This afternoon, I read my poems at a cafe not far from the early nineteenth century corn market bridge in Leiden.
I was first on stage. The presenter asked me for my Iraq war poem. However, this time I had just brought two poems: a short one on various things called “new”. And a long one, about Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet.
After me, Joost van Gijzen; with short poems on subjects like gym teachers and girls.
Then, Ton Jansen, about subjects like getting older.
During the break, there was supposed to be live music by Olav Quist en Lucien van Dalen. However, they did not turn up, so during pauses there was recorded Nina Simone music.
On the beach of the village Kerkwerve (municipality Schouwen-Duiveland, province of Zeeland) this Saturday, 19 dead sand tiger sharks were found.
One hundred and thirteen countries have signed on to an agreement to protect seven migratory sharks currently threatened with extinction byway of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), according to the UN Environment Program (UNEP). The agreement prohibits hunting, fishing, or deliberate killing of the great white shark, basking shark, whale shark, porbeagle shark, spiny dogfish, as well as the shortfin and longfin mako sharks. However, Australia has declared it will ignore certain protections: here.
Underwater photographer Francis Perez recently captured rare, detailed images of the enigmatic smalltooth sandtiger shark, which lives in depths of up to 3281 feet: here.
As his daughter ‘squirmed’ to get away, Tabor said he submerged her face three or four times until the water was lapping around her forehead and jawline.
Tabor, 27, who had won custody of his daughter only four weeks earlier, admitted choosing the punishment because the girl was terrified of water.
Tabor, a soldier at the Lewis-McChord base in Tacoma, Washington, was arrested after being seen walking around his neighbourhood wearing a Kevlar military helmet and threatening to break windows.
Police discovered the alleged waterboarding when they went to his home in the Tacoma suburb of Yelm and spoke to his girlfriend.
She told them about the alleged torture and the terrified girl was found hiding in a closet, with bruising on her back and scratch marks on her neck and throat.
Asked how she got the bruises, the girl is said to have replied: ‘Daddy did it.’
During a police interview Tabor allegedly admitted grabbing his daughter, placing her on the kitchen counter and submerging her face into a bowl of water.
Sergeant Rob Carlson said the punishment was carried out because the girl would not recite the alphabet.
Police have not revealed Tabor’s military service, but his base is home to units that have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Tabor has been charged with assault and ordered to remain on his base and have no contact with his daughter or girlfriend, who has not been named. He is due to appear in court this week.
The girl has been taken into care. Her natural mother lives in Kansas but Tabor had been granted custody by a court.
Joshua Tabor, Who Served in Iraq, Accused of Waterboarding Daughter: here.
The CIA is under fire following the news its allowing active-duty operatives to work for private companies on the side. The previously undisclosed “moonlighting” has granted wealthy private entities such as financial firms and hedge funds access to top-level intelligence officials: here.
A British contractor said recently that the Americans, the British and other armed forces were in Afghanistan to win the war, but for his firm, the more the security situation deteriorated the better: here.
Up to 20 Britons may have been tortured abroad with the complicity of the government and MI5, a human rights watchdog has revealed: here.
While British resident Shaker Aamer is locked away in solitary confinement in Guantanamo, the US ambassador is poring over the plans to move his embassy near to Shaker’s home in Battersea, in the Borough of Wandsworth: here.
Human rights group Reprieve has launched a legal challenge aimed at forcing the government to publish its guidance to MI5 and MI6 agents on interrogation practices: here.
David Price: “The CIA Is Welcoming Itself Back onto American University Campuses”: here.
Torture: Andrew Sullivan: What the Nazis Did; What Bush and Cheney Did: here.
They says the temperature rise was caused by climate change.
Experts say it is the first time that Galapagos sea lions have set up a colony outside the islands.
The monitors say the water temperature in Piura, off the coast of northern Peru, has risen from 17C to 23C over the last 10 years.
The temperature is much closer to the sea temperature around the Galapagos Islands, which averages about 25C.
Now that the conditions of the sea around northern Peru are so similar to the Galapagos, they say, even more sea lions and other new marine species could start arriving.
Like so many native species in the Galapagos Islands, the sea lions are unique to the archipelago, located about 600 miles west of continental Ecuador.
Ever since the English naturalist, Charles Darwin, first visited the islands more than 150 years ago, they have become known as a living museum of evolution.
Now, thanks to global warming, that unique ecosystem could face unprecedented changes.
The Winter Olympics in Vancouver could be affected by a shortage of the most essential winter sports ingredient as a result of the warmest January on record.
Galapagos Fur Seals Gain Foothold In Warming Peru: here. And here.
In a flurry of interviews in recent days, the scientist at the heart of the “climategate” affair has broken a 12-week silence about the controversy that followed the publication of emails stolen from the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit: here.
Tensions as Galapagos Islands seek sustainable growth: here.
USA: The Obama administration’s 2011 budget proposal contains sweeping changes to funding for primary and secondary education, in particular altering the distribution of funds for poor and working class school districts: here.
USA: Even prior to the current economic crisis, today’s young adults were on average poorer and more in debt than their parents. Since the economic meltdown began in 2008, however, conditions facing young people have taken a sharp turn for the worse: here.
IN ‘going-broke Britain’ the number of people becoming insolvent in England and Wales in 2009 was 134,142, according to official data from the Insolvency Service. In the fourth quarter of last year alone, 35,574 people became insolvent, up 24.9 per cent from the last three months of 2008: here.
