikipedia

Duchess of Cambridge leaves Prince blushing at Order of the Garter service

Order of the Garter Day is a symbolic occasion when holders of the honour - chosen because they have held public office, contributed to national life or served the sovereign personally - meet to celebrate the most senior British order of chivalry. (mirror.co.uk)

Also see Detoxorcist

2012 The Online Movie

Official in5d YouTube Channel

Orlando Mayor Orders Police to Arrest Activist for Sharing Food with the Homeless

On June 8th, 2011, five volunteers with the american organization "Food Not Bombs" were arrested for the horrendous crime of sharing food with too many people within 2 miles of City Hall. As individuals, the police were professional and it was clear from their body language that they did not want to be there doing this. However, they do have proverbial mortgage to pay and on this day they did make the choice to be agents of tyranny. This brings the total number of arrest for the violent crime up to 12 within the first week of the law's enforcement.

OrlandoCopWatch

We've got a Bigger Problem Now

Dead Kennedys

How YouTube censors videos

Brasscheck TV

Interview with Swiss Politician Dominique Baettig

David Cameron defends international aid rise with vaccine pledger

David Cameron has made an impassioned defence of increased spending on international aid, arguing that British people have a "moral" duty to help save children in the poorest nations from "entirely preventable" deaths.

Writing in today's Observer ahead of a London conference of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (Gavi), the prime minister accepts that the decision to raise overseas aid spending at a time of domestic austerity is highly controversial. But taking on "aid sceptics" in his own party, including the defence secretary, Liam Fox, Cameron makes clear that he will not allow the deficit to be used as an excuse to duck out of obligations to the most needy across the world.

The Tory leader, who will host the summit, will pledge to raise the UK's financial support for Gavi. The funding will allow wider distribution of two vaccines, against pneumococcal and rotavirus infections, to tackle the two biggest killers of children in the developing world: pneumonia and diarrhoea.

The Observer -Also see Genocide by Vaccine

Canadian senate page fired for anti-Harper protest

A 21-year-old Canadian page lost her job Friday after walking onto the Senate floor during the speech from the throne to protest against Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

She went as far as to prepare a news release, which a friend distributed after she was removed from the Senate chamber by security. "Harper's agenda is disastrous for this country and for my generation," she said in the release. "We have to stop him from wasting billions on fighter jets, military bases, and corporate tax cuts while cutting social programs and destroying the climate. Most people in this country know what we need are green jobs, better medicare, and a healthy environment for future generations."

More on CBC News

Internet Ministry of Truth

It sounds like such an innocent idea, one rooted in "fairness" and wrapped in good intentions. An internet "ministry of truth," run either by the federal government or the United Nations, to protect against "misinformation and rumors" that find their way to the information superhighway.
Such an agency "would have to be an independent federal agency that no president could countermand or anything else because people wouldn't think you were just censoring the news and giving a different falsehood out."

No, that's not Russia's Vladimir Putin or Chinese President Hu Jintao making that absurd suggestion. That one came from former President Bill Clinton, the man who lied to the American public about his affair with Monica Lewinsky. If such an agency would have been in existence during his tenure, you have to think he would have been convicted during his impeachment trial in the Senate for sure.
A truth ministry would operate something like the BBC or perhaps National Public Radio (no bias there), Clinton said, and its scope would be narrowly defined to "not express opinions" and to identify "relevant factual errors." Clinton, of course, does not go on to say who gets to define what a "factual error" is, but we presume it would be the commies who run this agency.

Natural News

5 WikiLeaks Hits of 2011 That Are Turning the World on Its Head -- And That the Media Are Ignoring

Between Collateral Murder, the Iraq War Logs, the Afghan War Diary, and Cablegate, it appeared as though 2010 would go down in history as the most shocking year in WikiLeaks revelations.

The 'worst of the worst' included children, the elderly, the mentally ill, and journalists. In April of this year, WikiLeaks released the Guantanamo Files, which included classified documents on more than 700 past and present Guantanamo detainees. These files paint a stunning picture of an oppressive detention system riddled with incoherence and cruelty at every stage.

They shed new light on the persecution of Al Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Hajj, who was caged at the camp for more than six years and then abruptly released without ever being charged. His crime was working for Al Jazeera. It was also revealed that almost 100 of the inmates sent to Guantanamo were listed by their captors as having had depressive or psychotic illnesses. Many went on hunger strikes or attempted suicide. Officials in charge also found it appropriate to detain children and old men, including an 89-year-old Afghan villager suffering from senile dementia, and a 14-year-old boy who had been an innocent kidnap victim.

See 4 other revelations at AlterNet

US congressman says Iraq should repay war costs

A US congressman called on Friday for Iraq to repay a portion of the "mega-dollars" that Washington has spent since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003, at a news conference in Baghdad.

Republican representative Dana Rohrabacher's remarks stand in stark contrast to those by senior American officials, including most recently CIA chief Leon Panetta, who has said the United States should seriously consider any Iraqi request for US troops to stay beyond a year-end deadline for their departure.
"Once Iraq becomes a very rich and prosperous country... we would hope that some consideration be given to repaying the United States some of the mega-dollars that we have spent here in the last eight years," Rohrabacher told journalists at the US embassy in Baghdad.
"We were hoping that there would be a consideration of a payback because the United States right now is in close to a very serious economic crisis and we could certainly use some people to care about our situation as we have cared about theirs."

From Activist Post

Syria and Middle East unrest - live blog

In this video a man says how he was shot three times on the way back from a funeral in the besieged town of Jisr al-Shughour by Syrian military intelligence offers:

They were waiting for us - like an ambush. When we arrived at a certain spot they just appeared. The people didn't kill outright, they beat them till they died. We had no guns, no arms, nothing in our hands.

Live blog on guardian.co.uk

Bilderberg 2011: Official Attendee List

The full official list of 2011 Bilderberg attendees. Routinely, some members request that their names be kept off the roster so there will be additional Bilderbergers in attendance.

See it on Infowars

Also see the Guardian coverage by Charlie Skelton