Journalists condemn NATO bombing of Libyan TV

This is called Video of Tripoli TV damage by NATO airstrikes.

From the International Federation of Journalists:

03 August 2011

IFJ Condemns NATO Bombing at Libyan Television

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today condemned the NATO air strikes against Libyan state television which took place last Saturday in Tripoli, killing three journalists and injured fifteen staff members according to its director of the English service, Khalid Basilia.

According to agency reports, NATO confirmed that it bombed the transmitters without giving any details of casualties, posting on its website that their aim was to degrade Libyan leader Gaddafi’s “use of satellite television as a means to intimidate the Libyan people and incite acts of violence against them.”

“We utterly condemn this action which targeted journalists and threatened their lives in violation of international law. These kinds of actions that use violence to stifle dissident media spell catastrophe for press freedom,” said IFJ General Secretary, Beth Costa.

The IFJ says that the bombing is in contravention of UN Security Council resolution 1738, passed in December 2006, which explicitly condemned such attacks against journalists and media, and clearly established that media equipment and installations constitute civilian objects and are not to be considered target of any type for military reprisals.

The IFJ has continually protested these kinds of attacks since the 1999 NATO bombing in Belgrade of the Serbian broadcaster RTS, which killed 16 people. At the time, NATO said the station was a legitimate military target because it was a “propaganda mouth piece” for the regime of Slobodan Milosevic regime.

The IFJ says there is no justification for the action under international law and calls once again on NATO to refrain from such attacks against media.

“Our concern is that when one side decides to take out a media organisation because they regard its message as propaganda, then all media are at risk,” said Costa. “In conflict situations, international law is clear that unarmed journalists cannot be treated as combatants, irrespective of their political affiliations.”

Nato in Libya has failed to learn costly lessons of Afghanistan: here.

British cutbacks stimulate criminal organ trade

This video says about itself:

Cruel Harvest: Exposed organ trafficking cashed in on poor & prisoners

After years of ignored claims, organ trafficking in Kosovo has finally reached prosecutors. At least seven people have been charged on suspicion of luring poor people to sell their kidneys with false promises of cash. ­The group is said to have targeted poor people from Russia, Kazakhstan, Romania by offering them around $20,000 for coming to Kosovo to have operations performed.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Debt-laden public told to flog organs

Wednesday 03 August 2011

by Louise Nousratpour

Cash-strapped people in Britain were told today that they should be able to sell off their body parts in order to reduce their debts.

Desperate donors would be able to sell a kidney for £28,000 under the plans floated by University of Dundee Professor Sue Rabbit Roff.

It is currently illegal under the Human Tissue Act to buy or sell organs for transplantation in Britain.

But the professor said that legalising the trade could help people pay off student debts.

“It would be an incentive across most income levels for those who wanted to do a kind deed and make enough money to, for instance, pay off university loans,” she said.

Prof Roff suggested the “live donor” plan as a way to boost the supply of vital organs for transplant, though she admitted in passing that this “might exploit poor people.”

But Dr Calum MacKellar of the Scottish Council on Human Bioethics said that the entire plan rested on there being enough people in society desperate for cash.

“To place a financial value on human beings or parts of human beings undermines the inherent dignity of the human person and the innate as well as unmeasurable worth of all individuals,” he said.

British Medical Association ethics expert Dr Tony Calland warned that a cash-for-organs scheme could push people weighed down with debts to ignore the “small but significant” dangers of the procedure.

It “could lead to donors feeling compelled to take these risks, contrary to their better judgement, because of their financial situation,” he said.

And Prof Roff’s proposal was branded “horrific” by National Union of Students president Liam Burns.

“She appears to be suggesting that the sale of body parts is an acceptable consequence of higher tuition fees, but that it would be particularly appropriate for those with less money,” he said.

“Work to increase donors is to be welcomed, but something is very wrong when students are encouraged to sell off body parts to fund their education.

“I hope the government are paying attention to the kinds of things that are being suggested as a consequence of them pushing students towards ever higher debt.”

Meanwhile, in the present economic recession in the USA, women students in desperation about their college education debts, are turning to prostitution to make ends meet.

US’s richest 400 could pay off all the nation’s student loans & still be billionaires: here.

Mexican ancient cat art discovered

This video is called The Olmec – Ancient Mexico.

From National Geographic:

“Spectacular” Three-Cat Monolith Unearthed in Mexico

Giant carving may have been part of a monumental wall crawling with felines

Ker Than

for National Geographic News

Published August 1, 2011

With a little help from archaeologists, three giant cats have slunk into view after spending thousands of years underground in central Mexico.

Carved in a vaguely Olmec style into a stone monolith, the seated jaguars—or possibly mountain lions—may have been part of a decorative hillside wall that was crawling with big-cat carvings, experts suggest.

The circa 700 B.C. carving, dubbed the “Triad of Felines” by archaeologists, was found about 60 miles (a hundred kilometers) south of Mexico City at Chalcatzingo, an archaeological site known to have had ties to the Olmec civilization.

Measuring about 5 feet (1.5 meters) tall and 3.6 feet (1.1 meters) wide, the carving was originally set within a hillside and was designed to be clearly visible from a village below, experts say.

The discovery is only the latest of about 40 large stone carvings found at Chalcatzingo since 1935—many of them depicting cats, said David Grove, an anthropologist at the University of Florida who conducted research at Chalcatzingo for 30 years beginning in the 1970s.

As an example of Olmec-style art, Grove added, “Triad of Felines” is “spectacular.”

Mountain Lions (aka Cougar, Puma, or Florida Panther) are increasingly encountering humans as sprawl encroaches on their once isolated habitat. Click here to get tips on what to do if you encounter one in the wild: here.

Cougar swimming – Photo story: here.

Wildlife smugglers arrested with jaguar skins. September 2011. Two men from Texas Elias Garcia Garcia and Maria Angela Plancarte were arrested as they crossed the border from Mexico into the United States at Brownsville, Texas: here.

Watch a baby jaguar testing out its roar: here.

Secret mammals worldwide caught by camera-traps; photos here. See also here.

Pictures: Maya Royal Tombs Found With Rare Woman Ruler: here.

Hitchcock’s oldest film discovered

This video is called Hitchcock‘s Best Work.

From TV New Zealand:

Lost Hitchcock feature recovered in New Zealand

Published: 3:44PM Wednesday August 03, 2011

Part of what is believed to be the earliest surviving feature by Alfred Hitchcock has been found in New Zealand.

A large part of The White Shadow (1923) by the celebrated master of suspense has been found among a cache of unidentified American nitrate prints safeguarded for the last 23 years by the New Zealand Film Archive.

The wild, atmospheric melodrama stars Betty Compson in a dual role as twin sisters, one angelic and the other “without a soul”. So far, only the first three reels of the six-reel feature have been found; no other copy is known to exist.

The White Shadow was among the many silent-era movies salvaged by New Zealand projectionist and collector Jack Murtagh. After his death in 1989, the highly flammable nitrate prints were sent to the Film Archive for safekeeping by Tony Osborne, the collector’s grandson.

The Hitchcock film is just one of the treasures uncovered, including John Ford’s Upstream, which owe their survival to Murtagh’s passion for early cinema.

Osborne said his grandfather was an avid collector and some considered him rather eccentric.

“He would be quietly amused by all the attention now generated by these important film discoveries.”

Douglas Sirk: here.

Egyptian, Tunisian dictators on trial

This video is called Murals for Martyrs – Street Art of the Egyptian Revolution.

From Amnesty International:

North Africa: Accountability in Tunisia and Egypt

2 August 2011

Eight months after popular uprisings ousted the long-ruling presidents of Tunisia and Egypt, both former leaders are being held to account in criminal trials. Egypt‘s former President, Hosni Mubarak, is due to appear in court on 3 August in Cairo to answer charges ranging from murder, arising from police shootings of anti-government demonstrators, to corruption and profiteering. Meanwhile, a court in Tunis has tried and convicted former Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of corruption and other offences – he was prosecuted in absentia after fleeing to Saudi Arabia.

Egypt’s Mubaraks trial adjourns to August 15 as nation watches: here.

In Egypt, the trial of former President Hosni Mubarak has been adjourned until August 15. On Wednesday, Mubarak appeared in court for the first time, along with his two sons, Gamal and Alaa. He was brought into the Cairo courtroom on a hospital stretcher. Mubarak denied all the charges against him, which include profiteering, illegal business-dealing involving Israeli gas exports and the unlawful killing of protesters during the revolution. Democracy Now! correspondent Sharif Abdel Kouddous was outside the courtroom where crowds had gathered to watch, many expressing relief that justice could be served for the victims of the revolution: here.

So the Egyptians may get some justice. In contrast to Americans, who will never see George W. Bush tried for torture and other violations of US and international law: here.

About this video, daily The Guardian in England says:

As Egypt’s former president, Hosni Mubarak, goes on trial accused of unlawfully killing pro-democracy protesters, Dr Muhammad Sharaf offers medical treatment and support to people injured in the struggle for democracy earlier this year. The state is currently ill-equipped to offer injured campaigners the help they need.

Dr Sharaf is the founder of Heroes of 25 January Revolution, a charity dedicated to supporting injured survivors of the Egyptian revolution.

Witness to the Egypt Revolution, in pictures: here.

Egypt: State controlled trade union dissolved: here.

Egypt: The city, the workers and the labour strikes that first took on Mubarak: here.

An Egyptian citizen who was deported from Sweden to Egypt by the CIA in 2001 and tortured there has been released from prison, Egyptian security officials reported today: here.

Bahrain: Imprisoned activists on hunger strike: here.

Jordan’s Assault on Free Speech: here.

After The Revolution, Arab Women Seek More Rights: here.

Israeli workers strike against government

By Jean Shaoul:

Israeli protest movement sparks mass strikes

3 August 2011

More than 100,000 Israeli municipal workers took action on Monday in a show of solidarity with the nationwide tent city protests against the exorbitant cost of housing. Local government offices were closed, streets were not cleaned and garbage was not collected.

Dairy farmers, right-wing activists join Israel housing protest: here.

Israeli protesters reject new housing bill. Social movement, angered by parliament’s passage of “reforms”, vows to continue mass demonstrations across the nation: here.