From the Great Dictator (Chaplin 1940)
17 Apr 2011
Cuba marks 50th anniversary of Bay of Pigs invasion
Cuba has held one of its largest military parades in decades, to mark the 50th anniversary of the failed CIA-led invasion at the Bay of Pigs.
Hundreds of thousands of Cubans marched in Havana to celebrate the occasion, seen as a triumph over the US. A key Communist Party congress, which is expected to back moves towards market reform, is also taking place. President Raul Castro has said Cuba must shrink the state and encourage private enterprise to save socialism. BBC News
The Bay of Pigs Invasion was an unsuccessful action by a CIA-trained force of Cuban exiles to invade southern Cuba, with support and encouragement from the US government, in an attempt to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. The invasion was launched in April 1961, less than three months after John F. Kennedy assumed the presidency in the United States. The Cuban armed forces, trained and equipped by Eastern Bloc nations, defeated the invading combatants within three days. (Wikipedia)
Bahrain braced for new wave of repression
Bahrain is braced for a fresh bout of violent repression as new arrests and the alleged death of a female student fuel sectarian tensions in the tiny Gulf state. Armoured vehicles and security forces were reported to be gathering in the streets of the capital, Manama, and in surrounding suburbs and villages.
Meanwhile, evidence has emerged that Saudi forces have been involved in violence against the opposition in the mainly Shia villages and suburbs around Manama. In a graphic eyewitness account of the repression given to the Observer, a Bahraini who has been caught up in the violence claimed that officers with Saudi accents, in plainclothes but armed with automatic weapons, had led attacks on members of the Shia opposition on several occasions over the past month.
Reports from the city said that a young woman – beaten up last month by government supporters at Bahrain University – had died. A family member confirmed her death but the circumstances remained unclear. Arrests of lawyers and doctors working for the opposition continued.
Bahrain protests will go nowhere while the US supports its government – The Guardian
16 Apr 2011
Row over Wikileaks leaker Bradley Manning treatment
The treatment of Wikileaks leaker Bradley Manning continues to concern people, with accusations that he is being tortured. In response, the American authorities say it's standard treatment of all "high risk" detainees. Recorded from Channel 4 News, 12 April 2011 - LiarPoliticians
15 Apr 2011
1,300 New Species Discovered
This Tube-nosed Fruit Bat Nyctimene sp. from the Muller Range mountains does not yet have a name but has been found in other parts of New Guinea. It is likely restricted (endemic) to hill forests on the island. Fruit bats are important seed dispersers in tropical forests. © Piotr Naskrecki - More photos on Huffingtonpost: 1,300 New Species Discovered: Conservation International Celebrates 20 Years Of Rapid Assessment Program
14 Apr 2011
Cops beat Brit Lee Brown to death in Dubai cell
Lee Brown, 39 - arrested after a hotel row - was stripped and handcuffed before being pulverised by up to six officers with their feet, fists and batons. He was then dragged unconscious into solitary confinement where he was left battered and bloodied for three days before dying of his injuries.
One prisoner at the Bur Dubai police station - who The Sun contacted by mobile phone - said last night: "It was inhuman. He was cuffed by his hands and his legs. Officers were punching and kicking him everywhere. He was bleeding from the head and hands and crying, pleading for them to stop." Another witness said: "He was assaulted so badly his head split open. Then he was left to rot."
Lee's horrific punishment was revealed after two inmates at the police station phoned his family on Tuesday and begged them to help him. They had got his contact details from his passport.
Arrest of Egyptian bloggers
Human rights groups have condemned the prison sentence of the 26-year-old Egyptian blogger Maikel Nabil. Nabil was sentenced to three years in jail by a military tribunal for a blog entry he wrote called "The people and the army were never hand in hand".
His jailing raises questions whether the regime in Egypt has changed at all since former President Hosni Mubarak stood down. Al Jazeera on YouTube
“Don't pay attention to any kind of democracy”
Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarusian president, says two suspects have confessed to being involved in Tuesday's Minsk metro bombing that killed 12 amid fears of a new wave of repression against the country's opposition.
Lukashenko said on state television, that the worst attack in the country's history, which also wounded 200, had been "solved" but admitted its motive remained unclear. "The crime was solved at 5:00 am. KGB officers and police took one day to complete a superb operation and detain the perpetrators without noise and chatter," he said. The security service is still known by its Soviet-era acronym in Belarus.
"The main thing is that we know who carried out the act of terror and how. We don't know why yet. But we will know that too. We should not relax, there should be cleansing along all fronts," said Lukashenko
Lukashenko told the security service: "Detain and question. Don't pay attention to any kind of democracy and the wails and groans of the pathetic Westerners."
13 Apr 2011
Who owns the rain
Apparently you can't collect rainwater in several western states of the USA, particularly Utah, because that rainwater belongs to someone else. One Salt Lake City man who constructed a rainwater catcher over his dealership to wash cars had to work out a deal with government officials in order to use "their" rainwater. So who exactly owns the rain?
11 Ridiculous Things People Have Claimed To Own on The Huffington Post
The Day
Barack Obama's 2008 campaign was propelled by a number of high-profile music videos from artists boosting his candidacy. It's a different picture in 2012.
The first track released from Moby's new album, Destroyed, is a broadside against the Obama-GOP budget. "The Day" features images of some of the 30,000 critics of spending cuts who fasted in opposition, organized by MoveOn.org.
Syrian soldiers shot for refusing to fire on protesters
Syrian soldiers have been shot by security forces after refusing to fire on protesters, witnesses said, as a crackdown on anti-government demonstrations intensified. Witnesses told al-Jazeera and the BBC that some soldiers had refused to shoot after the army moved into Banias in the wake of intense protests on Friday.
Human rights monitors named Mourad Hejjo, a conscript from Madaya village, as one of those shot by security snipers. "His family and town are saying he refused to shoot at his people," said Wassim Tarif, a local human rights monitor.
Footage on YouTube shows an injured soldier saying he was shot in the back by security forces, while another video shows the funeral of Muhammad Awad Qunbar, who sources said was killed for refusing to fire on protesters. Signs of defections will be worrying to Syria's regime. State media reported a different version of events, claiming nine soldiers had been killed in an ambush by an armed group in Banias.
12 Apr 2011
Lost Cosmonauts
Lost Cosmonauts, or Phantom Cosmonauts, is a conspiracy theory alleging that cosmonauts entered outer space, but without their existence having been acknowledged by either the Soviet or Russian space authorities.
Proponents of the Lost Cosmonauts theory concede that Yuri Gagarin was the first man to survive space travel, but claim that the Soviet Union attempted to launch two or more manned space flights prior to Gagarin's, and that at least two cosmonauts died in the attempts. Another cosmonaut, Vladimir Ilyushin, is believed to have landed off-course and been held by the Chinese government. The Government of the Soviet Union supposedly suppressed this information, to prevent bad publicity during the height of the Cold War.
UN unmonitored Bradley Manning visits 'blocked'
A UN investigator on torture says US officials have blocked his requests for unmonitored visits to alleged Wikileaks whistleblower Bradley Manning. Juan Mendez said he was "disappointed and frustrated by the prevarication" he met from US officials.
Pte Manning, accused of leaking secret military and diplomatic cables, has been detained at a US marine base since May 2010. The 23-year-old's lawyers claim he has faced mistreatment at the base.
The US government "has not been receptive to a confidential meeting with Mr Manning", said Mr Mendez in a statement. He suggests the authorities will only allow him to visit Pte Manning at the Quantico Marine base in Virginia if officials are present.
The U.S. nuclear "secret unlock code" was... 00000000
Those of you who are embarrassed to admit that your passwords for most sites are not robust enough may be able to take some comfort from this admission about events during the height of the Cold War. In the 1960s Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, concerned about nuclear security, had "technical locks" placed on the Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missiles to prevent unauthorized deployment.
The Strategic Air Command (SAC) in Omaha quietly decided to set the “locks” to all zeros in order to circumvent this safeguard. During the early to mid-1970s, during my stint as a Minuteman launch officer, they still had not been changed. Our launch checklist in fact instructed us, the firing crew, to double-check the locking panel in our underground launch bunker to ensure that no digits other than zero had been inadvertently dialled into the panel. SAC remained far less concerned about unauthorized launches than about the potential of these safeguards to interfere with the implementation of wartime launch orders. And so the “secret unlock code” during the height of the nuclear crises of the Cold War remained constant at 00000000.
US TSA Agent Gropes A 6 Year Old Girl - Then Drug Tests Her !!!
Transportation Security Administration (TSA) protects the nation's transportation systems to ensure freedom of movement for people and commerce.
Japan upgrades nuclear crisis to same level as Chernobyl
Japan has raised the severity level of its nuclear crisis to the maximum seven, putting the emergency at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant on a par with Chernobyl.
Officials from the nuclear and industrial safety agency (Nisa) confirmed that the crisis level had been raised from five to seven on the international nuclear and radiological event scale. But they said the new rating reflects the initial impact of the nuclear crisis, adding that radiation levels have since dropped dramatically.
The scale, devised by the International Atomic Energy Agency, ranks nuclear and radiological accidents and incidents by severity from one to seven. Level seven incidents involve a major release of radiation with widespread health and environmental effects, according to the IAEA.
11 Apr 2011
Idaho USA Rejects Rape Exception In Abortion Bill Because ‘The Hand Of The Almighty’ Was At Work
Marching in step with the GOP’s nationwide war on a woman’s right to choose, the Idaho legislature gave final approval to a bill that would outlaw abortions after 20 weeks. Modeled after Nebraska’s first-in-the-nation measure, the bill — like the one passed in Kansas last week — is based on highly disputed medical research alleging that a fetus can feel pain at 20 weeks. Idaho’s bill, however, also fails to include exceptions for rape, incest, severe fetal abnormality or the mental or psychological health of the mother. “Only when the pregnancy threatens the mother’s life or physical health could a post-20-week abortion be performed.”
But this year during Sexual Assault Awareness Month, state Republican lawmakers found plenty of reasons to advocate for it. State Rep. Shannon McMillan (R) argued that women who were impregnated under “violent circumstances” should have no choice because it’s not the fetus’s fault. State Rep. Brent Crane, the bill’s sponsor, took it a step further. Believing that “tragic, horrific” acts of rape or incest are the “hand of the Almighty,” Crane said women should trust God to turn the consequences of their sexual assault into “wonderful examples”:
“Is not the child of that rape or incest also a victim?” asked Rep. Shannon McMillan, R-Silverton. “It didn’t ask to be here. It was here under violent circumstances perhaps, but that was through no fault of its own.”[...]
'Aliens exist' say real-life X-Files
Top secret memos appear to back up conspiracy theories that extra-terrestrials landed in the US town of Roswell - before they were sent to the infamous Area 51 US airbase. Three circular-shaped spaceships crashed containing the bodies of extra-terrestrials which were only three feet tall, said a special agent in 1950.
The explosive claims - that could be out of an episode of sci-fi thriller X Files - were unearthed after classified FBI documents were made public. And they are sure to fuel conspiracy theorists' beliefs that the existence of alien life has been covered up.
Last night UFO experts said the files could be final proof that aliens and flying saucers "are real". The amazing UFO find at Roswell, New Mexico, was detailed by FBI agent Guy Hottel in a 1950 memo to the agency's director.
Hottel reveals what a US Air Force investigator found. "Three so-called flying saucers had been recovered in New Mexico. They were described as being circular in shape with raised centers, approximately 50ft in diameter. Each one was occupied by three bodies of human shape but only 3ft tall dressed in a metallic cloth of a very fine texture. Each body was bandaged in a manner similar to the blackout suits used by speed flyers and test pilots."
Bradley Manning: top US legal scholars voice outrage at 'torture'
More than 250 of America's most eminent legal scholars have signed a letter protesting against the treatment in military prison of the alleged WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning, contesting that his "degrading and inhumane conditions" are illegal, unconstitutional and could even amount to torture.
The list of signatories includes Laurence Tribe, a Harvard professor who is considered to be America's foremost liberal authority on constitutional law. He taught constitutional law to Barack Obama and was a key backer of his 2008 presidential campaign.
Tribe joined the Obama administration last year as a legal adviser in the justice department, a post he held until three months ago.
He told the Guardian he signed the letter because Manning appeared to have been treated in a way that "is not only shameful but unconstitutional" as he awaits court martial in Quantico marine base in Virginia.
Also see the Bradley Manning Support Network
Dutch town uses €100 trick to 'discourage' Kenyan marathon runners
The organisers of the Utrecht marathon are offering prize money of just €100 to Kenyan nationals if they win the event, but a Dutch winner will get €10,000, the Volkskrant reports on Saturday. The aim is to discourage Kenyans from taking part in the 42 km race, nicknamed the Dutch Battle, on April 25, the organisers say.
Last year Kenyan runners won the Rotterdam, Utrecht, Eindhoven, Enschede and Leiden marathons. The Utrecht race has been won by a Kenyan for the past four years and the organisers hope to give top Dutch athletes a chance to win this year. The prize money trick had been worked out with the help of a lawyer. Banning Kenyans outright would break discrimination laws but discouraging them from taking part is legal.
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