Bonjour Planet Earth

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Huge success for Indonesian web-site that targets corrupt officials...

An Indonesian website listing crooked officials and individuals has joined the war against graft in one of Asia’s most corrupt nations, its founders said Tuesday.

Korupedia.org, which so far lists 108 graft convicts, has received nearly 2 million Internet hits in the week since it was launched, some from hackers trying to bring it down, they said.

The website is similar to IPaidABribe.com, an Indian site launched in Bangalore two years ago.

“Since the official launch last Tuesday we recorded around 1.9 million visits from across Indonesia, most of them from Jakarta,” said Suwandi Ahmad, the website’s developer.

“We have also had cyberattacks nearly daily. I’m pretty sure it’s by people trying to ruin our database,” said Danang Widoyoko, one of the founders and also head of the independent Indonesian Corruption Watch. Full story...

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Mali: Students flee Sharia laws in northern schools...

Strict Sharia, or Islamic religious laws, imposed by the Islamist rebels controlling vast swathes of northern Mali are driving thousands of students out of schools. Dress codes have been imposed, boys and girls are forced to learn separately, and subjects deemed to promote "infidelity" have been struck off the curriculum.

Outraged parents are transferring their children and some students are opting to miss examinations rather than learn under these conditions.

"We simply took our two children from the school," said Mariam Touré, who lives in Timbuktu, one of the northern towns seized by the Islamists and other insurgents. "We will send them to Bamako [the capital of Mali, in the south] to continue learning."

(...)

Although schools have taken the brunt of the draconian Islamic laws, residents can also no longer watch television, men cannot shave their beard or use tobacco. On 20 June, a Timbuktu couple was flogged 100 times in public for having a child out of wedlock, sparking condemnation by shocked and angry residents.

"I was really shocked to see these poor youths undergo such punishment simply because of having a child. It made me cry. It's a shame," said Mariama, a schoolgirl. Full story...

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Grabbing land in Africa and trying to justify it...

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Aung San Suu Kyi and the rule of law: Burma's Rohingya problem...

Aung San Suu Kyi’s 17-day European trip, which started on 13 June, could be called the “Rule of Law Tour.” She has been promoting the concept of the rule of law as a problem-solving tool in every single talk and press conference in Europe.

Yet her account runs the risk of being an empty promise if she continues to leave the content of the laws unchallenged.

Rule of law particularly is Aung San Suu Kyi’s default answer to the questions regarding the oppressed Rohingya minority group from western Burma who have been denied citizenship by the state, and are unwanted and openly demonized by the public at large.

The tremendous public opposition against the Rohingyas, most significantly reflected during the conflict in Arakan state early this month, demonstrates that any political leader supporting them can be accused of being a traitor.

This puts Aung San Suu Kyi in a risky position. On the one hand, any implicit or explicit support for the Rohingya is likely to entail a backlash from her Burmese supporters who are in a state of political hangover regarding the Arakan conflict. The conflict has resulted in numerous deaths and displaced many hundreds from both ethnic Rakhine and Rohingya sides. Her supporters are also in a state of denial for equal rights and citizenship to ethnic Rohingyas. Full story...

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Singapore church founder 'misused £11.5 million in donations'

The founder of one of Singapore's richest churches has been arrested on allegations he misused at least £11.5 million in donations from his congregation of more than 30,000.

Pastor Kong Hee and four senior executives of the City Harvest Church – a Christian group registered as a charity – were arrested by Singapore's Commercial Affairs Department, a police unit set up to fight financial crime.

Officials said they were suspected of diverting at least Sg$23 million earmarked for charitable projects and spent money on a bid by the pastor's wife, Ho Yeow Sun, to launch an evangelical music career in the United States.

The church, which has affiliates in neighbouring Malaysia and other countries, is famous for services that resemble pop concerts. Full story...

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Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Teen in Indian reality show reveals that her father murdered three people...

On 15 May, Nirmala Periya Swamy, anchor of the popular Tamil reality show Solvathellam Unmai, found a young couple keen to meet her at her studio in T Nagar, Chennai. They looked fatigued and scared and wanted Nirmala to help them get married. The girl’s name was Bhargavi M. She was 17 years old. The boy, K Satheesh Kumar, was 22. Both were from Villupuram, a village 150 km from Chennai.

Nirmala claims she told them they couldn’t get married since Bhargavi was not yet 18 and tried to persuade them to return home. “But Bhargavi was adamant,” says Nirmala, “she refused to go back.” The would-be bride was sure her parents were not willing to let them marry because Satheesh was of another caste. She also dropped hints of sexual harassment by her father.

Zee Tamil, the channel that broadcasts Solvathellam Unmai, decided to put the couple on air and asked parents on both sides to turn up the next day. It is a show where the anchor plays the role of a judge, settling any issue at hand on the spot. Here, an issue related to the couple’s desire to marry was how Bhargavi had been abused by her father, and she was cajoled into talking about it. “After her disclosure of this torture,” says Nirmala, “I tried to convince her of the need to retain family ties.” But suddenly, Bhargavi blurted out that she was afraid of being killed. Nirmala asked for an explanation. “He will kill me,” the 17-year-old said, “I am sure because he has done it [before].”

The entire television crew was stunned. For a minute, Nirmala couldn’t make out what was happening. She asked Bhargavi to repeat herself. Full story...

Watch the episode here (in Tamil)...

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Nigel Farage: the Eurozone is a ponzi scheme run by communists...

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More and more Swiss-Americans ditch US passports...

With financial relations between Washington and Bern increasingly strained, more and more Swiss-Americans are giving up their US citizenship, figures show.

The number of dual nationality Swiss-Americans renouncing their US passports has risen sharply in recent years, due in large part to the pressure being exerted by the IRS, the US tax authority, online news site Le Matin reported.

The United States is one of the only countries in the world that taxes its citizens even when they have settled abroad. This means that all Americans living in Switzerland, even if they have dual American-Swiss nationality, must complete and submit a US tax return.

In addition to this tax return burden, the recent pressure placed on Swiss banks by the IRS to disclose details of US clients to ensure compliance with the US tax regime has caused Swiss banks and asset managers to reject clients with any US affiliation. In one case, a man who had been settled in Switzerland was thrown out of his bank for having US citizenship. Full story...

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Muslim TV anchor in Malaysia suspended for cutting her hair...

A Muslim TV anchor's decision to support cancer awareness by chopping off her hair has cost the woman her job at a Malaysian channel, which wants her to grow back her mane to an "acceptable" length before being allowed to resume her work.

Popular Malaysian NTV7 news anchor and television personality Ras Adiba Mohd Radzi has also claimed to have received anonymous calls abusing her for defying a 'fatwa' prohibiting women from shaving their head, local media reported today.

Ras Adiba, who works on a freelance basis for NTV7, cropped her hair on Friday last to show solidarity with The National Cancer Council cancer awareness campaign.

However, NTV7 found her new look too much to handle, ruling that she could no longer appear on air until her hair grows back to an acceptable length, Star newspaper said. Full story...

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Small West Yorkshire town aims to be first town with food self-sufficiency by growing all its own vegetables...

Different local authorities throughout the USA have been harassing homeowners for growing veggies or herbs in their front lawns. But in the small town of Todmorden, England, a grass-roots food movement has been started by one woman who grew veggies in her front yard and let neighbors pick them free.

It took six months before neighbors and passers-by got the notion that Mary Clear's lowered fence and signs encouraging people to pick veggies from her lawn was for real. Mary, a 56 year old grandmother, kicked off a scheme thought up with local Bear Cafe owner Pam Warhurst and others to engage in local guerrilla agriculture.

Soon, others joined in and they called the movement Incredible Edible. Now this small community has 70 large, raised beds flourishing with fruits and vegetables, all of which are there for others to take from without paying.

Even the Todmorden police station has a few of those beds on its premises. The police also allow others to come and pick from them. It's a high profile setting that lets others know it is okay to grow your own in Todmorden. Full story...

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Israeli citizens protest against the State amidst police brutality...

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Prisoners in Brazil will have sentences shortened if they read books!!!

Brazil will offer inmates in its crowded federal penitentiary system a novel way to shorten their sentences: four days less for every book they read.

Inmates in four federal prisons holding some of Brazil's most notorious criminals will be able to read up to 12 works of literature, philosophy, science or classics to trim a maximum 48 days off their sentence each year, the government announced.

Prisoners will have up to four weeks to read each book and write an essay which must "make correct use of paragraphs, be free of corrections, use margins and legible joined-up writing," said the notice published on Monday in the official gazette.

A special panel will decide which inmates are eligible to participate in the program dubbed "Redemption through Reading".

"A person can leave prison more enlightened and with a enlarged vision of the world," said Sao Paulo lawyer Andre Kehdi, who heads a book donation project for prisons.

"Without doubt they will leave a better person," he said. Source...

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Prisoners in India get early release if they take yoga lessons!!!

There are now more Americans in jail than there were in Stalin's Gulag...

Saudi women languish in jail as families refuse to take them back...

When Italians prefer jail to being nagged at home!!!

Meet the man illiterate at 96, author at 98...

"Some teachers tell kids to stop reading a book because they'll get too...

Former US president Jimmy Carter condemns America's shameful record on drone attacks and targeted assassinations...

THE United States is abandoning its role as the global champion of human rights.

Revelations that top officials are targeting people to be assassinated abroad, including American citizens, are only the most recent, disturbing proof of how far our nation’s violation of human rights has extended. This development began after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and has been sanctioned and escalated by bipartisan executive and legislative actions, without dissent from the general public. As a result, our country can no longer speak with moral authority on these critical issues.

While the country has made mistakes in the past, the widespread abuse of human rights over the last decade has been a dramatic change from the past. With leadership from the United States, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted in 1948 as “the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.” This was a bold and clear commitment that power would no longer serve as a cover to oppress or injure people, and it established equal rights of all people to life, liberty, security of person, equal protection of the law and freedom from torture, arbitrary detention or forced exile. Full story...

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Jailed paedophile football coach gets "Hey teacher, leave them kids alone" serenade from fellow prisoners...

Jerry Sandusky is back in a place he definitely doesn’t want to be.

The former Penn State assistant football coach is in jail, on suicide watch, after a jury convicted him late Friday of sexually abusing 10 boys over 15 years.

Sandusky, 68, had been free on bail before his trial began two weeks ago but was handcuffed immediately after his 12 peers pronounced him guilty of all but three of the 48 charges against him.

Today, he is at the Centre County Correctional Facility — the same lockup where he spent a night in December. That night, the other prisoners harassed him. Now, they’re more than likely to do it again.

His last time behind bars, Sandusky was held alone in a cell in a special unit reserved for sexual offenders or people with mental illnesses, according to another inmate there last winter. The 22-year-old offender identified himself as Josh and asked that his surname not be used because he is embarrassed about his crime. Full story...

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High tension between Vatican and Ireland over child abuse cover-up.

"Pedophilia is Hollywood's biggest problem..."

The Beatles accused of being responsible for recreational drug use increase...

The Beatles were responsible for a worldwide increase in recreational drug use which continues to harm young people, Russia's top anti-narcotics official has claimed.

Yevgeny Bryun told a press conference in Moscow that the consequences of the Fab Four's propaganda in the 1960s were still being felt.

"After The Beatles went to expand their consciousness in India ashrams, they introduced that idea – the changing of one's psychic state of mind using drugs – to the population," he said. "When business understood that you could trade on that – on pleasure and goods associated with pleasure – that's probably where it all began." Mr Bryun said tough measures were needed to combat mass culture and advertising which promoted drug use today.

The Beatles experimented with various narcotics and Sir Paul McCartney admitted in 2004 that much of their music was "informed" by drugs. He said the song "Got To Get You Into My Life" was "about pot" while "Day Tripper" was about acid. "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" famously referred to LSD. Full story...

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Beatles on the rooftop, their last public performance! Wow!

The Beatles and the Paul McCartney mystery...

The Beatles' Abbey Road and conspiracy theories...

Would the Beatles have been the Beatles ... had they never touched drugs?

Back in the USSR, the Beatles were a formidable force...

The Beatles and A Day in the Life...

India is the world's largest open air toilet, says minister...

India is the world's largest open air lavatory with three fifths of the world's people forced to do their ablutions outside, the country's rural development minister said.

Jairam Ramesh said spending on basic sanitation should match India's vast defence spending and that the country's best scientific minds should be deployed to make sure every Indian had access to an inside lavatory.

"Nearly 60 per cent of the people in the world who defecate in the open belong to India. Even countries like Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Afghanistan have better records. We should be ashamed of this."

He was speaking at the launch of a new 'eco-lavatory' designed by India's Defence Research and Development Organisation, which is responsible for developing its new Agni Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles. Full story...

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Monday, June 25, 2012

Google, censorship and Thailand's monarchy...

As reported in Siam Voices this week, Google has released its 2012 Transparency Report, which chronicles requests that Google receives, mostly from governments, to block material online. As Lisa Gardner notes on Siam Voices, “Google bucked international trends in 2011 by blocking access to hundreds of web pages at the behest of the Thai Ministry of Information, Communication, and Technology [MICT].” One part of the report shows that Google has restricted or partly restricted at least 149 YouTube videos that the Thai government claimed was insulting to the monarchy. Unlike in many other countries, where Google supposedly makes its decisions to take down material after a local court issues an order (not that courts are infallible, but at least there is a court order), in Thailand it took down material even without court orders being issued, simply at the request of the authorities.

Overall, around the world last year, Google complied with about 54 percent of requests by governments and copyright holders to take down material. But in Thailand, Gardner reports, Google “chose to comply with each request made by Thai government censors” – in essence, 100 percent of their requests, which is a chilling number.

(...)

For one, although Google claims that it only removes material if the requests to remove are relatively narrow, in Thailand the application of the lèse-majesté law and the Computer Crimes Act has become broader and broader each year, and now is so broadly defined – some would say undefined – as to be almost impossible to understand. (Scholar David Streckfuss, the authority on lèse-majesté, has shown how over the past decade Lèse-Majesté cases have skyrocketed, reaching a number rarely seen in any monarchy in history, other than in late nineteenth century Germany.) Full story...

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World's top bankers handed 12% pay rise to average $12.8MILLION...

The world's top bankers are enjoying double-digit annual pay rises despite profits and share prices at their institutions plummeting, research has revealed.

JP Morgan Chase's Jamie Dimon, Citigroup's Vikram Pandit and Bank of America's Brian Moynihan are amongst a host of senior executives to see wages boosted.

U.S. pay research group Equilar discovered the top 15 bank chiefs were handed an average 11.9 per cent pay rise last year to $12.8million, the second increase in a row.

Dimon, whose reputation took a battering last month for a $2billion trading loss, was given the highest increase with a $23.1million pay package that was 11 per cent higher.

Pandit's pay soared to $14.9million, after he received a $1 salary for the two previous years because of the unprofitability of the bank. Full story...

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Bangladeshi worker in Malaysia beaten up for flirting with someone else's wife...

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Wikipedia founder starts petition to stop extradition of British student Richard O'Dwyer for copyright infringement...

The founder of online encyclopaedia Wikipedia has started a petition seeking to block the extradition of a British student to the US.

Jimmy Wales has shown his support for Sheffield student Richard O'Dwyer, who is contesting extradition to the US to face copyright infringement charges.

Mr O'Dwyer's mother, Julia, said the petition was a "huge boost".

The US authorities say the 24-year-old's TVShack website hosted links to pirated films and TV programmes.

On the petition website, Mr Wales wrote: "Copyright is an important institution, serving a beneficial moral and economic purpose. But that does not mean that copyright can or should be unlimited."

He added: "The internet as a whole must not tolerate censorship in response to mere allegations of copyright infringement. As citizens we must stand up for our rights online. Full story...

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Don't look for answers: find the questions...

Researching the internet for information has taught me so many things. First of all, explore. Remain open and take the time to follow your heart and the leads and little nudges you’re given.

I know I’m preaching to much of the choir here, but these basic principles have such a wealth of wisdom to be gleaned.

We also soon find out the deeper one gets in the labyrinth of rabbitholelandia, the lonelier it appears to become. It isn’t really in the cosmic sense, but we become estranged to our previous ways of thinking and quickly realize our very lives are about to be drastically changed when we truly adopt the new Truths that are becoming increasingly apparent.

And estranged we become. Thankfully. The first period of a genuine awakening is the most difficult for most since everything, as in everything, gets reset. There’s really nothing to hold on to from your past or previous conceptions of anything if you’ve had a bonafide wake up. Oh, there are ideas and some concepts that seem to endure from tidbits learned along the way, but it’s not the same.

Everything takes on a new living, continually changing, wonderfully creative amorphous nature. Full story...

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Fukushima seafood back on market...

The first catch of seafood from Japan's Fukushima coast since last year's nuclear disaster is going on sale after passing radiation tests.

The Fukushima Prefectural (state) fishing co-operative said only octopus and whelks were available.

They were caught on Friday and boiled so they last longer while getting tested for radiation.

The association said the amount of radioactive caesium was so low it was not detectable.

Octopus and whelks were chosen for the first test shipment because they measured low in radiation. Flounder, sea bass and other fish from Fukushima cannot be sold yet because of radiation contamination.

The March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami devastated the north-eastern Japan coast. Source...

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Japanese government losing public trust as nuclear crisis worsens...

A restaurant for the deaf in Nepal...

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Two planes called back from runway because TSA agent did not notice unplugged metal detector!!!

An unplugged airport metal detector led to the evacuation of a busy JFK Airport terminal on Saturday and caused hours of delays as angry travelers shared their frustration over social media, according to a published report.

“The truth is, this is the failure of the most basic level of diligence,” a law-enforcement source told the New York Post. “How can you expect the public to feel confident of the mission of the TSA if they don’t even know if the lights are turned on?”

Two planes had to be called back from the runway while hundreds of passengers were rescreened in Terminal 7 of one of the nation’s busiest airports — all because of an unplugged power cord that went unnoticed by a TSA screener, the Post reported. Full story...

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British college calls in police to remove teen 'obsessed with revising'

A SCHOOL called in police to remove a student who was attempting to revise for an exam.

Jamie Gagliardi had been barred from entering Ifield Community College last Thursday after a dispute over revision sessions.

The 18-year-old defied the ban, protesting that he had nowhere else to study and was desperate to do well in his A levels.

But the school has accused him of being "obsessed" with after-school tuition and added that police help was sought because he was causing a "nuisance". Full story...

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Egyptian beats pregnant wife to death for not voting for Mursi...

An Egyptian plumber in Alexandria beat his pregnant wife to death upon learning that she had not voted for Muslim Brotherhood presidential candidate Mohammed Mursi, reported the Egyptian daily al-Wafd on Sunday.

According to police reports, the initial argument between the couple who was not named escalated into violence, despite her pleas. Battered and bruised, she was reported to have died at the hospital from injuries sustained.

Domestic fights have dominated Egyptian news headlines when the bid fell on the two most feared and most controversial candidates, Mursi and former prime minister Ahmed Shafiq. Full story...

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Sunday, June 24, 2012

How the one-sided media spins tales about the conflict in Syria...

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India's latest TV hit breaks taboos and offers rare window on abortion and 'honour' killings...

Like just about anywhere else in the world, India's top-rated television shows tend towards the less cerebral end of the spectrum – soap operas, talent contests, game shows and, of course, the cricket.

Yet the latest programme to captivate the nation of 1.2 billion offers its audience neither the chance to become a millionaire nor vote for their favourite singer. Instead, it confronts them with taboo issues such as female foeticide, "honour" killings and the ethics of the dowry system.

Fronted by the veteran Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan, Satyamev Jayate (Truth Alone Prevails) has been watched by a staggering 400 million people since going on air in May.

Eight weeks into its 13-episode run, the show is not only shaping public debate but has already shamed politicians into action. Two states have fast-tracked a law protecting children from sexual abuse and another has promised to open shops selling cut-price generic medicines. Rajasthan, the state with India's highest male-to-female ratio, pledged to speed up court cases punishing those who practice sex-based abortion. Full story...

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Waves of violence swallows more women in Juárez, Mexico...

First, there were just a few bones and body parts, found in a valley beyond the sprawl of this wild city. At least four women had been killed and dumped, the authorities said. Then, in the same area, investigators made another discovery early this year: a dozen more dead women and girls.

Most disappeared in 2009 and 2010, and when last seen alive many were teenagers, good students with bright smiles of possibility. In death, however, they have become apparitions.

Idalí Juache’s mother still insists her daughter is missing, though the police linked her DNA to cranial fragments in the valley’s grave. Elvira González said she felt what seemed like her daughter’s spirit at home, before finding out she had been dumped in the grave.

“I never believed this was how she would be brought back to us,” Ms. González said, fighting tears in her modest kitchen. “I always believed she’d be given back to us alive.” Full story...

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Psychic faces jail for conning women into performing naked sex acts...

A psychic who conned young female disciples into stripping off for raunchy spiritualist sessions is facing jail.

Karl Lang, 49, was found guilty today of 12 counts of causing women to engage in sexual activity without consent.

The rogue medium targeted two women in their 20s who sought him out in the belief he could contact dead relatives.

Lang, of Newport, South Wales, brainwashed his vulnerable victims and went so far as to claim he was Jesus Christ reincarnated.

Both women were encouraged to perform sex acts in front of him and pressed to act more and more outrageously as his influence increased. Full story...

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Swami Nithyananda implicated in serious video sex scandal...

Exposing India's fake god-men and gurus...

Meals ready...

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Kenya Airways reimburses Swedish woman for sitting next to a dead man on flight...

An airline has reimbursed a Swedish woman after she was given no choice but to sit across a corpse for much of a 10-hour flight to Kenya.

Lena Pettersson, a reporter for Radio Sweden, says her fellow passenger, a man in his 30s, appeared to be sick when she boarded a Dar es Salaam-bound Kenya Airways flight during a stopover at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, The Expressen reported.

"He was sweating and had seizures," Pettersson told Radio Sweden. "Air hostesses were there all along, but the plane took off anyway."

The man reportedly died a few hours into the overnight flight, despite efforts by the crew and passengers to revive him. Full story...

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Saturday, June 23, 2012

Green drivel: The godfather of global warming, James Lovelock, lowers the boom on climate change hysteria...

Two months ago, James Lovelock, the godfather of global warming, gave a startling interview to msnbc.com in which he acknowledged he had been unduly “alarmist” about climate change.

The implications were extraordinary.

Lovelock is a world-renowned scientist and environmentalist whose Gaia theory — that the Earth operates as a single, living organism — has had a profound impact on the development of global warming theory.

(...)

Having observed that global temperatures since the turn of the millennium have not gone up in the way computer-based climate models predicted, Lovelock acknowledged, “the problem is we don’t know what the climate is doing. We thought we knew 20 years ago.” Now, Lovelock has given a follow-up interview to the UK’s Guardian newspaper in which he delivers more bombshells sure to anger the global green movement, which for years worshipped his Gaia theory and apocalyptic predictions that billions would die from man-made climate change by the end of this century.

Lovelock still believes anthropogenic global warming is occurring and that mankind must lower its greenhouse gas emissions, but says it’s now clear the doomsday predictions, including his own (and Al Gore’s) were incorrect.

He responds to attacks on his revised views by noting that, unlike many climate scientists who fear a loss of government funding if they admit error, as a freelance scientist, he’s never been afraid to revise his theories in the face of new evidence. Indeed, that’s how science advances. Full story...

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The scam Wall Street learned from the mafia...

Someday, it will go down in history as the first trial of the modern American mafia. Of course, you won't hear the recent financial corruption case, United States of America v. Carollo, Goldberg and Grimm, called anything like that. If you heard about it at all, you're probably either in the municipal bond business or married to an antitrust lawyer. Even then, all you probably heard was that a threesome of bit players on Wall Street got convicted of obscure antitrust violations in one of the most inscrutable, jargon-packed legal snoozefests since the government's massive case against Microsoft in the Nineties – not exactly the thrilling courtroom drama offered by the famed trials of old-school mobsters like Al Capone or Anthony "Tony Ducks" Corallo.

But this just-completed trial in downtown New York against three faceless financial executives really was historic. Over 10 years in the making, the case allowed federal prosecutors to make public for the first time the astonishing inner workings of the reigning American crime syndicate, which now operates not out of Little Italy and Las Vegas, but out of Wall Street.

(...)

But USA v. Carollo marks the first time we actually got incontrovertible evidence that Wall Street has moved into this cartel-type brand of criminality. It also offered a disgusting glimpse into the enabling and grossly cynical role played by politicians, who took Super Bowl tickets and bribe-stuffed envelopes to look the other way while gangsters raided the public kitty. Full story...

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Syrian nightmare: Murdered mother and child (Graphic)

Warning: Graphic video...

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Do Singapore's laws favour the wealthy? The Woffles Wu case...

A plastic surgeon with the unlikely name of Woffles Wu has sparked an online row about whether Singapore’s justice system is biased in favor of the wealthy. To many of the island nation’s increasingly feisty citizens, the government’s denials have been less than convincing.

The curious case of Woffles Wu Tze Liang began with two speeding tickets. In September 2005, a motor vehicle registered to Wu was caught on a speed camera to be driving at 95 kilometers per hour on Lornie Road, which had a posted speed of 70. In November 2006, a Wu vehicle was clocked at 91 kilometers per hour on Adam Road, which had the same speed limit.

Per the nation’s automated ticketing program, the authorities sent a letter to Wu demanding to know who was driving on those occasions. Unlike the jurisdictions which protect a person’s right to remain silent in the face of criminal accusations, Section 81 of the Singapore Road Traffic Act requires people to disclose evidence in response to official requests for information about moving violations. Failure to disclose information is itself a criminal offense.

In response, Wu allegedly concocted a cover up. In an attempt to avoid paying a fine and having demerit points charged to his driver’s license, Wu convinced an elderly maintenance technician on his payroll, the then-76-year-old Kuan Kit Wah, to falsely take the rap and claim that he was driving the vehicle at the time. Full story...

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New Japanese law doles out prison time for illegal downloads...

Japan passed a new amendment to its copyright laws on Friday, making illegal downloads punishable with serious jail terms for the first time. The new law comes into effect in October.

For those caught with pirated material such as music or pirated DVDs and Blu-Ray discs, fines could run as high as $25,000 and carry a sentence of two years in prison, according to CNET Japan.

US punishments on the other hand are higher. Criminal penalties can run up to 5 years in prison and include a $250,000 fine, ten times more than Japan.

The topic of illegal downloads has been hotly debated in Japan. Warner Music Japan’s Keiichi Ishizaka has been quoted as saying that he wants to “exterminate” illegal downloads. Full story...

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"Dead" man in India runs for presidency ... to prove he's alive!!!

A 'dead man' is running in India's presidential election next month to prove he is alive.

Santosh Kumar Singh, a 32 year old cook, has spent nine years trying to prove to officials that he is alive after his high caste relatives declared him dead following a row over his decision to marry a Dalit woman, known as an "untouchable".

He has written to the prime minister, without success, and has now registered himself as one of 12 candidates for the presidency in the hope that the paperwork will prove his existence.

He had left his village in 2000 for a job in Mumbai where he fell in love and married a Dalit woman. When he returned to introduce his new bride to his high cast relatives three years later they told him he was a disgrace and chased him away, he said. Full story...

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US spends 1.6 TRILLION dollars a year on war and killing, (that's 53cents out of every tax dollar)

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3 men in Zambia rape a chickent to death! WTF!

Three men in Kapiri Mposhi district in Zambia are alleged to have raped a chicken until it died in a case of suspected witchcraft.

The three named men, aged 80, 66 and 35 years, are believed to have taken turns in having canal knowledge of a hen which later died yesterday.

Liombe Village headwoman, Loveness Chimbuleni, confirmed the incident to ZANIS today, saying the three have since been reported to police.

Headwoman Chimbuleni said the three were discovered with the dead chicken in the room where they are alleged to have abused it.

She said the dead chicken was discovered with its canal cavity widely ruptured with some suspected male semen oozing out of it. Full story...

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Singapore beating Switzerland at its own game - taxes.

Switzerland's low corporate taxes, business-friendly regulations and reputation for discretion have attracted multinational commodities trading firms "as a dunghill attracts flies".

This is how The Berne Declaration - a Swiss NGO which campaigns to ensure local companies act responsibly - describes Switzerland's appeal in a new book that aims to shed light on the methods of an industry that traditionally prefers to conduct its business away from the gaze of regulators and journalists.

But that may be changing. The country's pre-eminent position in commodities is under threat from Singapore just when it most needs the business after a series of blows to its banking industry.

In one of the highest-profile moves, the world's no. 3 commodities trader Trafigura said in May it is shifting its trading centre and a key executive to the city state. Full story...

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Chinese man dies after Euro 2012 viewing marathon...

A football-obsessed man from Changsha in south-central China has reportedly died after staying up for 11 successive nights to watch Euro 2012 matches.

According to a report in Hunan province's Sanxiang Metropolis newspaper, the 26-year-old was found dead by his mother after his 11-day football-watching marathon, finally expiring after Ireland's 2-0 defeat to Italy on June 18.

The time-difference between Europe and China means that most of the Euro 2012 matches only start at 2.45am local time, finishing at daybreak.

Using a false name to protect the identity of the victim's family, the newspaper said Jiang Xiaoshan had been a member of his university's football team and had enjoyed good health before the tournament, co-hosted by Poland and Ukraine, which kicked off on June 8. Full story...

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