4 Aug 2010
Dutch government helping Kagame rig election?
Dutch Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Verhagen recently answered questions (Google translated) in Parliament concerning Rwanda’s election. (These answers were published online in Dutch on July 30, 2010.) The rush transcript shows that the Dutch government refutes claims by the Rwandan opposition parties of Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, Frank Habineza and Bernard Ntaganda that the process so far has been rigged and since July the Dutch government is apparently co-presiding over the Rwandan National Electoral Commission.
The translated answer by Maxime Verhagen which specifically refutes an important claim by the Permanent Consultative Council of Opposition Parties states:
“The claim of the PCC that the independence of the National Electoral Commission (NEC) would only be guaranteed through the participation of opposition is not shared by me. The PCC ‘falls over’ the fact that the chairman of the NEC is a member of the RPF [Rwandan Patriotic Front, Kagame's army and party]. Neutrality, however, is effectively monitored by the co-chair, a donor (The Netherlands). The Netherlands since July 2010 as acting co-chairman of the NEC is co-responsible for setting the agenda and for bringing specific topics to the table. The NEC is directly involved in the process for the adjustment of the electoral law and also responsible for the electoral process. The NEC shall also ensure fairness of the campaign, for example, by checking that the media focus on the current four candidates is distributed evenly. The registration of the presidential candidates was also done at the NEC.”
Full story at San Francisco Bay View
Also see:
Rwanda's Paul Kagame Center of Controversial Election – VAnews.com
Kagame Says Critics of Rwandan-Style Democracy Can ‘Go Hang’ – Bloomberg
Does this picture make you think of Rwanda? … if so, a British PR firm has done its job, and many states want a similar makeover – Read all about it on the Guardian
Middle East on the Brink of Another War
What was first billed as a mere border skirmish took on a darker cast late Tuesday when Israel revealed that its sole fatality along the Lebanon blue line was its most senior officer on the scene. "It was a planned ambush by a sniper unit," Major General Gadi Eisenkot, chief of Israel's northern command, told reporters at an afternoon briefing. "This was a provocation by the Lebanese army."
Civil defense workers and Lebanese soldiers (below) carry an injured soldier in the village of Adaisseh on Tuesday. (Associated Press)
For a regional military superpower, Israel has demonstrated a considerable talent for casting itself as the victim. When its navy commandos killed nine activists on a boat looking to break the sea blockade on Gaza two months back, Israelis blamed the dead civilians for setting upon the underprepared boarders with cudgels, kitchen knives and broken handrails. But the death by gunshot of Lieutenant Colonel Dov Harari appears to support the Israeli version of events that brought on the most serious clash on the Lebanon border since a 34-day war erupted four years ago out of a more serious skirmish initiated by Hizballah, the guerrilla army some suspect was behind Tuesday's episode.
More on TIME and more here and on Washington Times
Wyclef Jean to run for president of Haiti
Speculation mounted Tuesday that Haitian singer Wyclef Jean will officially announce his candidacy Thursday for president of the Western Hemisphere's most embattled country.
CNN announced that Jean, who was born in Haiti but has lived much of his life in the United States, will appear Thursday night on Larry King Live to discuss his plans. The Associated Press quoted former legislator Pierre Eric Jean-Jacques as saying that the hip-hop superstar will run as part of Jean-Jacques' ``together we are strong'' coalition.
The reports are the latest to point toward a run for the former Fugees star. The Miami Herald reported Friday that Jean officially announced his intentions in a series of meetings, and that his lawyers were working on his paperwork.
3 Aug 2010
Iran snubs Brazilian asylum offer for stoning woman
Iran signalled today that it was likely to reject the Brazilian president's offer to give refuge to an Iranian woman convicted of adultery and sentenced to death by stoning.
The case of 43-year-old Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani triggered an international outcry that prompted Iran to at least temporarily withdraw the stoning sentence. Ashtiani, who has two children, could still be hanged.
Ramin Mehmanparast, a foreign ministry spokesman, said: "A far as we know, [the Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula] Da Silva is a very humane and emotional person who probably has not received enough information about the case." Further information would be provided to the president to clarify the situation about "an individual who is a convicted offender", he added. Iran says Ashtiani has also been convicted of murder.
The outcry over the death sentence is one of the latest thorns in Iran's relationship with the international community, as the US, Britain and international human rights groups have urged Tehran to stay the execution.
Also see: EQUAL RIGHTS NOW - ORGANISATION AGAINST WOMEN'S DISCRIMINATION IN IRAN
2 Aug 2010
Israel president claims English are 'anti-semitic'
Shimon Peres said England was "deeply pro-Arab ... and anti-Israeli", adding: "They always worked against us." He added: "There is in England a saying that an anti-Semite is someone who hates the Jews more than is necessary."
His remarks, made in an interview on a Jewish website, provoked anger from senior MPs and Jewish leaders who said the 87-year-old president had "got it wrong". But other groups backed the former Israeli prime minister and said the number of anti-semitic incidents had risen dramatically in the UK in recent years.
The controversy follows the furore last week over David Cameron's remark that Gaza was a "prison camp", as he urged Israel to allow aid and people to move freely in and out of the Palestinian territory.
1 Aug 2010
Origins and Symbols of the EU
David Icke discusses the Origins and the Symbolism of the European Union. The EU is the represents the reemergence of the Roman Empire and a stepping stone towards to formation of a world government, otherwise known as the New World Order. David talks about the Catholic/Vatican influences in the EU and the Royals, especially the Hapsburgs, who are behind its inception. We talk about Religious Symbolism and the Babylonian/Sumerian Origins of those Symbols.
See other documentaries on Red Ice Creations
30 Jul 2010
Brutal slaughter of pilot whales
The disembowelled bodies of brutally slaughtered whales line a dockside just 230 miles from Britain - as families with children wander among them.
More than 200 protected pilot whales were hacked to death with knives and sharpened hooks by fishermen who trapped them in coves on the Faroe Islands.
Disturbing images show deep gouges where whalers hacked at the animals to sever their spinal cords. Others show the bodies of unborn calves torn from their mothers' wombs. Crowds of islanders, including youngsters, gathered to watch the slaughter, known as "the grind".
More on The Sun and on Sea Shepherd (shocking images)
29 Jul 2010
Hamas bans women's underwear from Gaza shop windows
Hamas authorities in the Gaza Strip have banned Gaza clothing outlets from displaying lingerie in their shop windows, police said Thursday.
The ban was not intended to "Islamise" Palestinian society, but restore "the public morals, " Hamas police spokesman Ayman Batniji said in a statement. Shop owners who violated the new edicts would be fined, he added.
The new order calls for removing scantily clad mannequins and security cameras, and also requires shops to keep their doors open. "The police will also launch investigations into the conduct of the stores' owners to avoid any suspicious behaviour with female customers," Batniji said.
Since seizing control of the coastal salient in 2007,the Islamist Hamas has been imposing restrictions on the population which critics say impinge on personal liberties.
28 Jul 2010
Gulf downturn strands labourers
Gulf investors may have seen their investments shrink, but hundreds of foreign labourers in the United Arab Emirates are suffering a far worse fate as a result of the Dubai-centered economic bust.
Abandoned by companies that pulled up stakes in the downturn, hundreds have been left with no pay, confiscated passports and barely enough food to survive.
One camp in the emirate of Sharjah has had no electricity for two months, and the 38 men from Pakistan and Bangladesh who live there haven’t received their $220-per-month wage for 10 months.
According to Al Jazeera's Dan Nolan, the men live together in cramped rooms and take their mattresses onto the roof at night to escape the oppressive summer heat, which can reach 50 degrees Celsius.
The workers say their Indian employer has fled the country, and though they have registered their abandoned status with a court, they have only received new passports in return.
27 Jul 2010
The Afghan War Diary
The Afghan War Diary an extraordinary secret compendium of over 91,000 reports covering the war in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2010. The reports describe the majority of lethal military actions involving the United States military. They include the number of persons internally stated to be killed, wounded, or detained during each action, together with the precise geographical location of each event, and the military units involved and major weapon systems used.
WikiLeaks The Afghan War Diary
5 Biggest Revelations of Wikileaks Documents on The Atlantic Wire
17 Jul 2010
Detect Aggressive Voices With Sigard
Sigard software can detect verbal aggression with a high level of accuracy. Combined with closed circuit television systems (CCTVs), Sigard by Sound Intelligence can detect verbally aggressive individuals in outdoor public spaces, public transportation, nightclubs and bars.
Here's how it works. A single analysis computer accepts sensor input from a variety of locations. Once the software detects a verbally aggressive human voice, it activates the camera associated with that sensor, bringing it to a security guard's attention. This helps cut down on the number of people needed to monitor CCTVs.
(Sigard aggressive voice sound analysis)
Sigard Sound Intelligence software imitates the way that humans deal with sound, splitting it into different frequencies with varying amounts of energy. Just as a person can immediately detect anger and aggression in the midst of background noise, Sound Intelligence software "listens" for the same parameters that humans use in detecting aggressive speech.
This system is already in place in a few locations in the Netherlands. Police in the UK are also considering installing the system.
Homophobia in Football
The Justin Campaign was founded to demonstrate that ten years after Justin Fashanu’s tragic suicide in 1998, homophobia is still hugely prevalent in the world of professional football.
Along with raising awareness the campaign has a strong focus on Art, Events, Education and football. Through these four key initiatives and some forward thinking strategic work with other inclusive sporting organisations The Justin Campaign seeks to challenge the stereotypes and misconceptions that exist around gay & bisexual men & women in football and work towards a future where the visibility of gay and bisexual men in professional football are both accepted and celebrated.
The Justin Campaign - Campaigning Against Homophobia in Football
Military Camp for Kids
South Korean elementary school students lay in the mud during a summer military camp for kids at the Cheongryong Self-denial Training Camp on Daebu Island in Ansan, southwest of Seoul, South Korea on Thursday. One-hundred fifty-six kids took part in the three-day camp to strengthen themselves mentally and physically. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
16 Jul 2010
Iranian scientist was CIA mole
Never work for the CIA, they will betray you…
The scientist claiming to have been kidnapped and tortured by the United States was a CIA mole who spied on Iran's nuclear programme for several years, American officials have said.
Shahram Amiri was a vital source whose "significant, original" intelligence allowed his US minders to build up a comprehensive assessment of Iran's clandestine nuclear capabilities, the officials claimed.
The allegations are the latest twist in an increasingly perplexing saga that has embarrassed the United States and prompted jubilant crowing in Iran, which has long maintained that the CIA kidnapped Mr Amiri during a visit to Saudi Arabia last year.
Mr Amiri was reunited with his wife and seven-year-old-son after flying back to a hero's welcome in Iran on Thursday. He repeated allegations that he had been abducted, tortured by Israeli and American officers, and later offered $10 million (£6.5 million) to say that he had come to the United States of his own volition
15 Jul 2010
The Real Agenda Behind Cybersecurity
In this special video report for Prison Planet.tv members, Paul Joseph Watson explains why the real agenda behind cybersecurity is political oppression and the death of free speech on the Internet, and how the entire globe is now implementing Chinese style censorship policies to change the nature of the world wide web as we know it forever.
Also see this freepress site: Save The Internet
Nigeria's agony dwarfs the Gulf oil spill. The US and Europe ignore it
With 606 oilfields, the Niger delta supplies 40% of all the crude the United States imports and is the world capital of oil pollution. Life expectancy in its rural communities, half of which have no access to clean water, has fallen to little more than 40 years over the past two generations. Locals blame the oil that pollutes their land and can scarcely believe the contrast with the steps taken by BP and the US government to try to stop the Gulf oil leak and to protect the Louisiana shoreline from pollution.
"If this Gulf accident had happened in Nigeria, neither the government nor the company would have paid much attention," said the writer Ben Ikari, a member of the Ogoni people. "This kind of spill happens all the time in the delta."
"The oil companies just ignore it. The lawmakers do not care and people must live with pollution daily. The situation is now worse than it was 30 years ago. Nothing is changing. When I see the efforts that are being made in the US I feel a great sense of sadness at the double standards. What they do in the US or in Europe is very different."
"We see frantic efforts being made to stop the spill in the US," said Nnimo Bassey, Nigerian head of Friends of the Earth International. "But in Nigeria, oil companies largely ignore their spills, cover them up and destroy people's livelihood and environments. The Gulf spill can be seen as a metaphor for what is happening daily in the oilfields of Nigeria and other parts of Africa.
Pale Blue Dot
Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot. There are several different versions of "The Pale Blue Dot" on-line.