Carnivorous plant catches jay

This is a Dutch TV video about the botanical garden in Leiden. Where a jay flew into a hothouse when the door was open, and got stuck on a carnivorous plant.The bird was saved and is recovering now.

Homophobia threat in Uganda

This video from the USA is called Is ‘The Family’ Behind Anti-Gay Bill That Includes Execution?

Death penalty for gays will be law soon, Ugandan lawmaker says: here.

Uganda Anti-Gay Bill to Become Law: here.

Ugandan paper ordered to stop outing homosexuals: here.

This is a Dutch TV video about homophobia in Uganda.

Frank Mugisha, chair of the NGO Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMU), is no stranger to receiving threats because of his sexual orientation, a November 5 Amnesty International statement said: here.

Uganda: US evangelicals spread homophobia: here.

Uganda: Army Harassing Us, Say Opposition: here.

Woman investigator detained by Ugandan authorities for helping human rights activist: here.

Fellow Tory says Cameron wages Kosovo-style war against the poor

From daily The Independent in Britain:

Boris Johnson under fire for ‘Kosovo cleansing‘ comments

PA

Friday, 29 October 2010

Boris Johnson faced calls to apologise for “appalling” comments about housing benefit reforms today after London’s mayor dramatically stoked political controversy over welfare cuts.

The outspoken Tory tried to calm anger at Number 10 yesterday, claiming his vow not to accept “Kosovo-style social cleansing” in the capital had been taken out of context. …

Mr Johnson’s intervention increased pressure on the Prime Minister, who is already facing opposition from Tory and Liberal Democrat backbenchers over the housing benefit shake-up.

There are claims that around 200,000 people could be driven out of areas with high rents as a result of the drive to reduce the cost of housing subsidies.

The mayor said he was in “detailed negotiations” with Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith about the proposals and said he would “emphatically resist” any such exodus.

“What we will not see and we will not accept is any kind of Kosovo-style social cleansing of London. On my watch, you are not going to see thousands of families evicted from the place where they have been living and have put down roots,” he declared.

The comments drew a rare public rebuke from Number 10, which said David Cameron “doesn’t agree with what Boris Johnson has said or indeed the way he said it”.

See also here.

The cuts in Housing Benefit proposed by the British Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition will lead to the eviction of huge numbers of people from their homes in London and elsewhere in the south-east of England: here.

Related articles

• 44 Tories call for state press regulation on eve of Leveson (theweek.co.uk)
• Boris Johnson wants Lynton Crosby to take the helm of Tory election campaign (thetimes.co.uk)
• David Cameron rebukes Boris Johnson for attacking airport expansion inquiry (guardian.co.uk)
• Boris Johnson ahead of David Cameron in two new polls (standard.co.uk)
• Living wage should be adopted by central government, says Boris Johnson (guardian.co.uk)
• Boris: Cameron should do “whatever it takes” to hire Lynton Crosby (newstatesman.com)
• Caption competition: what are David Cameron and Boris Johnson saying? (guardian.co.uk)
• Poll: 59% would choose Kosovo over EU (facebookreporter.org)
• IDS peddling urban myths (morningstaronline.co.uk)

Guantánamo Bay kangaroo court case based on Islamophobia

Guantánamo Bay: A key witness in the case against former child soldier Omar Khadr based his testimony in part on the work of Danish psychologist and anti-Muslim bigot Nicolai Sennels: here.

This video is called United Nations Urges U.S. To Consider Child Solders Laws In Omar Khadr Case.

From CBC in Canada:

The United Nations representative on child soldiers says Omar Khadr should not be imprisoned in the United States but rather returned to Canada to be rehabilitated.

The Canadian government has aided and abetted the prosecution and persecution of child soldier Omar Khadr, from the time that it first learned of the detention of a Canadian citizen at Guantanamo Bay through this week’s plea-bargain: here.

A federal court jury on Wednesday unexpectedly acquitted Guantánamo detainee Ahmed Khaifan Ghailani on 284 charges related to the 1998 terrorist attacks on the US Embassy in Tanzania: here.

Cable exclusive: The secret Obama administration memo on child soldiers: here.

President Barack Obama’s hopes of closing the Guantanamo Bay detention facility appear as far from being realised as ever in the wake of new legislation approved by Congress this week: here.

Mass anti-Sarkozy demonstrations in France

This video is called Millions Go On Strike In France.

An estimated two million people protested in France Thursday against a pension-cutting law passed by the French Parliament over mass popular opposition: here.

See also here. And here.

Social lapwing discovery in Turkey

From BirdLife:

Erzhan helps locate important new staging site for Sociable Lapwing in Turkey

Thu, Oct 28, 2010

This autumn researchers from Doga Dernegi (BirdLife in Turkey) have been actively monitoring Sociable Lapwings as they pass through Eastern Turkey.

On September 26th, DD staff searching in the north east of the country located sixty Sociable Lapwings in two separate flocks of 30 birds at a previously identified Turkish staging site on the Erzurum Plain.

On September 28th, DD researchers monitoring birds near the Syrian border in the far south-east of Turkey, then discovered a large flock of 498 Sociable Lapwings had already reached another well known staging site – Ceylanpinar. During the monitoring, one of DD’s Volunteers – Mustafa Erturhan – filmed this video of the flock.

On October 3rd, RSPB (BirdLife in the UK) received a satellite transmission from Erzhan (one of nine satellite-tagged Sociable Lapwings currently being monitored) indicating he was close to the town of Patnos some 30k. north of the Van Golu lake in central Turkey. DD staff were alerted and went straight out to search for Erzhan (and the flock he was travelling with there) but the habitat proved unsuitable and no birds could be located, so it is probable that he was just passing through.

Despite only five Sociable Lapwings being found in the vicinity of Patnos during the next few days, searches continued in the Malazgirt and Bulanlik Plain (see map below) and on October 9th DD’s efforts were rewarded when a flock of 101 Sociable Lapwings was located there.

The following day researchers were even more successful when they discovered another much bigger flock of 554 birds close by, which is the largest gathering of migrating Sociable Lapwings encountered so far this autumn. So, despite Erzhan not being relocated in this flock, he has yet again pointed the way and helped DD discover another important new staging site in eastern Turkey.

Software deciphers the calls birds use to communicate on their migration routes: here.

Crisis, but not for Shell

This video series, in 4 parts, from the USA, is called The true cost of oil: Shell and Chevron.

From Citywire in Britain:

Higher oil price drives 90% profit rise at Shell

by Deborah Hyde on Oct 28, 2010 at 09:32

Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell said profits in the third quarter leapt nearly 90% to beat even the most optimistic forecasts thanks to higher oil prices and better refining margins.

The Anglo Dutch oil company reported a clean underlying profit of $4.9 billion, an 88.5% rise from the same period a year earlier and 14% above the consensus forecast of $4.4 billion.

That was helped by a 15% increase in oil prices and a 17% rise in gas prices.

Shameless bosses of Britain’s biggest companies pocketed an average of £4.9 million last year – a 55 per cent increase on their earnings: here.

Seven companies including oil giant Royal Dutch Shell agreed today to pay the US government $236.5million (£145m) to settle criminal and civil charges that they bribed foreign officials: here.

WikiLeaks: Shell Oil Infiltrated Nigerian Gov’t: here.

Afghan war, a bottomless pit

This video from the USA is called Rethink Afghanistan War (Part 3): Cost of War.

From Associated Press:

Report: US agencies don’t track Afghan spending

A new government report says the U.S. agencies spending the most in Afghanistan can’t easily show where their money goes.

The special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction also found federal agencies still aren’t tracking their contracts in a shared database.

The lack of coordination and agency reporting on U.S. spending led the watchdog office to develop its own list of contractors tapped for Afghanistan work. Nearly 7,000 contractors received almost $18 billion between 2007 and 2009 from the Defense Department, State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Those three agencies are the biggest spenders on Afghanistan projects, yet they don’t separate money for that work from other U.S.-funded projects around the world. And the report says that makes it difficult to track where the money is going.

See also here.

Afghan Women Demand Liberation, Not Lip Service: here.

From Afghanistan source, “First Americans kill us, then they want to put us on camera” reports Jeremy Scahill. On DN now here.

Six fighters from the private army of Afghan warlord, drug trafficker and highway robber Matiullah Khan were recently in Australia for training with the Australian Defence Forces, the October 29 Sydney Morning Herald said: here.

Britain: Hero of the anti-war movement Joe Glenton will return his Veteran Badge to Downing Street before a national demonstration against the war in Afghanistan, he announced on Saturday: here.

Leading anti-war figures urged the British public on Saturday to “intensify” pressure on the government for the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and the end of the ongoing occupation of Iraq: here.

Several hundred people took to the streets of Kabul today to protest against September’s [fraudulent] parliamentary election outcome: here.

Military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan continue to use waste methods that expose troops to potentially toxic emissions without fully understanding the effects, according to a new government audit obtained by CNN: here.

Tsunami, volcano kill Indonesians

This video is called Pastor Harminto Ongko interviewed by Channel 2 ABC News – Indonesia Mentawai tsunami.

By Peter Symonds in Australia:

Hundreds dead after two Indonesian disasters

28 October 2010

The remote Mentawai islands off the west coast of Sumatra were devastated on Monday night after a 7.7 magnitude undersea earthquake triggered a tsunami that swept across coastal areas. Poor weather has hampered efforts to assess the extent of the damage and to get relief supplies to the islands.

West Sumatra’s disaster management agency coordinator, Ade Edward, reported yesterday that at least 311 people were dead and another 410 were missing. However, the final toll could be much higher as rescue workers are yet to reach some of the worst-affected areas. The tsunami wave was at least 3 metres high and swept up to 600 metres inland.

The National Disaster Management Agency said most deaths had occurred in the Pagai Utara and Pagai Selatan districts. Hundreds of wooden and bamboo homes had been washed away in more than 20 villages. More than 20,000 people have been displaced and are sheltering in makeshift emergency camps or staying with friends and relatives. …

None of the victims received any warning of the impending danger. Six years after a tsunami devastated much of northern Sumatra, as well as large areas of Thailand, Sri Lanka and India, and killed an estimated 225,000 people, a tsunami early warning system is still incomplete.

Ferdinand Salamanang, who lives on North Pagai Island, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation: “There wasn’t any siren to warn people in Sikakap. Yes there was an earthquake and tsunami detection system in our port, but it is broken. We did not hear any warning this time.”

Ridwan Jamaluddin, from the Indonesian Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology, told the media: “We don’t say they [two early warning buoys] are broken down, but they were vandalised and the equipment is very expensive. It cost us five billion rupiah [$US560,000] each.”

Responsibility for the lack of a functioning tsunami warning system rests not just with the Indonesian government but with the major powers that pledged to establish a region-wide system in the aftermath of the 2004 tragedy. UN disaster specialist Tiziana Bonapace told the BBC that the warning system was meant to be finished in 2010 but was still a work in progress. “Earthquake and sea-level monitoring systems are in place, but what has proven more difficult is how to get warnings out to remote areas in time,” she said.

Ridwan Jamaluddin dismissed the lack of warning, claiming that even if the buoys had been working the alert might not have given people enough time to escape. “Pagai Island is very close to the epicentre, so the waves reached Pagai Island in just 5 or 10 minutes,” he said. Whether these claims are true or not, the official gave no indication as to when the buoys were going to be fixed and the warning system restored. …

Even as relief workers struggle to cope with the situation in the Mentawai Islands, another disaster is unfolding in central Java following the eruption of Mount Merapi on Tuesday. At least 29 people are dead and 38 injured. About 42,000 people had been evacuated following earlier warnings, but a number of people, concerned about their crops, homes and possessions, returned to the area or refused to leave.

Scientists are concerned about further eruptions. The head of the Indonesia’s centre of vulcanology, Surono, told the Guardian: “A lot of energy is pent up back there. There’s no telling what’s next.” Large areas around the volcano are caked in ash. Mount Merapi, to the north of the city of Yogyakarta, is one of Indonesia’s most active volcanoes, but the surrounding area is densely populated.

Rescuers searching islands ravaged by a tsunami off western Indonesia raised the death toll to 343 today as more bodies were found: here.

Indonesia tsunami deaths top 400: here.

There is mounting criticism of the government as relief workers struggle to cope with two disasters involving tens of thousands of people—the October 25 tsunami in the Mentawai islands and the eruption of Mount Merapi in central Java: here.

Searing gas poured down Java’s Mount Merapi volcano today, torching houses and trees and incinerating villagers as they fled: here.

French workers fight on

This video is about French workers and students demonstrating.

France: Strikes continued yesterday against President Nicolas Sarkozy’s pension cuts, despite the National Assembly’s approval of the final pension bill passed by the Senate: here.

The strikes continue today.