Bonjour Planet Earth: September 2013

Sunday, September 29, 2013

A 111-year-old's secret to a long life? 20 cigs a day and a pint of sherry for breakfast and not having kids...

Widow Dorothy has enjoyed a tipple for years and has smoked for most of her life.

She said: “I drank regularly throughout the day. In the morning I had half a pint of sherry, for lunch a gin and tonic and around 7pm a small ginger ale with a bit of whisky. These days I just have a sherry now and again.

“I decided to pack in smoking when I was 103 because I got bronchitis and the doctor warned me my life was in danger!

“I used to smoke 20 a day but not any more. I have been tempted to have the odd cig at Christmas or New Year along with pink champagne, which is my favourite drink of all time.

“So much for smoking and drinking isn’t good for you. I am living proof that a little of what you fancy does you good. And I think not having had kids has helped. That’s probably why I look and feel so good.” Full story...

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'Life, its behind us, for me it was beautiful'

10 cigars a day and a shot of whisky, and he's 100 years old!!!

The top 5 regrets of the dying...

Henry Allingham, Europe's oldest man, credits cigarettes, whisky and wild, wild women!!!

Daily Mail fail - newspaper uses false photo in Kenya shopping centre article...

As part of its attempts to whip up anti-Muslim sentiment after the Kenyan shopping centre attacks, the Daily Mail 'news'paper claimed yesterday it had photographs of Al Shabaab gunmen 'executing' hostages in the Nairobi Mall attack.

You can see the article here - notice the first photograph of an armed hooded man pointing a gun at some people lying on the ground:

The horrific moment Al Shabaab gunman took deadly aim at hostages in Nairobi mall massacre (it seems the Mail has taken down the article since this blogpost. Never mind - I made sure I kept a screenshot just in case - see below)

Now look at this photograph (4th down) posted on the official FBI website from a bank robbery which took place in April 12, 2010 in Florida: Full story...

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Harassed woman beheads husband in Tamil Nadu...

Unable to bear his harassment, a 21-year-old woman beheaded her husband in Tamil Nadu's Sivaganga district on Friday night. After killing him, Praveena walked down to the nearby police station in Tirupathur village with the blood-soaked sickle and surrendered.

Police said the man, S Parimannan (28), used to be an autorickshaw driver but has been involved in anti-social activities for the past few years. He has several cases, including waylaying, murder and robbery, pending against him in various police stations across the district.

Parimannan first married Muthumari (24) and had two children. Even as he continued to live with Muthumari, he married Praveena from Thenmapattu village. The couple had one child.

Both Muthumari and Praveena were upset with Parimannan's anti-social activities, which resulted in frequent quarrels between them. They were particularly frustrated with police frequently knocking on their doors in search of Parimannan and his imprisonment for months together, leaving the two women to take care of the children all by themselves. Police said Parimannan used to beat up the two women after getting drunk almost every night. Full story...

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Moscow teens decapitate man and use head as football...

Indian woman burns her rapist to death...

Man in India beheads daughter and parades her head in village because of...

India: woman beheads would-be rapist...

Malaysia PM accused of ignoring minorities...

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Ethnic Chinese losing faith in Malaysian govt, move to Singapore...

Did Japan lie its way to the Olympics?

In order to secure the 2020 Tokyo Olympics for Tokyo, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe assured the IOC that the Fukushima situation was “under control”, per AFP:

“Let me assure you the situation is under control,” [Abe] said.

“It has never done or will do any damage to Tokyo.”

Abe replied decisively when pressed by veteran Norwegian IOC member Gerhard Heiberg over Fukushima.

“You should read past the headlines and look at the facts,” he said.

“The contaminated water has been contained in an area of the harbour only 0.3 square kilometres big.

“There have been no health problems and nor will there be. I will be taking responsibility for all the programmes with regard to the plant and the leaks.”

It looks like the key point, to paraphrase Bill Clinton is “what your definition of ‘situation’ is”. Full story...

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Seymour Hersh on Obama, NSA and the 'pathetic' American media. bin Laden death one big lie...

Seymour Hersh has got some extreme ideas on how to fix journalism – close down the news bureaus of NBC and ABC, sack 90% of editors in publishing and get back to the fundamental job of journalists which, he says, is to be an outsider.

It doesn't take much to fire up Hersh, the investigative journalist who has been the nemesis of US presidents since the 1960s and who was once described by the Republican party as "the closest thing American journalism has to a terrorist".

He is angry about the timidity of journalists in America, their failure to challenge the White House and be an unpopular messenger of truth.

Don't even get him started on the New York Times which, he says, spends "so much more time carrying water for Obama than I ever thought they would" – or the death of Osama bin Laden. "Nothing's been done about that story, it's one big lie, not one word of it is true," he says of the dramatic US Navy Seals raid in 2011.

Hersh is writing a book about national security and has devoted a chapter to the bin Laden killing. He says a recent report put out by an "independent" Pakistani commission about life in the Abottabad compound in which Bin Laden was holed up would not stand up to scrutiny. "The Pakistanis put out a report, don't get me going on it. Let's put it this way, it was done with considerable American input. It's a bullshit report," he says hinting of revelations to come in his book. Full story...

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The Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaida cock and bull story...

Pentagon admits it has no photo evidence of Bin Laden's death...

Congress moves to outlaw alternative media...

Media brainwashing: how they control you...

And you say the media is not controlled?

The punishment was death by stoning. The crime? Having a mobile phone...

Two months ago, a young mother of two was stoned to death by her relatives on the order of a tribal court in Pakistan. Her crime: possession of a mobile phone.

Arifa Bibi's uncle, cousins and others hurled stones and bricks at her until she died, according to media reports. She was buried in a desert far from her village. It's unlikely anyone was arrested. Her case is not unique. Stoning is legal or practised in at least 15 countries or regions. And campaigners fear this barbaric form of execution may be on the rise, particularly in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Women's rights activists have launched an international campaign for a ban on stoning, which is mostly inflicted on women accused of adultery. They are using Twitter and other social media to put pressure on the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, to denounce the practice.

"Stoning is a cruel and hideous punishment. It is a form of torturing someone to death," said Naureen Shameem of the international rights group Women Living Under Muslim Laws. "It is one of the most brutal forms of violence perpetrated against women in order to control and punish their sexuality and basic freedoms." Full story...

Related posts:

Women in India persecuted for their mobile phones...

In wake of gang rape, India sees rise of ‘women only’ taxis, buses and parks...

In the months since a gruesome gang rape riveted India, a “women-only” culture has been on the rise here, with Indians increasingly seeking out women-only buses, cabs, travel groups and hotel floors.

One city is preparing to open a women-only park. And in November, the government is launching a women-only bank it hopes will empower women financially.

In a country where reported sexual violence is increasing — despite heightened attention to the problem — many say the women-only spaces are a welcome refuge from lewd looks, groping and unwanted male attention. The concept appeals to women across a broad spectrum of Indian society, including a 60-year-old named Sarita, who recently traveled to New Delhi from a village in Maharashtra by train and said she still had to squabble with male passengers who tried to sit next to her in the women’s coach.

“It’s the ways of men,” Sarita said. “They’re not good. How can we coexist?” Full story...

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Male passengers beaten and humiliated in Delhi metro for occupying...

Joy rides for women in India's "ladies only" trains...

Teachers in India's Tamil Nadu told to wear clothes that don't tempt students!!!

Seoul plans women-only subway cars...

Malaysia launches pink women-only train coaches...

Umoja, the Kenyan village where men are forbidden...

Breast ironing in Britain? Girls ‘have chests flattened out’ to disguise the onset of puberty...

A hidden form of abuse known as “breast ironing”, in which girls as young as 10 have their chests pounded with hot objects to disguise the onset of puberty, could be taking place in Britain.

The mutilation is a traditional practice from Cameroon designed to deter unwanted male attention, pregnancy and rape by delaying the signs that a girl is becoming a woman. Experts believe that the custom is being practiced amongst the several thousand Cameroonians now living here.

A conference on how to prevent the abuse both in the UK and overseas is being held today in Ealing, west London. Its organisers, a charity called CAME Women’s and Girl’s Development Organisation (Cawogido), is already working with the Met Police and social services to tackle the problem.

The Independent understands a woman was arrested two years ago in London because police believed she had performed the procedure on her daughter. She was later released without charge, although the Metropolitan Police was unable to confirm the report but the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) said that the practice was known to them. An Acpo spokesman said: “Similarly to the way we deal with cases of female genital mutilation, we would treat this as a form of child abuse. Police would take steps to safeguard the child or young person and build a case of child abuse to put to the CPS for a decision on charging.” Full story...

Related posts:

Girls in the Cameroon get their breasts ironed to make them less attractive...

Female genital mutilation (FGM) in Africa (graphic)

Labiaplasty, deforming the vagina... (Graphic)

Saturday, September 28, 2013

Built on Bones: Qatar World Cup construction workers die daily...

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Wife convinced husband to shoot neighbor for raping her 'telepathically'

A Centerville woman accused of urging her husband to shoot their neighbor over "telepathic rape" has pleaded guilty to reduced charges.

Meloney Selleneit, 55, pleaded guilty — but mentally ill — to criminal solicitation and possession of a weapon by a restricted person, both second-degree felonies, during a pretrial conference last Thursday.

She is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 31 in Farmington’s 2nd District Court.

Her husband, 55-year-old Michael Selleneit, shot their neighbor, Tony Pierce, in October 2011 after claiming that Pierce was "telepathically raping" his wife.

In January, Michael Selleneit pleaded guilty and mentally ill to reduced charges of attempted manslaughter and use of a firearm by a restricted person, both second-degree felonies.

The husband was sentenced in May to serve two consecutive one-to-15 years terms at the Utah State Prison. However, 2nd District Judge Thomas Kay ruled that he could be confined to the state hospital until doctors determine he no longer needs treatment. At that time, he would be taken to the prison. Full story...

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Driving affects ovary and pelvis, Saudi sheikh warns women!!!

Saudi women seeking to challenge a de facto ban on driving should realize that this could affect their ovaries and pelvises, Sheikh Salah al-Luhaydan, also a psychologist, told Saudi news website sabq.org.

Driving “could have a reverse physiological impact. Physiological science and functional medicine studied this side [and found] that it automatically affects ovaries and rolls up the pelvis. This is why we find for women who continuously drive cars their children are born with clinical disorders of varying degrees,” Sheikh al-Luhaydan said.

Saudi female activists have launched an online campaign urging women to drive on Oct. 26.

More than 11,000 women have signed the oct26driving.com declaration that says: “Since there are no clear justifications for the state to ban adult, capable women from driving. We call for enabling women to have driving tests and for issuing licenses for those who pass.”

Sheikh al-Luhaydan urged these women to consider “the mind before the heart and emotion and look at this issue with a realistic eye.” Full story...

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Who’s a dinosaur?

Spanish princess got '200 percent salary hike' in ten years...

A Spanish newspaper has reported that the salary paid by La Caixa to Spain’s scandal-hit Princess Cristina over the last ten years has tripled despite the national economic crisis and wage cuts elsewhere.

El Confidential reported on Friday that the Princess’s gross starting salary in 2004 was €83,000 ($112,000) a year but that for her current role as Director of Fundación La Caixa’s Social Area, which she currently carries out from Switzerland, she is paid €238,000.

Princess Cristina, the youngest daughter of Spain's King Juan Carlos, has been embroiled in investigations into allegations of corruption involving the Noos Foundation, which was run by her husband, Iñaki Urdangarin.

He was accused of misuse of €6 million in public funds. Full story...

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Judge to Sikh man: remove that rag or go to jail...

Today, in a letter to the Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT), the ACLU and United Sikhs called on state officials to investigate the harassment of a Sikh commercial truck driver pulled over early this year for a flat tire. After detaining Mr. Jageet Singh in January as he passed through Mississippi, the officers called him a "terrorist" and harassed and humiliated him because of his appearance and religious beliefs. As a devout Sikh, Mr. Singh wears a turban and carries a kirpan. A kirpan is a small, spiritual sword that is sheathed and sewn to the waistband. It is designed and worn as an article of faith, much as a cross is worn by devout Christians.

Contending, wrongly, that his kirpan was illegal, the officers demanded that Mr. Singh remove it. When Mr. Singh explained that he was a Sikh and that the kirpan was a sacred religious article, the officers laughed at him and mocked his religious beliefs. One officer declared that all Sikhs are "depraved" and "terrorists." They continued to taunt him, and forced Mr. Singh to circle his truck with his hands on his turban while they searched the vehicle. Finally, not content with this humiliation, they arrested him, claiming that Mr. Singh had refused to obey an officer's lawful command.

Mr. Singh's ordeal did not end with the MDOT. When he returned to Mississippi on March 26, 2013, for his court date at the Pike County Justice Court, he once again suffered humiliation, harassment, and discrimination because of his religious beliefs. Waiting for his attorney in the back of the courtroom, he was stunned when four Highway Patrol officers approached him and ordered him to leave the courtroom. The officers stated that Judge Aubrey Rimes had ordered them to eject Mr. Singh from the courtroom because he did not like Mr. Singh's turban. Moreover, they told Mr. Singh that Judge Rimes would punish him if he failed to remove his headdress. Full story...

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3 English kids get to know the Sikhs, saints and soldiers...

Sikhs in France plan new school to combat turban ban...

Most armed, most free; the Swiss and their army...

“Most armed; most free.” So the renowned Italian thinker and strategist Niccolo Machiavelli described the Swiss five centuries ago.

That was a time when the 30 ft pikes and deadly halbards (pole axes) of Switzerland’s fierce mercenary armies were the terror of Europe. The “furia Helvetica” ruled the battlefields until 1515 at Marignano when French guns, firing at point-blank range, tore apart the massed Swiss pike phalanxes.

Today, the memory of Swiss military glory is preserved at the Vatican by its colorful Swiss Guard.

Switzerland has long stayed behind its borders and observed armed neutrality, avoiding both world wars. But on voting days in the Alps, burly farmers come down from the mountains carrying their rifles, axes, and swords – reminders that Swiss independence was won and remains thanks to her people’s force of arms.

Switzerland is the world’s oldest democracy, dating from 1291. As a former resident, I believe this beautiful nation is the world’s most perfect and sensible democracy. Citizens vote directly in all major questions. The 26 Swiss cantons manage their own financial, judicial, and administrative affairs, leaving only defense, railroads, post and foreign affairs to a tiny government in Bern. Full story...

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Nepal's slave girls...

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Commonwealth giving Sri Lanka carte blanche for human rights abuses...

Sri Lanka’s disturbing human rights record means it should be barred from hosting a key Commonwealth summit in November or chairing the organization, Amnesty International said ahead of a key meeting of Commonwealth foreign ministers today.

The Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group - made up of foreign ministers and Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma, who gather to address violations of the Commonwealth’s fundamental values, including human rights - is meeting in New York today.

“Today’s meeting is an opportunity for the Commonwealth to show some real leadership on human rights. The organization has been shamefully silent so far about Sri Lanka’s human rights crisis– including the persistent lack of justice for past crimes and ongoing attacks on human rights defenders and other activists,” said Polly Truscott, Amnesty International’s Deputy Asia- Pacific Director.

“Instead of giving Sri Lanka carte blanche for human rights violations, Commonwealth leaders should be supporting calls for an independent and international investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, and condemning reprisals against civil society still taking place.” Full story...

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

Indian High Commission in London returns to typewriters to fight snooping...

The Indian High Commission in London has reverted to using typewriters to compose sensitive documents in the wake of the NSA spying scandal.

Officials also apparently step out of the embassy's premises in Aldwych to discuss sensitive matters in order to dodge 'dedicated' satellites and possible bugs installed on the premises.

"Top secret cables are now written on typewriters which cannot be tracked" Indian High Commissioner to London Jamini Bhagwati told the Times of India.

No classified information is disclosed inside the embassy building, Mr Bhagwati added, who bemoaned the fact that it was "tedious" to go out into the garden every time something sensitive needed discussing.

Mr Bhagwati, however, said he was not aware whether Britain's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) spying agency responsible for providing signals intelligence, had bugged the Indian High Commission. Full story...

Related posts:

Russian govt buys typewriters to prevent intel leaks!!!

The typewriter fights for its life in India...

In spite of the computer, the typewriter is still not dead...

NSA planted bugs at Indian missions in D.C., U.N. No reacation from India...

NSA targets Indian politics, space and nuclear program...

Saudis tweet anger at religious police following car chase death...

The death of a young Saudi during a car chase by the country’s religious police has stirred uproar on the social media, especially after it became known that the involved members of the Saudi religious police fled the scene of the accident.

The news of the crash went viral when a witness first uploaded a video of the car chase, which took place Tuesday in the capital Riyadh, on his twitter account with the hashtag “The commission killed two men on national day.”

Reactions appeared to be tense but divided between those who supported the religious authority, commonly known as the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, and those opposed it.

The authority is also referred to in Arabic simply as “the Haia” meaning “the committee.”

A Twitter user named @talal tweeted: “The religious police had killed people in al-Madina, and killed in Tabuk, and Baljurashi and today they killed in Al-Riyadh and on National Day. The Haia are blood thirsty.” Full story...

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Friday, September 27, 2013

Pakistan's islamist militia have declared war on the country's Christians...

Even in a city that's been hit by some of the worst terrorist attacks in Pakistan, few could have predicted what would transpire last weekend.

After Mass services ended at Peshawar’s historic All Saints Church, hundreds of worshippers milled around outside, joined by children who had just finished Sunday school. In quick succession, two suicide bombers entered the compound and detonated their explosives, ending the lives of scores of Pakistani Christians in the process.

The attack killed 85 people and injured over 100, making it one of the worst ever attacks on a minority faith group in Pakistan’s history – a history that is already well acquainted with religious persecution.

“The initial report was that 120 people had been killed,” recalls Peshawar-based journalist Iftikhar Firdous, who described the hellish scenes at the bomb site. “Usually it's 15 or 20 [dead]. Sometimes it's exaggerated, but when it's 120…"

Speaking from Peshawar, Father John Williams – from the Pakistan-based Catholic organisation National Commission of Justice and Peace – told me, "There is one family that has lost a father, a son and a daughter. The mother is alive, but she cannot use her legs. There are so many families that have been torn apart. One family had left two of their youngest sons at home, the rest died in the blast. These are just a few examples. What will happen to these people afterwards? They will be paralysed and handicapped. That is more heinous." Full story...

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'Sentenced to death for being thirsty': Christian woman tells of moment she...

Egypt:Nearly 40 churches burned,while 23 others attacked...

Egypt's Christians face backlash for Morsi ouster...

Muslim youths in Nigeria massacre Christian family of eight...

27-year-old man gets "20 years hard labor" for half an ounce of pot...

While Colorado and Washington have de-criminalized recreational use of marijuana and twenty states allow use for medical purposes, a Louisiana man was sentenced to twenty years in prison in New Orleans criminal court for possessing 15 grams, .529 of an ounce, of marijuana.

Corey Ladd, 27, had prior drug convictions and was sentenced September 4, 2013 as a “multiple offender to 20 years hard labor at the Department of Corrections.”

Marijuana use still remains a ticket to jail in most of the country and prohibition is enforced in a highly racially discriminatory manner. A recent report of the ACLU, “The War on Marijuana in Black and White,” documents millions of arrests for marijuana and shows the “staggeringly disproportionate impact on African Americans.”

Nationwide, the latest numbers from the FBI report that over 762,000 arrests per year are for marijuana, almost exactly half of all drug arrests. Full story...

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Is Obama making good on his promise to close Guantanamo?

Congress moves to outlaw alternative media...

The alternative media is having a dramatic impact on the worldview of the country, so much so, that the US Senate is legislating against the only objective media left in the country.

It is a well known fact that Senator Diane Feinstein wants your guns and now she wants control over your words. Feinstein believes that a proposed media shield law should be applied only to those she refers to as “real reporters.” Feinstein chastises other reporters as being “basement-dwelling, pajama-clad bloggers with no professional credentials”

At issue is that the government could soon decide who is a journalist and who is not. Feinstein introduced an amendment, to Senate bill 558, that defines a “covered journalist” as someone who gathers and reports news for “an entity or service that disseminates news and information.” The definition includes freelancers, part-timers and student journalists, and it permits a judge to go further and extend the protections to any “legitimate news-gathering activities.” In the definition introduced in Feinstein’s amendment, somebody writing for a small town paper with a circulation of 30 would receive First Amendment protections, but quality news people such as Steve Quayle, John Stadtmiller, Jeff Rense, Doug Hagmann, Stan Deyo, Michael Edwards, Alex Jones, George Noory and Matt Drudge would not be considered journalists and therefore, the First Amendment would not apply to this group of aforementioned newsmen. With the passage of this amendment, our sources would not be privileged and many of our sources would dry up. But Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper can take bribes from the CIA to not cover certain stories, yet Feinstein thinks they deserve protection as authentic journalists. Award winning journalist, Amber Lyon, quit CNN because of the CIA and CNN’s complicity in obfuscating the truth from the American people, for a price. Obviously, journalistic integrity means nothing to someone like Feinstein. Full story...

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Americans rejecting mainstream media for British newspaper the Guardian...

Blank screens, blank minds: TV news in America...

And you say the media is not controlled?

Lamestream Media: TV titans lose US viewers over slanted stories...

Where's the outrage? A global saughter of Christians, but America’s churches stay silent...

Christians in the Middle East and Africa are being slaughtered, tortured, raped, kidnapped, beheaded, and forced to flee the birthplace of Christianity. One would think this horror might be consuming the pulpits and pews of American churches. Not so. The silence has been nearly deafening.

As Egypt’s Copts have battled the worst attacks on the Christian minority since the 14th century, the bad news for Christians in the region keeps coming. On Sunday, Taliban suicide bombers killed at least 85 worshippers at All Saints’ church, which has stood since 1883 in the city of Peshawar. Christians were also the target of Islamic fanatics in the attack on a shopping center in Nairobi, Kenya, this week that killed more than 70 people. The Associated Press reported that the Somali Islamic militant group al-Shabab “confirmed witness accounts that gunmen separated Muslims from other people and let the Muslims go free.” The captives were asked questions about Islam. If they couldn’t answer, they were shot.

In Syria, Christians are under attack by Islamist rebels and fear extinction if Assad falls. This month, rebels overran the historic Christian town of Maalula, where many of its inhabitants speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus. The AFP reported that a resident of Maalula called her fiance’s cell and was told by member of the Free Syrian Army that they gave him a chance to convert to Islam and he refused. So they slit his throat.

Nina Shea, an international human-rights lawyer and expert on religious persecution, testified in 2011 before Congress regarding the fate of Iraqi Christians, two-thirds of whom have vanished from the country. They have either been murdered or fled in fear for their lives. Said Shea: “[I]n August 2004… five churches were bombed in Baghdad and Mosul. On a single day in July 2009, seven churches were bombed in Baghdad… The archbishop of Mosul, was kidnapped and killed in early 2008. A bus convoy of Christian students were violently assaulted. Christians… have been raped, tortured, kidnapped, beheaded, and evicted from their homes…” Full story...

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Christian widows in India beaten for refusing to ‘reconvert’ to Hinduism...

'Sentenced to death for being thirsty': Christian woman tells of moment she...

Egypt:Nearly 40 churches burned,while 23 others attacked...

Egypt's Christians face backlash for Morsi ouster...

Muslim youths in Nigeria massacre Christian family of eight...

What really happened in Nairobi's Westgate?

Thick smoke hangs above the access road to The Westgate – the up-market shopping mall that serves mainly expats, UN staff and Kenyan elites.

Sporadic gunfire and explosions are clearly heard from the direction of the compound; overtaken on Saturday 21 September, by Somali fighters from the Muslim militant group Al-Shabaab.

Police forces and military duck for cover, and new troops are being bussed in order to take part in the operation.

Combat helicopters are circling around the site. Even higher than them, almost above the clouds, one can spot small airplanes. The sky is very busy. And it is overcast; the weather is gloomy and when the clouds are high up, aircraft are hardly visible.

Dozens of reporters, local and international, are shouting their dispatches into mobile phones. Some are Tweeting, or recording interviews with rescued hostages, nurses, and security officers.

Everything appears to be surprisingly well organized, including the supply of food, water and medicine. A Chinese clinic is offering help, as well as several voluntary organizations. People are donating blood. There are blankets and tents readily available. Full story...

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Why did the CIA let a crazed al-Qaeda mob kill America's ambassador in Benghazi?

What they are NOT telling you about the Somali pirates...

Terror Alert: FEAR SELLS | Weapons of mass distraction...

Move UN out of US, Bolivian president says...

Bolivian President Evo Morales has accused the United States of harboring terrorists and urged that UN headquarters be moved from New York.

Morales made the remarks in his speech to the 68th UN General Assembly on Wednesday, AFP reported.

“I would like you to be aware that the United States harbors terrorists and the corrupt,” said Morales, adding, “They take refuge here, and the United States does not help in the fight against corruption.”

The socialist president called for the United Nations to leave New York City because of US "blackmail" and bullying. Full story...

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Thursday, September 26, 2013

'We have the power to take your kids away'

At a home-school community meeting deep in the woods of Baden-Württemberg, children kick around balls and parents grill sausages while chatting about their latest run-ins with the state.

An American woman who just gives her name as “Teri” says she and her German husband started home-schooling their two daughters so they could learn both English and German. “We want them to be fluent in both languages, in both cultures and in both politics,” she says.

But when local authorities discovered their daughters were not going to school, Teri and her husband received a letter demanding they enrol them. “The letter said we can fine you tens of thousands of euros. We can take your children away from you. We have the power to do this, and we have the power to do that,” Teri says. “It was very frightening.”

They and other families in the Baden-Württemberg area are now experimenting with something called the Uracher Plan, championed by Irene and Jonathan Erz. Full story...

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Paradise Lost: Ascension Islanders uprooted for US military base...

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U.S. forcibly deported Diego Garcia islanders and gassed their dogs...

British government under fire for allowing US to use Diego Garcia...

Story of a sacred mountain in India:the Dongria Kondh fight Vedanta...

Why do many India MPs have criminal records?

"We need to build a consensus on how to prevent individuals with a criminal record from contesting elections."

A necessary, even obvious fundamental you would think of building the world's largest democracy.

And when Sonia Gandhi, India's most powerful politician, uttered those words three years ago, even her main opponent, the leader of the BJP agreed.

Yet since then, things have gone in the opposite direction - with more alleged lawbreakers among India's lawmakers than ever, a third of the current parliament according to a watchdog called the Association for Democratic Reforms.

By some calculations, politicians with a criminal record are more likely to be elected than those with a clean slate - because, says the ADR, they have more illicit funds with which to buy votes. Full story...

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Democracy in India, democracy in Switzerland...

Jawaharlal Nehru 'would be ashamed of today's greedy, corrupt India'

A "caged parrot" - Indian judge describes top police agency in coalgate scandal...

" Politicians in India have looted the country more than the British did..."

Obama called a war criminal in Irish Parliament...

Jimi Hendrix: 'The more famous he got, the less happy he became'

It's a tale of two brothers. Both were born in Seattle; both got in trouble with the law and spent time in the army as well as prison. But while Jimi found salvation in music and became a rock god, his younger brother succumbed to a life of drugs and crime.

Now, speaking to The Independent on the week of the 43rd anniversary of his brother's death in Notting Hill, Leon Hendrix looks vacant as he recalls first hearing the news. "First it was on the radio. And everyone in prison knew who I was and everyone went quiet. They called my name over the loudspeaker and I was told to go to the chaplain's office, so I knew it was true. My dad was on the phone. He was crying and crying. And that was it."

It put an end to all hopes of redemption. "Before he died he wanted to come to prison to do a concert. But [manager] Mike Jeffery wouldn't let him. He said, 'Jimi, you already got arrested in Canada, and now you want to help your little brother who has a lot of problems. We don't want you associating with that.' The next thing I know he was in London and had passed away."

The death of his brother caused Leon's own demons to resurface. Addictions to crack and cocaine intensified and, coupled with alcoholism and a crippling debt, plunged Leon further into darkness.

Whereas Jimi had found music, Leon had found only drugs. Concerned relatives attempted to sound the alarm and a desperate intervention from his children finally resulted in Leon being whisked to rehab in Pasadena, where he began his journey to recovery. Full story...

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Was Jimi Hendrix murdered?

The Beatles and the Paul McCartney mystery...

Chantel McGregor performing Jimi Hendrix's Redhouse...

Jesus was 'world's first tweeter', says Vatican cardinal!!!

Jesus Christ was the world's first tweeter because his pronouncements were "brief and full of meaning", Vatican cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi said on Wednesday.

Christ "used tweets before everyone else, with elementary phrases made up of fewer than 45 characters like 'Love one another'", said Monsignor Ravasi, the Vatican's equivalent of a culture minister.

"A bit like in television today, he delivered a message through a story or a symbol," the cardinal said at a conference with Italy's leading newspaper editors.

The cardinal emphasised the importance of clergy making full use of modern-day computer technology.

"If a cleric, a pastor is not interested in communication, they are defying their duty," he said. Full story...

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Singapore looks underground for more room...

Singapore, with a little less land mass than New York City, is running out of room for its 5.4 million people.

The city-state has built upward — with apartment buildings reaching as high as 70 stories — reclaimed underused properties for housing and pushed out coastlines for more usable land.

But as one of the world’s most crowded cities, and with projections for 1.5 million more people in the next 15 years, Singapore’s options are as limited as its space.

So Singapore is considering a novel solution: building underground to create an extensive, interconnected city, with shopping malls, transportation hubs, public spaces, pedestrian links and even cycling lanes.

“Singapore is small, and whether we have 6.9 million or not, there is always a need to find new land space,” said Zhao Zhiye, the interim director of the Nanyang Center for Underground Space at Nanyang Technological University. “The utilization of underground space is one option for Singapore.” Full story...

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'You're not like us. Go home': French minister sparks Roma row...

Interior Minister Manuel Valls on Wednesday insisted he stood by a controversial call for tens of thousands of ethnic Roma to be kicked out of France.

Valls has triggered an outcry from human rights groups, the European Commission and some of his government colleagues by saying any Roma not working should be "delivered back to the borders", describing their way of life as "extremely different from ours," and claiming they will never integrate into French society.

The latter remark earned the minister a rebuke from his cabinet colleague, Arnaud Montebourg, who pointedly alluded to Valls' own status as the Barcelona-born son of Spanish immigrants who left for France during Franco's dictatorship.

"A theory that such and such a person or such and such a people will never, ever be able to integrate just doesn't stand up," Montebourg said.

"That's what they said about the Italians, that's what they said about the Spanish, it's what they said about the Portuguese, and what they said about the Arabs. Full story...

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Revealed: Qatar's World Cup 'slaves'

Dozens of Nepalese migrant labourers have died in Qatar in recent weeks and thousands more are enduring appalling labour abuses, a Guardian investigation has found, raising serious questions about Qatar's preparations to host the 2022 World Cup.

This summer, Nepalese workers died at a rate of almost one a day in Qatar, many of them young men who had sudden heart attacks. The investigation found evidence to suggest that thousands of Nepalese, who make up the single largest group of labourers in Qatar, face exploitation and abuses that amount to modern-day slavery, as defined by the International Labour Organisation, during a building binge paving the way for 2022.

According to documents obtained from the Nepalese embassy in Doha, at least 44 workers died between 4 June and 8 August. More than half died of heart attacks, heart failure or workplace accidents.

(...)

The allegations suggest a chain of exploitation leading from poor Nepalese villages to Qatari leaders. The overall picture is of one of the richest nations exploiting one of the poorest to get ready for the world's most popular sporting tournament.

"We'd like to leave, but the company won't let us," said one Nepalese migrant employed at Lusail City development, a $45bn (£28bn) city being built from scratch which will include the 90,000-seater stadium that will host the World Cup final. "I'm angry about how this company is treating us, but we're helpless. I regret coming here, but what to do? We were compelled to come just to make a living, but we've had no luck." Full story...

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Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Pope Francis excommunicates pro-gay marriage priest. He's not the liberal the media thinks he is...

Dissident priest Greg Reynolds has been both defrocked and excommunicated over his support for women priests and gays - the first person ever excommunicated in Melbourne, he believes.

The order comes direct from the Vatican, not at the request of Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart, and apparently follows a secret denunciation in the best traditions of the inquisition, according to Father Reynolds.

The excommunication document - written in Latin and giving no reason - was dated May 31, meaning it comes under the authority of Pope Francis who made headlines on Thursday calling for a less rule-obsessed church.

Father Reynolds, who resigned as a parish priest in 2011 and last year founded Inclusive Catholics, said he had expected to be laicised (defrocked), but not excommunicated. But it would make no difference to his ministry.
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''In times past excommunication was a huge thing, but today the hierarchy have lost such trust and respect,'' he said. Full story...

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Execution of street hawker ignites outrage in China...

In life, Xia Junfeng was a nobody: he lived hand-to-mouth, selling fried sausages from a food cart in the Chinese city of Shenyang and trying to raise his young son.

But his death on Wednesday morning ignited one of the largest public outcries in recent years, with the Chinese internet voicing its disgust at the Communist party.

Mr Xia's case began in May 2009, when a group of "chengguan", city officers charged with keeping the streets in order, confronted him as he manned his stall.

According to several witnesses who were later barred from testifying in his defence, he was beaten to the ground and his cart upturned.

The men then took him to a local detention centre for interrogation where Mr Xia pulled a knife and stabbed two of them to death before fleeing. Full story...

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Saudi Arabia gives 20 lashes punishment to man for beating wife...

A court in eastern Saudi Arabia has sentenced a husband to 20 lashes for allegedly hitting his wife on her shoulder.

The case was filed one month ago in Al Qateef by the wife, who presented a medical report supporting her claim.

According to Gulf News, the husband, in his 30s, said that he did not mean to hurt his wife and said that he was merely joking with her.

Even though the wife later told the authorities that she was dropping the case after reconciliation with her husband, the prosecution refused to dismiss the public charges.

The judge ruled that the wife had the right to attend the flogging. Source...

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NSA planted bugs at Indian missions in D.C., U.N. No reacation from India...

Two of the most important nerve-centres of Indian diplomacy outside the country — the Permanent Mission of India at the United Nations and the embassy in Washington, DC — were targets of such sophisticated bugs implanted by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) that entire computer hard disks might have been copied by the American agency. The U.N. Mission building in New York and the embassy premises, including its annex, in Washington were on a top-secret list of countries and missions — many of them European allies of the U.S. — chosen for intensive spying.

According to a top-secret NSA document obtained by The Hindu, the NSA selected India’s U.N. office and the embassy as “location target” for infiltrating their computers and telephones with hi-tech bugs, which might have given them access to vast quantities of Internet traffic, e-mails, telephone and office conversations and even official documents stored digitally.

Since the NSA revelations began in June, U.S. President Barack Obama and other top American officials have all claimed that the surveillance activities were aimed exclusively at preventing terrorist attacks. But the targeted spying of Indian diplomatic buildings could have been done for political and commercial reasons — not the core responsibility of the NSA.

According to the 2010 COMINT (communication intelligence) document about “Close Access SIGADs”, the offices of Indian diplomats and high-ranking military officials stationed at these important posts were targets of four different kinds of electronic snooping devices: Full story...

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Hyderabad 1948: India's hidden massacre...

In September and October 1948, soon after independence from the British Empire, tens of thousands of people were brutally slaughtered in central India.

Some were lined up and shot by Indian Army soldiers. Yet a government-commissioned report into what happened was never published and few in India know about the massacre. Critics have accused successive Indian governments of continuing a cover-up.

The massacres took place a year after the violence of partition in what was then Hyderabad state, in the heart of India. It was one of 500 princely states that had enjoyed autonomy under British colonial rule.

When independence came in 1947 nearly all of these states agreed to become part of India.

But Hyderabad's Muslim Nizam, or prince, insisted on remaining independent. This outraged the new country's mainly Hindu leaders in New Delhi.

After an acrimonious stand-off between Delhi and Hyderabad, the government finally lost patience. Full story...

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