Bonjour Planet Earth: November 2012

Thursday, November 08, 2012

Singapore woman spent 5 hours in the shower daily...

Julia bte Abdullah 40, an outpatient of IMH, suffers from OCD.

For 20 years, Ms Julia Abdullah stuck faithfully to a set of self-cleaning rituals.

But the now-40-year-old had taken her routine to extremes: She started with 30 minutes of showering and worked her way progressively to five hours. She even shampooed her hair 25 times and washed her hands 300 times.

"I felt that I (was) just not clean enough," said Ms Julia, an administrative assistant.

In a week, she would use up two bottles of shampoo and 21 bars of soap. The rituals got so exhausting that she had no energy left to do anything else.

Ms Julia suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) with an irrational fear of contamination by dirt or germs. Full story...

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Wednesday, November 07, 2012

Poll: Israel viewed negatively around the world...

Israel retained its position as one of the world's most negatively-viewed countries, according to BBC's annual poll published Wednesday night.

With 50 percent of respondents ranking Israel negatively, Israel keeps company with North Korea, and places ahead of only Iran (55% negative) and Pakistan (51% negative).

The 2012 Country Ratings Poll was conducted among 24,090 people worldwide, and asked respondents to rate whether the influence of 22 countries was “mostly positive” or “mostly negative.”

Evaluations of the Jewish state, already largely unfavorable in 2011, have worsened in 2012. Out of the 22 countries polled, the majority in 17 of them view Israel negatively, while only three (the US, Nigeria and Kenya) view Israel positively. In Kenya, negative ratings of Israel fell by 10 points to 31%, while the country experienced an even larger increase in positive ratings of Israel, rising 16 points to 45%. Full story...

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Apartheid is alive and well in Israel...

"Unbutton your pants," Sara, the stone-faced security agent at Israel's Ben Gurion airport, told me. I sobbed, choking on my words, "My dad was born in Nazareth."

"Lift your shirt," she continued.

"He's dying, and he can't return here," I mumbled. I thought of what my father looked like at that moment, bruised and broken from a drunk driver, unable to breathe on his own, and helpless in a hospital bed in South Carolina.

As the daughter of Palestinian refugees, it was already a harrowing experience for me to make my way from my father's homeland, where I have been working, back to Travelers Rest, South Carolina, where he chose to raise us after he was forced from Nazareth by the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 and forced from Palestine altogether by the occupation of 1967.

But my latest attempt to return to my father, carrying memories of his lost home with me, was a devastating lesson in the indignities of exile and the fragility of life. Full story...

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The wretched scandal of Gaza...

How Israeli soldiers deal with Palestinians...

Segregation of Jews and Arabs in 2010 Israel is almost absolute...

South Korea's secret: Runaway teen prostitution...

South Korea is paying a high price for its rigorous education system - a major reason for its economic success - with teenagers increasingly turning to prostitution after fleeing home to escape academic pressure.

An estimated 200,000 youths - at least 60 per cent female teenagers - roam the country's streets. About half have worked as underage prostitutes, according to the latest government figures.

Many say they initially ran away to be with friends instead of studying, and later ended up selling their bodies to earn money to survive.

"In high school, I would say that massive academic pressure is the main driver pushing kids onto the streets," says a professor at a prominent South Korean university, who requested anonymity because of the issue's sensitivity in the country. Full story...

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Luxury Fact-Finding: UK MPs choose best resorts for work trips...

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European Union MPs squander millions on absurd projects...

EU to spend £1bn of taxpayers' money on pensions for retired eurocrats in 2010!!!

Secret report says Euro MP fat cats get filthy rich by bogus deals at taxpayer expense...

Prince Charles, heir to Dracula's blood line...

The Romanian tourist board is to use links between the British Royal family and Count Dracula to lure in UK tourists, it has emerged.

Until now its lonely mountains have been synonymous with the legend of the vampire, the cruel ruler who drank his victims’ blood, terrified his enemies and could turn into a bat at will.

But Transylvania should also be known as the ancestral home of the Prince of Wales, defender of faiths, with a love of gardening and classical architecture, according to the Romanian National Tourist Office.

Links between the Royal Family and Vlad the Impaler, the 15th century nobleman whose deeds inspired the vampire legend, are being exploited in an attempt to lure tourists to the eastern European country. Full story...

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Women are banned from visiting iconic Indian shrine as its female pilgrims are 'un-Islamic'

A 15th century mausoleum in the heart of Mumbai has attracted controversy after women were banned from visiting an iconic shrine inside.

The move by the Haji Ali mausoleum, less than half a mile from the shoreline of the Arabian sea, has caused outrage on Twitter with men and women condemning the move.

Members of a women's group said they were barred from visiting the site, where they had previously been able to pray inside the tomb, where the saint Pir Haji Ali Shah Bukhari is buried.

And now it is believed seven dargahs, Islamic shrines built over the grave of a revered religious figure, have banned women from entering certain areas with many more expected to follow suit.

At a similar shrine in Mahim, a small neighbourhood in Mumbai, trustees are alleged to have said they have been 'sensitising' women to the thought that going near the saint's grave is 'un-Islamic'. Full story...

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I text, therefore I am...

I must reveal my newest math: The Idiocracy + Phone Devices = Dysfunctional Texting Idiocracy.

First, I want to express a few thoughts before I explain my equation. As folks may or may not know, I am no Luddite. I am a technology aficionado. I really do love portable computing devices, and that includes the use of text as a method of messaging. I use texting with friends because it can be a very convenient and useful tool. Most of my friends - but not all - are intelligent enough to understand the limitations of the tool. Text, in my world, is used as an instant-o-gram, a quickie message service, a "hello" tool, or even for winging fun and unusual sightings and/or comments every now and then. It’s a great way of staying in touch with the right thoughts or pictures, and at a time that is convenient for both the sender and receiver.

Most of my friends, however, understand that texting does not replace face time and real conversation. Texting negates eye contact, body language, and voice expression, which makes it far worse than the cell phone. Person-to-person contact, of course, is the ideal, even if it is extremely old-fashioned. A lot can be said about a conversation by looking at a person’s body language and eye contact. Where the phone loses that capacity, at least it offers the voice connection. With a phone call there is voice inflection allowing you to gauge the other person’s mood, sincerity, and tone. In comparison, texting is the wood outhouse of civilization and has become the building block of the Dysfunctional Idiocracy. Full story...

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Tuesday, November 06, 2012

UK govt forcing poor families out of London...

London authorities plan to eject low-income families from the city and relocate them hundreds of miles away. Skyrocketing housing costs and benefit cuts have made it impossible for disadvantaged families to live in the UK capital.

In a time of welfare cuts and high rent, most of London’s boroughs are buying and renting property in nearby towns as part of plans to relocate families receiving housing benefits, according to a newly released Guardian survey.

The measures are a response to government welfare cuts that will come into force next April. The cuts will cap the housing allowance at £400 ($639) – many will be forced to move, as the average monthly rent for a three-bedroom flat in central London is over $2,000, according to the website London Property Watch.

(...)

Responding to the report, National Housing Federation Assistant Director for London Kate Dodsworth said, ”Moving people away from their families, schools and communities because their local council cannot house them is a desperate move which demonstrates the scale of the housing crisis,” 24dash.com reported.

One cabinet member for housing in an inner city borough told the Daily Mail, “Let's face it, a lot of people with more than two or three children, and who are dependent on benefits in this borough are not going to be here for very much longer.” Full story...

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Dragon Baby...

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Europe's biggest brothel – complete with coach parking – to open in Austria...

An Austrian entrepreneur has announced plans to open Europe's biggest brothel, with a complex boasting a 147 rooms and coach parking.

When opened in 2014 the giant brothel, officially dubbed the "FunMotel", will have capacity for 1,000 "guests" a day with around 150 sex workers employed in the £12 million project. Along with room for buses it will also have 350 parking spaces and a three-metre high perimeter wall to ensure privacy.

Peter Laskaris, the businessman behind the project who already operates a brothel in Vienna, said that the glitzy bordello's "four-star hotel" facilities will be the sex industry's shift from "grocer to supermarket".

The FunMotel will offer "swinger parties, gangbangs" and "porn stars" along with more mundane hotel attractions such as restaurants, beauty salon and gym. But 8Quadrat Developers, the Vienna-based company developing the project, claim that "the number of females" and the "affordable prices" will "ensure absolute satisfaction for male customers". Full story...

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Malaysian arrested over Facebook insults against sultan...

Police have arrested a 27-year-old quantity surveyor for allegedly posting seditious remarks on Facebook about the royal family of a southern Malaysian state, his brother said Sunday.

Ahmad Abd Jalil was arrested in Kuala Lumpur on Friday night but handed to police in Johor where he may have to beg forgiveness from the sultan, his brother said.

The government has announced plans to repeal the controversial Sedition Act, which has previously been justified as necessary to curb racial conflict in the multicultural nation.

But authorities have continued to invoke the act, under which those found guilty can be jailed, and Ahmad’s arrest is at least the third in two years related to the Johor royal house.

“They said the sultan was angry over Facebook posts and that it was being investigated under the Sedition Act. But they could not tell us which posts were being investigated,” said Ahmad’s brother, who asked not to be named. Full story...

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Monday, November 05, 2012

India overturns another patent ... this time from Roche!

India appears to be taking on the first world’s pharmaceutical industry, with the third decision this year against a major pharma company – this time the Switzerland-based Roche Pharmaceutical Group.

In what was described as a victory for patients’ groups, India’s Intellectual Property Appellate Board revoked a patent granted in India to Roche for pegylated interferon alfa-2a, which is used to treat Hepatitis C. The patent, granted in 2006, was the first such patent on a medicine under the new TRIPS-mandated product patent regime for medicines as part of the country’s obligations under World Trade Organization's (WTO) international trade rules.

Roche, with US$22 billion in sales across the world in the first half of 2012, joins the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis and German drug maker Bayer as having been bruised in the Indian legal system.

India’s Patent Office fired the first shot in March by issuing a license to a generic drug manufacturer, effectively ending the German pharmaceutical company Bayer’s monopoly in India on the drug sorafenib tosylate, known as Nexavar, which is used to treat kidney and liver cancer. Full story...

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Impoverished women in India used as guinea pigs by pharma company...

The professional 'cuddler' who makes $260 a day by inviting strangers to take a nap with her at home...

Spooning peacefully in a double bed, this pair could be any normal couple on a Sunday morning.

But revisit the scene an hour later and Jackie Samuel will be curled up in the arms of another man.

The 29-year-old is a professional cuddler. She turned to snuggling with strangers to help pay for her studies and provide for her young son.

She can make $260 a day and cuddles with up to 30 men a week - including pensioners and war veterans.

However, her business 'The Snuggery' has not gone unnoticed and her college has threatened to expel her - while others have called her a prostitute.

She said: 'I think I was born knowing how to snuggle. Snuggling is healthy, spiritual and fun. Full story...

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Shelter: a look at the homeless in Manchester...

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How Egyptians are fighting harassment in the streets...

Like many Egyptian women, Nihal Saad Zaghloul is no stranger to street harassment. But it was one incident in particular that made the 26-year-old IT worker decide to do something about it. Along with some friends, she was attacked by a group of men in Cairo's Tahrir Square in June: "They started groping me and grabbing (my) hijab. I lost my friends, I was terrified – some (other) men hid me behind a small kiosk."

Traumatised and furious, Nihal blogged about the incident at length, but writing wasn't enough. The following week, she formed an anti-harassment group, inviting about 60 men and women, via Facebook, to gather on Mohamed Mahmoud street, near Tahrir Square, to protest peacefully against harassment. They were set upon by "about 50 men", who groped the women and beat up the men. But Nihal was undeterred, setting up a website to post her blogs detailing instances of harassment. "By July," she says, "the movement had begun."

Zaghaleel, which means "carrier pigeons" in Arabic, now comprises a growing number of women and men who form street patrols, effectively preventing assaults on women in public by talking to the assailants and drawing attention to their behaviour. Wearing hi-vis jackets, the male patrollers walk the platforms of the metro in a bid to protect female passengers travelling on the women-only carriages. They form a human chain around the women and have never resorted to violence. They don't need to, says Nihal, because "the more of us there are the more scared the harassers are to fight". Full story...

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Egypt voices: Sexual harassment...

India: Wardens bang drums to halt peeing in public...

Volunteers in Rajasthan's Jhunjhunu district armed with drums and whistles are to lead a crackdown on going to the toilet in public under a new scheme, a report said Monday.

"We are constructing public toilets... and people will be encouraged to use them," Ramniwas Jat, head of the state's Jhunjhunu district council, told an English daily newspaper.

"We want to raise awareness against the practice of urinating in public, which gave birth to the idea of beating drums and blowing whistles."

The newspaper said that volunteers, who will be paid a small wage, would embarrass people caught urinating or defecating by standing behind them and letting loose a barrage of noise.

Guilty parties would also have their names read out on public address systems. Full story...

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Sunday, November 04, 2012

10 days that shook my world...

It’s ten days since I raised a question about intelligence suggesting a paedophile ring that touched the very heart of a previous government. I’d done so because a very credible retired child protection professional had lived with a gnawing suspicion of a cover up for many years.

These people are the rarest of human beings. They’re the people who labour in anonymity, day in day out, trying to make the world a better place. They have always been the foundations of our public services. Yet this retired public servant had, through a quirk of fate, stumbled on something that appeared so huge, that almost everyone he’d ever raised his concerns with had baulked at the challenge.

Since then though, many more ordinary people have contacted me about suspicions they have had of a wider wrongdoing – in some cases so heinous it made me cry.

They have talked of psychopaths marking children with Stanley knifes to show “ownership”. They tell of parties where children were “passed around” the men. They speak of golf course car parks being the scenes for child abuse after an 18 hole round. Full story...

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Apple paid only 2% corporation tax outside US...

Apple paid less than 2% corporation tax on its profits outside the US, its filing with US regulators has shown.

The company paid $713m (£445m) in the year to 29 September on foreign pre-tax profits of $36.8bn, a rate of 1.9%.

It is the latest company to be identified as paying low rates of overseas tax, following Starbucks, Facebook and Google in recent weeks.

It has not been suggested that any of their tax avoidance schemes are illegal.

All of the companies pay considerable amounts of other taxes in the UK, such as National Insurance, and raise large sums of VAT. Full story...

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Cutoff...

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Technology of the Dark...

Technology is a left-brain force that seeks to establish miraculous powers—dark ones for the most part. It’s the left-brain mimicking and striving for the transcendence of the right brain.

For example, imaging systems that spy on us from satellites above attempt to replicate remote viewing and extra-sensory perception. The space-walk mimics the out-of-body experience. Mobile phones are technology’s version of telepathy. Television is the attempt to copy the omnipresence of god that is everywhere at the same time. Massive computers that crunch information on citizen’s personal details attempt to imitate the all-knowing, the omnipotence of god. Genetic engineering seeks the god-like power to create life; plastic surgery is the act of the aging, egocentric human, hoping for immortality.

Angelic beings in the higher dimensions have a celestial immortality; the transdimensional ghouls that are earth-bound here, don’t have it. They die for a lack of energy as we do. Immortality is the one thing they would give everything for. A human’s desire for the same immortality is in fact a ghoulish expression of our inner darkness. That is why seeking immortality drives lots of medical research, like the work on stem cells, for example. Immortality is alluring. And of course the promise of immortality is the central tenet (lie) of all organized religions. Full story...

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HSBC makes almost £100million from ‘bankrolling’ Malaysian rainforest destruction...

Global banking giant HSBC has raked in nearly £100m by bankrolling Malaysian logging companies who cause widespread rainforest destruction and abuse human rights, a watchdog has claimed.

The bank is also providing financial services to companies widely suspected of systematic bribery and corruption in Sarawak, Malaysia, according to an investigation by The Global Witness.

The region exports more tropical timber than South America and Africa combined and HSBC's loans and services to logging conglomerates have generated at least £80m in interest and fees.

The watchdog claim that these companies have devastated Malaysian Borneo's rainforests and carried out abuses against indigenous peoples.

These companies are currently logging in an area three times the size of Norway. Full story...

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Starving orang-utans forced into village for food as rain forest is destroyed...

Saturday, November 03, 2012

The Saudis are bulldozing Islam's heritage. Why the silence from the Muslim world?

(...)

Only a small minority of the world’s billion Muslims are Wahhabis, despite the tens of billions of petrodollars spent by the Saudis propagating their creed. (Bosnia, for example, is now littered with Saudi-style mosques, replacing the graceful Ottoman architecture that Wahhabis detest.) Many pilgrims to Mecca are revolted by the marriage of Puritanism and greed they find there. Yet protests are scattered and muted. Why?

One answer is that the House of Saud, though widely hated, is also feared: its wealth and terrorist connections make it unlikely that, say, a Pakistani politician would speak openly about the desecration of the Hajj.

The West can hardly complain about such gutlessness: this year’s Hajj exhibition at the British Museum was creepily sanitised – no mention of bulldozers or the 2,000ft clock tower built right next to the Kaaba, the black cube-shaped building that is the centrepiece of Islamic devotions.

But what sticks in the craw is the hypocrisy of Muslims who throw a fit if Israeli archaeologists carry out non-intrusive work underneath the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, “Islam’s third holiest place”, as we’re constantly reminded. Such anger would be more convincing if the first and second holy sites weren’t being ploughed up by a police state. Likewise, are cartoons of Mohammed really more offensive than reducing the remains of his life to rubble? Full story...

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The new dark age: Across Europe, free speech and democracy face their biggest threat since the Thirties...

After a week dominated by the terrible effects of Superstorm Sandy, the increasingly bitter struggle between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney and the continuing fallout from the Jimmy Savile scandal, it was easy to overlook a little story about an obscure Greek journalist called Kostas Vaxevanis.

In its way, though, the ordeal of Mr Vaxevanis, the editor of an Athens magazine, who narrowly escaped prison for publishing the names of suspected tax evaders, is the biggest story of all.

Its themes — the freedom of the Press, the corruption of the establishment, the arrogance of the elite and the terrifying storm engulfing the economies of Europe — go to the heart of a crisis that threatens to tear the Continent apart.

(...)

Until this week, few people outside Greece had ever heard of him. His magazine, Hot Doc, is hardly one of the Continent’s most prestigious publications.

Last weekend, however, he found himself catapulted into the headlines after publishing a leaked list of some 2,059 rich Greeks who have hidden more than €1 billion in secret Swiss bank accounts.

Given that one of Greece’s greatest problems over the last few years has been a corrosive culture of tax evasion — some estimates suggest that the Greek government loses a staggering €15 billion a year in unpaid taxes — it is not surprising that the list aroused an enormous storm. Full story...

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Christians receiving street justice by Hindus for converting in India (Graphic)

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British families want out as more seek relaxed life abroad...

A majority of middle-class families want to leave Britain because it no longer offers them an adequate quality of life, a new survey has concluded.

Researchers found almost two in three families wanted to emigrate overseas because of the poor weather, rude locals and a celebrity-obsessed culture.

Families say they also want to escape the economic downturn, expensive housing and the “loss of community spirit and neighbourliness” in British society.

The survey, conducted by the University of Huddersfield, also found most wanted a new, more relaxed life in a community with a more optimistic “can do” attitude.

Despite celebrating a year when British national pride is arguably at its highest, families admitted they wanted their “children to grow up in a country with a stronger sense of community than they believe exists in the UK”. Full story...

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Friday, November 02, 2012

Sri Lanka’s regime will no longer be successful in hiding its war crimes...

ONE of the worst atrocity crime stories of recent decades has barely registered in the world’s collective conscience. We remember and acknowledge the shame of Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur.

We agonise about the failure to halt atrocities being committed almost daily in Syria. But, at least until now, the world has paid little heed to war crimes and crimes against humanity comparable in their savagery to these – the killing fields of Sri Lanka in 2009.

Three years ago, in the bloody endgame of the Sri Lankan government’s war against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, some 300,000 civilians were trapped between the advancing army and the last LTTE fighters in what has been called “the cage” – a tiny strip of land, not much larger than New York City’s Central Park, between sea and lagoon in the country’s northeast. Full story...

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Outrage at Jimmy Savile conceals the fact that our culture encourages paedophilia...

Yet another bloody article about Jimmy Savile. We read more and more about the horrors that went on and the now incontestable fact that others knew it was happening, and we get all shouty and indignant. It reveals the irksome, irritating side of Twitter, the tabloid press, self-published blogs and the loud, chatty guy in the pub. The moral high ground. The furious bleating and self-righteousness of the whiter-than-white populace.

The outcry will not do any good at all. How many times since "Never again" has it happened again? Using words like "molest" and "abuse" runs utterly counter to the horror of child rape. As do the prison sentences handed down upon conviction. You can serve longer in prison for saying "I'm going to kill you" (maximum sentence 10 years) than you can for having sex with your three-year-old daughter (maximum sentence seven years). Newspapers happily show pictures of 14-year-old girls sunbathing and use sexual language to describe them while at the same time appearing indignant and appalled at the crimes of Savile, Glitter et al.

The culture of celebrity has the same shroud of secrecy, power and authority as the Church. Why on earth should we be surprised at sexual abuse going on in those circles? The only thing that surprises me is that people actually seem surprised. In any environment where there is power, there will be an abuse of that power. Full story...

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The global war on free speech...

(...)

Wherever you look, someone with power, somewhere in the world, is trying to prevent the truth from getting out. In dictatorships they often resort to violence. But usually those with power hide behind laws that, while technically legitimate, are designed to chill free speech.

We think such measures are the preserve of places like China and Russia. And they are. In China the media are severely censored. Dissidents are routinely jailed. Western media are blocked online when they become inconvenient, as the New York Times was recently after revealing details of premier Wen Jiabao’s family wealth.

In Russia, investigative journalists are killed when they find out too much. The internet is now severely restricted. Members of the punk band Pussy Riot languish in penal colonies for protesting in church.

But dangers also lurk in so-called democracies. In Greece, a magazine editor yesterday went on trial for having the temerity to publish details of the tax avoidance schemes of the super-rich, as ordinary people suffer greatly from austerity. If normal ethical standards were applied, Costas Vaxevanis would have been celebrated for his intrepid reporting. But shooting the messenger has become the norm for politicians and business leaders, as a means of diverting attention from their crimes and misdemeanours – and frightening whistleblowers and journalists. In France, presidents and ministers have for years hidden behind privacy clauses to keep their dodgy financial affairs secret. Hungary’s recent press law, requiring media outlets to be licensed, has led to a spate of overly critical editors being sacked and radio stations taken off air. Full story...

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Syrian rebels execute POWs (GRAPHIC VIDEO)

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"The Info Ladies" or how internet bikes are changing Bangladesh...

Amina Begum had never seen a computer until a few years ago, but now she's on Skype regularly with her husband. A woman on a bicycle brings the internet to her.

Dozens of "Info Ladies" bike into remote Bangladeshi villages with laptops and internet connections, helping tens of thousands of people - especially women - get everything from government services to chats with distant loved ones.

It's a vital service in a country where only 5 million of 152 million people have internet access.

The Info Ladies project, created in 2008 by local development group D.Net and other community organizations, is modelled after a programme that helped make cellphones widespread in Bangladesh. It intends to enlist thousands more workers in the next few years with start-up funds from the South Asian country's central bank and expatriates working around the world.

D.Net recruits the women and trains them for three months to use a computer, the internet, a printer and a camera. It arranges bank loans for the women to buy bicycles and equipment. Full story...

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"Don't give money to the Red Cross"

At a press conference this morning on Staten Island, a host of local officials, including Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, gathered to highlight the needs of the hard-hit borough in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. And, although many pols spoke, no one was more impassioned than Borough President James Molinaro, who called the Red Cross an “absolute disgrace” and even urged the public to cease giving them contributions.

“Because the devastation in Staten Island, the lack of a response,” Mr. Molinaro said to explain his comment to NBC after the press conference. “You know, I went to a shelter Monday night after the storm. People were coming in with no socks, with no shoes. They were in desperate need. Their housing was destroyed. They were crying. Where was the Red Cross? Isn’t that their function? They collect millions of dollars. Whenever there’s a drive in Staten Island, we give openly and honestly. Where are they? Where are they? I was at the South Shore yesterday, people were buried in their homes. There the dogs are trying to find bodies. The people there, the neighbors who had no electricity, were making soup. Making soup. It’s very emotional because the lack of a response. The lack of a response. They’re supposed to be here….They should be on the front lines fighting, and helping the people.”

Several other local officials agreed with Mr. Molinaro’s rage over Staten Island’s situation, although they did not call out the Red Cross specifically. Full story...

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Thursday, November 01, 2012

'Land grab' as families in Laos are uprooted to make way for luxury resort that will host EU ministers...

At least 500 people have been uprooted from their homes to make way for luxury villas where European Union foreign ministers, including William Hague, will stay during a summit in Laos on Monday.

The "Asia-Europe Meeting" will bring together 48 EU and Asian countries on Don Chan island in the centre of Laos's capital, Vientiane. To allow the construction of 50 villas and two conference centres, the authorities have moved 102 families who once lived on the island and worked its green paddy fields. The new facilities will be used for this and future summits.

The former inhabitants have been dumped 15 miles away, with minimal compensation, at a new location without enough fertile land to replace their old livelihoods. "I cannot produce rice and other crops for survival," said one person who was displaced. "How can my family and I live? Other people have the same problems as well. I do not have a stable income - my land is grabbed and I cannot grow crops."

Land seizures of this kind are a growing problem in Asia, where booming economies have spurred unchecked development. In total, about 15 per cent of the entire surface area of Laos, a country of 6.2 million people in South-East Asia, has been seized for development. In the process, tens of thousands of people are believed to have been displaced. Full story...

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Zionists smear UK diplomat for telling the truth...

Peter Jenkins, Britain’s former representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency, has told the Warwick University Debating Union that a “just war” is not a Jewish notion.

Jenkins was obviously telling the truth but the Zionist Jewish Chronicle is not happy.

The retired Foreign Office diplomat, speaking in a debate on nuclear proliferation in Iran, said: “Israelis don’t practice an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth; they practice 10 eyes for an eye and 10 teeth for a tooth.” He added that “the idea that a just war requires the use of force to be proportionate seems to be a Christian notion and not a Jewish notion”.

The Jewish Chronicle reported this week that the remark prompted the opposing speaker, the Zionist Federation’s Jonathan Sacerdoti, to shout “shame”. Full story...

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Japanese girls having fun...

Full story...

Think American politicians say crazy things about rape? Then you haven't been to India...

Earlier this fall, what can only be described as a raping spree broke out across the north Indian state of Haryana, claiming nearly 20 young women and girls, including a 6-year-old and a mentally handicapped 13-year-old, as victims in separate incidents. But almost as horrifying as the crimes themselves were the reactions of state police and politicians who, grappling to explain the outbreak of sexual violence, offered a set of truly bizarre viewpoints that make Richard Mourdock and Todd Akin look benign.

Haryana’s chief minister (like a governor), shamed by negative media coverage, suggested the rapes might be part of an overarching conspiracy to make his government look bad. Naturally, the director of police, who had so far failed to nab many of the suspects, agreed. Then a third politician, district spokesman Dharambir Goyat, suggested that everyone just calm down, since 90 percent of rapes are consensual anyhow (a widely held belief in some parts of rural India). Meanwhile, the number of victims continued to grow and the criminals continued to run free. One of the girls who had allegedly been raped doused herself with kerosene and lit a match; another victim's father committed suicide after seeing a video of his daughter's molestation. When the police finally mobilized, it was to strike down a group of peaceful demonstrators who had assembled to protest the government's inaction, sending five of them, including three women, to the hospital. Full story...

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Have India’s poor become human guinea pigs?

Drug companies are facing mounting pressure to investigate reports that new medicines are being tested on some of the poorest people in India without their knowledge.

"We were surprised," Nitu Sodey recalls about taking her mother-in-law Chandrakala Bai to Maharaja Yeshwantrao Hospital in Indore in May 2009.

"We are low-caste people and normally when we go to the hospital we are given a five-rupee voucher, but the doctor said he would give us a foreign drug costing 125,000 rupees (£1,400)."

The pair had gone to the hospital, located in the biggest city in Madhya Pradesh, an impoverished province in central India, because Mrs Bai was experiencing chest pains.

Their status as Dalits - the bottom of the Hindu caste system, once known as untouchables - meant that they were both accustomed to going to the back of the queue when they arrived and waiting many hours before seeing a doctor.

But this time it was different and they were seen immediately. Full story...

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