Anne Frank’s diary to be made into a musical

This video is called The Diary Of Anne Frank, (Part One) – 01/17.

From British daily The Guardian:

Anne Frank‘s diary to be made into a musical

Paul Hamilos in Madrid

Monday January 7, 2008

It might not seem the most obvious material for a song-and-dance number, but the Diary of Anne Frank will take centre stage next month when a Spanish musical based on the most famous book about the Holocaust opens in Madrid.

Having been rewritten for films, plays and TV dramas, the story of the Jewish girl hiding out with her family in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam has never before been made as a musical. The Anne Frank Foundation, which jealously guards the rights to the diary – it once turned down Steven Spielberg when he wanted to make a film – has given its support. Jan Erik Dubbelman said: “This production respects the message of tolerance, within the tragedy, that we want to keep alive. Being in Spanish, it can also help to take the message of Anne Frank to Latin America.”

See also here. And here.

Snow sculptures in Harbin, China

This video, in English from China, is called Harbin Ice Festival 2006-2007.

Photos of the 20th International Snow Sculpture Art Expo in Harbin, China, of this year, are here.

Chinese scientists have warned that climate change is hurting the most famous draw in the northern city of Harbin — its annual ice sculpture contest: here.

Opposition claims Georgia president rigged election victory

This video is called Georgian protests against dictator Saakashvili.

From British daily The Guardian:

Mikhail Saakashvili clinched a second term as president of Georgia last night, even as thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in protest over alleged vote-rigging.

See also here.

Autobiography of English peace activist Eileen Daffern

This video from Britain is called Mark Thomas – London [Peace] Protest 24th Feb 2007.

From British daily The Morning Star:

A life for peace

(Sunday 06 January 2008)

Essays on a Life by Eileen Daffern
(B&M Publishing, £12)

TALES OF HOPE: Essays on a Life by Eileen Daffern.

IAN SINCLAIR takes pleasure in reading the wise words of 93-year-old Sussex anti-war activist Eileen Daffern in her excellent autobiography.

While it is often remarked that one’s politics tend to become more conservative as the years progress, this is certainly not the case for Eileen Daffern.

At 93, she continues to be active in a variety of peace groups in her home county of Sussex, the personification of pacifist Vera Britten‘s observation that “women must lead the struggle against war.”

With Essays on a Life, Daffern has written a thoughtful and wide-ranging autobiography that consciously steers clear of much of her personal life, instead creating “a social document – to see a life in a context of and affected by, social change.”

Obituary: Eileen Daffern: 1914 – 2012: here.

Rare birds at San Rafael National Park in Paraguay

This video is about San Rafael National Park in Paraguay.

From BirdLife:

Surveys reveal riches of San Rafael

07-01-2008

Ten years of survey work in the San Rafael National Park in Paraguay have established that it is “as important for both avian diversity and threatened species as any other location in South America”. The 405 species recorded so far include 70 Atlantic Forest endemics, and 16 Near Threatened and 12 globally threatened species, including the Endangered Black-fronted Piping-Guan Pipile jacutinga and Marsh Seedeater Sporophila palustris. …

San Rafael is also important for grassland birds, with 93 species recorded, of which 14 were only found in this habitat, including the Vulnerable Saffron-cowled Blackbird Xanthopsar flavus, and the Vulnerable Chestnut Seedeater Sporophila cinnamomea, which like the Marsh Seedeater is a Mesopotamian Grasslands endemic.

Guyra Paraguay (BirdLife Partner) staff in Asunción, Paraguay, have received the disturbing news that three people have burnt down the visitors’ house at the Kanguery administrative center in Guyra Paraguay’s “Guyra Reta” reserve in San Rafael: here.

Paraguay’s first Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network site – right on the capital’s doorstep: here.

Bird areas in Paruguay: here.

Dutch soldiers kill Afghan child

This is a video interview with a demonstrator in Noordwijk, the Netherlands; explaining why the occupation of Afghanistan should stop.

According to Dutch ANP news agency, Dutch soldiers in the province of Uruzgan in Afghanistan have fired at mud houses where they said fire came from.

Later, at those houses a dead child and a dead adult man were found. And also five wounded people, three of them children.