The activists were arrested on Friday. On Saturday they were still in jail, attorney Michael Sfard said. The police said the people had been arrested because the demonstration was not officially authorized.
A recent book written by two Israeli writers and published in translation (pdf) by the DNI Open Source Center (OSC) traces what the authors see as the decline of Israel’s political left: here.
Israeli left needs to wake up before it’s too late, by Gideon Levy, Haaretz Correspondent: here.
Israeli human rights groups and activists have become the target of a vicious campaign by right-wing groups, security forces and politicians: here.
Letter from Israel: No defence against rockets for the poor of Israel: here.
Ronny Perlman is an Israeli woman who visits the checkpoints around Jerusalem twice a day. She goes in the morning when Palestinian adults are going to work and students are going to school and at the end of the day when they are returning home: here.
I phoned Rami Elhanan the other day. We had not spoken for six years and much has happened in Israel and Palestine. Rami is an Israeli graphic designer who lives with his family in Jerusalem. His father survived Auschwitz. His grandparents and six aunts and uncles perished in the Holocaust: here.
Thousands of Israelis rally against Palestinian evictions: here.
Israeli leftwingers rallied outside a Tel Aviv court on Tuesday before the “political” trial of MP Mohammed Barakeh, who leads the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality, or Hadash: here.
party, has said that a party political photo of him has been used by the FBI to create a photo of how terrorist Bin Laden might look like in 2010.
Photo released by the US Government
Several versions of the photo were released this week by the US government and the F.B.I. The photo is purported to a digitally aged photo of wanted terrorist Osama Bin Laden.
However, Dr Llamazares says that it is obvious that his hair and facial features have been used to create the photofit. Analysis of the two photos shows that the hair and forehead are the same.
Whilst the main version of the photo shows Bin Laden as he would look like with a turban, another version of the photo, published on http://www.fbi.gov, shows Bin Laden without a turban. This photo was later removed after El Mundo newspaper contacted the US Embassy.
The two photos are shown here. “Osama Bin Laden” is to the left, the IU party political photo of Dr Llamazares to the right.
Complaints registered
Dr Llamazares and the IU party have made an official complaint to the Spanish Ministry of the Exterior asking for an explanation from the US government.
Dr Llamazares has also said he is investigating taking legal action over the matter.
They have also lodged a protest with the US embassy in Madrid.
“While my complaint may seem petty, this is a very serious question that affects personal liberty and the right to control one’s own image” Dr Llamazares told reporters at midday today. “I hope this is simply an error by the US government which shows their low level of competance, rather than something more sinister. “
Dr Llamazares, who is spokesperson for the Spanish Congress on Exterior Affairs, also said that until the matter is cleared up “I will not travel to the United States. The photo does not endanger Bin Laden, but it could endanger me”.
The Ministry of the Exterior has refused to comment on the matter. A spokesperson for the Spanish United Police Syndicate, contacted by the media, said it was “an absurd error that would not be committed by the Spanish police. It looks as if some technician simply surfed the web for a random photo.”
Sad for Spanish-US relations that the spokesperson for the Spanish Congress on Exterior Affairs now cannot travel to the USA because some overzealous bone-headed gunman there might kill him, thinking he was killing Bin Laden.
A MELON-headed whale was washed up on rocks at Woolgoolga Beach on Wednesday evening.
The washed up remains of a melon-headed whale on Woolgoolga Beach rocks this week.
A MELON-headed was whale washed up on rocks at Woolgoolga Beach on Wednesday evening.
The National Parks and Wildlife Service’s (NPWS) Coffs Harbour area manager Glenn Storrie said melon-headed whales are creatures of the deep and most of what is known about them has come from the study of washed-up specimens.
“The melon-headed whale lives well off-shore in all the world’s tropical and sub-tropical oceans hunting primarily squid in very deep water,” Mr Storrie said.
“We are currently transporting the animal to a facility where a necropsy will be conducted.
“Every little bit of scientific information we gather about these rarely-seen animals is valuable to their long-term protection and conservation,” he said.
Mr Storrie said the small whale, 2.7 metres long, was first spotted near the rocks on the eastern end of Woolgoolga beach.
“NPWS attended and called in a vet from Pet Porpoise Pool to assess the animal’s condition, but despite attempts to direct it back to sea the animal was in distress and unable to navigate,” Mr Storrie said.
The melon-headed whale has a body shape rather like a torpedo – its head shaped like a rounded cone giving the animal its common name.
These two videos from the USA say about themselves:
7 October 2009
Speech given at National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance rally
As the U.S. led war in Afghanistan begins its ninth year this week, 61 were arrested bringing a strong message to the White House that war, torture and drone bombing are outrageous, unacceptable and must end immediately. National anti-war groups and people from around the country joined together to say No to War in Afghanistan. No to Torture and Vengeance.
Bush administration’s torture policies.
Hundreds of people gathered in McPherson Square for song, poetry and rousing speeches to kick off a day of action. This is the reflection that Liz McAlister gave to those gathered, who would soon be processing to the White House led by the Mourn the dead, heal the wounded, end the wars banner. Those gathered then marched to the White House in a solemn procession, carrying large photographs of war victims, signs and banners. …
Members of Witness Against Torture, a group committed to the shuttering of Guantanamo and the quickly enlarging Bagram air base in Afghanistan … chained themselves to the fence.
Melissa Goodman, a lawyer for ACLU, said the publication of the list was “an important step toward transparency and accountability at the secretive Bagram prison” but that vital information was still missing.
“Full transparency and accountability about Bagram requires disclosing how long these people have been imprisoned, where they are from and whether they were captured far from any battlefield or in other countries far from Afghanistan,” she said.
A separate letter released by the US defence department on Friday said a “very small number” of prisoners were under 16 years of age, the Associated Press news agency reported.
‘Unprecedented’
Ramzi Kassem, a law professor at City University of New York, told AP that the decision to release the names was significant. “This is completely unprecedented, we’ve never had access to the list,” he said.
Kassem represents Amin al-Bakri, a Yemeni national, who was captured in Thailand and then sent to Bagram. In his case, a federal judge in Washington ruled that only those Bagram prisoners captured outside Afghanistan could file suit in the US.
US President Barack Obama’s administration is appealing against the decision.
Bagram, north of the Afghan capital, Kabul, has been used as a detention facility by the US-led coalition in Afghanistan since the ouster of the Taliban government in December 2001.
The list is here. It says “redacted list”, so probably United States authorities have not divulged all information.
U.S. Marines shoot at stick wielding Afghan protester: here.
Afghans ‘do not hide their hatred’ of Canadian troops: here.
British soldiers in Afghanistan are to be issued with [US] guns inscribed with references to passages from the Bible – risking handing a propaganda victory to Muslim extremists: here. And here.
According to a new report, “self-immolation is being used by increasing numbers of Afghan women to escape their dire circumstances”: here.
Psychologists and psychiatrists should not be expected to participate in torture as they do not have the expertise to assess individual pain or the long-term effects of interrogation, says an expert on bmj.com today: here.
Army leaders had warned that the suicide rate was on track to surpass last year’s toll of 140, but said the causes of the spike remain unclear.
“There’s no question that 2009 was a painful year for the army when it came to suicides,” said Colonel Christopher Philbrick, deputy director of an army suicide prevention task force.
Ten suspected cases of suicide in December for active-duty soldiers brought the total number for last year to 160, the Pentagon said in a statement.
Top military leaders, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, have appealed to officers to ensure soldiers who need psychological help do not face ridicule or risk to their careers.
Admiral Mullen’s wife, Deborah Mullen, told a conference this week that more needed to be done to monitor suicides of spouses and members of military families, something the Pentagon does not track precisely.
Often the spouses of service members are reluctant to seek help as they fear it could damage their loved one’s career prospects, she said.
This is a video about humpback whales; one of several species almost exterminated by past whaling, and now in danger from Japanese whale killing ships.
Now, it turns out that the international solidarity of the United States religious right extends not just to fellow extreme Christians, but to non-Christian killers as well.
Because those whalers are Christian? Hardly. Christians of any sort are a very small minority in Japan; so, probably in the taxpayer subsidized whale killing industry as well.
Probably, most Japanese whalers are Shinto (traditionally, the state religion in Japan, considering emperors divine etc.). The United States religious right has a tradition of attacking non-Christian religions like Shintoism as horrible “Satanic” paganism.
Why are they not doing so in this case, but, on the contrary, proclaiming international solidarity?
The “Christian Newswire” does so, not because of any recently discovered religious tolerance, but out of spite against Charles Darwin, dead for almost 150 years. As becomes apparent in their screed: “The Whaling Controversy Resolved: ‘Mysterious Islands’ DVD Shows Sea Shepherd Pirates to Be Darwinian Extremists”.
They say (no, I am not linking to them):
The Galápagos Islands were not only a once-great international whaling hub, but –thanks to Charles Darwin — this archipelago holds the distinction of being the birthplace of the modern animal rights movement.
Messrs the ultra religious wingnuts forget to mention why the Galápagos Islands are no longer a “great” whaling hub. Because nineteenth century whalers not just exterminated at least one tortoise species there, but also killed so many whales that whaling around the Galapagos became commercially unviable. No “fault” of Charles Darwin, Greenpeace, or Sea Shepherd.
World Vision hires only Christians under its $250 million in government foreign aid grants. Obama promised to change that. So why hasn’t he? Here.
Humpback and Fin whales off Wexford and Waterford, Ireland: here.
California Sushi Bar Caught Selling [Sei] Whale Meat: here.
Proposals to resume commercial whaling have been dealt a blow by DNA detective work showing that restaurants in the US and South Korea illegally sold whale meat from Japan: here.
Genetic Analysis Gives Hope That Extinct Tortoise Species May Live Again
Published: January 15, 2010
New Haven, Conn. — Thanks to genetic data gleaned from the bones found in a several museum collections, an international team of researchers led by scientists from Yale believes it may be possible to resurrect a tortoise species hunted to extinction by whalers visiting the Galapagos Islands during the early 19th century, before Charles Darwin made his famous visit.
A genetic analysis of 156 tortoises living in captivity and the DNA taken from remains of specimens of the now-extinct Chelonoidis elephantopus revealed that nine are descendents of the vanished species, which once made its home on Floreana Island in the Galapagos. Over a few generations, a selective breeding program among these tortoises should be able to revive the C. elephantopus species, said Adalgisa Caccone, senior research scientist in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology at Yale and senior author of the piece published this week in the online journal PLoS ONE.
Officials of the Galápagos National Park announced the release of 39 giant tortoises on Pinta Island in the Ecuadorian Galápagos archipelago where the animals had disappeared since 1972: here.
June 2010. 39 tortoises have been released into the wilds of Pinta Island, in the northern waters of the Galapagos Archipelago, as part of an ongoing effort to restore the ecological integrity of Pinta ecosystems. This is the first time that tortoises have inhabited the island since the removal of Lonesome George, the last known Pinta tortoise, in 1972: here.
Return of giant tortoises to Galapagos’s Pinta Island: here.
STERILISING giant tortoises and setting them free on a precious eco-site may not sound like the ideal way to restore a Galapagos island to its former glory. But it’s one that seems to be working on Pinta Island, the original home of famous giant tortoise “Lonesome George”: here.
USA: As the first of the big banks reported record year-end bonuses, the Wall Street Journal published an estimate that total pay at the largest Wall Street firms reached $145 billion last year: here.
In an op-ed piece published January 10, New York Times columnist Frank Rich denounces the criminal actions of Wall Street executives. Yet when it comes to drawing political conclusions from his portrait of a society dominated by a financial oligarchy, his analysis collapses into banality: here.
A record 2.82 million US homes faced foreclosure in 2009—well over 1 in 50 in the space of just one year. It is anticipated that at least 3 million more will enter foreclosure in 2010: here.
The Guardian Council of Iran’s Islamic Republic has given constitutional sanction to legislation mandating the elimination of $100 billion annually in price subsidies for gasoline, heating oil, electricity, staple foods, and other products and services: here.
Italy: largest call centre company facing bankruptcy: here.
European bankers are demanding that countries on the brink of national bankruptcy impose brutal austerity measures on their populations: here.
The British economy’s worst drop since 1921: here.
Wildlife charity Durrell having to cut staff & costs to make ends meet: here.
The first contingents of a US military force expected to reach 10,000 troops arrived in Haiti as anger mounted over the failure of international aid to reach the millions left injured, homeless and destitute by Tuesday’s earthquake: here.
Haiti‘s democratically elected president Aristide: here.
