2013/02/12
Why are Tibetans Turning to Self-immolation?
Tibetans who refuse to fly the Chinese flag above their homes risk being beaten or shot in the latest attempt to break their spirits. But now is the best moment in ages to bring hope to Tibet's proud, but desperate people.
No New Year celebrations for Tibetans
Tibetans in a northwest part of China which has been a focus of self-immolation protests against Chinese rule marked a low-key lunar New Year on Monday, with many saying celebrations were inappropriate while the burnings continued.
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Nearly 100 Tibetans have set themselves on fire to protest against Chinese rule since 2009, with most of them dying.
In the past few months, the government has begun a new tactic to discourage the protests, detaining and jailing people it deems to have incited the burnings.
The latest detentions have taken place in Gansu's neighboring province of Qinghai, where police last week detained 70 "criminal suspects", 12 of whom were formally arrested, meaning they will be charged.
The government has also seized televisions in Tibetan areas to prevent people from watching "anti-China" programs broadcast from abroad.
At the same time, Beijing has stepped up propaganda efforts aimed at the outside world, heaping blame on exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and overseas Tibetan groups for fomenting the self-immolations.
Tsundue and Gedun Tsultrim, were imprisoned on November 21, 2012, as they were on their way to pay their respects and say prayers at the home of Wangchen Norbu, a 25-year old Tibetan man who had died after self-immolating two days earlier near Kangtsa Gaden Choepheling monastery in the Kangtsa area of Qinghai.
China is vowing to silence the voice of exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama in his homeland Tibet by tightening media controls to ensure his “propaganda” is not accessed by anyone on the internet, television or by any other means, a top official has announced. [Historical Tibet claimed by exiled Tibetans] - Spain Has Indicted Hu Jintao Over Tibet
Intercontinental's hotel in military-occupied Tibet is serving China's repressive regime and human rights abuses against Tibetans
Repression, hate incitement, and massive arrests
different elements of proof or disproof, all of which they say are "verifiable and in most cases incontestable." One of the elements they considered was the backdrop of the current climate in China, one marked by corruption, human rights violations and a state policy of persecution against Falun Gong that includes repression, hate incitement, and massive arrests. While not revealing exact figures, the Chinese authorities have not denied the practice of taking organs from executed prisoners
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013)
In China Mandela's mantle was claimed by both the Communist regime, which had backed the anti-apartheid struggle, and opposition activists, who now seek to emulate it. President Xi Jinping, who supported opponents of apartheid throughout the cold war, praised Mandela's victory in the struggle and his contribution to "the cause of human progress".
Human rights activists pointed out that Mandela's life and death were a reminder of the struggles of homegrown advocates for democracy and an open society, such as the imprisoned Nobel peace prize laureate, Liu Xiaobo.
Exhausted model
The daily Die Welt declared recently that the tax haven as an economic model has been "exhausted."
Luxembourg, with a financial sector more than five times the size of its €44 billion GDP has come under particular scrutiny.
With a financial sector twice the size of its GDP, the United Kingdon could also become a point of interest.
On the London market (the most important in the world for foreign currency dealings), over four-fifths of transactions are not directly linked to trade or investment operations.
On the London market (the most important in the world for foreign currency dealings), over four-fifths of transactions are not directly linked to trade or investment operations.
A dysfunctional financial sector led us to the brink of disaster in 2008, and yet bank reforms aren’t going far enough to tackle the root causes of the economic crisis. Our four big banks remain too big to fail, and continue to engage in the risky and unproductive activities that caused the crash. We need to establish a more stable, sustainable and socially useful banking system.
Rehn has let the mask slip. It’s not about fiscal responsibility; it never was. It was always about using hyperbole about the dangers of debt to dismantle the welfare state.
Pope Francis says trickle-down economics do not help the poor
Pope Francis says trickle-down economics do not help the poor
The don’t-mind-the-gap perspective has lost substantial ground. We endanger our democracy and destabilize our economy
Self-Immolations (in Bulgaria) Highlight a Desperate Electorate
Portugal' State Corruption
The country hasn’t made a single prosecution out of 15 allegations of companies bribing foreign officials in high-risk countries; it prematurely closed several investigations
Portugal is one of the most unequal societies in the European Union.
After the end of the country’s dictatorship in the 1970s, public education found itself overwhelmed by soaring numbers of young people seeking degrees. The unmet demand opened a market for private universities, generally regarded as being of lesser quality. But where academic achievement has often failed to create distinction, hazing, known as praxes in Portuguese, has taken on a new and prominent place at the newer private universities, with some having their identity closely tied to the ritual. The situation thrust itself into the public debate here after the drowning deaths of six students during a suspected hazing ritual.
The report said four countries in southern Europe — Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain — "are shown to have serious deficits in public sector accountability and deep-rooted problems of inefficiency, malpractice and corruption."
Portuguese say country is increasingly corrupt
Portugal's Population continues to shrink
Atrocities committed by some Portuguese, the regular pain of the most of the portuguese (high prices of the electricity/no money for heating) & the (former) portuguese history...
Portugal is one of the most unequal societies in the European Union.
After the end of the country’s dictatorship in the 1970s, public education found itself overwhelmed by soaring numbers of young people seeking degrees. The unmet demand opened a market for private universities, generally regarded as being of lesser quality. But where academic achievement has often failed to create distinction, hazing, known as praxes in Portuguese, has taken on a new and prominent place at the newer private universities, with some having their identity closely tied to the ritual. The situation thrust itself into the public debate here after the drowning deaths of six students during a suspected hazing ritual.
The report said four countries in southern Europe — Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain — "are shown to have serious deficits in public sector accountability and deep-rooted problems of inefficiency, malpractice and corruption."
Angolan journalist and civil rights activist Rafael Marques has been awarded the 2013 Integrity Award by Transparency International for his efforts to fight corruption in Angola.
Consequences of World War I that continue to affect us today: the emergence of the United States as the world's policeman, France's unique view of Germany, the ethnic hostilities in the Balkans and the arbitrary drawing of borders in the Middle East, consequences that continue to burden and impede the peaceful coexistence of nations to this day.
The euro can be seen as a de facto foreign exchange intervention to keep the de facto Deutsche mark weak.
The report makes clear that the Earth is warming and the climate is changing, that human activities are primarily responsible, and that without very strong cuts in emissions of greenhouse gases, we face huge risks from global warming of more than 2C by the end of this century
The euro can be seen as a de facto foreign exchange intervention to keep the de facto Deutsche mark weak.
Recognizing sexual violence as an international crime
Rape committed during war is often intended to terrorize the population, break up families, destroy communities, and, in some instances, change the ethnic make-up of the next generation. Sometimes it is also used to deliberately infect women with HIV or render women from the targeted community incapable of bearing children.
In Rwanda, between 100,000 and 250,000 women were raped during the three months of genocide in 1994.
UN agencies estimate that more than 60,000 women were raped during the civil war in Sierra Leone (1991-2002), more than 40,000 in Liberia (1989-2003), up to 60,000 in the former Yugoslavia (1992-1995), and at least 200,000 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo since 1998.
Even after conflict has ended, the impacts of sexual violence persist, including unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections and stigmatization. Widespread sexual violence itself may continue or even increase in the aftermath of conflict, as a consequence of insecurity and impunity. And meeting the needs of survivors — including medical care, HIV treatment, psychological support, economic assistance and legal redress — requires resources that most postconflict countries do not have.
Anti-Shia hate propaganda spread by Sunni religious figures sponsored by, or based in, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf monarchies, is creating the ingredients for a sectarian civil war engulfing the entire Muslim world. Iraq and Syria have seen the most violence, with the majority of the 766 civilian fatalities in Iraq this month being Shia pilgrims killed by suicide bombers from the al-Qa'ida umbrella group, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis). The anti-Shia hostility of this organisation, now operating from Baghdad to Beirut, is so extreme that last month it had to apologise for beheading one of its own wounded fighters in Aleppo – because he was mistakenly believed to have muttered the name of Shia saints as he lay on a stretcher.
Ingredients for a sectarian civil war engulfing the entire Muslim world
Most comprehensive report on climate change ever leaves little doubt that
greenhouse gases are causing the world to heat up
In 2012, the United States ran a trade deficit of about $540,000,000,000 with the rest of the planet
The art world is a model of a pluralistic society in which all disfiguring barriers and boundaries have been thrown down." - Arthur Danto
Nadir Afonso, (December 4, 1920 – December 11, 2013) was a geometric abstractionist painter. Formally trained in architecture, which he practiced early in his career with Le Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer, Nadir Afonso later studied painting in Paris and became one of the pioneers in Kinetic art, working alongside Victor Vasarely, Fernand Léger, Auguste Herbin, and André Bloc.
As a theorist of his own geometry-based aesthetics, published in several books, Nadir Afonso defends that art is purely objective and ruled by laws that treat art not as an act of imagination but of observation, perception, and form manipulation.
O'Toole wasn't good to his word. In 2013, he appeared in the historical drama "Katherine of Alexandria," and he was cast as Symeon in 2014's "Mary, Mother of Christ." Up to the end, Peter O'Toole could never resist the pleasure of being the event.
Nadir Afonso, (December 4, 1920 – December 11, 2013) was a geometric abstractionist painter. Formally trained in architecture, which he practiced early in his career with Le Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer, Nadir Afonso later studied painting in Paris and became one of the pioneers in Kinetic art, working alongside Victor Vasarely, Fernand Léger, Auguste Herbin, and André Bloc.
As a theorist of his own geometry-based aesthetics, published in several books, Nadir Afonso defends that art is purely objective and ruled by laws that treat art not as an act of imagination but of observation, perception, and form manipulation.
O'Toole wasn't good to his word. In 2013, he appeared in the historical drama "Katherine of Alexandria," and he was cast as Symeon in 2014's "Mary, Mother of Christ." Up to the end, Peter O'Toole could never resist the pleasure of being the event.
2012/08/13
Rape victim’s 100 lashes sentence
A rape victim’s 100 lashes sentence in Maldives has caused international outcry, after the teen subject to the repeated rapes was accused of having consensual sex with another man aside from the rape.
The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought 2012 goes to Iranians Nasrin Sotoudeh, an imprisoned human rights defender and lawyer, and Jafar Panahi, a film director who with his work called attention to the hardships suffered by Iran's poor.
Apparently, it was then that he felt the need for more convincing, transcendental guarantees of his long tenure at the helm. It was here that the need arose to make use of the aesthetics of the Orthodox religion, historically associated with the heyday of Imperial Russia, where power came not from earthly manifestations such as democratic elections and civil society, but from God Himself.
The state’s leaders stand with saintly expressions in church, but their sins are far greater than ours. We’ve put on our political punk concerts because the Russian state system is dominated by rigidity, closedness and caste. Аnd the policies pursued serve only narrow corporate interests to the extent that even the air of Russia makes us ill.
Our protest has raised the issue of the fusion of the Russian Orthodox Church and the security services
A Two-Year Travelogue from Hell
Information is power - Aaron Swartz
The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought 2012 goes to Iranians Nasrin Sotoudeh, an imprisoned human rights defender and lawyer, and Jafar Panahi, a film director who with his work called attention to the hardships suffered by Iran's poor.
(Spain) Central government's move to stop schools using Catalan is insulting.
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There has even been wild talk about mobilising the army.
(The Times, 22.12.2012)
'Republicans and Gun Lobby Complicit' in Newtown
...
There has even been wild talk about mobilising the army.
(The Times, 22.12.2012)
'Republicans and Gun Lobby Complicit' in Newtown
Another Gunman and the Gun Owners of America
The Pussy and Mafia-Putin
Apparently, it was then that he felt the need for more convincing, transcendental guarantees of his long tenure at the helm. It was here that the need arose to make use of the aesthetics of the Orthodox religion, historically associated with the heyday of Imperial Russia, where power came not from earthly manifestations such as democratic elections and civil society, but from God Himself.
The state’s leaders stand with saintly expressions in church, but their sins are far greater than ours. We’ve put on our political punk concerts because the Russian state system is dominated by rigidity, closedness and caste. Аnd the policies pursued serve only narrow corporate interests to the extent that even the air of Russia makes us ill.
Our protest has raised the issue of the fusion of the Russian Orthodox Church and the security services
Yet so far no senior French politician convicted of corruption has been jailed *
* the same as Portugal & Greece
poundzonliberalmarket (at least, in this case, they get a fine...)
* the same as Portugal & Greece
poundzonliberalmarket (at least, in this case, they get a fine...)
Release Imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize Winner Liu Xiaobo and Wife Liu Xi
A Two-Year Travelogue from Hell
before the senior Assad came into power in the wake of a military coup, the Alawites, about 10 percent of the population, were the poorest people in the country, only coming to Damascus as servants. But then Hafez Assad, after rising through the ranks of the military, finally came to power in another coup, in 1970. His son is now determined to hold on to that power at all costs -- or else, as his soldiers' slogan goes, "we will burn the country down!"
Assad's Elaborate Disinformation Campaign
Yemen constitutes another of the Saudi-Iranian battlegrounds in the region
The real enemies of the Arab world
The Arab world has many enemies and Israel should have been at the bottom of the list. The real enemies of the Arab world are corruption, lack of good education, lack of good health care, lack of freedom, lack of respect for the human lives and finally, the Arab world had many dictators who used the Arab-Israeli conflict to suppress their own people.
"Something has gone wrong inside the Muslim world," Rushdie continued. Just a few decades ago, he said, major cities in the Arab and Muslim world were outward-looking. But "in the last half century, these cultures seem to have slid backwards into medievalism and represssion. ... It is one of the great self-inflicted wounds."
Southern Arabia's holy warrior, Abraha, had taken control of large areas before long. He even attempted to free bishops being held prisoner by the Persian enemy in Nisibis (in modern-day Turkey), some 2,500 kilometers away.
Saudi celebrity preacher who 'raped and tortured' his five-year-old daughter to death is released after paying 'blood money'
Information is power. But like all power, there are those who want to keep it for themselves. The world’s entire scientific and cultural heritage, published over centuries in books and journals, is increasingly being digitized and locked up by a handful of private corporations. Want to read the papers featuring the most famous results of the sciences? You’ll need to send enormous amounts to publishers like Reed Elsevier.
There are those struggling to change this. The Open Access Movement has fought valiantly to ensure that scientists do not sign their copyrights away but instead ensure their work is published on the Internet, under terms that allow anyone to access it. But even under the best scenarios, their work will only apply to things published in the future. Everything up until now will have been lost.
Charlatans
"or some institute doing Christ alone knows what ... organizing costing 50.000 Euros, maybe. I jest not."
It was 250.000 euros (spent by a Public Institute in a private party), not a "mere" 50.000 euros. The Portuguese State Mafia like to enjoy big things... The portuguese are charlatans, corrupts, killers (look at the statistics of the killings in Portugal) and cowers (they mostly kill the women and the weak).
Greece's corrupt "elite" (as the portuguese / as the brasilien)
But it remains an open question whether Greece’s leaders will be able to engineer such a transformation. In the past year, despite numerous promises to increase transparency, the country actually dropped 14 places from the previous year’s corruption survey.
Greece's corrupt "elite" (as the portuguese / as the brasilien)
But it remains an open question whether Greece’s leaders will be able to engineer such a transformation. In the past year, despite numerous promises to increase transparency, the country actually dropped 14 places from the previous year’s corruption survey.
2012/08/12
2012/05/20
States Must Sacrifice Sovereignty to Save Euro
The euro can only be saved with a system of coercion. Brussels must have the power to decide on government spending in Italy, Portugal or wherever."
Not time for Eurosceptic opportunism
Britain should be doing all it can to help, not standing well back, shouting for everyone else to do something, and then threatening to cut the rope.
Who is Responsible for the Greek Tragedy?
Greece’s private creditors were more than happy to pour money into the country, only to shirk their burden-sharing responsibilities when the artificial boom could no longer be sustained. The over-lending was so widespread that at one point it drove down the yield differential between Greek and German bonds to just six basis points – a ridiculously low level for two countries that differ so fundamentally in terms of economic management and financial conditions.
Germans are seen as the hardest working and least corruptible people in the European Union, a survey of eight EU countries shows, with Chancellor Angela Merkel receiving good marks for her crisis management. Greece, which has high praise for itself, is viewed poorly by its neighbors.
Before the euro Greece had a history of debt defaults, financial contagion, inflation crises and banking crises (see Reinhart and Roggof, 2009). This was usually reflected in its higher bond yields – a risk premium for investing in its debt. The spread between Greek and German bonds was historically always high.
Ever since 1841, the market requires that US states running up questionable levels of debt pay an interest-rate premium to compensate for the default risk. By contrast, Greece and the eurozone's other heavy borrowers were able to borrow at interest rates that had fallen to virtually the same level as German bunds. (Greece...)
Spain... Portugal...
6 June 2012 9:24PM
Teenage sister watched parents suffocate 17-year-old Shafilea Ahmed
Are those murders new in the UK?
Girls as young as five 'forced into marriage'
"The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said at least 943 women and girls were murdered last year for allegedly defaming their family’s honour. The statistics highlight the scale of violence suffered by many women in conservative Muslim Pakistan"
Five women 'killed by tribal elders for dancing and singing with men at wedding party in remote Pakistani village'
"one Christian couple was sentenced to 25 years in 2010 after being accused of touching the Qur'an with unwashed hands"
Fifteen men and two women have been found beheaded in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province. Officials said the victims were killed by Taliban insurgents as punishment for attending a mixed-sex party with music and dancing.
Another 27 children's bodies were found massacred in Syria
To stop this horror, we need to cut off the flow of arms to the regime. There is one way to do it, but it's going to take all of us working together to make it happen.
India and the US are key clients to Syria’s main weapons supplier -- the state-owned Russian company Rosoboronexport. If we can get the two countries to threaten to halt all deals unless the Russians stop supporting Syria's murder machine, the arms dealers could be forced to stop their Syria sales. Both the US and India want to stop the violence in Syria, but diplomacy is failing. This is their best chance -- let's give them a massive mandate to act.
Syrian government forces and militia loyal to the Assad regime are killing and sexually abusing children and using them as human shields
Opposition fighters in Syria have hitherto been handicapped by a reliance on an old and inadequate arsenal, while the regime in Damascus has been able to rely on a supply of arms from Russia and Iran. Moscow is arming Syria with attack helicopters, Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, claimed yesterday.
With Mali’s north under rebel control, fears are growing that a breakaway Islamist state could emerge, creating a local stronghold for the region’s jihadis and criminal gangs.
Salafists in German
The Salafists were waiting. By the time the violence finally came to an end, 29 police had been injured, two of them landing in the hospital with stab wounds. The pro-NRW demonstrators that the police had been protecting were unharmed.
Jiang Zemin himself has shown the way regarding corruption. In October 2007, former Minister of Finance Jin Renqing resigned unexpectedly, presumably because of the money transferred abroad by Jin and Jiang Zemin a few years before—nearly 100 billion yuan (US$15.8 billion) in misplaced funds.
Not time for Eurosceptic opportunism
Britain should be doing all it can to help, not standing well back, shouting for everyone else to do something, and then threatening to cut the rope.
Who is Responsible for the Greek Tragedy?
Greece’s private creditors were more than happy to pour money into the country, only to shirk their burden-sharing responsibilities when the artificial boom could no longer be sustained. The over-lending was so widespread that at one point it drove down the yield differential between Greek and German bonds to just six basis points – a ridiculously low level for two countries that differ so fundamentally in terms of economic management and financial conditions.
Germans are seen as the hardest working and least corruptible people in the European Union, a survey of eight EU countries shows, with Chancellor Angela Merkel receiving good marks for her crisis management. Greece, which has high praise for itself, is viewed poorly by its neighbors.
Before the euro Greece had a history of debt defaults, financial contagion, inflation crises and banking crises (see Reinhart and Roggof, 2009). This was usually reflected in its higher bond yields – a risk premium for investing in its debt. The spread between Greek and German bonds was historically always high.
Ever since 1841, the market requires that US states running up questionable levels of debt pay an interest-rate premium to compensate for the default risk. By contrast, Greece and the eurozone's other heavy borrowers were able to borrow at interest rates that had fallen to virtually the same level as German bunds. (Greece...)
Greek economic crisis isn't slowing corruption
6 June 2012 9:24PM
Surely!(since the "asian" rapists "old trading partners" are very far from UK you are definitely alright - but, please, don't forget to blame the EU if they were in UK all the time (sections of the pakistani community have been doing this for years to Sikh and Hindu girls and a Sikh gang was formed to combat this back in the 80s).
Lahore: A nine-year-old girl was in a critical condition in hospital after being raped by three men in Pakistan's Punjab province, police said.
Death penalty for rapists
Lahore: A nine-year-old girl was in a critical condition in hospital after being raped by three men in Pakistan's Punjab province, police said.
Death penalty for rapists
Teenage sister watched parents suffocate 17-year-old Shafilea Ahmed
Are those murders new in the UK?
Girls as young as five 'forced into marriage'
"The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said at least 943 women and girls were murdered last year for allegedly defaming their family’s honour. The statistics highlight the scale of violence suffered by many women in conservative Muslim Pakistan"
"one Christian couple was sentenced to 25 years in 2010 after being accused of touching the Qur'an with unwashed hands"
Fifteen men and two women have been found beheaded in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province. Officials said the victims were killed by Taliban insurgents as punishment for attending a mixed-sex party with music and dancing.
Former Pakistani dancing girl commits suicide 12 years after horrific acid attack
Pakistani parents kill 15-year-old daughter with acid
To stop this horror, we need to cut off the flow of arms to the regime. There is one way to do it, but it's going to take all of us working together to make it happen.
India and the US are key clients to Syria’s main weapons supplier -- the state-owned Russian company Rosoboronexport. If we can get the two countries to threaten to halt all deals unless the Russians stop supporting Syria's murder machine, the arms dealers could be forced to stop their Syria sales. Both the US and India want to stop the violence in Syria, but diplomacy is failing. This is their best chance -- let's give them a massive mandate to act.
Syrian government forces and militia loyal to the Assad regime are killing and sexually abusing children and using them as human shields
Opposition fighters in Syria have hitherto been handicapped by a reliance on an old and inadequate arsenal, while the regime in Damascus has been able to rely on a supply of arms from Russia and Iran. Moscow is arming Syria with attack helicopters, Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, claimed yesterday.
• A United Nations investigation into the killing of more than 100 civilians in Houla last month says forces loyal to the government "may have been responsible" for many of the deaths. It said the location of government checkpoints, and the timing of bombardments of the area pointed to government complicity in the massacre
"A lot of children have been killed. My friends, my cousins."
Qatar is an autocracy and Saudi Arabia is among the most pernicious of caliphate-kingly-dictatorships in the Arab world. Rulers of both states inherit power from their families – just as Bashar has done – and Saudi Arabia is an ally of the Salafist-Wahabi rebels in Syria, just as it was the most fervent supporter of the medieval Taliban during Afghanistan's dark ages.
"A lot of children have been killed. My friends, my cousins."
Qatar is an autocracy and Saudi Arabia is among the most pernicious of caliphate-kingly-dictatorships in the Arab world. Rulers of both states inherit power from their families – just as Bashar has done – and Saudi Arabia is an ally of the Salafist-Wahabi rebels in Syria, just as it was the most fervent supporter of the medieval Taliban during Afghanistan's dark ages.
The dark side of the Arab Spring
Egypt, where Islamist militias led by the Muslim Brotherhood ousted long-time dictator Hosni Mubarak, has seen liberty for religious minorities enter a crisis. Coptic Christians — who comprise approximately 10 percent of Egypt’s population — had experienced persecution for decades from Muslim groups, but until the fall of Mubarak, the government provided the Copts with official protection.
Since Mubarak’s demise, however, the situation for Copts has deteriorated. A wave of targeted murders, rapes, mob beatings and church burnings has devastated the Coptic Christian community on an almost daily basis for the past year. Despite the brutality of these attacks, the new democratic government has shown no desire to stop the persecution. Last October, a peaceful march protesting the destruction of a Coptic Christian church was broken up by police and military forces. Over 20 people were killed and more than 300 people were injured, some of them run over by military vehicles. In a recent and typical instance, when a mob of 3,000 Muslims attacked and burned Coptic homes, churches and shops in the village of Kobry-el-Sharbat, the police waited outside the village until the mob had enough of looting and beating. SAM HOEL
So in Tunisia, once the most secular and progressive country in the Arab world, gangs of Salafist Muslim thugs now roam the streets, threatening unveiled women and firebombing shops that dare to sell alcohol. In Yemen, Al Qaeda now controls large tracts of the south of country, while in Egypt, the first round of the presidential election has resulted in a run‑off between an Islamist hardliner and a former military crony of Mubarak — hardly the victory for democracy that the Egyptian people were promised at the height of the revolution.
Salafists in German
The Salafists were waiting. By the time the violence finally came to an end, 29 police had been injured, two of them landing in the hospital with stab wounds. The pro-NRW demonstrators that the police had been protecting were unharmed.
Salafists also believe, among other anti-Western doctrines, that democracy, because it is a man-made form of government, must be destroyed.
Cologne-based rapper Najafi has drawn the wrath of Shiite Muslims after publishing a song that appeared to make fun of the 10th imam. Following a fatwa by an Iranian ayatollah, he has received death threats, and there is a $100,000 bounty on his head. Now he is under police protection but insists he will keep making music.
German neo-Nazis helped the Palestinian terrorist organisation Black September to carry out the infamous massacre of 11 Israeli athletes during the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, intelligence files released nearly four decades after the killings revealed yesterday.
German neo-Nazis helped the Palestinian terrorist organisation Black September to carry out the infamous massacre of 11 Israeli athletes during the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, intelligence files released nearly four decades after the killings revealed yesterday.
Jiang Zemin himself has shown the way regarding corruption. In October 2007, former Minister of Finance Jin Renqing resigned unexpectedly, presumably because of the money transferred abroad by Jin and Jiang Zemin a few years before—nearly 100 billion yuan (US$15.8 billion) in misplaced funds.
The Party’s Central Disciplinary Commission is currently investigating a major corruption case that is linked to Jiang and his son, Jiang Mianheng. The money involved in the financial fraud could reach as high as 1.2 trillion yuan (US$190 billion).
The corruption is symptomatic of the radical immorality of the persecution itself. Crimes—slander, theft, brainwashing, unimaginable tortures, rape, and murder—are not only permitted, but are also required by the persecution. The officials who enforce the persecution gain a freedom from all notions of right and wrong so that crime comes easily to them.
In China’s five thousand year history, no single dynasty or political figure has killed as many Chinese citizens as the CCP has. In a time of peace, the CCP has persecuted hundreds of millions of Chinese, causing 80 million Chinese to die from unnatural causes. This is more than is estimated to have died in World Wars One and Two combined. Evidence on Organ Harvesting in China.
A man who earned nationwide fame as a whistle-blower exposing malpractice in the mainland dairy industry is dead from injuries he sustained in a beating
Jiang Weisuo
Jiang Weisuo
A man who earned nationwide fame as a whistle-blower exposing malpractice in the mainland dairy industry is dead from injuries he sustained in a beating
Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, baritone
NHK Symphony Orchestra
Paul Kletzki, conductor
Filmed at the Salle Pleyel, Paris, 24 October 1960
NHK Symphony Orchestra
Paul Kletzki, conductor
Filmed at the Salle Pleyel, Paris, 24 October 1960
2012/01/30
Hard to swallow?
How it was possible?
Perhaps the contemporary art is transformed in a mere financial product where the artist/PR count more than the "product" itself. When musiciens work hard, year after year, sometimes to achieve very little, here, in the contemporary art world, relations - artists/gallerists/curators - and the arranged image of the artist - is whats make things move further. Little surprise if Damien Hirst is "the artist" in the city of the city... It still real great artists in the world today, so we can just to compare - but the point is how it was possible to someone like Hirst get where he is now: at Tate Modern. We can just to reduce it to the british art and to the british society - where two guys were able to make a huge business with Hirst's objects and collections of objects?
Anguish in Azerbaijan
Baku, set to host the Eurovision Song Contest in just over a month, is rapidly trying to become a modern city. To do so, it is forcibly removing residents from their homes to make way for slick new skyscrapers and other development projects. Those who try to stay bear the brunt of the government's wrath.
Web freedom faces greatest threat
Threats range from governments trying to control citizens to the rise of Facebook and Apple-style 'walled gardens'.
As concerned global citizens, we urge you to immediately drop the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA). Our democracy and civil liberties are under threat from the excessive and unnecessary Internet surveillance powers it grants.
Google says it increasingly fields requests from government agencies trying to use their power to suppress political opinions and other material they don't like.
Rebellion in the Nuba Mountains *As concerned global citizens, we urge you to immediately drop the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA). Our democracy and civil liberties are under threat from the excessive and unnecessary Internet surveillance powers it grants.
Google says it increasingly fields requests from government agencies trying to use their power to suppress political opinions and other material they don't like.
Syrian regime accused
The UN has accused the Syrian regime of "crimes against humanity" – including the use of snipers against small children – and has drawn up a list of senior officials who should face investigation, reportedly including President Bashar al-Assad. guardian
Patients tortured by medical staff
A video leaked from a military hospital in the embattled Syrian city of Homs has revealed horrific images of patients receiving torture, instead of treatment, by medical staff. alarabiya
A fleeing refugee tells Channel 4 News of "total genocide" and sexual violence allegedly committed by Syrian soldiers in and around the besieged city of Jisr al-Shughour. channel4
Assad is keeping his troops in the dark. To prevent them from defecting, the soldiers are deployed to new locations every few days, primarily in the sprawling, poor northern suburbs of the capital city -- with no mobile phones and no knowledge of where they are.
Russia, a longtime Assad ally, was giving Assad diplomatic cover to intensify his crackdown
The reports from Syria of the deliberate savagery of government forces as they shell, torture and shoot civilians from areas that have dared to protest against them is unbearable to read or to watch. In the city of Homs, families just like yours or mine are trapped in a city which is being shelled from early morning until darkness falls. Buildings are being obliterated as terrified inhabitants hide in cellars. There is no water or electricity and people are running out of medicines and food.
Certainly the massacre at Houla on Friday was horrible even by the standards of this conflict: more than 100 people killed, many of them young children. They join the estimated 13,000 Syrians who have died in the past 15 months, most at the hands of the regime.
A fleeing refugee tells Channel 4 News of "total genocide" and sexual violence allegedly committed by Syrian soldiers in and around the besieged city of Jisr al-Shughour. channel4
Assad is keeping his troops in the dark. To prevent them from defecting, the soldiers are deployed to new locations every few days, primarily in the sprawling, poor northern suburbs of the capital city -- with no mobile phones and no knowledge of where they are.
Russia, a longtime Assad ally, was giving Assad diplomatic cover to intensify his crackdown
The reports from Syria of the deliberate savagery of government forces as they shell, torture and shoot civilians from areas that have dared to protest against them is unbearable to read or to watch. In the city of Homs, families just like yours or mine are trapped in a city which is being shelled from early morning until darkness falls. Buildings are being obliterated as terrified inhabitants hide in cellars. There is no water or electricity and people are running out of medicines and food.
Iran to execute five Ahwazis
Putin's Mafia State
The West must speak out against this thug - Economic growth based on gas and oil can no longer compensate for the lose of industry, education and dignity that comes from living in a mafia state. (Garry Kasparov in The Times)
Putin mingles with Berlusconi (Bunga-Bunga)
How did Vladimir Putin afford his £450,000 watch collection?
Putin's 'Luxurious Life' Set Out By Activists
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Ekaterina Samutsevich and Maria Alehina – all members of the anarchic Pussy Riot punk band – have been in prison since March, held on charges of hooliganism which could eventually mean a seven-year sentence.
Ukraine Is Becoming Increasingly Authoritarian
Murder and power, Chinese style
The son of the premier Wen Jiabao, a supposed "liberal" opposed to Bo, has been linked to a dollars 100m investment fund, a story kept out of Chinese newspapers. Wen's wife is a lover of expensive jewellery. A secret US diplomatic cable, quoted by WikiLeaks, suggests influence is for sale by the Wen family.
President Hu Jintao's son has been linked to a controversial telecoms deal in Africa. When a young man died in a black Ferrari crash in Beijing last month, rumours soon had it that he was the illegitimate son of the politburo stalwart Jia Qinglin, who is said to have large property interests. And so it goes on.
Chang welcomes Bo’s downfall: “I think it’s a very good thing this guy fell because he was a huge promoter of Mao, and he did it in a very cynical way. This guy was portraying himself as an anti-corruption zealot. He was torturing people, executing people, for alleged gangsterism — true or not, these cases aren’t going through any legal process — and yet was himself very corrupt. He was one of the top guys, you can see how murky it is. Anyone who promotes the Mao era as the era most free of corruption, who knows Mao was responsible for the death of well over 70 million Chinese ... it makes my blood boil.”
Falun Gong practitioners have heard 610 Office, labor-camp, and prison staff repeat certain policies over and over: “Being beaten to death will count as suicide.” “Cremate the body immediately.” “Ruin their reputations, exhaust their finances, and destroy them physically.”
‘Partnership’ in which one partner robs the other
Joseph Stiglitz characterizes the Obama administration’s vast transfer of money and pubic debt to the banks as a “privatizing of gains and the socializing of losses. It is a ‘partnership’ in which one partner robs the other.”
Far away from funding industrial growth and development
Banking has moved so far away from funding industrial growth and economic development that it now benefits primarily at the economy’s expense in a predator and extractive way, not by making productive loans. This is now the great problem confronting our time. Banks now lend mainly to other financial institutions, hedge funds, corporate raiders, insurance companies and real estate, and engage in their own speculation in foreign currency, interest-rate arbitrage, and computer-driven trading programs. Industrial firms bypass the banking system by financing new capital investment out of their own retained earnings, and meet their liquidity needs by issuing their own commercial paper directly. Yet to keep the bank casino winning, global bankers now want governments not only to bail them out but to enable them to renew their failed business plan – and to keep the present debts in place so that creditors will not have to take a loss. Michael Hudson
New Labour imitated Mrs Thatcher in much of her rhetoric and some of her ideas. The trouble was that they learned only half the lesson. They confused the creation of wealth, of which she was a passionate advocate, with the wisdom of the wealthy, about which she was sceptical.
The Governor of the Bank of England ... launched a stinging attack on the culture of the industry he oversees, condemning bankers for high pay, immoral practices and providing shoddy service to customers.
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I'm here because I want to know why Castellón built an airport from which no aircraft has ever taken off, an airport that cost €150 million in a city that's only 65 kilometers from Valencia, which already has an airport that's much too big for the region.
An airport was built in Ciudad Real, 160 kilometers from Madrid, at a cost of €1 billion. It now serves small private aircraft.
* keeping on Portugal, just try to find out the number of awful murders there and see how the portuguese police fail all time to protect the vitims of the portuguese murders and thugs. The Portuguese Parliament and portuguese governments are too busy in managing to protect the "mafia-contracts" favouring big economical groups and banks, that led the country to the bankrupcy and the regular people to the misery, so there's no time to lost in preventing (mostly women) killings.
Since the EU is not able to stop blatant crimes and huge corruption in its territories why should the world listening to anything coming from the EU? Portugal, for example... is not "only" corrupt... (Portugal is like a Mafia State) (the strange case of the not yellow submarins. There's also the helicopters' case and many many more...)
"imagine what would have happened had the UK chosen to maintain its trade links with independent Commonwealth nations upon decolonisation, and trade freely with the rest of the world, rather than joining the EU’s customs union, thus discriminating against its old trading partners and deliberately shifting its trading patterns towards what was to become the lowest-growth, most stagnant part of the world economy?"