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Maybe these kids Know something, Let's Torture them!-- I mean, interrogate th...
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL0631915420080606
It is truly a sad day when America has less ethics than communist China. http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL0631915420080606 ... more -
US continuing rendition secretly holding terror detainees in 'floating prison...
The United States has engaged in more than 200 new cases of extraordinary rendition since President Bush vowed to end the practice in 2006 and has operated more than a dozen secretive "floating prisons" aboard military ships at sea, according to a soon-to-be released report from an international human rights organization.
The secret capture, transportation and detention of suspected terrorists in foreign prisons has not abated, despite the uproar over its probable violation of international law, according to the report from human rights group Reprieve, which was noted in The Guardian Monday. The detention of prisoners aboard military ships "is raising fresh concern and demand for inquiries" in the US and Great Britain, according to the paper.
Ships that are understood to have held prisoners include the USS Bataan and USS Peleliu. A further 15 ships are suspected of having operated around the British territory of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, which has been used as a military base by the UK and the Americans.
Reprieve will raise particular concerns over the activities of the USS Ashland and the time it spent off Somalia in early 2007 conducting maritime security operations in an effort to capture al-Qaida terrorists.
At this time many people were abducted by Somali, Kenyan and Ethiopian forces in a systematic operation involving regular interrogations by individuals believed to be members of the FBI and CIA. Ultimately more than 100 individuals were "disappeared" to prisons in locations including Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Guantánamo Bay.
The use of US military ships as prisons has been reported before, but never in as much detail. The Washington Post's Dana Priest reported in December 2004 that CIA detention facilities "on ships at sea," but a year later, in her comprehensive report revealing the CIA's rendition program, she reported that the idea of secretly holding prisoners aboard ships in international waters "was discarded for security and logistics reasons."
A June 2004 report from the organization Human Rights First revealed suspicions that prisoners were being held aboard the USS Bataan and USS Peleliu.
Reprieve's newest report shows that the use of floating prisons is far more widespread that previously believed. As many as 17 ships were used to house detainees since 2001, according to the report, which claims the suspects are interrogated aboard the ships before being rendered to other secret prisons.
The Reprieve study includes the account of a prisoner released from Guantánamo Bay, who described a fellow inmate's story of detention on an amphibious assault ship. "One of my fellow prisoners in Guantánamo was at sea on an American ship with about 50 others before coming to Guantánamo ... he was in the cage next to me. He told me that there were about 50 other people on the ship. They were all closed off in the bottom of the ship. The prisoner commented to me that it was like something you see on TV. The people held on the ship were beaten even more severely than in Guantánamo."
The legal director of the human rights group tells the Guardian that the use of these floating prisons raises serious concerns about whether the military is complying with international law and the extent to which it seems to be going to hide from oversight of its activities.
"They choose ships to try to keep their misconduct as far as possible from the prying eyes of the media and lawyers. We will eventually reunite these ghost prisoners with their legal rights," Reprieve's Clive Stafford Smith tells the paper.
"By its own admission, the US government is currently detaining at least 26,000 people without trial in secret prisons, and information suggests up to 80,000 have been 'through the system' since 2001. The US government must show a commitment to rights and basic humanity by immediately revealing who these people are, where they are, and what has been done to them." The United States has engaged in more than 200 new cases of extraordinary rendition since President Bush vowed to end the practice in ... more -
78-year-old hit by car. Pedestrians do nothing.
From the report:
A 78-year-old man is tossed like a rag doll by a hit-and-run driver and lies motionless on a busy city street as car after car goes by. Pedestrians gawk but do nothing. From the report: ... more -
A girl with bipolar disorder gets out of control on a train
The effects of this disease are uncontollable. Many people who have it, and have to take thier meds do not like the side effects of it. Just wanted to ask current.com about your feelings towards the subject at hand?
http://www.healthprofessor.com/landers/bipolar.php?keyw...
Bipolar disorder affects men and women equally and usually appears between the ages of 15 and 25. The exact cause is unknown, but it occurs more often in relatives of people with bipolar disorder.
Bipolar disorder results from disturbances in the areas of the brain that regulate mood. During manic periods, a person with bipolar disorder may be overly impulsive and energetic, with an exaggerated sense of self. The depressed phase brings overwhelming feelings of anxiety, low self-worth, and suicidal thoughts.
There are two primary types of bipolar disorder. People with bipolar disorder I have had at least one fully manic episode with periods of major depression. In the past, bipolar disorder I was called manic depression.
People with bipolar disorder II seldom experience full-fledged mania. Instead they experience periods of hypomania (elevated levels of energy and impulsiveness that are not as extreme as the symptoms of mania). These hypomanic periods alternate with episodes of major depression.
A mild form of bipolar disorder called cyclothymia involves periods of hypomania and mild depression, with less-severe mood swings. People with bipolar disorder II or cyclothymia may be misdiagnosed as having depression alone.
If you, or anyone else in your family is suffering with this disease here are some suggested sites as so related to bipolar disorder:
http://www.bridgetoabrightertomorrow.com/
www.bipolarplanet.com
www.psychostats.net
www.RightHealth.com/bipolardisorder
or just goggle "BIPOLAR" The effects of this disease are uncontollable. Many people who have it, and have to take thier meds do not like the side effects of it... more -
Israel Defense Forces admit targeting civilians in Lebanon with cluster bombs, Pop...
Pope Benedict said Sunday it is "necessary to correct the errors of the past." He also prayed for the victims of the bombs and their families.
The UN's humanitarian chief has accused Israel of "completely immoral" use of cluster bombs in Lebanon. Most of these bombs were fired on the last day of the war , which clearly indicate Israel intention of causing the highest civilian causalities. UN clearance experts had so far found 100,000 unexploded cluster bomblets at 359 separate sites. Soldiers in IDF ( Isreali defence Forces) artillery units testified that the army used phosphorous shells during the war, widely forbidden by international law. According to their claims, the vast majority of said explosive ordinance was fired in the final 10 days of the war. Also they stated that over 1.2 million cluster bombs were fired at Lebanon. International law forbids the use of weapons that cause "excessive injury and unnecessary suffering".
Delegates from more than 100 countries are meeting in Dublin for two weeks starting Monday, looking to finalize a treaty outlawing cluster bombs. But representatives from nations that build the weapons - including the United States, Israel, Russia and China - are not participating. http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-05-18-voa22.cfm)
It's sickening to see that the most powerful nation, and the nation it backs up will not participate. It's all right for them to have weapons of mass destruction AND use them, but when another country has them they are classified as terrorists even though they are protecting themselves. Pope Benedict said Sunday it is "necessary to correct the errors of the past." He also prayed for the victims of the bombs a... more -
Myanmar Restricting Aid Delivery
BANGKOK — Myanmar continued to restrict most large-scale deliveries of relief supplies Tuesday, aid officials said, one day after United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon pressed the military junta to accept international assistance...
Andrew Kirkwood, country director in Myanmar for Save the Children, said he had surveyed the Irrawaddy Delta by air in recent days and he said trucks and helicopters would not be enough to deliver the aid needed by the people affected by the storm. The Myanmar government reportedly has five working helicopters.
“It’s clear that the vast majority of people will now have to be reached by boat,” he said.
In unusually blunt language for a United Nations leader, Mr. Ban said: “This is not about politics; it is about saving peoples lives. There is absolutely no more time to lose.”
"We have to use all the means to help those people," he said. "The United Nations charter opens some avenues if things cannot be resolved in order to get the humanitarian aid” to arrive...
The United States landings were the most public example of what aid groups said Monday was a slight easing of restrictions, though not nearly enough to provide for what they said was a desperate and increasing need. One group raised its estimate of the dead to 62,000 to 100,000.
And even with the American flight, President Bush said that the slow flow of aid suggested that the generals in charge were either “isolated or callous.”
“It’s been days, and no telling how many people have lost their lives as a result of the slow response,” he told CBS News in a radio interview. “An American plane finally went in but the response isn’t good enough.”
They said help was reaching fewer than one-third of those in need. The United Nations World Food Program said that it needed to move 375 tons of food a day to keep up with the urgent needs, but was shipping less than 20 percent of that and was close to running out of rice.
Although United Nations officials have criticized the government for blocking efforts to help its citizens, spokesmen from the various aid groups, relieved to have even one toe in the door, and clearly worried that harsh words might slam it shut again, have adopted a tone of cautious hope...
Mr. Kirkwood said his teams in the delta had seen no outbreaks of cholera yet, although he expected other diseases and diarrhea to start taking their toll soon, especially on children.
“Children can die within 24 hours from diarrhea,” he said, “and delivery of oral rehydration solution is one of the things we’ve prioritized. Water is not enough. It has to be water, sugar and salt, in the right combination.”
He said Save the Children rented two boats from private owners and in the past two days delivered 180 metric tons of rice, water and rehydration fluids to a remote, storm-smashed island. He said that aid reached 9,400 people living in 13 villages, including 2,350 children.
Reports of rampant infections, caused by infected cuts, were starting to reach aid offices in Yangon, as well as many cases of wind burns... BANGKOK — Myanmar continued to restrict most large-scale deliveries of relief supplies Tuesday, aid officials said, one day after Unit... more -
Lawyer prepares insanity defense for incest captor
AMSTETTEN, Austria (CNN) -- The Austrian who reportedly admitted holding his daughter captive for 24 years and fathering seven children with her will plead insanity, his lawyer said...
"I believe that the trigger was a mental disorder, because I can't imagine that someone has sex with his own daughter without having a mental disorder," Mayer said in an interview broadcast late Sunday. Mayer said Fritzl would be confined to a psychiatric institution rather than a prison if he was certified as insane and convicted, AP reported.
Police said last week that Fritzl had confessed to imprisoning his daughter in a secret cellar dungeon in his home, fathering seven children with her and burning the body of one who died in infancy in a furnace.
Meanwhile, Fritzl's sister-in-law has said his wife did not know her daughter was held captive in their basement for decades because she had been trained not to ask questions under her husband's tyrannical rule of the household, .
"He was such a tyrant," said the woman identified only as Christine R. in a Saturday interview conducted and translated by AP. "He tolerated no dissent," Christine R. added...
In the televised interview, Christine R. added detail to the bizarre story of 73-year-old Fritzl who was recently arrested and confessed to holding his daughter captive in a dungeon under the home for decades, repeatedly raping her and fathering seven kids -- with six of them surviving.
Christine R. also said Fritzl committed an unrelated rape in 1967, served 18 months in prison for that crime and that her sister continued to stay married to him in a desperate attempt to keep their family together. Recent media reports also claimed Fritzl had been convicted of rape. Austrian police have said they are looking into the claims.
The story of the family's imprisonment began to unravel two weeks ago, when Fritzl's daughter, Kerstin Fritzl, fell seriously ill with convulsions and was hospitalized.
The 19-year-old girl, who had been locked in the basement her entire life along with her mother and two brothers, was in an artificially induced coma in an Amstetten clinic. She was suffering from a kidney ailment that worsened because she did not receive medial treatment sooner, authorities said.
Fritzl told his wife that their daughter Elisabeth, who is now 42, ran away from home at age 18.
The couple adopted three of the children who Josef said were left on their doorstep as infants by his runaway daughter.
In the interview Christine R. said her sister, Rosemarie, truly thought that her daughter had ran away to join a cult.
"She never believed him being capable of it," said Christine R. "We were all taken in by him and believed that she (referring to Elizabeth), was in a cult and that she wouldn't come out."
It may have been Fritzl's strict rule over the household that made it possible for him to keep his gruesome secret hidden for so long, Christine R. said.
The unspeakable ordeal has taken a toll on the whole family, Christine R. said, stating that she spoke to her sister on the phone recently.
"Five or six days after Kerstin went to the hospital I called my sister and asked her how the girl was doing," Christine R. said. "She said that she herself was doing badly, and the girl herself was doing badly and she wished with all of her heart that the girl would pull through."
Fritzl is being held in police custody. He has yet to be charged, but he can be held by police for 14 days without formal charges while the investigation is under way. That amount of time can be extended by a judge. AMSTETTEN, Austria (CNN) -- The Austrian who reportedly admitted holding his daughter captive for 24 years and fathering seven childre... more -
Children's bodies found in German freezer
Police have discovered the bodies of three dead babies in a freezer of a family home in western Germany, authorities said Monday.
Prosecutor's spokesman Johannes Daheim said their 44-year-old mother had been arrested, The Associated Press reported, but her name had not been released.
The bodies were found in a freezer in the cellar of a house in the town of Wenden in North Rhine-Westphalia by officers acting on a tip-off from one of the woman's three grown children.
He did not say how old they were, AP reported, while police were waiting for an autopsy to confirm the cause of death. However, police told CNN that the babies appeared to have died shortly after birth.
AP said the woman, her 47-year-old husband and their two sons, aged 18 and 22, and a 24-year-old daughter had lived in Wenden for years.
"I've been mayor for 14 years, and this is definitely the worst day I've seen," Peter Brueser told AP. "We will need a long time here to work through this."
The case follows several recent similar instances in Germany, according to the agency.
In February, police were called to a home in northern Germany where a dead infant was discovered in the cellar, and the previous month a woman was charged with manslaughter after the remains of three babies were discovered in her house and the home of a relative -- she denied killing the children.
Another woman was convicted of manslaughter in 2006 for killing eight of her babies in eastern Germany. Police have discovered the bodies of three dead babies in a freezer of a family home in western Germany, authorities said Monday. ... more -
Sudan Bombs Darfur School And Market, 13 Killed
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudanese government bombs have hit a primary school and a busy market place in Darfur, killing at least 13 people, including seven children, two aid organizations said on Monday.
The Sudanese army was not immediately available to comment but has repeatedly denied bombing in the area, which would be a violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution banning all offensive flying.
The aid groups said a government Antonov plane bombed the village of Shegeg Karo in North Darfur on Sunday. If confirmed, it would be the deadliest bombing raid in Darfur in years.
"According to information gathered by the villagers of Shegeg Karo, the Antonov hovered for a long time and then bombed repeatedly," a joint statement from Darfur Diaries and the Darfur Peace and Development Organization said.
"The Shegeg Karo school was hit and one classroom was destroyed. It was in session," it added. The youngest child to die was 5-year-old Yusuf Adam Hamid. It said two other children were seriously wounded and 30 more lightly wounded.
Both organizations fund the primary school of 238 students.
The groups said the market was also hit with six people reported killed and 20 shops destroyed. They said it was unclear how many people were wounded at the market place. Hundreds of women usually gather there on market day.
Last week, a joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping mission confirmed rebel reports of bombing in North Darfur in spite of government denials. The UNAMID force said it was investigating the allegations of bombing at Shegeg Karo.
Darfur rebels said three other areas were bombed on Sunday. Ein Sirro and Jabel Medop in North Darfur and an area in West Darfur near rebel-held Jabel Moun. There were no reports of casualties.
International experts estimate some 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million driven from their homes in five years of revolt in Darfur. Khartoum blames the Western media for exaggerating the conflict and puts the death toll at 10,000.
Deployment of the peacekeeping force, set to become the world's biggest, has been slow.
A May 2006 peace deal was signed by one of three rebel negotiating factions. But little has been done to implement the deal while insecurity has worsened because of infighting between rebel factions.
Minni Arcua Minnawi, a former rebel who signed the 2006 and became a presidential assistant, said he was suspending participation in the government on Monday in protest at the lack of political will from President Omar Hassan al-Bashir's government.
"The government is not serious and not committed to the peace deal," said a Minnawi spokesman, al-Tayyib Khamis.
Sudan is asking donor nations meeting in Norway this week for $6 billion over the next three years to help rebuild after decades of civil wars. A 2005 peace deal ended war between north and south, but did not cover Darfur. KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudanese government bombs have hit a primary school and a busy market place in Darfur, killing at least 13 people... more -
Saudi Arabia Executes Convicted Murderer in 48th Beheading This Year
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The Saudi Interior Ministry says authorities have beheaded a man convicted of murder.
The ministry says Hamoud al-Ansi stabbed another man to death during a conflict over a piece of land. His execution took place Tuesday in the eastern Saudi city of Dhahran.
Saudi Arabia follows a strict interpretation of Islam under which those convicted of murder, drug trafficking, rape or armed robbery are executed in public with a sword.
Tuesday's execution brings to 48 the number of beheadings in the kingdom this year, according to an Associated Press count. Saudi Arabia beheaded 137 people last year, up sharply from the 38 executed in 2006. RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The Saudi Interior Ministry says authorities have beheaded a man convicted of murder. ... more -
Ex-Khmer Rouge president appeals to tribunal for release
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Cambodia's genocide tribunal abruptly adjourned a pretrial hearing for the former president of the Khmer Rouge after his French attorney erupted at judges because the case file had not been translated into French.
Jacques Verges, one of the lawyers representing Khieu Samphan, 76, in his appeal against pretrial detention, has earned notoriety with a client list that includes Nazi Gestapo officer Klaus Barbie, Venezuelan terrorist Carlos the Jackal, former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and confessed serial killer Charles Sobhraj.
Verges stormed out of the closed-door hearing, telling reporters that judges had asked Khieu Samphan to find a new lawyer.
"French is an official language of the tribunal. There is not one page of the case file against Mr. Khieu Samphan translated into French," Verges told reporters, speaking in French. "I should be capable of knowing what my client is blamed for."
Verges said he told the tribunal that its failure to translate the thousands of pages in the case file rendered the proceedings "invalid," and the tribunal responded by asking Khieu Samphan to find a new lawyer.
"This is a scandal!" Verges said. "This never happens except in dictatorships!"
Verges, 83, has known Khieu Samphan since they both were active in left-wing student activities in Paris in the 1950s.
The tribunal has charged Khieu Samphan with crimes against humanity and war crimes committed when the communist Khmer Rouge held power in 1975-79. Some 1.7 million people died from starvation, disease, overwork and execution as a result of the group's radical policies in trying to build a classless society.
The prosecutors' explanation of the hearing's adjournment was similar to that given by Verges.
"Jacques Verges has chosen not to participate," said co-prosecutor Alexander Bates. "The pretrial chamber's judges decided to remind (Khieu Samphan) that he was entitled to choose a lawyer _ another lawyer but this one."
Khieu Samphan has been detained by the tribunal since Nov. 19. He is one of five former senior leaders in custody.
The long-delayed tribunal is expected to hold its first trial later this year. Many fear the Khmer Rouge's aging leaders could die before being brought to justice.
Khieu Samphan's defense lawyers say he held "no real power" as the Khmer Rouge's head of state and is not guilty of the crimes he is charged with, Judge Huot Vuthy told the court during a morning public session, reading from previously submitted arguments.
Expressionless before the court, Khieu Samphan stood when asked to introduce himself and said he lived a life of poverty after the fall of the Khmer Rouge.
"I didn't have any job, and after leaving the jungle, I depended on my wife who supported the whole family," he said, dressed in khakis and a green, long-sleeved shirt.
In its detention order, the tribunal's judges said Khieu Samphan "aided and abetted" his regime's policies that were "characterized by murder, extermination, imprisonment, persecution on political grounds and other inhumane acts such as forcible transfers of the population, enslavement and forced labor."
Khieu Samphan has blamed the late Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot for the group's policies, including decisions to purge many Khmer Rouge cadres suspected of being disloyal or spies. PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Cambodia's genocide tribunal abruptly adjourned a pretrial hearing for the former president of the Khmer ... more -
Guillermo Vargas Habacuc - A cruel "artist"
Artist Guillermo Vargas - Habacuc
Last year, the Costa Rican ‘artist’ is alleged to have paid some children to chase and catch an abandoned dog. He is said to have tied the animal by a very short rope to the wall of an art gallery in Managua and left it there for several days, without food or water, until it died.
During this time, many people visited the art gallery, paying absolutely no attention to the torment of the dying dog.
Photographs of the so-called exhibition can be found on the Internet.
The prestigious Central American Biennial exhibition incomprehensibly decided to consider this barbarous act as art, and Habacuc has been invited to repeat his cruel action at the Biennial of 2008 in Honduras.
In his defence, the artist has claimed that what he was attempting to prove was that those who saw the suffering of the dog just walked on by and that if it had been left on the street to die, no-one would have even known of its existence.
It has also been reported that the dog did not die but escaped, and that it had been fed by Vargas and was only tied up during the gallery opening times. It has not been possible to confirm this.
The Managua exhibition attracted worldwide attention and many people believe it to have been an act of cruelty rather than art. A petition has been started in an attempt to prevent Habacuc’s involvement in the 2008 Biennial and from repeating the spectacle.
If you would like to sign the petition, visit:
http://www.petitiononline.com/ea6gk/petition.html Artist Guillermo Vargas - Habacuc ... more
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Inhumanity
