9 Apr 2010
PIXELS
Patrick Jean, a French director for OneMoreProd, has put out a roughly 2 1/2-minute video featuring many of the game elements and characters you grew up with during the heyday of Atari and Nintendo (NES).
Binyamin Netanyahu pulls out of Washington nuclear weapons summit
Relations between Israel and the US took another turn for the worsetoday after the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, cancelled a trip to Washington next week amid reports that Barack Obama's administration is seriously considering a Plan B for a Middle East peace settlement.
An Obama administration official said that the preference is still for talks between Israel and the Palestinians but admitted that if that failed, it will look at alternative options, including Obama setting out his own Middle East proposal for a comprehensive peace deal.
George W. Bush 'knew Guantánamo prisoners were innocent'
George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld covered up that hundreds of innocent men were sent to the Guantánamo Bay prison camp because they feared that releasing them would harm the push for war in Iraq and the broader War on Terror, according to a new document obtained by The Times.
The accusations were made by Lawrence Wilkerson, a top aide to Colin Powell, the former Republican Secretary of State, in a signed declaration to support a lawsuit filed by a Guantánamo detainee. It is the first time that such allegations have been made by a senior member of the Bush Administration.
Colonel Wilkerson, who was General Powell’s chief of staff when he ran the State Department, was most critical of Mr Cheney and Mr Rumsfeld. He claimed that the former Vice-President and Defence Secretary knew that the majority of the initial 742 detainees sent to Guantánamo in 2002 were innocent but believed that it was “politically impossible to release them”.
General Powell, who left the Bush Administration in 2005, angry about the misinformation that he unwittingly gave the world when he made the case for the invasion of Iraq at the UN, is understood to have backed Colonel Wilkerson’s declaration.
Rwandan Genocide: Installing a US Protectorate in Central Africa
The civil war in Rwanda and the ethnic massacres were an integral part of US foreign policy, carefully staged in accordance with precise strategic and economic objectives.
From the outset of the Rwandan civil war in 1990, Washington's hidden agenda consisted in establishing an American sphere of influence in a region historically dominated by France and Belgium. America's design was to displace France by supporting the Rwandan Patriotic Front and by arming and equipping its military arm, the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA)
8 Apr 2010
Canada's annual seal hunt kicks off
Canada's annual seal hunt has started off the coast of eastern Canada despite a dwindling market for seal products because of a European Union ban on imports.
The harp seal hunt north of Newfoundland and Labrador began Thursday with the quota increased by 50,000 animals to a total of 330,000.
Frank Pinhorn of the Canadian Sealers Association says sealers will take a fraction of the annual quota because only one of the four regular purchasers is buying harp pelts this year.
The Associated Press - Also see: harpseals.org
US military 'cannot find Iraq tape'
The US military has said it cannot find its copy of a video showing two helicopters involved in a deadly attack in Baghdad in 2007.
The classified video footage filmed from a helicopter gunsight was released on Monday by Wikileaks, a group that publishes anonymously sourced documents on the internet, and has led to renewed questions about the attack. US military lawyers are also reviewing the video and, depending on their findings, could reopen an investigation into the incident, Pentagon officials told the Reuters news agency.
The leaked footage that has been widely watched online around the world is the latest twist in a three-year saga that has raised questions about the US rules of engagement in battle and the safety of journalists covering wars. Two Reuters journalists were among the 12 people killed in the July 12, 2007 attack.
Captain Jack Hanzlik, a spokesman for US Central Command, said on Tuesday that the military has not been able to locate the video within its files after being asked to authenticate the version published by Wikileaks.
"We had no reason to hold the video at [Central Command], nor did the higher headquarters in Iraq," he said in an e-mailed statement to The Associated Press.
"We're attempting to retrieve the video from the unit who did the investigation."
Upheaval in Kyrgyzstan as Leader Flees
Large-scale protests on Wednesday appeared to overthrow the government of Kyrgyzstan, an important American ally in Central Asia.
While the opposition declared that it was forming its own government, President Kurmanbek Bakiyev left Bishkek in the presidential plane, though it was not clear whether he was leaving the country or heading to another Kyrgyz city. Earlier in the day, the police used live ammunition, tear gas and stun grenades against a crowd of thousands that massed in front of the presidential office in Bishkek, according to witness accounts.
Dinara Saginbayeva, a Kyrgyz health official, said in a telephone interview that the death toll could rise further, and that more than 350 people had been wounded in Bishkek alone. Opposition leaders said as many as 100 people may have died. The upheaval raised questions about the future of an important American air base that operates in Kyrgyzstan in support of the NATO mission in nearby Afghanistan. American officials said that as of Wednesday evening the base was functioning normally.
7 Apr 2010
Putin says Russian people not to blame for Katyn massacre
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has warned against attempts to blame the Russian people for the events in Katyn, where thousands of Polish POWs were massacred by Joseph Stalin‘s secret police in 1940.
“For decades, attempts have been made to cover up the truth about the Katyn massacre with cynical lies, but suggesting that the Russian people are to blame for that is the same kind of lie and fabrication," he said on Wednesday. Putin cautioned against attempts to rethink what he said “has already received political, legal and moral assessment in Russia.”
For the real history and much more information see: Katyn Forest Massacre
Unrest in Kyrgyzstan prompts state of emergency
Civil unrest engulfed the politically troubled central Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan Wednesday, with the government declaring a state of emergency and street fighting resulting in 17 deaths, the Interfax news agency reported.
Seventeen people were killed in clashes in Kyrgyzstan's capital Wednesday, the Kyrgyz national news agency also reported, quoting the country's Health Ministry. Most of them died from bullet wounds. More than 140 people have been injured.
Earlier, human rights activist Toktaim Umetaliyeva had told Interfax 10 people at an opposition rally in Bishkek had been shot and killed by police dispersing demonstrators near a government building. Using riot gear, stun grenades and dogs, police in Bishkek detained protesters and hauled them away in buses.
Quoting eyewitnesses, Interfax reported that police managed to push opposition supporters away from the square outside the Kyrgyz government's building in Bishkek. Some protesters stopped buses in attempts to block central streets.
Karzai 'threatened to join Taliban'
Afghan President Hamid Karzai threatened over the weekend to quit the political process and join the Taliban if he continued to come under outside pressure to reform, according to several members of parliament.
They said that Karzai made the unusual statement at a closed-door meeting with selected lawmakers - just days after kicking up diplomatic controversy with remarks alleging foreigners were behind fraud in last year's disputed elections.
Lawmakers dismissed the latest comment as hyperbole, but it will add to the impression that the president - who relies on tens of thousands of US and Nato forces to fight the insurgency and prop up his government - is growing increasingly erratic and unable to exert authority without attacking his foreign backers.
"He said that 'if I come under foreign pressure, I might join the Taliban'," said Farooq Marenai, who represents the eastern province of Nangarhar. (The Press Association)
So now: Afghan president Hamid Karzai 'may be taking illegal drugs' - Times
6 Apr 2010
Satanism, Ritual Abuse & Pedophilia in the Roman Catholic Church
Henrik Palmgren goes into the dark and murky waters of devil worship, Luciferians, secret societies and the connection to Satanism with our guest William H Kennedy who is the author of "Satanic Crime: A Threat in the New Millennium" and "Lucifer's Lodge: Satanic Ritual Abuse in the Catholic Church".
We begin to talk about the satanic panic of the 1980s in the United States and then we go into the Roman Catholic Church, the recent pedophilia scandals, the Vatican and how the pope has protected pedophiles.
Listen to Hour 1 – and Hour 2 on Red Ice Radio
Millions of Sea Turtles Captured, Killed by Fisheries
Millions of endangered sea turtles have been accidentally captured or killed over the past two decades by longline, gillnet and trawl fisheries worldwide, according to a new report.
The report, published in the journal Conservation Letters, is the first global assessment of sea turtle bycatch for these three major types of fishing. Bycatch occurs when fishing equipment, such as giant nets or longlines with thousands of baited hooks, snag animals other than what they are intended to catch.
Turtles, which are air-breathing reptiles, often perish by drowning or by swallowing sharp hooks that can become lodged in the soft tissue of the turtles' throats and stomachs. "For sea turtles, fisheries bycatch is the most serious, acute threat to the persistence of their populations," lead author Bryan Wallace told Discovery News, adding that shrimp trawling is one of the most damaging practices.
5 Apr 2010
Collateral Murder
WikiLeaks has released a classified US military video depicting the indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad -- including two Reuters news staff. Reuters has been trying to obtain the video through the Freedom of Information Act, without success since the time of the attack. The video, shot from an Apache helicopter gun-site in 2007, clearly shows the unprovoked slaying of a wounded Reuters employee and his rescuers. Two young children involved in the rescue were also seriously wounded. For further information please visit the special project website www.collateralmurder.com.
Did Boy Scouts Keep "Perversion Files?"
"The Perversion Files," as the Scouts called them, have rarely been seen publicly -- but now, 20,000 pages have been admitted as evidence in the trial.
"It's shocking to read case after case of sex abuse of men preying on boys," Boyle said. "What's also shocking - you realize how much the Scouts knew."
In a written statement, the Boy Scouts of America says it can't comment on the case in Oregon but says the files are used to track those "not eligible for … membership" and are just one way to "ensure a safe and healthy experience for … Scouts."
However Jack Doe No. 4 says because neither parents nor police were notified the perversion files did nothing to protect him. The abuse haunts him to this day.
"I can't sleep," he said. "Sometimes I go days without sleeping."
4 Apr 2010
Pope defiant over child sex abuse
In Easter sermons that revealed penitence, shame and shortcomings, archbishops in Armagh, Dublin, Edinburgh, Vienna and Westminster asked congregations for their forgiveness and urged them not to abandon the church because of past sins. But there was no apology from Rome, as Benedict XVI maintained a steadfast silence about the crisis in his annual Urbi et Orbi – To the City and the World – address.
The only mention of the turmoil came from Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the dean of the College of Cardinals, who stood before the pope in a packed St Peter's Square and lauded him as the "unfailing rock" of the Catholic church.
Cardinal tells Pope Benedict XVI not to be distracted by 'petty gossip' – Telegraph.co.uk
Secret tape reveals UK Tory backing for ban on gays
The Tories were embroiled in a furious row over lesbian and gay rightson Saturday after the shadow home secretary, Chris Grayling, was secretly taped suggesting that people who ran bed and breakfasts in their homes should "have the right" to turn away homosexual couples.
The comments, made by Grayling last week to a leading centre-right thinktank, drew an angry response from gay groups and other parties, which said they were evidence that senior figures in David Cameron's party still tolerate prejudice.
In a recording of the meeting of the Centre for Policy Studies, obtained by the Observer, Grayling makes clear he has always believed that those who run B&Bs should be free to turn away guests.
"I think we need to allow people to have their own consciences," he said. "I personally always took the view that, if you look at the case of should a Christian hotel owner have the right to exclude a gay couple from a hotel, I took the view that if it's a question of somebody who's doing a B&B in their own home, that individual should have the right to decide who does and who doesn't come into their own home."
Terreblanche killed in South Africa
South African white supremacist leader Eugene Terreblanche has been killed on his farm in the country's north-west. Mr Terreblanche, 69, was beaten to death after a dispute over unpaid wages, local media reports said. Two people are said to have been arrested.
Mr Terreblanche, who campaigned for a separate white homeland, came to prominence in the early 1980s. He became the champion of a tiny minority determined to stop the process that was bringing apartheid to an end.
"Mr Terreblanche's body was found on the bed with facial and head injuries," AFP news agency quoted a police spokesman as saying. The report said he had been killed after a payment dispute with two workers, who have since been charged with his murder. "He was hacked to death while he was taking a nap," a family friend in the town of Ventersdorp was quoted as telling Reuters news agency.
The murder comes amid growing anxiety about crime in South Africa and what opposition politicians say are irresponsible and racially inflammatory sentiments from a minority of the ruling ANC party, says the BBC's Karen Allen in Johannesburg.
Animal Misery Isn't Magic
The Fercos Brothers have just opened their "Untamed Illusion" show in Las Vegas at Planet Hollywood. This video shows how the Fercos Brothers' animals lived when the show toured South America last year. There's nothing magical about using wild animals for tricks.
Frightened young mother has her little girl chipped
Captain Cyborg - www.theregister.co.uk - takes advantage of the mainstream media's fear-mongering over the Madeleine McCann case. The evidence suggests that we are being lied to about what happened to the poor little girl - www.madeleinefoundation.org.uk - but that obviously doesn't matter to "the wonderful wizard of Oz". matrixcutter
Also see: We The People Will Not Be Chipped!
3 Apr 2010
Erykah Badu charged over nude music video shoot at site of JFK assassination
Erykah Badu has been charged for stripping off in a music video in downtown Dallas, officials said.
The singer has been charged with disorderly conduct for taking her clothes off on a street full of pedestrians during the filming of her new single Window Seat in Dealey Plaza.
The performance ended with a totally naked Badu, who is from Dallas, pretending to receive a fatal bullet to the head at the spot where President John F Kennedy was assassinated in 1963.
Read more: Daily Mail
2 Apr 2010
Daimler agrees to pay $185m after admitting bribery
German carmaker Daimler has pleaded guilty to corruption in the US and will pay $185m (£121m) to settle the case. The charges relate to US Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission investigations into the company's global sales practices. Daimler, the owner of Mercedes-Benz, admitted to paying tens of millions of dollars of bribes to foreign government officials in at least 22 countries.
They were said to have given money and lavish gifts to help win contracts in countries including China, Russia, Thailand, Greece, and Iraq.
The Justice Department said that by "using offshore bank accounts, third-party agents and deceptive pricing practices, these companies saw foreign bribery as a way of doing business".
New York Subway riders question NYPD’s ‘ridiculous’ show of force
Some people in New York are wondering whether the presence of police officers toting machine guns through the city's subway tunnels is really a necessary response to the subway bombings in Moscow on Monday.
"I think it's ridiculous," Torey Deprisest, a tourist from Ohio, told the New York Post. "The attack happened in a different country and had nothing to do with Americans. I'd be nervous seeing cops with machine guns on the train. It makes people afraid when they don't need to be."
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Queens resident Holly Celentang described the police response as excessive.
NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne told the Daily News that the measures are "simply a precaution," and said there was "no indication that the Moscow bombings were related to anything planned against the New York City subway system. Better overkill than under-response," Joe Kerick of New Jersey told the Post. "If the terrorists see an under-response, they may think we are vulnerable."
Blaming pope for sex abuse scandal is like 'the most shameful aspects of anti-Semitism'
Tarring the Pope for the latest pedophile priest scandal is like "the most shameful aspects of anti-Semitism." That startling parallel was raised Friday by a Vatican preacher at a service attended by Pope Benedict himself.
Father Raniero Cantalamessa told the assembled at St. Peter's Basilica that Jews have for centuries been the victims of "collective violence."
And now, the priest said, the entire Catholic Church is under attack. Quoting a letter sent to him by a Jewish friend, Cantalamessa said he was "following with disgust the violent and concentric attacks against the Church, the pope. The use of stereotypes, the shifting of personal responsibility and guilt to a collective guilt remind me of the most shameful aspects of anti-Semitism," he quoted from the letter.