NOAA’s Fisheries Service scientists studying the cooperative hunting behavior of killer whales in Antarctic waters observed the animals favoring one type of seal over all other available food sources, according to a study published in the journal Marine Mammal Science.
Researchers Robert Pitman and John Durban from NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, Calif., observed killer whales hunting in ice floes, off the western Antarctic Peninsula during January of 2009. While documenting the whales’ behavior of deliberately creating waves to wash seals off ice floes, the researchers noticed Weddell seals as their primary target, despite the availability of other prey species, particularly the more abundant crabeater seals.
“These killer whales would identify and then attack Weddell seals almost exclusively, even though they made up only about 15 percent of the available seal population,” said Pitman.
Killer whales creating waves to wash seals off ice floes in Antarctica had previously been observed only a handful of times. The whales, sometimes as many as seven abreast, charge the ice floe creating a wave that either washes the seal off the ice or breaks the ice into smaller pieces and more vulnerable to another attack. A previous study involving the authors suggested that this very distinctive killer whale population, which they refer to as “pack ice killer whales,” is a separate species.
Once the seal was washed off the ice, the killer whales worked as a group to keep it away from hauling onto the safety of another ice floe. The whales seemed to try and confuse the seal by causing turbulence in the water with their flukes and blowing bubbles under the water through their blowholes.
Away from the ice, the whales attempt to tire and eventually drown the animal by pulling it under water by its hind flippers. Eventually the seal succumbs to exhaustion and is usually divided up among the pod members underwater. In most cases, little of the seal’s remains float to the surface, but in one instance the carcass rose to the surface and appeared to have been methodically skinned and dismembered before being eaten.
King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa continued the crackdown on Bahraini democrats today when police detained the country’s most prominent blogger and civil rights activist.
Amira al-Hussaini, a Middle East and north Africa editor at Global Voices Online said that Mahmoud al-Youssef was taken into custody before dawn.
Mr Youssef has long criticised the monarchic system for curbing freedom of expression, Ms Hussaini said.
He has supported the recent protests and advocated political reform through dialogue between the government and the opposition.
Hundreds of opposition activists and leaders have been detained since Mr Khalifa imposed martial law two weeks ago and invited a Saudi-led expeditionary force into the kingdom to quash a month of protests.
Soldiers also took over a hospital where medics had been treating protesters injured in the violent crackdown and detained patients and staff.
The United Nations Human Rights Commission said that the takeover of Salmaniya Hospital amounted to a “shocking violation of international law.”
Nadia Prupis, Truthout: “Regimes in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have been using US products to censor anti-government protesters voicing their dissent on the Internet. The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that governments in the Middle East are buying content-filtering software from American companies that allows them to prevent access to web sites that many protesters use to organize movements for political reform. While the Qaddafi regime in Libya resorted to a total Internet shutdown the first week of March, other Middle East governments have turned to products built by McAfee Inc., Networks Inc. and Blue Coast Systems Inc., among other companies, in order to block web sites that allow protesters to share videos and congregate on Facebook”: here.
Egypt to Present Work by Martyred Artist in Venice: here.
The Spring of the Egyptian revolution has just begun: here.
Egyptian authorities have opened dozens of criminal investigations into hundreds of millions of dollars worth of public land contracts that were awarded illegally to real estate developers associated with former President Hosni Mubarak without proper procedures at below market rates: here.
Over a week ago there was a big protest held at the main office of Saudi Telecom (STC) in Mursalat (Riyadh) by workers at the company (Saudi nationals) while the Saudi Telecommunications Minister was on a visit to the company. The protesters were demanding an increment in wages, bonuses, overtime pay and other economic demands: here.
“It is very sad to note how international organisation fuels the situation through military intervention,” said Nanawo’s chief for information and mobilisation, Eunice Iipinge.
“One should not extinguish fire with fire, particularly the [United Nations] Security Council which is supposed to promote peace and security to all.”
The organisation said it is in support of the African Union (AU) position to deal with the hostility in Libya, and not military intervention.
Nanawo called upon the UN Security Council (UNSC) to “secure peace and put an end to the oil war” in Libya.
Political analyst Phanuel Kaapama last week commented that the UNSC resolution 1973 does not provide a clear roadmap for a resolution of the Libyan crisis.
USA: Filmmaker Michael Moore expressed disappointment Tuesday in President Barack Obama’s decision to intervene in Libya: here.
USA: North Carolina youths protest attack on Libya: here.
Dina Rasor, Truthout: “With the DoD budget ballooning again and again over the past 40 years and the news yesterday that we have already spent $600 million in the first week in defending Libya from the air, there appears to finally be some movement to look into what is wrong with our defense spending. We have fired 191 cruise missiles at a cost of $288 million alone ($1.5 million per missile) – just one illustration on how we have spent too much for our weapons, and the Pentagon has admitted that it is unauditable and cannot successfully track most of its procurement money”: here.
Obama on Libya: George W. Bush 2.0: here. And here.
Audit of Pentagon Spending Finds 70 Billion USD in Waste: New York Times: here.
Namibia will introduce a minerals windfall tax as part of efforts to strengthen state control over the country’s lucrative mineral resources, Mines and Energy Minister Isak Katali announced on Tuesday: here.
I must report that Afghans do not believe this to be a story of a few rogue soldiers. We believe that the brutal actions of these “kill teams” reveal the aggression and racism which is part and parcel of the entire military occupation. While these photos are new, the murder of innocents is not. Such crimes have sparked many protests in Afghanistan and have sharply raised anti-American sentiment among ordinary Afghans.
I am not surprised that the mainstream media in the US has been reluctant to publish these images of the soldiers who made sport out of murdering Afghans. General Petraeus, now in charge of the American-led occupation, is said to place great importance on the “information war” for public opinion – and there is a concerted effort to keep the reality of Afghanistan out of sight in the US.
Last week my initial application for a US entry visa was turned down, and so my book tour was delayed while supporters demanded my right to enter the country. The American government was pressed to relent and allow my visit to go ahead. Ultimately it too will be unable to block out the truth about the war in Afghanistan.
The “kill team” images will come as a shock to many outside Afghanistan but not to us. We have seen countless incidents of American and Nato forces killing innocent people like birds. For instance, they recently killed nine children in Kunar Province who were collecting firewood. In February this year they killed 65 innocent villagers, most of them women and children. In this case, as in many others, Nato claimed that they had only killed insurgents, even though local authorities acknowledged that the victims were civilians. To prevent the facts coming out they even arrested two journalists from al-Jazeera who attempted to visit and report from the site of the massacre.
Successive US officials have said that they will safeguard civilians and that they will be more careful, but in fact they are only more careful in their efforts to cover up their crimes and suppress reporting of them. The US and Nato, along with the office of the UN’s assistance mission in Afghanistan, usually give statistics about civilian deaths that underestimate the numbers. The reality is that President Obama’s so-called surge has only led to a surge of violence from all sides, and civilian deaths have increased.
The occupying armies have tried to buy off the families of their victims, offering $2,000 for each one killed. Afghans’ lives are cheap for the US and Nato, but no matter how much they offer, we don’t want their blood money.
Once you know all this, and once you have seen the “kill team” photos, you will understand more clearly why Afghans have turned against this occupation. The Karzai regime is more hated than ever: it only rules through intimidation, corruption, and with the help of the occupying armies. Afghans deserve much better than this.
However, this does not mean more Afghans are supporting the reactionary so-called resistance of the Taliban. Instead we are seeing the growth, under very difficult conditions, of another resistance led by students, women and the ordinary poor people of Afghanistan. They are taking to the streets to protest against the massacre of civilians and to demand an end to the war. Demonstrations like this were recently held in Kabul, Marzar-e-Sharif, Jalalabad and Farah.
This resistance is inspired by the movements in other countries like Egypt and Tunisia – we want to see “people power” in Afghanistan as well. And we need the support and solidarity of people in the Nato countries.
Many new voices are speaking up against this expensive and hypocritical war in Afghanistan, including soldiers from the Nato armies. When I last visited the UK I had the honour of meeting Joe Glenton, a conscientious objector who spent months in jail for his resistance to the war in Afghanistan. Of his time in prison, Glenton said: “In the current climate I consider it a badge of honour to have served a prison sentence.”
So while the world looks in horror at the “kill team” photographs, Joe Glenton’s courage and humanity is an important reminder that the war in Afghanistan need not last forever.
Henry A. Giroux | Moral Degeneracy and Violence in the “Kill Team” Photos. Henry A. Giroux, Truthout: “War, violence and death have become the organizing principle of governance and culture in the United States as we move into the second decade of the 21st century. Lacking a language for the social good, the very concept of the social as a space in which justice, equality, social protections and a responsibility to the other mediate everyday life is being refigured through a spectacle of violence and cruelty. Under such circumstances, ethical considerations and social costs are removed from market-driven policies and values just as images of human suffering are increasingly abstracted from not only their social and political contexts, but also the conditions that make such suffering possible. Moreover, as public issues collapse into privatized considerations, matters of agency, responsibility and ethics are now framed within the discourse of extreme individualism”: here.
Afghan women suffering from domestic violence: here.
Afghanistan: Self-immolations increase in Herat: here.
USA: An Army investigation into the brigade commander of five soldiers accused of murdering unarmed Afghan civilians last year has concluded that he should have been relieved of duty for poor performance, but pins virtually all the blame on junior officers for failing to prevent the killings: here.
An Afghan man who was arrested for converting to Christianity and fears he may be executed, remained behind bars Wednesday, March 30, more than a month after another convert was released amid international pressure: here.
Humanitarian aid work has become increasingly dangerous in recent years. Aid workers are now often the target of attacks, rather than merely bystanders caught in the crossfire. This is a symptom of the militarization and politicization of aid, whereby assistance is used as a means to achieve non-humanitarian objectives. Pierre Krahenbuhl, director of operations for the International Committee of the Red Cross, says that humanitarian organizations have been complicit by working closely with military forces. Krahenbuhl argues organizations should be neutral and independent to ensure they can effectively carry out their operations: here.
The management of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra told striking musicians Monday that if no settlement is reached by Friday, April 1 it plans to cancel the summer concert season and that fall concerts will be put in serious jeopardy.
DSO musicians have been on strike since October 4, resisting massive concession demands, including a more than 30 percent pay cut, with new musicians facing a cut of 42 percent.
The ultimatum by management comes even as DSO officials continue to rebuff requests by musicians for a resumption of negotiations. Haden McKay, a DSO cellist and principal spokesperson for the musicians told the World Socialist Web Site, “They are pushing and pushing us. They are saying ‘come back to the table’, but exactly on their terms.”
Musicians have already conceded to steep pay cuts and many other management demands. Differences still remain over issues related to work rules, including management’s proposal for community outreach. Earlier this month, DSO officials effectively rejected an offer by musicians to return to work under terms of management’s most recent proposal, while submitting outstanding issues to binding arbitration.
Facing a management imposed April 1 deadline for the cancellation of summer concerts, striking DSO musicians Wednesday picketed the quarterly board of directors meeting at Orchestra Hall: here.
Bertha Olivas of Honduran human rights organization COFADEH presents a report detailing the 1161 human rights abuses committed in the first 17 days of the coup: arbitrary arrests, physical attacks, media repression, and four murders. The woman sitting beside Bertha is the mother of one of the murder victims: 19-year-old Isis Obed Murillo.
The US-backed government of President Porfirio Lobo has used police and military violence in an attempt to quell a teachers’ strike and protests that have continued to escalate over the last month.
Tens of thousands of teachers and their supporters have taken to the streets of Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula and cities and towns throughout Honduras in opposition to a new law—called “Encouraging community participation for the improvement of quality in education”—that decentralizes the country’s public education system with the aim of preparing its privatization. The Lobo government has also repealed the Teachers Statute, wiping out rights won over decades.
The teachers are also demanding back pay for thousands of their members who have gone without salaries for months and are protesting the looting of their pension funds by successive governments.
The state violence employed against these protests has already claimed the life of one prominent teacher activist, Ylse Ivania Velázquez Rodríguez, who was killed on March 18 when police fired a tear gas canister at point-blank range into her head. At least 20 teachers have been imprisoned on “sedition” charges.
On Tuesday morning, the imprisoned teachers were arraigned at the Supreme Court of Justice, which resembled a military camp. Large crowds of teachers together with friends and relatives of the prisoners demonstrated outside the courthouse, demanding their freedom.
Lobo escalated the confrontation on Sunday, declaring the strike illegal and vowing to suspend without pay for six months all teachers who failed to return to the classroom the following morning and to permanently fire those who did not come back to work by April 4. He also claimed the power to outlaw the teachers’ unions for backing the strike.
Teachers representatives vowed to defy the order. “We are out in the streets and we will stay there,” said Jaime Rodriguez, president of the middle school teachers’ union.
Poor farmers are taking more and more land from agribusiness that supported the 2009 military coup, and paying with their lives. Jesse Freeston reports for The Real News Network: here.
Tell Congress: No US Support for Repression in Honduras: here.
Mass firings, wholesale privatization, teargas—this is what the Honduran coup has come to: here.
Honduras Feature: The Suppression of the Teachers: here.
Who’s Killing the Journalists of Honduras? Andrew O’Reilly, Latin American News Dispatch: “The case of Franklin Melendez highlights that these attacks on journalists are not isolated incidents and have carried over into 2011. Along with Melendez’s confrontation, five journalists in March were attacked by police officers while covering protests in the country’s on-going teachers strike…. These murders and attacks have shocked and dismayed the journalism community, as Honduras battles to be the focal point of violence in a region of the world normally dominated by bad news from Mexico”: here.
Roberto Sosa, the most prominent poet in Honduras, died on Monday, May 23. Here is the cover story he wrote for The Progressive in November 2009.
Trade unionists rallied in London on Monday night in support of embattled workers in Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana fighting a bitter battle to keep their collective bargaining rights: here.
USA: In Costa Mesa, California, city maintenance worker Huy Pham jumped to his death shortly after officials announced that they were going ahead with the sacking of nearly half the city workforce: here.
South Carolina legislature plans more cuts to health care and education: here.
Sam Dillon, The New York Times News Service: “School authorities across the nation are warning thousands of teachers that they could lose their jobs in June, raising the possibility that America’s public schools may see the most extensive layoffs of their teaching staffs in decades. Though many of the warnings may not be acted upon – school systems, their budget outlook unclear, routinely overstate their likely layoffs at this time of year – when layoffs do occur, they cause a chaotic annual reshuffling of staff members”: here.
The government estimates that 25 percent of American children will soon be in poverty and 1.5 million children are homeless: here.
Shamus Cooke, Truthout: “Obvious political truths are sometimes smothered by special interests. The cover-up of the Democrats’ national anti-union agenda is possible because to reveal it for the ruse it is would cause enormous disturbances for the Democratic Party, some labor leaders, liberal organizations and, consequently, the larger political system. Here is the short list of states with Democratic governors where labor unions are undergoing severe attacks: Massachusetts, Connecticut, Oregon, California, New York, Illinois, Washington, Hawaii, Minnesota, Maryland and New Hampshire. Other states with Democratic governors are attacking unions to a lesser degree”: here.
Syria’s government had resigned in an effort to counter the wave of protests calling for political reform: here.
This video is called Official Movie on Egypt Revolution 2011 Directed By Saleh Alarabi.
Egypt: CAIRO: Independent students swept the polls in the first free student union elections since ousted president Hosni Mubarak stepped down last month, according to rights activists: here.
On March 26 Tunisia’s Commission for the Achievement of the Objectives of the Revolution and the Democratic Transition was enlarged from 70 to 130 members in a closed-door session: here.
In response to the ongoing nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan, several governments have either announced limitations to their nuclear energy programs or have made gestures toward greater regulation. Germany will scale back the number of plants in operation, Italy has put in place a one-year moratorium delaying plans to restart nuclear production, and Russia, France, and Spain have called for new international regulations on the industry and “stress tests” for existing plants. In most cases these measures are symbolic, aiming to ease popular concern over the possibility of similar catastrophes and shore up the credibility of the nuclear power industry.
Yet the Obama administration, virtually alone among governments of the nuclear-energy producing states, has gone out of its way to insist that no changes will be made outside of vague calls to “learn from” the crisis in Japan.
Guardian: From the archive, 30 March 1979: US nuclear plant leak worst ever: here.
Consequences of Fukushima: German Ports Unsure How to Deal with Contaminated Ships: here.
INDIA: Fukushima Revives Debate Over Nuclear Liability: here.
George Monbiot & Helen Caldicott debate the viability of nuclear energy. WATCH here.
Fukushima update: Recovery efforts stalled, as hotspot concerns grow: here.
