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