30 Sept 2011

American-born al-Qaeda cleric Awlaki killed

Yemeni forces have killed Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born Muslim preacher linked to al-Qaeda’s Yemen-based wing, and several of his followers, the Defense Ministry said on Friday.

al-Awlaki

“The terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki has been killed along with some of his companions,” it said in a statement sent by text message to journalists. The ministry did not elaborate on the circumstances of Awlaki’s death in a statement released to the media.

Al Arabiya

InfoWars - No More Pentagon Dinners: Al Qaeda Leader Killed… Again

Army Tracking Plan: Drones That Never Forget a Face

Perhaps the idea of spy drones already makes your nervous. Maybe you’re uncomfortable with the notion of an unblinking, robotic eye in the sky that can watch your every move. If so, you may want to click away now. Because if the Army has its way, drones won’t just be able to look at what you do. They’ll be able to recognize your face — and track you, based on how you look. If the military machines assemble enough information, they might just be able to peer into your heart.

face

The Pentagon has tried all sort of tricks to keep tabs on its foes as they move around: tiny transmitters, lingering scents, even “human thermal fingerprints.” The military calls the effort “Tagging, Tracking, and Locating,” or “TTL.” And, as the strategy in places like Afghanistan has shifted from rebuilding societies to taking out individual insurgents, TTL has become increasingly central to the American effort. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been devoted to it.

Danger Room on Wired.com

crystalline

bjorkdotcom

29 Sept 2011

Bahrain medical staff sentenced over protests

Thirteen doctors and nurses who treated anti-government protesters during demonstrations in Bahrain earlier this year have been jailed for 15 years for crimes against the state.

Seven other medical professionals were given sentences of between five and 10 years by a special tribunal on Thursday that was set up during the emergency rule that followed the demonstrations.

Bahrain Medical staff

The doctors' trial has been closely watched and criticised by rights groups for Bahrain's use of the security court, which has military prosecutors and both civilian and military judges, in prosecuting civilians.

Most of the medics worked at the Salmaniya Medical Centre in Manama, which was stormed by security forces after they drove protesters on March 16 out of the nearby Pearl Square - the focal point of Bahrain's protest movement.

Al Jazeera English

The Guilty Idiots

Peter Oborne lets rip on the useful idiots who helped get us into the Euro mess.

Egyptian Nazi Party

All We Want is World Supremacy for the Egyptian Race.

Slash and burn: Brazil shreds laws protecting its rainforests

Brazil has taken a big step towards passing new laws that will loosen restrictions on the amount of Amazon rainforest that farmers can destroy, after its lower house of parliament voted in favour of updating the country's 46-year-old forest code.

amazon-deforestation

In a move described as "disastrous" by conservationists, the nation's congress backed a bill relaxing laws on the deforestation of hilltops and the amount of vegetation farmers must preserve. The law also offers partial amnesties for fines levied against landowners who have illegally destroyed tracts of rainforest. The legislation, which must still be passed by the Brazilian Senate and approved by President Dilma Rousseff, aims to help owners of smaller farms and ranches compete with under-regulated rivals in countries such as the USA and Argentina.

The Independent

New forest law in Brazil helps save the Amazon (WNF 2006) - Brazil’s politicians, NGOs and public have been voicing more criticisms about the proposed relaxing of the country’s Forest Law. Here’s a summary of recent developments… (WNF 2011)

28 Sept 2011

Lawrence O'Donnell on Police Brutality at Occupy Wall Street

Full clips of the clash between demonstrators at occupy wall street and the police
apparently, the cop who pepper sprayed the girl in the video is Deputy Inspector Anthony V. Bologna

The Revelation Of The Pyramids

For centuries the Great Pyramids have fascinated mankind and each year brings a batch of new theories from the plausible to the absolutely bizarre. After nearly forty years of study and research, the producers of this documentary have at last managed first to understand and then to prove what lies behind one of the greatest archaeological mysteries. Patrice Pooyard, the director of the film guides you through the world's oldest and most beautiful sites after six years of investigation, aided by his anonymous informants and technical specialists. The result will shake the world history to its very core, and revolutionise Egyptology entirely.

‘Qaddafi protected by Tuareg’

Libya's new rulers believe Muammar Qaddafi may be hiding in the southern desert, possibly in a vast area near the Algerian border, under the protection of ethnic Tuareg fighters, an official said Wednesday.

tuareg

Revolutionary forces gained control of Tripoli and much of the rest of the North African nation late last month, but the longtime leader fled and has been trying to rally supporters from hiding as fighting continues on three fronts. His sons also escaped and there have been several unconfirmed reports about their whereabouts. (CBS)

NIGER-REBELS/

Rebel Touareg leader Ibrahim Ag Bahanga, rumoured to have acquired weapons from Libya and recruited some 20,000 al-Qaeda fighters in support of Moamer Kadhafi, died recently under suspicious circumstances. What implications does Bahanga’s death have on the stability of the Sahel region?
Zawaya Magharebia

Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of ethnic Tuaregs left Mali to fight for Muammar Qaddafi. Now, some are returning home to tell their story on The Atlantic

Also see The Tuareg Rebellion of 2007-2009 on Wikipedia

Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi jailed for 11 years

A prominent Iranian human rights activist who was taken seriously ill after being detained by the authorities has been sentenced to 11 years in jail.

Narges Mohammadi, 39, the deputy head of Iran's Defenders of Human Rights Centre (DHRC), a rights organisation presided over by the Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi, was picked up last year by security officials who raided her house in middle of the night without a warrant for her arrest.

Narges Mohammadi

She was taken to Tehran's Evin prison where she was kept in solitary confinement but was released after a month and taken to hospital. Mohammadi, a mother of two and winner of the 2009 Alexander Langer award for her human rights activities, has since developed an undiagnosed epilepsy-like disease which causes her to lose control over her muscles temporarily during the day.

It emerged on Tuesday that a court in Tehran has now convicted her on three charges: acting against the national security, membership of the DHRC and propaganda against the regime, for which she has received an 11-year sentence in total. "I'm not involved in politics, I'm only a human rights activist," Mohammadi said by phone from Tehran. "I was informed of the 11-year sentence through my lawyers, who were given an unprecedented 23-page judgment issued by the court in which they repeatedly likened my human rights activities to attempts to topple the regime."

The Guardian

"The Collapse Is Coming...And Goldman Rules The World"

BBC financial expert Alessio Rastani: 'I'm an attention seeker not a trader' – Telegraph, or:

The Yes Men publicly denied that Rastani is a member. And the BBC said in a statement that it doesn't think he is, either: "We've carried out detailed investigations and can't find any evidence to suggest that the interview with Alessio Rastani was a hoax. He is an independent market trader and one of a range of voices we've had on air to talk about the recession."

"We've never heard of Rastani," the group said in a statement of its own. "He isn't a Yes Man. He's a real trader who is, for one reason or another, being more honest than usual." – The Cutline

What media coverage omits about U.S. hikers released by Iran

Two American hikers imprisoned for more than two years by Iran on extremely dubious espionage charges and in highly oppressive conditions, Joshua Fattal and Shane Bauer, were released last week and spoke yesterday in Manhattan about their ordeal.  Most establishment media accounts in the U.S. have predictably exploited the emotions of the drama as a means of bolstering the U.S.-is-Good/Iran-is-Evil narrative which they reflexively spout.  But far more revealing is what these media accounts exclude, beginning with the important, insightful and brave remarks from the released prisoners themselves.

shane-bauer-josh-fattal-american-hikers

In prison, every time we complained about our conditions, the guards would remind us of comparable conditions at Guantanamo Bay; they'd remind us of CIA prisons in other parts of the world; and conditions that Iranians and others experience in prisons in the U.S.

We do not believe that such human rights violation on the part of our government justify what has been done to us: not for a moment. However, we do believe that these actions on the part of the U.S. provide an excuse for other governments - including the government of Iran - to act in kind.

More on Salon.com - CIA activities in Iran

New Israeli Settlements

The decision by Israel to build 1,100 more settlement homes in the West Bank was criticised by the United States who said it was "deeply disappointed" and the European Union which said the plan “undermines the talks with Palestinians and should be reversed."

Israel-builds-in-Gilo-settlement

The new homes are set to be built in Gilo on the outskirts of Jerusalem.

Last week Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas addressed the UN General Assembly as part of a move to gain statehood for Palestine. In his speech he said settlement activity embodied the "colonial military occupation of the land of the Palestine people."

Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu defended the construction project in an interview with the Jerusalem Post. “We plan in Jerusalem. We build in Jerusalem. Period. The same way Israeli governments have been doing for 44 years, since the end of the 1967 war,” he said.

Huffingtonpost.co.uk

27 Sept 2011

Swelling protest

Swelling protest at station in the Netherlands.

ITV use fake videogame footage

ITV use fake videogame footage, claim its authentic IRA video shooting down chopper

Nazi was post-war spy for Germany in South America

A high-ranking Nazi officer, who helped develop a mobile gas chamber, became a spy for West Germany after World War Two and went on a training course for the BND intelligence agency despite German warrants for his arrest, BND archives showed.

Rauff-Vanguardia

"In hindsight, the recruitment of Walther Rauff is politically and morally incomprehensible," said BND historian Bodo Hechelhammer on Monday.

Rauff, who was a top SS security officer in Nazi Germany, was a BND agent in South America between 1958 and 1962, earning more than 70,000 Deutsche marks (about $US18,000), Hechelhammer said. Rauff died in Chile in 1984 having evaded attempts to bring him to justice.

The BND, formed after World War Two with the help of the United States, even sent money to pay for Rauff's legal fees when he fought extradition from Chile to face war crimes.

walther_rauff_funeral_chile_1984

After the defeat of the Nazis in 1945 Rauff fled to South America, where he was recruited by the BND. He operated under the name of Enrico Gomez and was assigned to report on Fidel Castro, a mission that turned out to be futile because he was denied entry into Cuba.

Between 1960 and 1962, Rauff took part in two BND training courses in Germany - the second in February 1962 when there was a German arrest warrant for him.

More on Tv NZ

'African heroine' Maathai dies at 71

Wangari Maathai, the first African woman to win the Nobel peace prize, died on Sunday night of cancer. She was 71.

A towering figure in Kenya, Maathai was renowned as a fearless social activist and an environmental crusader. Her Green Belt Movement, which she founded in 1977, planted tens of millions of trees.

maathai

Maathai's death was confirmed in a statement on the movement's website.

Maathai was a pioneer from an early age and in many spheres. After winning a scholarship to study in the US, she returned to a newly independent Kenya, becoming the first woman in east and central Africa to obtain a PhD. Maathai was also the first woman professor the University of Nairobi. The GuardianMore here

Is the euro crumbling?

BBC News

Teenager Wows Labour Conference Delegates

A teenager has impressed delegates at the Labour Party Conference, receiving a standing ovation after hitting out at the Government's spending cuts.

Rory Weal (16) made an impassioned speech, tearing into welfare cuts and the abolition of the education maintenance allowance. Party leader Ed Miliband jumped to his feet when the 16-year-old had finished speaking to shake his hand and delegates flocked round him afterwards to offer their congratulations.

"Two-and-a-half years ago, the home I had lived in since birth was repossessed... I owe my entire well-being and that of my family to the welfare state. That is why I joined the Labour Party," Rory said.

Sky News

26 Sept 2011

RIP Cuby

Cuby & The Blizzards - Live 1968 - Harry Muskee died today…

Conspiracy Theorists are the Enemies of the Resistance

The whole world is aware of the conspiracy theories around 9/11. Whilst you rant and rave and chase ghosts in your sick-minded and hate-fuelled desire to show the whole world your paranoid world-view, the system marches on, the industrial killing continues, and the mainstream laughs at you. For the love of God, please snap out of this cult and be a real activist. The world needs you.

The Love Police

Police Crackdown on Peaceful Wall Street Protesters

Protesters from the week-old "occupation" in New York's financial district were arrested, penned up, and Maced on Saturday when the NYPD showed up to their march.

Deep in the belly of the beast, among the financial district’s skyscrapers, next to derivatives traders in business suits and Rolex watches, you will find a one-block large democratic society, governed by consensus, whose features include free food, free professional childcare, an arts and culture area, medical and legal teams, a media center, constant music, a library and a stand with refreshments for the many police stationed to supervise the area. This is the one-week-old occupation of Wall Street, located at Liberty Plaza Park.

ny-protests

A group of protestors from the camp ventured outside the park and marched on Union Square Saturday morning, and around 100 of them were arrested. Police sprayed peaceful protestors in the face with pepper spray, threw them to the ground and assaulted them with elbows, dragged a woman around by the hair, jumped over barricades to grab and rough up young people, and, when all was said and done, laughed to themselves triumphantly. This is exactly the sort of violence and brutality American authorities routinely condemn when perpetrated against non-violent civilians demonstrating for democracy in Middle Eastern dictatorships, even as they employ horrifying cruelty right here.

More on AlterNet

Black Libyans living in fear

Libya is home to a large minority of black Libyans, many of whom supported Muammar Gaddafi, the former leader, and some who fought on his side against the rebel uprising.
But since Gaddafi's government was ousted from power, entire communities of black Libyans have disappeared without a clear reason, leaving virtual ghost towns behind.
Al Jazeera's Anita McNaught reports from one such town, Tawergha, where remaining members of the community fear for their lives.

Al Jazeera English

25 Sept 2011

George's Best Stuff

George Carlin's Best Of !!

Lapis Exillis

An Exploration Into the World's Most Secret Societies. Lapis Exillis, the stone that is called the grail to the Illuminate, has influenced world history for centuries.

24 Sept 2011

Prof Brian Cox on the difference between space and time

Physicists urge caution over apparent speed of light violation. Scientists react with disbelief and call for repeat experiments after results suggest particles can travel faster than light. – The Guardian

Italian Police vs Refugees

Italian Police drive North African refugees from a balcony on Lampedusa.

UN urges refugee 'solidarity' within European Union – BBC

Formal Proposal For Palestinian Statehood To The UN

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, has submitted a formal proposal to the United Nations for Palestinian statehood, a bid that is expected to fail.

In an address to the UN General Assembly in New York on Friday he said the Palestinian people deserved "their freedom and independence. The time has come for my courageous and proud people, after decades of displacement and colonial occupation and ceaseless suffering, to live like other peoples of the earth, free in a sovereign and independent homeland," he said.

palestine

He added: "My people desire to exercise their right to enjoy a normal life like the rest of humanity. They believe what the great poet Mahmoud Darwish said: Standing here, staying here, permanent here, eternal here, and we have one goal, one, one: to be. We extend our hands to the Israeli government to the Israeli people for peace making, I say to them let us urgently build together a future for our children where they can enjoy freedom, security and prosperity," he said.

Huffington Post

23 Sept 2011

The men who crashed the world

The first of a four-part investigation into a world of greed and recklessness that led to financial collapse.

In the first episode of Meltdown, we hear about four men who brought down the global economy: a billionaire mortgage-seller who fooled millions; a high-rolling banker with a fatal weakness; a ferocious Wall Street predator; and the power behind the throne.

Al Jazeera English

America's 'first Jewish president'?

Obama is the "the first Jewish President". That's the title of New York magazine's lead article, written by John Heilemann and quoting a major Obama fundraiser.

Listening to Obama speak at the United Nations on Wednesday many would nod in agreement, not less in Palestine and the Arab world. The US president has embraced the rejectionist Israeli position on the question of international recognition of an independent Palestinian state. But that's not a Jewish position. It's a radical Zionist position. Many Jews, including US and Israeli Jews, do not embrace such extremist views.

zionist obama

But the fact that Obama surpassed his predecessor George W Bush, the most radical supporter of Israel among all US Presidents, has left everyone in Israel dumbstruck. The latest Zionist US president sounded like Israel's own founding fathers. Never have they heard a US president read straight from the papers of the Israeli government.

More on Al Jazeera English

Capitalism

Twenty-five of the 100 highest paid U.S. CEOs earned more last year than their companies paid in federal income tax, a pay study by a Washington think tank said on Wednesday.

capitalismrocks

At a time when lawmakers are facing tough choices in a quest to slash the national debt, the Institute for Policy Studies said it also found many of the companies spent more on lobbying than they did on taxes.

Reuters

UK Police forces cease recording race of people they stop

Police forces with some of the worst records of targeting black people have decided to stop recording the ethnicity of the people their officers stop and ask to account for their movements.

Five out of the 10 forces most likely to use stop-and-account powers disproportionately against black people – West Midlands, Avon and Somerset, Thames Valley, Sussex and Hertfordshire – have halted recording the race of people they have stopped. They have used a government change in the rules introduced in March, which was aimed at cutting bureaucracy.

stop-and-account

In total, 21 out of 43 forces in England and Wales will stop recording details, according to responses to requests under the Freedom of Information Act. A high court challenge is being brought over the decision. The collection of data about the race of people stopped is one of the key legacies of the 1999 Stephen Lawrence inquiry into police racism. The figures have shown that black people are more likely to be subject to the powers, and those figures have been used to pressure the police into cleaning up discrimination in the ranks.

The Guardian

May 2009: Black men eight times more likely to be stopped and quizzed by police - Daily Mail

Migrants Abused at the EU Border

Frontex, the European Union’s external border enforcement agency, is exposing migrants to inhuman and degrading conditions, Human Rights Watch said in a report issued today. Migrants apprehended along Greece’s land border with Turkey are sent to overcrowded detention centers in Greece, Human Rights Watch said.

greece-eu-frontex

EU justice and interior ministers are expected to approve changes to the rules governing Frontex operations at a two-day meeting starting on September 22, 2011, but the changes do not go far enough to remedy the situation, Human Rights Watch said.

GREECE-EU-TURKEY-IMMIGRATION-POLICE-FRONTEX

The 62-page report, “The EU’s Dirty Hands: Frontex Involvement in Ill-Treatment of Migrant Detainees in Greece,” assesses Frontex’s role in and responsibility for exposing migrants to inhuman and degrading detention conditions during four months beginning late in 2010 when its first rapid border intervention team (RABIT) was apprehending migrants and taking them to police stations and migrant detention centers in Greece’s Evros region. The RABIT deployment has been replaced by a permanent Frontex presence.

Full story on Human Rights Watch

22 Sept 2011

How America planned to destroy Britain in 1930 with bombing raids and chemical weapons

Details of an amazing American military plan for an attack to wipe out a major part of the British Army  are today revealed for the first time. In 1930, a mere nine years before the outbreak of World War Two, America drew up proposals specifically aimed at eliminating all British land forces in Canada and the North Atlantic, thus destroying Britain's trading ability and bringing the country to its knees.

us attack on britain

Previously unparalleled troop movements were launched as an overture to an invasion of Canada, which was to include massive bombing raids on key industrial targets and the use of chemical weapons, the latter signed off at the highest level by none other than the legendary General Douglas MacArthur. The plans were one of a number of military contingency plans drawn up against a number of potential enemies, including the Caribbean islands and China. There was even one to combat an internal uprising within the United States.

In the end there was no question of President Franklin D. Roosevelt subscribing to what was known as War Plan Red. Instead the two countries became the firmest of allies during WW2, an occasionally strained alliance that continues to this day. Still, it is fascinating that there were enough people inside the American political and military establishment who thought that such a war was feasible.

More on Mail Online

Cage Fighting Kids

A cage fighting event which included children as young as eight has created a storm of controversy.
Footage of the bouts posted on the Internet have provoked an outcry with the British Cage Fighting Association describing parents who allow their children to take part as "morons." The event was staged at the Greenlands New Labour Social Club in Preston.

YouTube

PLO official: Rick Perry is a "racist"

A top Palestine Liberation Organization official responded to Texas Gov. Rick Perry's scathing criticisms of the PLO on Tuesday by telling The Cable that Perry's comments were "discriminatory and racist."

Perry hosted a pro-Israel rally in New York on Tuesday morning, during which he repeatedly accused President Barack Obama of "appeasement" of the Palestinians and of bungling three years of Middle East diplomacy. He also called for the closing of the PLO mission in Washington, and the cutting off of U.S. aid to the Palestinian leadership as punishment for their drive to seek member-state status at the United Nations.

rick_perry_pointing

But the part of Perry's remarks that really angered the PLO's Washington representative, Maen Rashid Areikat, was when Perry said, "The Obama policy of moral equivalency, which gives equal standing to the grievances of Israelis and Palestinians, including the orchestrators of terrorism, is a very dangerous insult. I was appalled by what he said about ‘moral equivalence,' that there shouldn't be moral equivalence between Israelis and Palestinians. This amounts to taking a discriminatory and racist position," Areikat said in a Tuesday interview with The Cable.

"I thought the fundamental principles of the United States were to support people who are seeking freedom and liberty and justice and the Palestinian people are doing exactly that," Areikat continued. "To try to give the impression that there's no moral equivalence between the struggle of the Palestinians and the Israelis is really something that requires condemnation. It is really surprising and unacceptable."

The Cable

Obama joins group photo

wave

Waving during the group photo is something to avoid.

MSNBC PhotoBlog

Troy Davis Executed

troy-davis-is-dead

Huffington Post

The Long, Murderous Arm of the Law Has Killed Troy Davis 
Let us not mince words: The state of Georgia just murdered Troy Davis. The state coroner will list homicide as his cause of death. But he wasn’t the first and, sadly, he won’t be the last person slaughtered in the name of U.S. law and order. There are today dozens more people scheduled to be killed by states, according to Amnesty International. Their likely deaths represent the ultimate act of perversity in a system that destroys untold thousands of primarily black and brown lives every day. - Alternet

10 reasons why he should not be executed on The Guardian

21 Sept 2011

Atlantis: Secret Star Mappers of A Lost World

Lost Human History! Submerged Megalithic Sites! Ancient Advanced Technology! Scientists are now discovering at the bottom of the earth's oceans stunning evidence of Atlantis that pre-dates the last ice age. Submerged megalithic sites have been discovered that may be the remains of the lost ancient civilization of Atlantis. One thing is certain, what you are about to see in this amazing film can only be described as miraculous. Scientists present new evidence that Atlantis was an ancient seafaring culture with advanced knowledge of astronomy, global mapping and complex mathematics.

Yahoo blocked e-mails about Wall Street protests

Yahoo apologized yesterday after people using its e-mail service were prevented from sending messages about anti-Wall Street demonstrations over the weekend.

Occupy Wall St

The company said that an external spam filter had blocked the messages but maintained that it was inadvertent. It said that the problem has since been resolved, though there may be some residual issues. ThinkProgress, which first noticed the problem, posted the following video of someone being blocked from e-mailing a message inviting their friends to visit the "Occupy Wall St." campaign Web site. - CNET News

Filmmaker Michael Moore appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show Monday evening to discuss the media’s coverage towards the tea party being notably larger than coverage given to protests from the left. (Raw Replay)

20 Sept 2011

Death-row inmate Troy Davis denied clemency

The Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole has denied clemency for death-row inmate Troy Davis, Amnesty International said Tuesday. Davis was convicted of the 1989 killing of Savannah, Georgia, police officer Mark MacPhail.

Davis is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at 7 p.m. Wednesday at a state prison in Jackson, Georgia.

Troy_Davis_Paris_demo

Since Davis' conviction in 1991, seven of the nine witnesses against him have recanted or contradicted their testimony. There also have been questions about the physical evidence - and, according to some, the lack thereof - linking Davis to the killing. Amnesty International was among the organizations appealing for clemency for Davis.

CNN.com - Amnesty International Condemns Decision to Deny Troy Davis Clemency, Calling It An 'Outrageous Affront to Justice'

ROTFL

Israel and the Upcoming Nuclear War!

Back in 1981, it looked like Israel would be a peaceful neighbour in a Middle East destined to move forward, maybe not to freely elected governments but at least to no longer be a sideshow for the Cold War.
There were lessons from 1981, when Jews visited Cairo as honoured guests.
500,000 Israeli’s, homeless, underemployed, say they can no longer afford, even with the billions America is giving them, to try to run the world from a few acres of sand, now farmed by foreign workers.
If Israel’s extremist government continues its fear mongering, helped along by AIPAC and the ADL in the United States, Israel will not survive.  Israel will not die alone, not by a long shot.  The problem is that there is no political leader in Israel or within the Zionist community in the United States that seems to care.
The dreams of world domination, as some of us have always seen, never left room for the survival of Israel or any other nation.

Gordon Duff on Brasscheck tv - Veteranstoday.com

UN: Syria death toll tops 2,700

Syrian security forces have killed 2,700 people since anti-government protesters started six months ago, the United Nations human rights office said. "As of today, 2,700 people, including at least 100 children, have been killed by military and security forces since mass protests erupted in mid-March," Kyung-wha Kang, deputy UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said on Monday.

syrian child

She said "the scale and nature of these acts may amount to crimes against humanity" and that her office was prepared to send its confidential list of 50 suspects linked to those crimes to the International Criminal Court, if the UN Security Council refers the situation in Syria to the Hague-based court.

She called on President Bashar al-Assad's government to co-operate with an international inquiry into the bloodshed so as to ensure accountability for all violations and to "break the culture of impunity in the country". Assad has repeatedly said Syria is facing a "foreign conspiracy" and has blamed most of the deaths on "armed criminals".

More on Al Jazeera English - Syria Live Blog

Death of Privacy

Personal data being gathered on the worldwide web means bigger profits for the private sector and is also being shared with the police, argues Steve Rambam, founder and CEO of Pallorium Inc., an international online investigative service. ­At a time when electronic gadgets and hi-tech innovations dominate our lives, violating privacy and mining people's personal data is easier than ever. The damage that this 24-hour surveillance could do to society and its freedoms is overwhelming.

RussiaToday

Walk

Foo Fighters

19 Sept 2011

The Face of Hunger in DPR Korea

This video shows the starved and malnourished children of a nursery of Hwanghaedo area, and flood-destroyed bridges, roads, and rice paddies.
The children of the nursery have no focus in their eyes due to the malnutrition, and skin diseases all over them due to unsanitary water. With just skin and bones, they don't even have the strength to stand; the whole nursery is full of children just sitting like living corpse. It is an extraordinarily saddening scene.
The food shortage of North Korea only worsened after the recent flooding. European Union and the USA have been showing willingness to provide food aids, but it is unclear whether the government of North Korea will actually and honestly deliever the food to the starving citizens.
Little children who should be playing outside innocently are dying helplessly because of a flawed society. We can only hope for North Korea's willingness to solve this food shortage problem.

WORLDFOODPROGRAM

Life Is Worth Losing (Mobb Deep Mix)

Stand up - Life Is Worth Losing *George Carlin* (1st PT)
Instrumental by Mobb Deep - Thug Muzik

Foo Fighters sing to Westboro in counter-protest

Westboro Baptist Church received a unique counter-protest Friday, a serenade from the Foo Fighters in front of the Sprint Center in Kansas City, USA.

Forbidden Archeology

Stop Online Spying on Your Private Life

The Open media

Dag Hammarskjold: Was his death a crash or a conspiracy?

Exactly 50 years ago, UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold died in a plane crash on a mission to prevent civil war in newly-independent Congo. Suspicions that the plane was shot down, never fully laid to rest, are now again on the rise.

dag

Just after midnight on 18 September 1961, he was heading to negotiate a ceasefire in a mineral-rich breakaway region of Congo, where another of his peacekeeping missions was getting bogged down in the complex politics of decolonisation and Cold War rivalry.

But his DC6 aircraft crashed in darkness shortly before landing, in a forest near Ndola in Northern Rhodesia - now Zambia.

More on BBC News

Dozens of protesters shot dead in Yemen

Troops loyal to Ali Abdullah Saleh, the Yemeni president, have opened fire on protesters in Sanaa, killing at least 26 people and injuring hundreds. Tens of thousands of protestors calling for an end to president Saleh's 33-year rule took to the streets of the capital a day after protesters stormed Yemen's main university.

saleh-burnt

Mohammad al Qadhi, a Yemeni journalist, said government snipers had fired on demonstrators from rooftops. "I talked to one of the protestors. He told me shots were fired on chests, legs, and other parts of the body," he said.

Witnesses said security forces and armed civilians opened fire on protesters who left Change Square, where they have camped since February demanding regime change, and marched towards the city centre. They also used water cannons and fired tear gas, they added.

Al Jazeera English

18 Sept 2011

M

M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Moerder (1931) by Fritz Lang.
When the police in a German city are unable to catch a child-murderer, other criminals join in the manhunt. This film is nothing less than a masterpiece. It is a highly structured and stylized film about a serial killer. It created the serial kill genre.

Orchestra suspends four musicians who opposed Israeli musicians' concert

The London Philharmonic Orchestra has suspended four musicians for nine months for using its name when they called unsuccessfully for the cancellation of a concert by an Israeli orchestra at the Proms.

london-philharmonic-orchestra

The move follows the indefinite suspension of an unnamed LPO violinist after she allegedly launched an anti-Israel "rant" when Israeli musicians appeared at the Royal College of Music before the concert at the Royal Albert Hall earlier this month. In a statement, Tim Walker, the LPO's chief executive, and Martin Hohmann, its chairman, said the suspensions sent "a strong and clear message that their actions will not be tolerated … the orchestra would never restrict the right of its players to express themselves freely, however such expression has to be independent of the LPO itself.

The Guardian

Models On Auto Shows

moskovic

From Avax News

Dark Mission 1 - NASA Moon Hoax

Analysis of the Lunar Photography - This compelling video throws into serious doubt the authenticity of the Apollo missions and features information that challenges the declared abilities of NASA to successfully send a man to the Moon and return him safely to Earth.

Part 2 & 3 here

Ralph Nader: U.S. is a two party dictatorship

Ralph Nader appeared Thursday on Fox News to discuss a democratic primary he was organizing against President Barack Obama to “hold his feet to the fire.”

When asked about the possibility of a third party candidate succeeding in the 2012 presidential election, Nader said it would be a hurdle for anyone who wasn’t a billionaire. “It’s a two party dictatorship unless you’re worth billions of dollars.”

Raw Replay

17 Sept 2011

More deaths reported as Syrian security forces mount crackdown in cities

Syrian security forces have killed 47 people when they stormed cities across the country looking for army defectors and seeking to prevent the breakout of mass protests following the weekly Friday prayers, the revolution commission said.

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At least six people were killed in the flashpoint city of Hama when troops and security forces raided the town. “They raided Hilfaya at 6:30 a.m. (0330 GMT), with troops and security police descending from buses and trucks equipped with machine guns,” one of the activists told Reuters by telephone. “They stayed for two hours, firing at random to frighten the inhabitants. Among the six who were killed were two cousins from the al-Jammal family who were on their way to Hilfaya from the nearby village of Taybeh,” the activist said.

alArabiya

Janus - Illuminati God Of Chaos And Deception

The irony is that people not only know their rulers and society overall are two-faced, they expect it. Whether consciously or subconsciously we all know lying and deception are inherent to the matrix that's been foisted upon us.

janus

Another irony is that even in the definition of Janus there are two very different versions as to whom this mythological character really was.

Who Was Janus? We see this two-faced image a lot in our lives. Many know it dates back to Greek and Roman mythology. However, there's much more to this character than meets the eye.

See article on Before It's News

Occupy Wall Street

#OCCUPYWALLSTREET Orientation Guide 0n Ad Busters

Intolerance

1916 D.W. Griffith epic. A poor young woman is separated from her baby and husband by prejudice. Her story is interwoven with three other stories of intolerance - one in ancient Babylon, one in Judea, where the hypocritical Pharisees condemn Jesus Christ and one in 1572 Paris where a young Huguenots couple prepare for marriage on the day of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre.

Intolerance on Wikipedia

16 Sept 2011

What Happened to Building 7

Documentary explains what really happened to building #7.

Amish men jailed over refusal to use "worldly symbols"

A group of Kentucky Amish men would prefer to do jail time rather than violate their religious beliefs, which they say forbids the placement of bright orange safety triangles on the backs of their buggies. The orange triangles are required on all slow-moving vehicles, according to Kentucky state law.

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Nine men in the western part of the state have refused to use them. They belong to the Old Order Swartzentruber Amish. According to court documents, this sect follows a strict code of conduct, called Ordnung, which "regulates everything from hairstyle and dress to education and transportation." They believe that displays of "loud" colors should be avoided, along with the use of "worldly symbols." Swartzentruber Amish believe such symbols indicate the user no longer trusts fully in God. The Swartzentruber Amish use reflective tape, but refuse to use the orange triangle.

CNN Belief Blog

Animals Being Dicks

ape-fun

Animals Being Dicks Website

collective waiting portrait

tokyo

collective waiting portrait

Fashion Week Cancels Show of Uzbek Dictator’s Daughter

Enslaving children and torturing dissidents is never chic.

The daughter of Uzbekistan’s dictator planned to unveil her spring fashion line at New York City’s prestigious Fashion Week. But her show was cancelled after Human Rights Watch and a coalition of like-minded organizations spotlighted her connection to her father’s tyrannical government.

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Gulnara Karimova isn’t just the eldest daughter of Islam Karimov – Uzbekistan’s autocratic leader since the Soviet era – she also serves as the government’s ambassador to Spain and the United Nations, a high-level position in a regime known for imprisoning and torturing political opponents and rights activists. Her father’s government forces up to two million Uzbek children to leave school for two months each year to pick cotton – a fabric woven throughout Karimova’s designs.

Karimova maintains a jet-setter lifestyle, which includes making a pop video with Julio Iglesias and launching her fashion line “Guli.” But according to a cable released by Wikileaks, US diplomats said most Uzbeks view her as “a greedy, power-hungry individual who uses her father to crush business people or anyone else who stands in her way.”

Human Rights Watch

US Poverty Level Reaches Record High

Nearly one in six Americans are living in poverty. That is the result of the US Census Bureau's annual report.

The number of Americans living below the poverty line has now risen for four years in a row. The figures showed that children under the age of 18 suffered the highest poverty rate at 22 per cent.... euronews

Cameron Salutes The 'Courage Of Lions'

Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy have addressed a rapturous crowd in the eastern town of Benghazi, a former rebel stronghold. The leaders received a hero's welcome at Liberty Square, a symbolic site for the rebels, in jubilant scenes that seemed to move both men.

cameron sarkozy libya

Cameron said that it was great to be "in a free Benghazi. People in Britain salute your courage... you showed the world you can get rid of dictator. Colonel Gaddafi said he would hunt you down like rats," Cameron said. "But you showed the courage of lions and we salute your courage. Now just as your courage has written the last chapter of Libyan history, so it must write the next one.”

Sarkozy said that "you have shown us your courage. We need a new courage for forgiveness and reconciliation".

Cameron Salutes The 'Courage' Of Libya's Rebel Forces - 'We'll keep bombing': Cameron & Sarkozy in Libya (RT)

15 Sept 2011

Britain is "racially decades behind"

Singer Kelis has accused Britain of being "racially decades behind progression" after she was allegedly subjected to racial abuse at a UK airport. Writing on her Twitter account, the American musician said she was accused of queue-jumping by a "red-faced sweaty man".

kelis

She claimed he called her a "slave" and "probably a disgusting Nigerian" - and told her to call him "sir". Kelis said the man labelled her "Kunta Kinte" - the name of a slave in Alex Haley's book Roots. Kelis said no one spoke out while she was subjected to the abuse.

Sky News

UN chief: Palestine bid 'understandable'

Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary-general, has said that the Palestinian bid for recognition by the UN is under-standable. As he prepares to open the 66th annual General Assembly on September 19, Ban told Al Jazeera that both sides must engage in dialogue, regardless of the outcome of the vote.

Al Jazeera English

Rulers of the World are all Inbred Mutants

The Hapsburgs, one of Europe's most powerful royal dynasties, was so obsessed with securing its blue-blooded inheritance through family marriages that it brought about its own extinction through constant inbreeding and not introducing the odd boost of common peasant mongrel genes into the bloodline. (Glossy News.com)

The same with the rest:

Immigrants For Sale

Immigrants are for sale in the USA. Sold to private prison corporations who are locking them up for obscene profits!

The victims: Private prisons don't care about who they lock up. At a rate of $200 per immigrant a night at their prisons, this is a money making scheme that destroys families and lives.
The players: CCA (Corrections Corporation of America), The Geo Group and Management and Training corporation —combined these private prisons currently profit more than $5 billion a year.
The money: These private prisons have spent over $20 million lobbying state legislators to make sure they get state anti-immigrant laws approved and ensure access to more immigrant inmates.

Cuéntame - Immigrants for sale