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|  | Re: Gulag World XII
« Reply #45 on Nov 22, 2011, 8:55am » | |
Egypt's cabinet offers to resign as protests against junta grow
Interim government bows to growing pressure as violence leaves 33 people dead and more than 2,000 injured in ongoing clashes
* Jack Shenker in Cairo
* guardian.co.uk, Monday 21 November 2011 21.17 GMT
Egypt's interim government has tendered its resignation following a third day of deadly violence in Cairo, throwing the country into fresh turmoil less than a week before nationwide parliamentary elections are due to begin.
The possible exit of the beleaguered prime minister, Essam Sharaf, and his cabinet came as anti-junta protesters announced plans for a "million-man" occupation of Tahrir Square on Tuesday, and after the use of live ammunition by security forces on demonstrators was confirmed for the first time.
At least 33 people have been killed and more than 2,000 injured in the ongoing clashes, prompting a range of revolutionary movements from across the political spectrum, including leftist, liberal and Islamist organisations, to throw their full weight behind the protests.
"We confirm our readiness to face all the forces that aim to abort the revolution, reproduce the old regime, or drag the country into chaos and turn the revolution into a military coup," said a joint statement by 37 groups.
As the crowds in Tahrir Square swelled on Monday evening, it seemed unlikely that the dismissal of Sharaf and his ministers – which had yet to be confirmed by the military council – would be enough to calm the unrest. The protesters' main demand remains the return of the country to civilian rule, not just a change of the personnel operating on behalf of the ruling generals. But the resignations, if accepted, could pave the way for a compromise, with the armed forces appointing a new government of "national salvation" and offering a clearer timetable for their own departure from power.
"I don't think this crowd cares at all about the government," said Khalid Abdalla, an actor and activist who has been demonstrating in Tahrir Square. "This is about a battle on the streets in which people are being killed."
Earlier in the day a last-ditch effort by the junta to stem the violence by offering concessions to their critics – including the passing of a long-awaited "treachery law" that would bar former members of Hosni Mubarak's now-disbanded ruling party from running in the upcoming elections, which are now less than a week away – appeared only to galvanise resistance.
"The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces [Scaf] only have two choices – they obey the will of the people, or Egypt burns," said Ramy el-Swissy, a leading member of the April 6th youth movement, which will be joining the sit-in on Tuesday. "People on the streets are so angry; no matter what certain ordinary people may have thought of the protests initially, they are now seeing endless TV footage of innocent Egyptians losing their lives at the hands of the security forces. Everyone knows that this is not what we launched a revolution for, and they are standing with us."
Despite continued denials by the authorities, evidence has emerged that some police or army units are using live ammunition on protesters.
Researchers from the Egyptian Initiative for Human Rights, a Cairo-based human rights organisation, told the Guardian they had confirmation that the bodies of four people killed by live bullets were in the city's main morgue. The victims were all aged between 19 and 27.
William Hague, the British foreign minister, said the violence was of "great concern" but added that the UK would not be taking sides.
The US urged Egypt to go ahead with the elections and called for restraint on all sides. The White House spokesman, Jay Carney, said: "The United States continues to believe that these tragic events should not stand in the way of elections." His comments came as clashes continued in the side streets off Tahrir Square, with the frontline between revolutionaries and armed police shifting back and forth throughout the day.
At one point teargas was fired by the security forces into a makeshift field hospital off the central plaza, forcing volunteer doctors and wounded protesters to flee. Nearby mosques and churches opened their doors to the injured, though medics said they were vastly under-resourced and struggling to keep count of the casualties.
Some demonstrators took to writing the contact details of their families on their arms before joining the fray so they can be identified if killed. Meanwhile Tahrir's main holding station for fatalities said it had run out of coffins, and appealed for a fresh supply.
"People have political demands – specifically for civilian rule and the end of the military council – but right now this is simply a fight between the police and the people, and you can only stand on one side," said Ramy Raoof, a prominent activist.
"And now through the statements of the government and the fact that the soldiers attacked Tahrir yesterday, it's clear that Scaf and the army stand with the police. There is now one enemy, and when you have that situation people get mobilised and come down from their homes to join."
He said elections, now only six days away, should go ahead but that they must be accompanied by Scaf withdrawing from politics. "Right now that seems like the only scenario that would work," said Raoof, 24. "But other alternatives could be proposed."
Beyond the capital, unrest has spread to almost every major urban centre in the country, including Ismailia on the Suez Canal and the strategically important town of al-Arish in the northern Sinai peninsula. In Egypt's second-largest city, the Mediterranean port of Alexandria, thousands of students took to the streets after the death of a second protester.
Amid mounting calls for the formation of a new civilian government as a way of ending the crisis and appropriating power back from the armed forces, the country's largest organised political movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, issued a statement condemning Scaf for the bloodshed and vowed to push for the prosecution of those responsible for the attacks.
But in a sign that it was not yet ready to give up on the "transition" timetable – which is likely to see it emerge as the biggest winner in next week's parliamentary vote – the Brotherhood refused to endorse the protests or follow several liberal and leftists in calling off its parliamentary campaign, though it did promise to suspend electoral activities temporarily.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/21/egypt-cabinet-offers-to-resign
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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| | Re: Gulag World XII
« Reply #46 on Nov 22, 2011, 9:00am » | |
Current situation in Egypt:
Egypt
• Protesters are converging on Tahrir Square to join a "million man" march aimed at forcing the military authorities to make way for civilian rule. The demonstration- due to begin this afternoon- comes after several days of clashes between protesters and security forces in which more than 30 people are reported to have died.
• Clashes have continued today in the roads around the main square, with tear gas and rubber bullets lobbed at protesters, and firebombs hurled back at riot police. Makeshift hospitals are reported to be struggling to cope with demand. Reports are mounting of victims killed or injured by apparent gunshot wounds. (See 9.56am.)
• The elections due to get underway next week are hanging in the balance amid the continuing turmoil. Several parties have cancelled their campaigns, but the Scaf authorities have insisted the vote will go ahead. The powerful Muslim Brotherhood movement, which is expected to dominate the poll, has suspended but not cancelled its campaign and is meeting today with the authorities. The military rulers have not yet responded officially to the proffered resignation of the government.
• The interim military rulers are guilty of abuses which in some cases have been worse than those committed under Hosni Mubarak, according to a new report by Amnesty International. Criticising the Scaf authorities for failing "to live up to their promises" on human rights, the organisation denounced the use of military courts for civilians and crackdowns on peaceful protest. The report was written before the latest violence.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/middle-e....-syria#block-13
|
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
|
Big Bunny
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| | Re: Gulag World XII
« Reply #47 on Nov 24, 2011, 12:08am » | |
Alarm as corporate giants target developing countries
Diabetes, obesity and heart disease rates are soaring in developing countries, as multinationals find new ways of selling processed food to the poor
* Felicity Lawrence
* guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 23 November 2011 22.25 GMT
Nestlé is using a floating supermarket to take its products to remote communities in the Amazon. Unilever has a small army of door-to-door vendors selling to low-income villages in India and west and east Africa. The brewer SABMiller has developed cheap beers in some African countries as part of a "price ladder" to its premium lager brands, and, as a leading Coca-Cola bottler and distributor, is aiming to double fizzy drinks sales in South African townships.
As affluent western markets reach saturation point, global food and drink firms have been opening up new frontiers among people living on $2 a day in low- and middle-income countries. The world's poor have become their vehicle for growth.
The companies say they are finding innovative ways to give isolated people the kind of choices the rich have enjoyed for years and are providing valuable jobs and incomes to some of the most marginalised. But health campaigners are raising the alarm. They fear the arrival of highly processed food and drink is also a vector for the lifestyle diseases, such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease and alcoholism, which are increasing at unprecedented rates in developing countries.
The South African minister of health, Aaron Motsoaledi, gives a grim interpretation of what that means for his country when he spoke to the Guardian earlier this month: "Health budgets will break because of the cost of amputations, artificial limbs, wheelchairs and cardiac surgery."
A UN summit in New York in September confirmed the scale of the health crisis. Nearly two-thirds of all deaths worldwide in 2008 were attributable to lifestyle diseases. By 2030 these non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are expected to be the cause of nearly five times as many deaths as the traditional, infectious scourges of poor nations such as TB, malaria and Aids.
Last year 39% of acquisition deals by consumer goods companies were in emerging markets, compared with just 1% in 2008, according to the Grocer's OC&C Global 50 league table.
As diets and lifestyles in developing countries change, their patterns of disease are following those seen in industrialised countries in the north equally rapidly. But for poor countries there is a double whammy: they have started suffering from high rates of NCDs before they have managed to deal with hunger and malnutrition.The double burden is devastating both their economic growth and their health budgets.
In South Africa, about a quarter of schoolchildren are now obese or overweight, as are 60% of women and 31% of men. Diabetes rates are soaring. Yet, nearly 20% of children aged one to nine have stunted growth, having suffered the kind of long-term malnutrition that leaves irreversible damage.
Moreover, obesity and malnutrition often occur in the same household, according to Leonie Joubert, a researcher at the University of Cape Town's centre of criminology, and author of a forthcoming book on food security. "It's not a case of having massive starvation on one end of the spectrum, and gluttony on the other. We have this kind of 'hidden hunger', almost pervasive in poorer communities where it's easy to fill the hole in one's belly with low-nutrient, cheap, empty-calorie foods to satisfy one's hunger now, but not meet the body's long-term nutritional needs."
Dr Motsoaledi is a medically trained former anti-apartheid activist, and does not shy away from the dramatic. He marked the day the 7 billionth child was thought to have been born in to the global population by scrubbing up and delivering a baby himself by caesarean section. He then tied the new mother's tubes as his contribution to family planning.
Taking radical action
Pushing through radical action on NCDs is of hispriorities. He said: "When I was a medical student under apartheid, heart attacks were a rare thing for black people. "The main illnesses then were TB, malaria and kwashiorkor [malnutrition from protein deficiency]. That's no longer true. Africans are eating more and more junk processed foods instead of their traditional diet. My mother hardly went to the shop. Anything you wanted to eat you grew and took straight from the soil. We had free range chickens, vegetables. I used to walk a long distance to school. My children hardly walk a metre from the car. Children are put in front of the TV and they eat junk in front of it. It is not a life of activity. It's a globalised world; we can't expect to be left untouched."
He wantsto curb the marketing of tobacco and alcohol and regulate junk food, starting with reducing salt in bread and eliminating transfats, but he anticipates a fight. "There's going to be war over this next year." .
"It is like climate change. Are we going to do something about it when we are looking down the barrel of a gun and it is at its worst, when budgets have become unmanageable because of the sheer weight of disease? If those of us in power don't do something now, that is what will happen. Anybody who dilly dallies on non-communicable diseases will be forced to act when the situation is out of control."
The main obstacle to action was profit. "Industry is resisting very strongly, of course. The only reason people are not doing enough is the bottom dollar."
Governments trying to restrict the marketing activity have found themselves challenged in court. Motsoaledi is watching the case brought by the tobacco industry against the Australian government, which wants to ban all branding on cigarette packs. "I want a similar structure for alcohol control," he says.
He knows that he is likely to be the target of determined lobbying as well as legal action..
Unlike the UK secretary of state for health, who has invited food and alcohol companies to join his "responsibility deals" on public health, Motsoaledi sees no place for industry in helping draw up policy. "You cannot make policy with them, they will just shape it for their profits. You can't sit in the same room with a national brewer and come up with a policy on alcohol to benefit the nation." The interests Motsoaledi is taking on are indeed powerful and quick to defend themselves. SABMiller, the largest brewer in South Africa, points out in documents on its "alcohol responsibility" web pages that it supports 3% of the total employment in South Africa, and generates taxes – mostly from excise duty on its products – that account for 5% of the government's tax revenue. It believes industry can play a role in tackling health problems and argues that its marketing promotes brand loyalty, not greater drinking. Kristin Wolfe, head of alcohol policy at SABMiller, said: "We market to our target consumer; we don't go after non-drinkers. What the UN wanted in New York was a whole societal approach. Marketing is seen as just one factor. It has to be responsible, but there's a distinction between harmful drinking and marketing. It's a more enlightened approach to get industry to do what it can; we will make better progress,." The company points to its investment in projects to tackle alcohol harm and bring unlicensed outlets within regulation.
Thandi Puoane, a professor at University of Western Cape, has tracked the increase in NCDs since the end of apartheid. With sanctions lifted and freedom of movement introduced after the multiracial elections in 1994, there was a rapid change in the profile of disease. Large numbers of black people have moved from rural areas where they had to walk miles for water and fuel to the townships on the edge of the cities. The townships are overcrowded, unemployment is high and infrastructure, such as electricity and sanitation, poor or nonexistent. Fast-food outlets and imports of processed foods proliferated after markets re-opened.
Large numbers of people moved to townships, where infrastructure is poor.
"People coming here buy fatty, sugary food and drink because it's cheap and it feels a luxury not to cook," Puoane said. "Cooking fuel is expensive. They can buy from street vendors on credit. Fear of crime, often fuelled by alcohol, stops them taking exercise. They think they are happy because they are fat and when they go back to their rural areas people say, 'you must be doing well, you have put on weight'." Being thin and losing weight is associated with Aids and TB, which makes being overweight seem more acceptable.
Opening health clubs
Khayelitsha, a township that sprawls for miles alongside the highway from Cape Town to the Cape flats, is one of the largest and fastest growing in South Africa. Unofficial estimates put its population at a million. Here you can see the crisis of obesity and other NCDs writ large. Unemployment is nearly 60%, and 70% of residents live in shacks with no running water. Alcohol use and violent crime are high and many people are overweight, particularly among women and teenage girls.
The faculty of public health at the university has pioneered health clubs to address the problem.
Lungiswa Tsolekile, a dietitian working on the health project, described some of the cultural barriers to being healthy in this environment, as she took me on a tour. A said access to affordable fresh food was limited. Street stalls sold cheap but often fatty foods, such as the chicken skin discarded by poultry factories, or chicken feet, tripe and sheep's heads. Processed soup, often high in salt, is popular as a cheap gravy to go with the staple of maize porridge. Every other shack shop, and even a church hall, is adorned with Coca-Cola branding. Retail giants have arrived, and Walmart has just taken over one of the large South African chains, but a taxi to the nearest supermarket for fresh fruit and vegetables costs four rand, more than many can spare. She pointed out the numerous billboards advertising alcohol, too.
The ShopRite supermarket we visited was packed with people pushing basket-sized trolleys – the average spend here is small by European standards. There was fresh food available, but a kilo of tomatoes cost more than a 2-litre bottle of cola. At the entrance to the store, leaflets were promoting cut-price alcohol with free mobile phone deals; the aisle ends had special offers for Nestlé's coffee-style caffeine drink Ricoffy listing dextrin (a starch sugar) and dextrose (a form of sugar) as its two main ingredients, and Nestlé's Cremora, a coffee creamer whose principle ingredients are glucose syrup solids and palm fat. The checkout was stacked with sweets alongside "funeral plan pay-as-you-go" starter packs.
"We use physical exercise in the health clubs as a vehicle to help with other aspects of health, including cooking sessions on how to prepare healthy food with traditional ingredients. We pick up a lot of hypertension, high blood glucose and diabetes," Tsolekile said.
Nestlé meanwhile sees itself as "providing products that are healthier, safe and affordable for consumers wherever they are". It says it gives consumers the information they need to make healthier choices, through the labelling and sponsored education programmes."Often in emerging markets, processed food appeals to consumers because it is guaranteed to be safe. It can also help address deficiencies. We fortify many of what we call our popularly positioned products to help meet this need," a Nestlé spokesman said. "Our range of products in South Africa and in Brazil is wider than that offered by many of our competitors. We are always looking for ways to improve both the taste and nutritional value of our products."
Unilever believes its door-to-door sales network has helped lift people out of poverty. Trevor Gorin, its global media relations director, said: "It has essentially empowered people in rural communities, largely women, to become entrepreneurs, generating income – with all the concomitant benefits this income generates." "Most of the Unilever products sold through it are home and personal care products to improve sanitation and personal hygiene. The food products are usually things like stock cubes and tea."
Nestle floating supermarket
Nestlé's floating supermarket took its maiden voyage on the Amazon last year and has been distributing its products to around 800,000 isolated riverside people each month ever since. Christened Nestlé Até Você, Nestle comes to you, the boat carries around 300 branded processed lines, including ice creams, and infant milk , but no other foods. The products are in smaller pack sizes to make them more affordable. The boat also acts as a collection point for the network of door-to-door saleswomen Nestlé has recruited to promote its brands. Targeting consumers from socioeconomic classes C, D and E is part of the company's strategic plan for growth, it says. Nestlé has also set up a network of more than 7,500 resellers and 220 microdistributors to reach those at the bottom of the pyramid in the slums of Rio and São Paulo and other major Brazilian cities.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-develop....oping-countries
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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| | Re: Gulag World XII
« Reply #48 on Nov 24, 2011, 1:30am » | |
24 November 2011 Last updated at 05:20 GMT
American Samoa football team celebrate first ever win
American Samoa's football team - ranked as the worst international team in the world - has won a game for the first time in its history.
The US protectorate managed a 2-1 victory over Tonga after 30 straight defeats in almost two decades.
Reports said the players and coach of the Pacific nation celebrated as if they had won a major championship.
In 2001 American Samoa lost 31-0 to Australia - the heaviest defeat in international football history.
American Samoa are bottom of world governing body Fifa's international rankings.
Coach Thomas Rongen said the victory would now be "part of soccer history".
"Maybe we have a chance to do something special here beyond this one game, but let's enjoy this one right now," he said.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-15867180
|
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
|
Big Bunny
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Posts: 50,820
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| | Re: Gulag World XII
« Reply #49 on Nov 24, 2011, 2:20am » | |
24 November 2011 Last updated at 03:02 GMT
Unrest continues near Cairo's Tahrir Square
Unrest is continuing in Cairo as protesters step up their demand for Egypt's military rulers to resign.
Street battles with riot police have been heaviest around the fortified interior ministry located on a side street off Tahrir Square.
Gunfire was reported late on Wednesday but the interior minister said security forces were only firing tear gas.
The protesters have rejected a pledge by the ruling military council to speed up transition to a civilian government.
The BBC's Jeremy Bowen in Cairo says the violence threatens to overshadow next week's parliamentary elections.
He says public opinion on the protests is divided. Some Egyptians want elections to go ahead unhindered while others believe the military must be swept from power first.
The clashes, now entering their sixth day, are the longest outbreak of violence since the 18-day uprising that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak in February.
Since then a military council has been tasked with guiding the country's transition to democracy. The latest protests have been triggered by suspicions that the military intends to hang on to power.
On Tuesday Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, sought to defuse the situation by promising presidential elections by the end of June, six months sooner than planned. The military-appointed civilian cabinet also tendered its resignation.
"They [the military] were with Mubarak from the start," said Fatihia Abdul Ezz, 60, who had come to the square to protest.
"I came when I saw our sons being killed."
Steel buckshot
Groups of stone-throwing demonstrators have been locked in pitched battles in the streets between Tahrir Square and the interior ministry for several days.
Riot police blocking streets leading to the ministry have driven back the protesters with volleys of tear gas and rubber-covered steel buckshot.
Protesters have spoken of gunshots and injuries or deaths from live bullets but Interior Minister Mansour el-Essawy said security forces were only firing tear gas.
On state TV he said unidentified people were shooting from rooftops near Tahrir Square, Reuters news agency said.
At one point on Wednesday a truce was apparently brokered by religious leaders, but soon broke down and the clashes continued into the night.
There were also clashes in Egypt's second city, Alexandria, and in Ismailia, on the Suez Canal.
Television pictures from Ismailia showed armoured vehicles patrolling streets as security forces tried to disperse protesters with volleys of tear gas.
In Alexandria protests have been smaller than in Cairo, but one protester said clashes were continuing early on Thursday outside the security headquarters.
One protester, Mahinour, told the BBC the number of injured people there was increasing.
"Most of them are suffocating because of gas. This time they are not using tear gas, it's more nerve gas than tear gas. And as well there are some people injured by rubber bullets," she said.
Despite the clashes, the BBC's Wyre Davies in Alexandria says the appetite for conflict is lessening and people want their country to move on.
'Excessive force'
The main opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, is not supporting the protests and expects to do well in the parliamentary elections which start next week and will be staggered over several months.
Earlier on Wednesday, UN human rights chief Navi Pillay condemned the "clearly excessive use of force" by Egypt's security forces during the clashes.
She called for an independent inquiry into deaths since the weekend.
The health ministry said on Wednesday that 35 people had died in clashes since Saturday - all but four in Cairo. Hundreds more have been injured.
State news agency Mena reported that one person had been shot dead in the north-western city of Mersa Matruh as demonstrators tried to storm a police station.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15865758
|
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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| | Re: Gulag World XII
« Reply #50 on Nov 24, 2011, 9:16pm » | |
Journalists sexually assaulted in Cairo protests
Updated November 25, 2011 09:07:00
![[image]](http://img805.imageshack.us/img805/619/36939783x2700x467693106.jpg "[image]")
Mona Eltahawy with injuries sustained in Tahrir Square. Mona Eltahawy says her left arm and right hand are broken. (Twitter: Mona Eltahawy)
Two female foreign journalists have described harrowing sexual assaults carried out as they tried to cover demonstrations in Cairo's Tahrir Square.
Egyptian-American journalist Mona Eltahawy said she was sexually assaulted by police during hours under detention after taking part in protests on the sprawling square that has become a landmark of the Arab Spring.
"Besides beating me, the dogs of [central security forces] subjected me to the worst sexual assault ever," Eltahawy said on her Twitter account.
"Five or 6 surrounded me, groped and prodded my breasts, grabbed my genital area and I lost count how many hands tried to get into my trousers," she said.
"My left arm and right hand are broken [according] to xrays," she said, posting pictures of herself in casts.
Earlier Eltahawy, an award-winning journalist and public speaker on Arab and Muslim issues based in New York, tweeted that she had been released after having been beaten and arrested in the interior ministry building.
![[image]](http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/9372/36940223x4700x933.jpg "[image]")
Mona Eltahawy's swollen right hand after the attack. (Twitter: Mona Eltahawy)
Later, a French journalist working for public television channel France 3, said she had been violently beaten and sexually assaulted while covering the protests.
Caroline Sinz told AFP that she and her cameraman, Salah Agrabi, had been confronted in a road leading from Tahrir to the interior ministry, the scene of days of deadly clashes between police and protesters demanding democratic change.
"We were filming in Mohammed Mahmud street when we were mobbed by young people who were about 14 or 15," Sinz said.
The journalist and her cameraman were then dragged by a group of men towards Tahrir Square where they became separated, she said.
"We were then assaulted by a crowd of men. I was beaten by a group of youngsters and adults who tore my clothes" and then molested her in a way that "would be considered rape," she said.
"Some people tried to help me but failed. I was lynched. It lasted three quarters of an hour before I was taken out. I thought I was going to die," she said.
Her cameraman was also beaten.
Sinz was finally rescued by a group of Egyptians and returned to her hotel, where she was assisted by the French embassy before being seen by a doctor.
![[image]](http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/521/36937263x2700x467704781.jpg "[image]")
Photographers take cover in Tahrir Square (AFP: Mahmud Hams)
Media activists from Reporters Without Borders decried working conditions for journalists covering the fresh unrest and upcoming elections in Egypt.
"The chaos prevailing in Cairo and the resulting grave human rights violations are as bad as in the darkest hours of the revolution's earlier phase, in January and February," the media rights group said in a statement.
In February, CBS News reporter Lara Logan described in detail how she was victim of a sexual assault near Tahrir the same day president Hosni Mubarak fell from power.
Once back in the US, Logan said she was molested for more than 40 minutes by a group of 200 or 300 men.
The latest reports of sexual assault against journalists follows an apology by Egypt's military regime for the deaths of protesters over the past week.
At least 38 people have died and over 3,000 have been injured since Saturday when the clashes began.
The Egyptian military has promised that elections scheduled for next week will go again.
ABC/AFP
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-11-25/jo....8?section=world
|
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
|
Big Bunny
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| | Re: Gulag World XII
« Reply #51 on Nov 25, 2011, 12:16am » | |
24 November 2011 Last updated at 21:32 GMT
Egypt military 'appoints Kamal Ganzouri as new PM'
Egypt's military rulers have appointed ex-Prime Minister Kamal Ganzouri to form a new government, state media say.
The previous military-appointed civilian cabinet resigned earlier this week in the wake of violent protests in Cairo and other cities.
The military council has said parliamentary elections will begin across Egypt next week as scheduled.
Clashes near Cairo's Tahrir Square have subsided but activists are calling for renewed protests on Friday.
Large numbers of demonstrators are spending the night in the square ahead of a mass rally after Friday prayers.
The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf) is overseeing a transition to civilian rule following the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak in February.
Despite promises by the council to speed up the process, many Egyptians fear the military intends to cling to power.
Mr Ganzouri headed Egypt's government from 1996 to 1999 under Mr Mubarak.
State newspaper al-Ahram said on its website that Mr Ganzouri had agreed in principle to lead a national salvation government after meeting Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, head of the military council.
Mr Ganzouri, who has distanced himself from Mr Mubarak's regime, has been suggested as a possible presidential candidate.
Military apology
The BBC's Yolande Knell, in Cairo, says Mr Ganzouri was in talks with military leaders earlier on Thursday.
During his term as prime minister, he was known as the "minister of the poor" because he was seen as representing the less well-off, and he remains popular with Egyptians, she says.
Earlier on Thursday, military leaders apologised for the deaths of about 38 protesters in clashes with police since Saturday.
The violence has been the worst since February.
Maj Gen Muhammad al-Assar expressed "the regret and apology of the entire armed forces on the tragedy that occurred".
He added: "Our hearts bled for what happened. We hope that this crisis will end and, God willing, it will not be repeated again."
Activists are urging mass protests on what they call "the Friday of the last chance" to demand an immediate transfer to civilian rule. They want Monday's elections postponed until the military steps down.
However, many other Egyptians want elections to go ahead unhindered. The main opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, is not supporting the protests and expects to do well in the polls.
Much of the violence has taken place in a street leading from Tahrir Square to the interior ministry.
Soldiers have now set up barricades of cement, metal bars and barbed wire to separate protesters and security forces.
On Tuesday, Field Marshal Tantawi accepted the resignation of caretaker Prime Minister Essam Sharaf's cabinet and summoned political leaders to discuss a way forward.
He sought to defuse the protests by promising presidential elections by June - six months sooner than planned.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15883031
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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« Reply #52 on Nov 25, 2011, 7:07pm » | |
India threatens Olympic boycott over chemical company sponsorship
# Leo Schlink
# From: News Limited newspapers
# November 26, 2011 5:11AM
INDIA is considering a boycott of the London Olympics in protest at Dow Chemical's involvement as a Games sponsor.
Dow has links with Union Carbide Corporation, the company responsible for the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster that killed thousands of Indians, which has been contracted to provide a $13 million advertising wrap around the London Olympic Stadium.
The deal has enraged some of India's current and former Olympians, who are now calling for Indian athletes not to travel to London.
"We feel that it will be against the basic principles of the Olympics charter to partner with Dow Chemical, which is responsible for the ongoing disaster in Bhopal," the athletes wrote in a petition sent to the Indian government.
Shivraj Singh Chauhan, a minister in the Bhopal region, has backed the athletes' stance and demanded India's sports minister Ajay Maken that the government support a boycott if Dow's sponsorship continues.
V.K. Malhotra, the acting president of the Indian Olympic Association, said a meeting was scheduled in 10 days to discuss the matter after first hearing the response of the government to the petition.
The Indian government is still pursuing almost $2 billion from Dow for victims after Union Carbide paid $600 million in compensation.
Talk of a boycott will put more pressure on the London 2012 Organising Committee, which has defended the deal with Dow, despite protests from campaign groups and politicians who claim it has outstanding liabilities relating to the disaster.
London 2012 chairman Lord Sebastian Coe said: "I am satisfied that the ownership, operation and the involvement either at the time of the disaster or at the final settlement was not the responsibility of Dow."
A spokesperson for Dow said: "It is disappointing and misguided that some people are trying to assign blame and responsibility to Dow.
"Dow acquired the shares of Union Carbide Corporation more than 16 years after the tragedy and 10 years after the settlement agreement – paid by Union Carbide Corporation and Union Carbide India, Limited – was approved by the Indian Supreme Court."
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/lond....9-1226206700517
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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« Reply #53 on Nov 25, 2011, 7:18pm » | |
After the uprising, a revolution in education begins
November 26, 2011
![[image]](http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/8158/ipadartwidelibya420x066.jpg "[image]")
Changing gears ... students in Libya are hopeful education in the country will shift from the indoctrination enforced by the former Gaddafi regime. Photo: Alice Fordham
TRIPOLI: On the first day of lectures since July, Tripoli University appeared a much-changed place last week. ''Free Libya'' murals adorned the walls, the revolutionary flag fluttered from buildings, and young women outnumbered men in the corridors.
''A lot of guys died at the front,'' said Arwa Muntasser, an 18-year-old medical student in a bright hijab and Free Libya jewellery. ''A lot of my classmates were killed in the revolution.''
Their absence is the bitter price paid for the sense of anticipation tangible among teachers and students, a nervous hope that the new era will sweep away a culture of indoctrination and corruption fostered in schools and universities by Muammar Gaddafi.
''We have 120,000 students and about 5000 teaching staff, in a country of 6 million,'' said Tripoli University's new head, Faisal Krekshi. ''This will tell you how vital this structure is. This place could be the nucleus of a rebuilt country.''
Libya has begun the process of rebuilding its institutions, which many believe Gaddafi - who was killed last month in a bloody uprising backed by the US, Britain and France - deliberately crippled to eliminate threats.
''Gaddafi had this system so that the end result would be that people would be ignorant, so they would not be educated, so they would not be against him,'' said Khadija bin Musa, who teaches computer engineering at Tripoli University.
Under Gaddafi, she was forced to use what she considered old-fashioned teaching methods. ''The students just memorise. There is no analysis or understanding,'' she said, adding that Gaddafi ''didn't want people to think … to be creative''.
After Gaddafi came to power in a military coup in 1969, he built universities and schools and encouraged modern teaching methods and curriculums. But as he cemented his dominance, publishing his Green Book of political theory and building a cult of personality, he changed the education goals drastically.
By the 1980s, the study of English and French was forbidden, and science, mathematics and medicine were being taught with less emphasis on demonstration, teachers said.
Often, they said, students were able to pass exams by writing patriotic slogans on the page or pulling strings with a relative close to the government.
In schools, reading primers featured passages from Gaddafi's writings, while classes in Islamic studies paired his words with those of the prophet Muhammad. Study of the Green Book was compulsory for older students. Their disappearance underscores the questions facing education reformers now. What subjects should be kept, and what changed? Which teachers were too pro-Gaddafi to continue teaching, and which ones should be allowed to stay?
The curriculum is the easy part, said Suleiman al-Khoja, an Education Ministry official. The Green Book is gone, except as a historical artefact, and Gaddafi-free versions of the reading and religious studies books are being produced. Maths and science will remain untouched for now. But the most pressing matter is the fate of those teachers deemed close to the old regime. Educators used to have to present credentials from one of Gaddafi's revolutionary committees to get a job, although many now say they hated the committee and lied to get the papers.
Others, facing calls to leave, protest that they had to work within the system to do any good at all. Mr Khoja himself wrote parts of the curriculum under Gaddafi, describing it as a frustrating process in which the leader interfered frequently.
Those who taught the Green Book have been suspended on full pay while their fate is decided. Some educators and ministry officials spoke of reconciliation and rehabilitation, but several suspended teachers said they feared violent repercussions if they told their stories.
Many Libyans now rejoice in the freedom to be more openly devout and would welcome a more Islamic tinge to learning.
''In Gaddafi's time … I couldn't talk to the students about religion,'' said Fatima Tayyar, a schoolteacher. ''Now I am free … I want to teach religion, and the students want to learn it.''
Hassan al-Damluji, of the British charity Achievement for All said subject matter was less important than teaching methods in Libya. As long as children were encouraged to analyse, he said, they would build the skills to make up their own minds about the world around them.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/after-the-up....l#ixzz1elYSHdyZ
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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« Reply #54 on Nov 26, 2011, 7:53pm » | |
Norwegian school's segregation sparks race row
Richard Orange
November 27, 2011
MALMO: A political row has erupted in Norway after a secondary school segregated students with ethnic backgrounds in classes away from white Norwegians.
Bjerke Upper Secondary School in Oslo filled one of the three general studies classes solely with pupils with immigrant parents, after many white Norwegians from last year's intake changed schools.
The controversy has highlighted the unease in Norway over how to integrate the 420,000 ''non-Nordic'' citizens who migrated between 1990 and 2009, and who make up 28 per cent of Oslo's population.
''This is the first time I've heard about this and it is totally unacceptable,'' Torge Odegaard, Oslo education commissioner, said before pressuring the school to inform parents that the three classes would now be reorganised.
But Robert Wright, a Christian Democrat politician and former head of the city's school's board, struck back, arguing that the authorities had been wrong to block the move. He said that other Oslo schools should start to segregate classes to prevent a situation of ''white flight'' developing.
''Bjerke School has come up with a radical solution to a real problem,'' Mr Wright said.
The decision only came to the parents' notice earlier this month after Avtar Singh, a Punjabi Norwegian, confronted Gro Flaten, the school's headmistress, on why his son, Gurjot, had no ethnic Norwegian classmates.
''She said straight out that the school had experienced ethnic Norwegian students dropping out if they weren't grouped together in smaller classes,'' he told the newspaper Dagsavisen.
Mrs Flaten said: ''We made the decision because many Norwegian students were moving to other schools because they were in classes with such a high percentage of students from other nations. They seemed to be in a minority.''
Students at the school have expressed anger at the segregation.
''This is apartheid,'' said Ilias Mohamed, 17, from Somalia.
''They do this because I'm from Africa and my father is from Africa But everyone of us is a Norwegian.''
But school captain Helena Skagen, 18, said she understood what the school had been trying to do.
''They just wanted to keep the Norwegian students at the school,'' she said. ''But they now know that what they did was wrong because you can't split the students according to their culture.''
Mr Wright said he believed that the shadow of Anders Breivik, the anti-Islamic extremist who massacred 77 people in Oslo in July, had made discussions of immigration difficult in Norway.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/norwegian-sc....l#ixzz1erXmd4yn
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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« Reply #55 on Nov 27, 2011, 10:04pm » | |
27 November 2011 Last updated at 17:51 GMT
Syria unrest: Arab League adopts sanctions in Cairo
The Arab League has approved sanctions against Syria, including an asset freeze and an embargo on investments.
It comes after months of unrest. The United Nations estimates about 3,500 people have died as Syria has sought to put down anti-government protests.
The Arab League suspended Syria earlier this month, in a move denounced by Damascus as meddling in its affairs.
League foreign ministers adopted the unprecedented sanctions at a meeting in Cairo by a vote of 19 to three.
The move came after Syria refused to allow 500 Arab League monitors into the country to assess the situation on the ground.
Syria, one of the founder members of the Arab League, condemned the sanctions as a betrayal of Arab solidarity.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem accused the league of seeking to "internationalise" the conflict.
Refusal to implement
Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani gave details of the sanctions to a news conference in Cairo. They include:
* Cutting off transactions with the Syrian central bank
* Halting funding by Arab governments for projects in Syria
* A ban on senior Syrian officials travelling to other Arab countries
* A freeze on assets related to President Bashar al-Assad's government
The declaration also calls on Arab central banks to monitor transfers to Syria, with the exception of remittances from Syrians abroad.
The league also voted to impose a ban on commercial flights between Syria and member states. A date for the ban to enter into force will be agreed within the next week.
Two of Syria's immediate neighbours, Iraq and Lebanon, abstained from the vote. Iraq suggested an economic blockade would not work in practice.
Sheikh Hamad said Iraq would refuse to implement the sanctions, while Lebanon had "disassociated itself."
Iraq is Syria's second-biggest trading partner, accounting for 13.3% of Syria's trade, to a value of 6.78bn euros (£5.81bn; $8.97bn).
Turkey - which attended the meeting as an observer, since it is not an Arab state - said it would act in accordance with the Arab League sanctions.
"When civilians are killed in Syria and the Syrian regime increases its cruelty to innocent people, it should not be expected for Turkey and the Arab League to be silent," said Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, according to the state Anatolia news agency.
The EU and the US already have sanctions in place against Syria.
The Arab League move is being portrayed in Damascus as part of a Western-inspired conspiracy to undermine the country because of its traditional resistance to Israel, says the BBC's Jim Muir in neighbouring Lebanon.
Syrian state television described the sanctions as "unprecedented measures aimed at the Syrian people".
Meanwhile, violence continued on Sunday with Syrian activists saying at least 11 people were killed across the country.
The flashpoint region of Homs saw at least six people killed in three separate incidents, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
On Saturday, Syria buried 22 members of the armed forces, including six elite pilots ambushed on a highway near Homs, following a recent upsurge of armed attacks on security forces.
'Humanitarian corridor'
The League threatened Syria with sanctions earlier this month after President Bashar al-Assad repeatedly failed to implement steps to end the violence, including allowing international observers to enter Syria.
Damascus depends on its Arab neighbours for half of its exports and a quarter of its imports, so the sanctions - supplemented by Syria's northern neighbour Turkey - will step up the pressure and increase Syria's sense of isolation.
On Saturday, Mr Muallem hit out at the group after it asked the UN to contribute to the proposed observer mission, calling it an invitation "for foreign intervention instead of a call to avoid one".
But Sheikh Hamad said the sanctions were necessary if the international community were to see that the Arab countries were "serious", the Reuters news agency reports.
"All the work that we are doing is to avoid this interference," he said, according to Reuters.
![[image]](http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/5053/56751598syriatrade624gr.gif "[image]")
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15901360
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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« Reply #56 on Nov 28, 2011, 11:38am » | |
Russian whistleblower killed in jail
Dmitry Zaks
November 29, 2011 - 3:24AM
AFP
A Kremlin panel has found that Moscow prison guards used rubber batons to beat to death a Western investment fund lawyer who enraged Russian officials by alleging mass embezzlement by the tax police.
The case of Sergei Magnitsky - a whistle-blowing lawyer who was jailed shortly after making his accusations - has been highlighted by the West as one of the most flagrant abuses of human rights in Russia in recent years.
The 37-year-old's death in 2009 also raised alarm over the Russian justice system's impartiality and the ability of the police to manipulate the courts.
Magnitsky's Hermitage Capital firm campaigned to prove that the lawyer was killed for accusing top interior ministry officials of embezzling $US230 million ($A234.95 million) by obtaining false tax returns on payments made by the fund.
The fund published a 75-page report on Monday featuring what it said was a photocopy of an internal Moscow prison document authorising the use of handcuffs and batons against Magnitsky the day he died.
"A rubber baton was used against the suspect," the standard form prison document said. It then had Magnitsky's name written down in pen in the space provided for the inmate's identification and was dated November 16, 2009.
Magnitsky died later that evening.
Members of President Dmitry Medvedev's rights panel said they had been recently granted access to the same documents and now believed that physical harm rather than negligence was behind Magnitsky's death.
"I do not think that (prison officials) wanted to kill him, but I do think that they beat him in order to force him to admit guilt" to false charges that led to Magnitsky's arrest, panel member Valery Borshchyov told reporters.
Hermitage Capital also published a separate document showing an investigator urging his superiors three days after the incident to open a formal murder probe.
That request was denied and subsequent state reports concluded that Magnitsky had died from complications of medical ailments he had prior to being jailed.
Investigators have charged two prison doctors with neglect. But Hermitage Capital - founded by the US-born investor William Browder and now based in London - said the state was only trying to cover up its crimes.
"It is really shocking. You have the situation where Sergei Magnitsky was beaten by eight guards at 8pm and he was dead at 9pm," Browder said in a telephone interview from London.
The fund chief said he would present the findings to the European Commission in Brussels on Wednesday in an attempt to force European capitals to introduce a blanket ban on entry to the dozens of Russian officials involved in the case.
"We are not hopeful that there is going to be any justice in this case in Russia," said Browder.
The United States has already placed a slate of mid-ranking officials involved in the case on a visa blacklist and similar measures are now being considered in Europe.
Medvedev responded to a preliminary Magnitsky report released by his panel earlier this year by instructing judges to permit outside treatment for suspects who develop serious medical problems in jail.
But the same Moscow judge who kept Magnitsky in prison also recently extended the jail stay of a Russian businesswoman who accuses the authorities of trying to steal her property and jailing her under false pretences.
The case of 52-year-old Natalia Gulevich prompted the European Court of Human Rights to order the Russian authorities to move her to hospital for treatment for kidney failure.
But Gulevich is expected back in prison after her treatment and the Moscow City Court on Monday upheld a lower court's decision to extend her stay in jail through December 2.
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-wor....1129-1o3qm.html
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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« Reply #57 on Dec 2, 2011, 8:18pm » | |
1 December 2011 Last updated at 15:55 GMT
Syrian opposition to co-ordinate with Free Syrian Army
Syria's main opposition bloc and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebels have agreed to co-ordinate their action against President Bashar al-Assad.
The Syrian National Council (SNC) also said the FSA had agreed to cut back attacks on government forces, after their first meeting in southern Turkey.
Analysts say the FSA, formed by army deserters, had posed a dilemma to the bloc, which urges non-violent tactics.
Earlier, the EU tightened sanctions against Mr Assad's government.
Foreign ministers in Brussels added 11 entities and 12 people to its sanction list, an EU official said.
On Thursday, the UN said the death toll in Syria has risen to at least 4,000 people, with human rights chief Navi Pillay saying information suggested it was "much more".
Ms Pillay said the conflict could be classed as civil war.
'Common purpose'
The meeting in the southern Turkish province of Hatay was the first between SNC head Burhan Ghalioun and FSA chief Riyad al-Asaad since their respective organisations were formed earlier this year.
The SNC's Khaled Khoja said leaders "agreed that it would be a co-ordinated movement", AFP reports.
"The council recognised the Free Syrian Army as a reality, while the army recognised the council as the political representative" of the opposition, Mr Khoja added.
The BBC's Jonathan Head in Istanbul says this is an important declaration of common purpose by the two most prominent groups in the Syrian opposition movement.
The Syrian National Council was formed three months ago and aims to represent all those opposed to President Assad, who has been fighting to crush an uprising since March.
Mr Khoja added that an understanding had been reached in which the FSA agreed to use force only to protect civilians.
Last week, Mr Ghalioun had urged the FSA not to undertake "offensive actions against the army", following a number of attacks in recent weeks.
'Against intervention'
Turkish officials say they have been pressing both these groups to focus on stopping a slide into full-scale civil war, a goal that requires the Free Syrian Army to scale back its attacks, our correspondent says.
In Brussels, European ministers said Syrian repression risked taking the country down "a very dangerous path of violence, sectarian clashes and militarisation", according to AFP.
The EU imposed a 10th round of sanctions on the government, placing bans on exporting gas and oil industry equipment to Syria and trading Syrian government bonds.
It also expanded a blacklist of companies and individuals which face assets freezes and travel bans.
Meanwhile, Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby, who joined diplomats at the meeting in Brussels, said his organisation was not seeking foreign intervention.
The move by the EU came just days after sanctions were announced by the Arab League.
Syria says it is fighting an armed insurgency and accuses foreign countries of meddling in its affairs.
Earlier this week, the Syrian authorities said they have released 912 people detained for their involvement in protests, and that 1,700 prisoners were released earlier this month.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15984682
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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« Reply #58 on Dec 2, 2011, 8:22pm » | |
1 December 2011 Last updated at 16:10 GMT
Saudi Arabia rejects Amnesty repression claims
Saudi Arabia has said that a report by Amnesty International - accusing the kingdom of reacting to the Arab Spring by launching a wave of repression - is based on "inaccurate information".
The human rights group said hundreds of people had been arrested in the east, many of them without charge or trial.
The Saudi embassy in London said only people who were endangering the lives of others were arrested.
Most of those were released without charge after questioning, it said.
In a statement, the embassy said that it was not the case that defendants were blindfolded or handcuffed during a trial, as this would not be allowed by a Saudi Arabian court.
Responding to criticism that the draft anti-terror law would effectively criminalise dissent as a "terrorist crime" and allow long periods of detention without charge or trial, the embassy stressed that the law was still a draft and would not be made law until it was found to be in compliance with Sharia law.
Amnesty alleged that torture and ill treatment of detainees were widespread in Saudi Arabia. See further: http://amnesty.org.uk/uploads/documents/doc_22174.pdf
The country's ambassador to the UK, Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf Al Saud, said that Saudi Arabia was "committed to and respects human rights in accordance with Islamic Sharia".
The kingdom was a target for terrorists seeking finance and recruits, he added.
"It is our responsibility to do everything we can to combat this evil," he said.
Qatif clashes
The report comes a little more than a week after clashes in the eastern region of Qatif left four people dead - apparently the first deaths in this year's unrest.
They were killed when security forces opened fire using live ammunition, an indication that tensions in the predominantly Shia Eastern Province continue to escalate.
The interior ministry said the four were "armed aggressors hiding among civilians." A ministry spokesman blamed "foreign parties" - usually code for Iran - for fomenting unrest.
But a Shia activist told the BBC that at least one of those killed was unarmed when he was shot dead at a checkpoint for failing to stop. The others died the following day as protests erupted at his funeral, he said.
The activist, who asked not to be named for fear of repercussions, accused the government of taking the easy route by blaming everything on an Iranian conspiracy.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15990712
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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« Reply #59 on Dec 2, 2011, 11:15pm » | |
Global business chiefs fear poverty could destroy capitalism
December 3, 2011
Three professors from the world's pre-eminent business school have co-written a study that at first blush seems to fall more in the genre of horror tale than business text.
But in identifying powerful forces that threaten the existence of the capitalist system, the most successful engine of economic growth the world has known, the dons of the Harvard Business School appear to have drawn a line between the fears of the boardroom and those of the Occupy Wall protesters. Street
But the groups seemingly have more in common than might first be apparent.
Income disparity, resource depletion and potentially cataclysmic climate change were recognised by chief executives in a series of conversations conducted by Harvard as among the potential ''disrupters' of global prosperity. The financial meltdown of 2008 and, now, the Occupy movement are clear manifestations of those fears.
''And we'd expect more,'' one of the authors, Joseph Bower, told the Herald. ''Because people really feel outraged.''
Professor Bower and his colleagues note in their study the broad concerns of the 46 business thinkers that they brought together in forums on three continents, but by far the most widely held was ''the tendency of capitalism, as it currently functions, to produce extreme disparities of income and wealth''.
It took little to conclude that the vast accumulation of wealth by individuals compared with the stagnating fortunes of low- and middle-income workers is fuelling the backlash worldwide.
''Some leaders pointed to what they regard as excessive compensation earned by CEOs [that] strike many people as intrinsically unjustified,'' the authors write. The reality of growing disparities - one that is the crux of political debate within Western democracies - poses questions about capitalism's very raison d'etre.
One unidentified Asian business leader told the authors: ''Herein lies a major challenge, because the world has become very much more prosperous as a result of market capitalism.
''The rich have become richer. The poor in most cases have become richer. But the gap between the rich and the poor has also grown wider … There is the growing sense of being left out, even as people are getting better off.''
A European executive said: ''What was the good of capitalism? Was it the fact that we were building a very large, very well-off … middle class? We are not doing this any more.''
And in the US, a chief executive told the authors: ''It's undeniable that in a country like ours, unfettered capitalist impulse on a global basis does seem to exacerbate the problem.''
The Harvard project coincided with the business school's centenary. What better way to celebrate it than to examine the state of the very system that had nurtured its own rise to prominence, an institution pioneering the education of the management class?
The school brought together chief executives and business leaders in 2007 and early 2008 from the Americas, Europe and Asia for its series of discussions, including Australia's David Murray, the former Commonwealth Bank boss who is now chairman of the Future Fund.
Using its famous case-method approach to inquiry, it took as a starting point the then most recent World Bank growth projections and batted around the issues.
Capitalism at Risk: Rethinking the Role of Business is the result, just published.
Joining the discussions were executives such as Jeffrey Immelt of General Electric, John Elkann of Fiat and Bertrand Collomb of the French group Lafarge. They included bankers and financiers, as well as the heads of conglomerates and the former US labour secretary, Elaine Chao.
That capitalism has delivered for billions is not at issue: in the last decades of the 20th century, 97per cent of countries enjoyed increased wealth, according to the World Bank. More than 450 million people were lifted out of extreme poverty.
But the executives also cited as potential threats the powerful forces within financial markets, environmental degradation, political populism, terrorism and war, fundamentalism, mass migration and pandemics.
They are quoted anonymously throughout the work.
''History tells us that when an awful lot of people are disenfranchised, they have no incentive to play by the rules, and given today's communications availability, weaponry … that's an issue we have to really think about, probably over a very long period of time,'' one executive said.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, given that many were the beneficiaries of fabulous remuneration, the business leaders do not appear to offer easy solutions to bridging inequalities. But they back business, not government, largely to ameliorate strains on the system.
''Good government is crucial, to be sure,'' write the Harvard professors in summary. ''But government … needs the support and engagement of business to function effectively.''
In the US, the argument for higher taxes on the wealthy has coalesced around billionaire investor Warren Buffett, who has become a poster boy for the Obama administration's campaign to raise revenues, staunchly resisted by Republicans. The learned dons of Harvard join the dots between business, education and taxes. In a globalised economy, modern business can survive only with a well-educated workforce.
And therein lies the rub. ''Finding a way to mobilise the entire relevant business community, and others, to help support the needed taxes simply makes sense'', they conclude.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/global-busin....#ixzz1fR RaMItF
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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