Press Freedom Index 2011-2012

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“This year’s index sees many changes in the rankings, changes that reflect a year that was incredibly rich in developments, especially in the Arab world,” Reporters Without Borders said today as it released its 10th annual press freedom index. “Many media paid dearly for their coverage of democratic aspirations or opposition movements. Control of news and information continued to tempt governments and to be a question of survival for totalitarian and repressive regimes. The past year also highlighted the leading role played by netizens in producing and disseminating news.

Reporters Without Borders

Epic Police Surveillance of Men Drinking Beer

Filmed hours before the big game before Manchester City and Manchester United. April 30th 2012 - Love Police

Metropolitan police stockpile up to 10,000 plastic bullets

The London Metropolitan police has increased its stocks of baton rounds, also known as plastic bullets, to more than 10,000 as a result of the August 2011 riots, the force has confirmed.

Figures released by Scotland Yard show the Met now has the largest stockpile of plastic bullets it has held for many years. Three years ago its stockpile was 6,424 but figures from last December show the Met now keeps 10,024 baton rounds. The Yard said it had increased the number of officers trained to deploy baton rounds to 300. It said baton rounds are bought once a year and stocks were obviously at their highest at the time of ordering.

In a statement the force indicated it was now in a position to be able to deploy baton rounds should a security situation require it in the run-up to the Olympic Games.

The Guardian

Chen Guangcheng now wants to leave China after 'death threats'

Chen Guangchen, the blind activist said Wednesday that U.S. officials told him that Chinese authorities would have beaten his wife to death had he not left the American Embassy, where he sought sanctuary after fleeing persecution by local officials in his rural town.

A senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, denied that the administration had passed on to Chen Guangcheng any threat of violence to his family, but did say that Chen was told that if he stayed in the embassy indefinitely, his family would be returned to their home province.

A shaken Chen, speaking from the hospital room where he was taken after leaving the embassy Wednesday, also said that U.S. officials told him Chinese authorities would send his family back home if he stayed inside. But he added that, at one point, the U.S. officials told him his wife would be beaten to death.

"They said if I don't leave they would take my children and family back to Shandong," Chen told The Associated Press. He said he heard the death threat from an American official whom he could not identify.

Syracuse.com

Fox News Says Dan Savage is 'Bullying' Christians

Dan Savage is an American author, media pundit, journalist and newspaper editor. Savage writes the internationally syndicated relationship and sex advice column Savage Love. Its tone is frank in its discussion of sexuality, often humorous, and hostile to social conservatives and Rick Santorum's views on homosexuality. As a gay man, Savage has often been the subject of controversy regarding some of his opinions that pointedly clash with cultural conservatives and those put forth by what Savage has been known to call the "gay establishment". In 2010, Savage and his husband Terry Miller began the It Gets Better Project to help prevent suicide among LGBT youth.

Wikipedia - Video from The Young Turks

Canadian witness to RFK assassination claims there was 2nd shooter

Nearly 44 years after the June 1968 assassination of U.S. presidential contender Robert F. Kennedy, a Canadian woman who was at the Los Angeles scene of the crime has emerged as the key witness in a bid by convicted assassin Sirhan Sirhan to gain release from prison or be granted a new trial based on previously unheard evidence.

A U.S. federal appeals court is currently examining submissions from Sirhan’s legal team that argue suppressed ballistic evidence and eyewitness accounts — including one from the Canadian woman — suggest there was a second shooter at the Los Angeles hotel where Kennedy was murdered.

Vancouver resident Nina Rhodes-Hughes — a 78-year-old American-born television actress and a local theatre enthusiast in the city’s Bowen Island community — was serving as a volunteer fundraiser for Kennedy’s campaign when he was fatally shot in a kitchen pantry at the Ambassador Hotel on June 5, 1968. He died from his wounds about 24 hours later, on June 6. Five others injured in the attack survived.

Rhodes-Hughes, after a Saturday interview with CNN sparked a worldwide resurgence of interest in the assassination, told Postmedia News on Monday that she heard at least 12 shots that day — not eight as argued by the California prosecutors who convicted Sirhan as the lone gunman. The gun Sirhan had when he was arrested held only eight bullets.

National Post – Huffington Post

Life not sweet for Philippines' sugar cane child workers

Barefoot and covered in dirt and sweat, 14-year-old Dante Campilan pulls weeds from orderly rows of sugar cane. Wearing an oversized red cap to protect him from the scorching Philippine sun, Dante is doing work that should be reserved for men, not children. Earning 150 pesos ($3.50) for a seven-hour day, Dante has been a child laborer in the Philippine region of Mindanao since he was seven years old. He says he does it to help his parents, but he is just one of many children who are part of an illegal economic system of child labor.

The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates 2.4 million child workers are in the Philippines. Many of them, according to the ILO, are in rural areas working in fields and mines. The organization estimates 60% work in hazardous conditions.

CNN.com

IKEA 'used East German political prisoners to make its furniture

Furniture giant IKEA used political prisoners arrested by the dreaded Stasi secret police of former East Germany to make its products in the 1970s and 80s, it has been alleged. Initially the company denied the reports but then said it had requested documents from the Stasi archive.

During the 1970s, Ikea developed a strong manufacturing base in East Germany with 65 factories producing parts and furniture. A 2011 doumentary in Germany cited documents claiming that IKEA had a 'thorough co-operation' with East German authorities.

Ikea's popular Klippan sofa was produced in East Germany at a plant situated next to a prison in Waldheim. A former prison chief said that prison labour was an 'expected part of furniture production'.

Read more at Daily Mail - We knew this last year… – We also knew that the founder of the Ikea furniture chain, Ingvar Kamprad is a not so nice guy…

Happy May Day!

Socialists for Republic

House of Orange Crime Cartel

In the following article, we set out to trace the steps of two brothers, both of whom are grandsons of Bilderberg-founder Bernhard, who have now been destined to carry along the torch of treason. The objective: to dismantle the nation-state, strip the people of their self-determination and free will, and position themselves as sovereign rulers of the planet. Their common cause does not deviate from the age-old directive, but their means are custom-made to fit current times.
Children of the Dutch royal family are destined to carry along the torch of treason.

To those who feel that the quest for a worldwide grid, a prison-planet, is too great an effort to conceal from public scrutiny, we can say there's hardly any concealment on the part of the elite.
We can even say that the perpetrators are generally committing their acts in the full light of day, as they speak quite openly about their vision for the world.

Continues on True Conspiracies

Also see: Black nobility, house of orange, Frescobaldi on Above Top-Secret

No austerity measures for the Dutch Royal Family

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has called an agreement on austerity measures “a fantastic result”. Analysts had feared that if the government was unable to present a package of measures by Monday to bring down the budget deficit to three percent of Gross National Product, the Netherlands could lose its triple A credit status.

The government sees "no reason" to more cuts in the Royal House. (Elsevier) ‘How rich is Queen Beatrix?’ is then probably a valid question. No one knows the answer on this question.

The Queen’s Treasurer (in Dutch: de Thesaurier der Koningin) is most likely the person closest to ‘the secret’.
I would like to give you an explanation, based from a chapter about the Thesaurier der Koningin out of the book ‘Aan het Hof. De monarchie onder Koningin Beatrix’, (‘At the Court. The monarchy under Queen Beatrix’) by Remco Meijer (ISBN 90 5713 462 4).
‘How rich is Queen Beatrix?’ All publications, articles and magazines who claim to answer this intriguing question are unreliable. Main reason: those who have knowledge about it, maintain a stony silence. Every single Euro put down on Queen Beatrix is pure speculation and is also unreliable for two reasons. Until her death in 2004 Princess Juliana was the owner of the vast bulk of the Orange-Nassau fortune. No one knows exactly what did happen with her heritage. In the Netherlands, by law each child is treated equally and Queen Juliana had four daughters. There is no regulation possible in which the eldest child receives more than the other children.
The other reason is the fact that most of the valuables, the possessions, the art collections, the jewels, the inventories, the gold-, silver and crystal ware, etc. were put into family foundations. These foundations are legal entities on which no natural person can claim an ownership anymore. But all this does not take away that the Orange-Nassaus are one of Europe’s richest families.

The Royal Forums

Atheists chant at Muslim protesters

Some Muslims showed up at the 2012 Atheist Convention in Australia. This is what happened :)

London 2012 Olympic photo ban 'unenforceable'

Olympic bosses have admitted their ban on spectators posting videos and images on websites will be unenforceable. In the terms and conditions of ticket purchases for the London 2012 Games it states ticket holders cannot publish images, video or sound online.

However, Sir Keith Mills, deputy chairman of organisers Locog, said "we live in an internet world... and there's not much we can do about it". He said a "common sense approach" would be used to protect media rights. Spectators will be able to watch many events, including the cycle road race, triathlon and marathon, without a ticket.

But the ticket conditions as they currently stand prohibit ticket holders from posting photos and personal footage of the Olympics on sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

BBC News

Chinese dissident's escape sparks arrests

Authorities in China have started arresting people connected with activist Chen Guangcheng, who was under strict house arrest when he escaped last week.

Fellow activist Hu Jia has been detained, Hu's wife said Sunday on Twitter. There are also reports Chen's brother and nephew are among those who have been detained by police on suspicion that they helped the blind lawyer flee his heavily guarded house in Dongshigu village.

On Saturday, activists said Chen was under U.S. protection and suggested the only place he could be was inside the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, 600 kilometres from his home.

CBC News

1984

BBC Television's live production of George Orwell's "1984". Produced in 1954.

'Hate Speech' laws in Canada

Critics say that Hate Speech laws are not applied consistently in Canada as every day we see the mainstream media stigmatizing and dehumanizing Middle Eastern people with impunity. On the other hand those anti-racists who criticize Israel's policies of genocide and apartheid are finding their freedom of speech to do so increasingly challenged with powerful pro-Israel lobbyists seeking to conflate criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism.

The covers the New Yorker rejected

For every distinctive illustration that the New Yorker puts on its cover each week, there are scores of ideas, sketches and fully realised designs that don't make the cut. Since 1993, when Françoise Mouly became art editor of the magazine, she has been collecting these never-rans – often rejected for being too outrageous – on her office wall. Now Mouly, who founded RAW magazine with her graphic novelist husband, Art Spiegelman, in the 80s, has gathered them into a coffee-table book called Blown Covers. Here she picks her favourite cover sketches that are as acute as they are provocative

The Observer - Blown Covers Website – New Yorker Website

Following the Starr report on the Clinton/Lewinsky affair, Art Spiegelman drew this sketch. The week it would have appeared, Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler, threatened to expose the indiscretions of 11 congressional Republicans.

Wealth of richest grows to record levels

The combined wealth of the 1,000 richest men and women in Britain has risen to record levels in the past year, despite the country’s continuing economic slump. Their total fortune has risen by just under five per cent since 2011, to £414 billion, according to the latest Sunday Times Rich List.

That exceeds the previous record of £412.8 billion set in 2008, which came just a few months before the financial crash from which the wider British economy has yet to recover.

Heading the list for the seventh year running is the steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, although his wealth has fallen £4,814m to £12,700m, placing him just £385m ahead of Alisher Usmanov, whose Metalloinvest is Russia’s biggest iron ore producer. Usmanov’s fortune has also fallen, in his case by £85m in the past year, in part because of charitable donations of £91m. Third placed Roman Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea FC has seen his wealth fall by £800m to £9,500m.

Telegraph

Fela Kuti in Concert

The Time Travelers

The Murder of Gareth Williams

Experts who tried and failed to lock themselves into a sports bag identical to that in which UK MI6 officer Gareth Williams was found believed it likely a third party was involved, his inquest heard, as it emerged he browsed self-bondage websites and videoed himself naked in boots.

The Guardian - Gareth Williams on WikiSpooks – Mail Online

Oh Amadou

Amadou & Mariam (feat. Bertrand Cantat)

China dissident Chen Guangcheng escapes house arrest

One of China's best known dissidents, Chen Guangcheng, has escaped from house arrest and released a video addressed to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. In it he makes three demands, including one that Mr Wen investigate what Mr Chen calls the brutal beating up of his family members. Rights activists say Mr Chen slipped out of his home in Dongshigu town in Shandong province on Sunday. His whereabouts are unclear with some reports that he is in Beijing. Mr Chen had been under house arrest since he was released from a four-year jail sentence in 2010.

In the video posted online by Boxun, a Chinese dissident news website based in the United States, Mr Chen asks that:

• Premier Wen investigate and prosecute local officials Mr Chen says beat up his family members
• The safety of his family be ensured
• Corruption in general in China be dealt with and punished according to the law

The Chinese authorities have come under international criticism for their treatment of him. At one point his daughter was barred from school. Many sympathisers who have tried to visit his home say they have been beaten up.

BBC News

Destroy the nutritional value of food before eating it

Consumers are dying today in part because they continue to eat dead foods that are killed in the microwave. They take a perfectly healthy piece of raw food, loaded with vitamins and natural medicines, then nuke it in the microwave and destroy most of its nutrition.

Humans are the only animals on the planet who destroy the nutritional value of their food before eating it. All other animals consume food in its natural, unprocessed state, but humans actually go out of their way to render food nutritionally worthless before eating it. No wonder humans are the least healthy mammals on the planet.

Zen Haven

11 Surprising Facts and Myths About Microwave Ovens on The Daily Green

Bradley Manning judge warns military prosecutors in WikiLeaks case

The military judge in the court-martial of the US soldier accused of handing WikiLeaks the biggest trove of unauthorised state secrets in American history has put army prosecutors on notice that they must prove Bradley Manning knew he was helping the enemy or face the possibility that the most serious charge against him be dismissed.

Colonel Denise Lind refused to throw out the charge – "aiding the enemy" – as had been requested by Manning's defence lawyers. But she told the military prosecution that during the trial, now scheduled for the end of September, that they would have to prove that the intelligence analyst was fully aware that he was helping the enemy when he allegedly handed hundreds of thousands of secret US documents to WikiLeaks.

Aiding the enemy is the most serious in the list of 22 charges that have been brought against Manning. It carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.

The Guardian