A year ago it was just a "conspiracy theory." Yes, UN peacekeeper troops brought cholera to Haiti and are responsible for the biggest outbreak the of the disease in modern times. They're response to request for compensation for thousands of deaths and hundreds of thousands cases is: "too bad."
23 Feb 2013
Cancer villages in China
China's environment ministry appears to have acknowledged the existence of so-called "cancer villages" after years of public speculation about the impact of pollution in certain areas. For years campaigners have said cancer rates in some villages near factories and polluted waterways have shot up. But the term "cancer village" has no technical definition and the ministry's report did not elaborate on it.
There have been many calls for China to be more transparent on pollution. The latest report from the environment ministry is entitled "Guard against and control risks presented by chemicals to the environment during the 12th Five-Year period (2011-2015)".
It says that the widespread production and consumption of harmful chemicals forbidden in many developed nations are still found in China. "The toxic chemicals have caused many environmental emergencies linked to water and air pollution," it said. The report goes on to acknowledge that such chemicals could pose a long-term risk to human health, making a direct link to the so-called "cancer villages".
"There are even some serious cases of health and social problems like the emergence of cancer villages in individual regions," it said.
22 Feb 2013
Bradley Manning 1000 Days in Jail
World wide support for Manning as trial of alleged Stratfor hacker Jeremy Hammond takes bizarre twist.
Indiana Farmer's Supreme Court Challenge to Corporate Control of Food Supply
A David versus Goliath case heard by the US Supreme Court this week pits a 75-year-old farmer from Indiana against Monsanto, the world's largest seed company. The dispute began when soybean farmer Vernon Bowman bought and planted a mix of unmarked grain typically used for animal feed. The plants that grew turned out to contain the popular herbicide-resistant genetic trait known as Roundup Ready that Monsanto guards closely with patents. Monsanto accused Bowman of using their technology without paying for it. Their contracts with farmers give them the exclusive rights to supply the Roundup Ready soybeans. They sued Bowman for patent infringement. Monsanto won the Federal Circuit decision. Farmers, safe food activists, and concerned citizens will gather on the sidewalk outside of the Supreme Court to demand the Supreme Court side with Farmer Bowman!
21 Feb 2013
Pope Contender Says No Priest Sex Abuse In Africa Because Of Anti-Gay Laws
The Cardinal heralded as the man who could be the first black Pope has said sex abuse could not happen in Africa, on the same scale as Europe, because of tough anti-homosexuality laws.
Survivors of abuse by priests say they "fear for the safety of kids in Turkson's diocese if he denies there are predatory priests there".
Cardinal Turkson is currently the second favourite to be the next pontiff, and had been championed by progressives who have urged the Vatican to elect the first African pope.
20 Feb 2013
Why does a Duke worth £320m want to double the rents of his farmers?
He is the aristocratic owner of the castle featured in Harry Potter. And although his fortune is said to be around £320million, it seems the Duke of Northumberland wants more. Ralph Percy, 56, has been accused of wrecking the livelihoods of tenant farmers after his land agents demanded massive rent increases. Some have been asked to pay up to 98 per cent more or face eviction.
The Duke, whose son George was last year rumoured to be dating Pippa Middleton, owns some 132,000 acres of land. His 1,000-year-old castle at Alnwick, which featured as Hogwarts in the Harry Potter films, is known as the Windsor of the North. But despite his wealth, it emerged yesterday that the Duke’s Estate is conducting a crippling round of rent reviews on its farmers in Northumberland. There is no legal limit to the rent the land agents can ask for, and tenants are unlikely to challenge them because this can end up costing them even more.
China aiding hacker attacks on west
The Chinese army has launched hundreds of cyber-attacks against western companies and defence groups from a nondescript office building in Shanghai, according to a report that warns hackers have stolen vast amounts of data from their targets.
Mandiant, a security company that has been investigating attacks against western organisations for over six years, said in a report (PDF) the attacks came from a 12-storey building belonging to the People's Liberation Army (PLA) general staff's department, also known as Unit 61398.
Mandiant said it believed a hacking network named the Comment Crew or the Shanghai Group was based inside the compound, in a rundown residential neighbourhood. Although the report fails directly to place the hackers inside the building, it argues there is no other logical reason why so many attacks have emanated from such a small area.
"It is time to acknowledge the threat is originating in China, and we wanted to do our part to arm and prepare security professionals to combat that threat effectively," said the report.
19 Feb 2013
A Plastic Princess made for breeding
Hilary Mantel has woken up to something of a firestorm after a long speech she recently made about the royal family and society's relationship with them was interpreted as an "astonishing and venomous attack" on the Duchess of Cambridge.
The headlines did not pull punches: "a plastic princess designed to breed", read the Daily Mail, which lambasted the "Booker prizewinner's venomous attack on Kate"; "plastic princess slur", said the Sun headline, which described Mantel's speech as a "bizarre rant".
The crater from the Russian Meteoroid
In the skies over the Chelyabinsk February 15 at about 09:30 local time, an explosion occurred. According to MOE, over the region was a meteor rain. Space monitoring devices before the explosion recorded activity in the lower atmosphere.
US tested new weapon, no meteor in Chelyabinsk
The firebrand Russian Liberal Democrat leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky claims that no meteor fell in the Urals on Friday, but rather the US was testing a new weapon. “You’re like some primitive tribe. What meteorite?” he said, arguing that space is a “universe that has its own laws.”
Zhirinovsky, more known for clownish political outrage rather than his actual political platform, added: “When something falls – it’s man-made. People are warmongers and provocateurs.”
Earlier in the week, US Secretary of State John Kerry reportedly tried and failed to reach Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov by telephone for two consecutive days. The State Department said that Kerry wanted to discuss the recent North Korean nuclear test, as well as the conflict in Syria. However, Zhirinovsky claimed that the top US diplomat “wanted to warn Lavrov about the plot and that it may affect Russia,” RIA Novosti reported.
18 Feb 2013
Mystery of the Sphinx
Geological evidence that the world's most famous monument, The Great Sphinx of Egypt, may be thousands of years older than we have been taught.
17 Feb 2013
Secrets and lies – the double life of Prisoner X
He was "a double agent working for Iran"; he was "responsible for the botched operation in a Dubai hotel in 2010" in which Mossad agents killed a senior Hamas commander; he was "just a loud mouth who couldn't keep quiet" about being a member of Israel's secret service. These are some of the many theories about why Ben Zygier, or "Prisoner X" as he was known until last week, was held in Israel's most secure prison for a few months before apparently killing himself in December 2010. His detention was kept so secret that even his guards didn't know his name; his presumed crime so grave that even his family haven't gone public about his case.
ASIO has been blamed as having a part hand in the death of Australian "prisoner X" Ben Zygier after allegedly leaking information of his work as a Mossad agent to the press.
Israel today sought to defend its jailing of Australian "prisoner X" Ben Zygier by declaring it a case of pikuach nefesh - the Jewish imperative to save lives at all cost. Vice Premier and Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya’alon said today Israel’s "unique" security situation sometimes called for "extreme measures" and that the secret jailing of alleged Mossad agent Zygier was critical.
Midway
This video is about an island in the ocean at 2000 km from any other coast line. Nobody lives there, only birds and yet ............... You will not believe your eyes!!!!!!!
16 Feb 2013
Pope will have immunity by remaining in the Vatican
Pope Benedict's decision to live in the Vatican after he resigns will provide him with security and privacy. It will also offer legal protection from any attempt to prosecute him in connection with sexual abuse cases around the world, Church sources and legal experts say.
"His continued presence in the Vatican is necessary, otherwise he might be defenseless. He wouldn't have his immunity, his prerogatives, his security, if he is anywhere else," said one Vatican official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "It is absolutely necessary" that he stays in the Vatican, said the source, adding that Benedict should have a "dignified existence" in his remaining years.
The 1929 Lateran Pacts between Italy and the Holy See, which established Vatican City as a sovereign state, said Vatican City would be "invariably and in every event considered as neutral and inviolable territory".
There have been repeated calls for Benedict's arrest over sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. When Benedict went to Britain in 2010, British author and atheist campaigner Richard Dawkins asked authorities to arrest the pope to face questions over the Church's child abuse scandal. Dawkins and the late British-American journalist Christopher Hitchens commissioned lawyers to explore ways of taking legal action against the pope. Their efforts came to nothing because the pope was a head of state and so enjoyed diplomatic immunity.
In 2011, victims of sexual abuse by the clergy asked the International Criminal Court to investigate the pope and three Vatican officials over sexual abuse. The New York-based rights group Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and another group, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), filed a complaint with the ICC alleging that Vatican officials committed crimes against humanity because they tolerated and enabled sex crimes. The ICC has not taken up the case but has never said why. It generally does not comment on why it does not take up cases.
Amazon - Terra Preta
Amero-Indian impacts on their forest environment, and the modern situtation are covered. Startling discoveries in the Amazon are set to rewrite the history books; and - if we can learn to harness the 'dark earth' - bring about a paradigm shift in the way humans percieve their role on this planet. We had better make up our minds on success (fullfill our purpose as creatures of God's image) and tend a paradise garden for eternity... or fail!!
15 Feb 2013
The Secret Orders of Cheney
In 2003, Former US Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta testified before the 9/11 Commission:
Mineta: "During the time that the airplane was coming into the Pentagon, there was a young man who would come in and say to the Vice President...the plane is 50 miles out...the plane is 30 miles out....and when it got down to the plane is 10 miles out, the young man also said to the vice president "do the orders still stand?" And the Vice President turned and whipped his neck around and said "Of course the orders still stand, have you heard anything to the contrary!??"
Also see: Historic Court Case Against the BBC’s Cover Up of 9/11 Evidence on Global Research
World Press Photo 2012
Photo by Paul Hansen, Sweden, Dagens Nyheter
Two-year-old Suhaib Hijazi and his older brother Muhammad were killed when their house was destroyed by an Israeli missile strike. Their father Fouad was also killed and their mother was put in intensive care. Fouad’s brothers carry his children to the mosque for the burial ceremony as his body is carried behind on a stretcher.
Amazon 'used neo-Nazi guards to keep immigrant workforce under control' in Germany
Amazon is at the centre of a deepening scandal in Germany as the online shopping giant faced claims that it employed security guards with neo-Nazi connections to intimidate its foreign workers.
Germany’s ARD television channel made the allegations in a documentary about Amazon’s treatment of more than 5,000 temporary staff from across Europe to work at its German packing and distribution centres. The film showed omnipresent guards from a company named HESS Security wearing black uniforms, boots and with military haircuts. They were employed to keep order at hostels and budget hotels where foreign workers stayed. “Many of the workers are afraid,” the programme-makers said.
The documentary provided photographic evidence showing that guards regularly searched the bedrooms and kitchens of foreign staff. “They tell us they are the police here,” a Spanish woman complained. Workers were allegedly frisked to check they had not walked away with breakfast rolls.
Meteorite Injures Hundreds After Streaking Across Russia
Hundreds of people have been left injured after a meteor streaked through the skies above Russia's Ural mountains. Fragments of the meteor fell to the ground, breaking windows and setting off car alarms in the Chelyabinsk region while a series of loud bangs caused panic amid initial fears there had been a plane crash.
One witness from Emanzhilinsk in the Chelyabinsk region told The Moscow Times: "It started to explode in the air and then continued to the earth. There are black clouds over the city. Everybody thought war had broken out."
14 Feb 2013
Israel's Prisoner X driven to suicide by interrogation, lawyer suggests
Ben Zygier – the man known as Israel's Prisoner X, an Australian-Israeli citizen who died in mysterious circumstances while secretly imprisoned after an apparent career in the Mossad — had denied the "serious" allegations against him and was discussing a plea bargain just before his death.
In the latest twist in a story that has engulfed both Israel and Australia, Zygier's lawyer, Avigdor Feldman, told Israel's Channel 10 on Thursday that he had seen him the day before his death in 2010 and that he had appeared rational. He had, however, been put under intense emotional pressure by those interrogating him, which Feldman speculated could have contributed to his suicide.
"His interrogators told him he could expect lengthy jail time and be ostracised from his family and the Jewish community. There was no heartstring they did not pull, and I suppose that ultimately brought about the tragic end," he said. Speaking on Thursday, Feldman said: "I met a balanced person … He was rationally considering legal options.I can say that he denied the charges … The crimes he was suspected of were serious … He didn't admit to anything."
In one of the fiercest denunciations yet of the behaviour of the authorities and media in the Prisoner X affair, the veteran liberal Israeli journalist Gideon Levy, writing in Haaretz, condemned the state's ability to "disappear" people with the collusion of the press and courts.
"Alongside the organisations of darkness was the collaborating judicial system, the newspaper editors who were keen to bring back the days of the disgraceful editors' committee, the newspapers and the broadcast channels that only two days ago were trying to suppress the affair — all the agents, lawyers, jailers, censors, police and investigators who knew and kept quiet."
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