This is a music video of a 1968 song from Catalonia against Spanish dictator Franco.
This is a music video of the 2011 Tunisian version of that song, Amel Mathlouthi-Dima Dima by singer SaRrOuRaby.
Yemen Forces Open Fire, Kill More Than 20 Demonstrators: here.
This video is called Underage bellydancer at centre of latest Berlusconi scandal- Copyright France 24.
From CNN:
Berlusconi‘s coalition suffers defeat in Milan, Naples electionsBy Hada Messia, CNN
May 30, 2011 — Updated 1724 GMT (0124 HKT)
Rome — Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi‘s ruling coalition has suffered a major defeat in local elections in Milan and Naples, with voters backing left-wing candidates in both cities.
Milan’s turn to the left is a powerful setback for Berlusconi. Milan is his hometown and his political stronghold, and it has been led by a center-right mayor for the past two decades
In Milan, official voting results issued Monday by the Italian Interior Ministry gave the left-wing candidate, Giuliano Pisapia, about 55% of the vote over the incumbent mayor and center-right candidate Letizia Moratti, who had nearly 45% in Sunday’s balloting. In Naples the left-wing candidate, Lugi
sic; Luigi
De Magistris, was winning with 65% of the vote against the 34% of the center-right candidate, Gianni Lettieri. Whichever candidate winds up with more than 51% wins becomes the new major.Supporters of leading candidates in both Milan and Naples began celebrating their apparent victories even before the final official voting count was over.
Political analysts have said that these local elections were a referendum on the Italian premier, who has been battling to hold his coalition together over the past six months as he fought various corruption trials, as well as a current trial in which he faces charges of abuse of power and prostitution with an underage teenager. That trial resumes tomorrow in Milan.
The voting was the second round of the process. The shock, many say, came two weeks ago, May 14 and 15, when the first ballot round took place and it became clear that his hometown had been lost or was at serious risk.
The Italian premier was on a two-day visit to Romania on Monday and had not released any comments on the election results, But many of his party members, including a minister, have said that this is a time for reflection.
An editorial in Italian leading newspaper, Corriere della Sera, Monday summed it up:
“The premier has already faced the worst-case scenario. His party looses in Milan and in Naples. A double blow with strong political consequences, both real and of the country’s image. Is he worried? They (his political aides) assure us NO. or at least, no more. ….his mind is already in tomorrow.”
Naples is traditionally Rightist rather than Leftist. Even before Berlusconi entered politics, the monarchists and neo-fascists used to be stronger there than in the rest of Italy. That a Rightist candidate now loses 34% to 65% is a big blow for the Right.
The Italian left is being remade: here.
Bye Bye Bunga-Bunga: Italy Prepares for the Post-Berlusconi Era: here.
This video from the USA says about itself:
Honduras Human Rights Platform Tribute VideoTribue video for recepients of the Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award at the National Press Club 10/13/2010.
From daily The Morning Star in Britain:
Femicide rising rapidly warns charityMonday 30 May 2011
by Our Foreign Desk
Aid charity Oxfam warned today that women are dying in Honduras because of a deadly mixture of gun crime, political instability and the “systematic indifference” of the police.
A report released by Oxfam Honduras and a Honduran NGO, the Tribunal of Women Against Femicide, revealed the number of women being killed in Honduras has spiked dramatically since a right-wing military coup deposed President Manuel Zelaya in July 2009.
In the month after the coup there was a 60 per cent rise in the number of femicides, with the bodies of more than 50 women found in the two largest cities Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula.
Oxfam also accused the new government of Porfirio “Pepe” Lobo, voted in three months after the coup, of inaction and complicity in the growing wave of murders.
Maritza Gallardo of Oxfam Honduras said: “Since the coup in July 2009, we’ve seen a sharp rise in gender-based killings, with many of these crimes simply going unreported.
“We don’t even really know just how many women are being killed because families of victims are afraid to report violence and murders, because they realise the legal system gives impunity to those responsible for the killings.”
A surge in violent crime is also claiming the lives of hundreds of Honduran women as Central America’s notorious Mara gangs extend their power.
“In many cases the women who die are not directly involved in gangs, drug-dealing or commercial sex work.
“In most cases they are the victims of vengeance attacks, carried out to send a message to male family members,” Ms Gallardo added.
“The lives of these women are simply seen as collateral damage as gang violence gets worse.”
See also here.
Naomi Glassman, Council on Hemispheric Affairs: “On May 22nd, Honduran President Porfirio Lobo and former President Manuel Zelaya signed an accord in Cartagena, Colombia providing a path for Zelaya’s return to Honduras from exile, as well as the readmission of Honduras to the Organization of American States (OAS). A May 2nd ruling by the Honduran Supreme Court annulled the criminal charges against Zelaya, thus permitting him to safely return to his country. His main advisor, Rasel Tome, announced that Zelaya is likely to arrive on the weekend of May 28th. Zelaya’s return to Honduras is the principal requirement for Honduras’ readmission to the OAS. Accordingly, OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza has announced that Honduras has already met the necessary conditions for its reentry into the organization”: here.
Honduras: Thousands greet ousted president, repression grows: here.
US Supports Bloody Regime in Honduras. Andrew Kennis, Truthout: “Jose Recinos, Genaro Cuestas and Joel Santamaria were off to an early start to buy some farming materials with some other campesinos. None of them ever arrived at their destination: they were ambushed by a sea of bullets resulting in the deaths of Recinos, Cuestas and Santamaría and severe injuries to three of their companions. Killings such as these are far from unusual in Honduras, which has been described by leading human rights organizations as a country besieged by state-sponsored violence and repression”: here.
Coming to Grips With Feminicide: here.
This video sayas about itself:
At least two dead and dozens hospitalised – protesters in Georgia have found out the hard way why they shouldn’t speak out against their leadership. Police showed little restraint in a crackdown on crowds who’d turned out for what’s been called Georgia’s ‘Day Of Rage’ – demanding that President Saakashvili resign.
From the Civil Georgia site:
‘Dozens Missing’ After Break Up of RallyTbilisi / 28 May.’11 / 11:25
“Whereabouts of several dozen of persons remain unknown” after the protest rally was dispersed by the riot police outside the Parliament shortly after midnight on May 26, Giorgi Tugushi, the Georgian public defender, said on Friday.
Some media reports on May 26 said that there were about fifty persons missing. The Interior Ministry released late on Friday evening list of those, who have been arrested during the break up of the rally. At least ten men from that list were earlier regarded to be missing.
Also from Civil.ge:
The Georgian Public Defender’s Office (PDO) has published on its website on Saturday [a] list of those arrested by the police during the break up of the protest rally outside the Parliament.The list includes names of 162 individuals.
The Georgian Interior Ministry released on May 27 its list of arrested persons, which included 105 names.
The Public Defender’s Office said that the list had been compiled after its monitoring teams visited temporary detention centers throughout Georgia in a period between May 26 and May 28.
Detention centers in Tbilisi, Rustavi, Gardabani, Marneuli, Bolnisi, Kaspi, Mtskheta, Telavi, Signagi, Kvareli, Zestaponi, Samtredia, Bagdati, Ozurgeti, Chokhatauri and Lanchkhuti were monitored, according to PDO.
Most of the list is compiled based on data collected on May 27; information from the detention centers in Kaspi and Mtskheta (total of 17 detainees) are dated with May 26.
“It has been found out as a result of the monitoring, that most of the detainees have more or less serious injuries. Several detainees have injuries of serious degree,” PDO said in a statement.
“Detainees say in a conversation that they have sustained injuries both during the dispersal of the rally and after the arrest,” the Public Defender’s Office said, adding that many of the detainees have refused to give a formal testimony to the representatives of the Public Defender’s Office.
The list, released by PDO, includes the names of at least eight protesters, who previously were among those several dozen of people, who were reported as missing.
An opposition lawmaker was slapped by a ruling party MP in the Parliament chamber, after the former said it was Saakashvili’s “military adventure” that led to August war and subsequently to recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia by Moscow: here.
About this video from Yemen, Scott Lucas writes:
Yemen (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Blaming Al Qa’eda, Killing the ProtestersMonday, May 30, 2011 at 8:49
1040 GMT: Protest in Ibb in southwest Yemen in support of the anti-regime demonstrators in Taiz, who were attacked by security forces early this morning.
Security forces in Yemen have shot dead at least 20 anti-government protesters in the southern city of Taiz, medics said today: here.
Yemeni forces kill 21 protesters at sit-in demonstration: here.
Fighting raises Yemen civil war fears. Truce collapses as forces loyal to president Saleh and opposition tribesmen clash in capital Sanaa: here.
The Eros Effect and the Arab Uprisings: An Interview with George Katsiaficas: here.
This video says about itself:
Berlusconi Prime Minister Of Italy To Stand Trial For Underage Sex with 17 year old.The billionaire 74 year old famous for his Bunga Bunga parties is to stand trial for paying for sex with underage Moroccan girl.
From AFP news agency:
Italian minister quits over Berlusconi whine to ObamaROME: An Italian junior minister said she had quit Saturday in protest at Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s complaint to US President Barack Obama about his legal woes.
Berlusconi, who has a long history of legal troubles and is currently on trial for having sex with an underage prostitute, told a visibly uncomfortable Obama on Thursday there was “a dictatorship of left-wing judges” in Italy. Daniela Melchiorre, a qualified magistrate herself, whose small Liberal Democrat party only recently joined Berlusconi’s centre-right coalition, said “enough is enough.” “It’s unacceptable to descend to such vulgarity and try to discredit a constitutional function to one of the most important authorities on the planet,” she said.
Italian commentators had ridiculed Berlusconi’s antics on the international stage of the G8 summit in France after he walked over to Obama at the start of a roundtable discussion on global issues, put his arm over the US president’s chair and began chatting. “I have had 31 trials against me and I’ve always been acquitted,” Berlusconi told Obama, according to a lip-reading analysis of video footage. Berlusconi has had some initial convictions but many cases against him have expired under a statute of limitations or he has been acquitted on appeal. The 74-year-old premier, who regularly complains he is a victim of plots by a left-wing judiciary, is currently a defendant in three trials in Milan.
French minister resigns after sexual harassment accusation: here.
EGYPTIANS were out Friday for nationwide rallies to protest against the ruling military council’s attempt to halt the revolution, in a call that has exposed political rifts: here.
Demonstrations last Friday in Egypt were among the largest since the revolutionary movement of workers and youth forced out the longtime dictator Hosni Mubarak: here.
A leading rights group says the Egyptian army arrested, tortured and forced women to take “virginity tests” during protests earlier this month: here.
FOR the fourth successive night, tens of thousands of youth and workers congregated in the main square of Athens outside the Vouli (Greek parliament) as part of the growing revolution in many European capitals: here.
Will Greeks Defy Rape and Pillage By Barbarian Bankers? An E-Mail from Athens: here.
This is a video from Madrid, Spain, about Puerta del Sol demonstrators on 21 May.
The occupation of Spain’s main Puerta del Sol Square in Madrid continued over the weekend, and protests are set to carry on next week: here.
“If things carry on like this, there won’t be work for any of us,” say Spain’s indignados: here.
This video is called Mosaic News – 09/28/11: Bahrain and Saudi Arabia Violate Women’s Rights.
This video series is called Western Support of Bahrain Dictator.
From daily News Line in Britain:
Monday, 30 May 2011BRITAIN TRAINS SAUDI SNIPERS
It emerged yesterday that the UK is training Saudi Army troops who are being used to suppress demonstrators against the feudal monarchy in Bahrain, where hundreds have been killed and injured.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has admitted that British military personnel run courses in ‘weapons, fieldcraft and general military skills training, as well as incident handling, bomb disposal, search, public order and sniper training’.
On Friday, Defence Minister Nick Harvey made a written reply in the House of Commons to a question from Plaid Cymru MP Jonathan Edwards.
Edwards asked ‘whether the British Military Mission to the Saudi Arabian National Guard trained any of the Saudi Arabian forces which were deployed in Bahrain; and if he will make a statement.’
Harvey’s written reply was: ‘The Ministry of Defence has extensive and wide-ranging bilateral engagement with Saudi Arabia in support of the Government’s wider foreign policy goals.
‘The Ministry of Defence’s engagement with Saudi Arabia includes training provided to the Saudi Arabian National Guard, delivered through the British mission.
‘It is possible that some members of the Saudi Arabian National Guard which were deployed in Bahrain may have undertaken some training provided by the British military mission.’
On March 30, Harvey had confirmed to the House of Commons that there were 110 British troops stationed in Bahrain.
See also here.
Bahraini female doctors tortured and abused: here.
More Saudi women now driving and posting on youtube. Wow!! I am amazed at the courage: here.
