Greek pro-poverty coalition loses, Leftists, nazis win

This video says about itself:

Striking Greek workers have brought the Athens metro to a standstill and kept ferries docked in protest against austerity measures, as the country’s lenders visited the capital to try to avert a debt default.

Al Jazeera’s Andrew Simmons reports from Athens.

From Keep Talking Greece blog:

tagged: exit polls, Greece, Greek elections 2012, live blogging from Athens

Greek Elections 2012: EXIT POLLS

Greeks decided! To give a big slap in the face of the Greek political system. EXIT POLLS announced just a couple of minutes ago show historical low rates for Nea Dimocratia and PASOK, and high rates for left SYRIZA, right/nationalist INDEPENDENT GREEKS and extreme-right CHRYSI AVGI.

According to pollster Nikolakoulos (MEGA TV) seven parties enter the Greek parliament, while two more (LAOS, Eco-Greens) struggle to pass the 3% threshold.

LAOS is a xenophobic extreme Right party, comparable to Geert Wilders’ PVV in the Netherlands, which was part of the austerity coalition until recently. Presumable, most of their votes have deserted them for the openly Hitlerite nazi Golden Dawn (Chrysi Avgi) party.

The most crucial issues of these elections are 1) the percentage of the winner 2) the difference to the second party 3) whether the pro or contra loan agreement (Memorandum of Understanding) front will prevail.

Exit Polls only ‘describe’ the elections outcome. They are conducted with randomly asked voters after they have voted and exited the polling centres. First official results are expected after 09:00-09:30 pm.

LIVE -BLOGGING

07:01 pm

EXIT POLLS (source: MEGAT TV)

Nea Dimocratia (Conservative/Samaras): 17-20 %

PASOK (Socialists/ Venizelos): 14-17 %

SYRIZA (Left-wing/Tsipras): 15.5-18.5 %

KKE (Communists/Papariga): 7.5-9.5 %

Democratic Left (left/Kouvelis): 4.5-6.5 %

Independent Greeks (right/Kammenos): 10-12 %

LAOS (right/Karatzaferis): struggling for 3%

Chrysi Avgi (extreme-right/Michaloliakos): 6-8%

Eco-Greens: struggling for 3%

Democratic Alliance (liberal/Bakoyanni) 2.5%

Other (Parties with less than 2%): %

Scenarios about the next Greek coalition government are running high – even though the political results (final rates and seats allocation are still due). what could be the next Greek government? A coalition of ND-PASOK- SYRIZA-INDEP GREEKS?

07:30 pm

There can be only very wild guess about the seats distributions based on exit polls

ND Samaras dropped the idea of calling new elections – Once he is assigned tomorrow, he will start immediately exploratory talks to form a coalition government (Mega TV)

Read our article about the procedures and time schedule to form a government if no party wins absolute majority.

07:37 PM

Venizelos (PASOK) banned party officials from mass media appearences until the first political results are released by the Interior Ministry.

07:41 pm

4 October 2009 results: PASOK 43.92% – ND 33.48% – KKE 7.54% – LAOS 5.63% -SYRIZA 4.60%

based on exit polls, PASOK lost voters mainly to SYRIZA; ND and LAOS lost voters mainly to INDEP GREEKS & CHRYSI AVGI

07:49 pm

ND and PASOK voters (of 2009) considered SYRIZA proposal for a coalition government of the Greek left as realistic (mega tv)

07:53 pm

France exit polls show Hollande winner with 53% .

07:55 pm

Almost 55% of the voters chose anti-memorandum (loan-agreement) parties, 36.4% chose pro memorandum (ALCO Exit Poll)

08:05 pm

Parliament Seats (300) Distribution according to exit polls by PUBLIC ISSUE

ND 108-120 (incl 50 seats bonus)

SYRIZA 40-51

PASOK 37-48

KKE 21-30

INDEP GREEKS 20-28

DEMLEFT 17-26

CHRYSIAVGI 14-23

Eco-Greens 0-11

LAOS 0-8

DEMALL 0-8

08:15 pm

Mega TV pollster confirmed ND first party at 90%, SYRIZA second, PASOK third….

ND may win one percent and get 18-21%.

currently 3 parties at 3% threshold (LAOS, ECO-Greens, DEMALL)

08:23 pm

Samaras ND to propose a 20-points coalition government plan to …PASOK (Mega TV). Although it looks it will be 3rd party!

08:27 pm

Many Greeks worry about extremist Chrysi Avgi entering the Palriament. Blame pro-memorandum PASOK/ND for failing to have addressed the illegal immigrants and crime issues.

The real problem is that they helped the nazis by treating refugees like criminals, and opening a concentration camp.

08:32 pm

Greek Interior Ministry started to post official results:

SYRIZA comes first in Athens A’ and B’ area, Nea Dimocratia in the country side.

08:39 pm

Adjustment of Exit Polls with first real results (source: Mega TV):

ND 19-20.5% SYRIZA 15.5-17% PASOK 13-14%

INDEPGREEKS 10-11% KKE 8-9.5% DEMLEFT 5.5-6.5%

CHRYSIAVGI 6.5-7.5%

LAOS, ECO-GREENS, DEMALL at 3%

Sarkozy, bye bye!

This music video is called BYE BYE NICOLAS SARKOZY.

The polling stations in France are closed now.

According to French daily Le Monde tonight, French Rightist President Nicolas Sarkozy lost today’s presidential elections.

François Hollande, the Socialist party candidate, had 51,9% of the exit poll votes, and is the new president.

Good riddance to bad rubbish. One may hope that for once in his life, Sarkozy will keep a promise and get out of all politics.

British massacre in Malaysia investigated

This video is called Justice sought over Malaysia massacre – 02 July 09.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Massacre relatives in inquiry bid

Sunday 06 May 2012

Relatives of unarmed Malaysian rubber plantation workers slaughtered by British troops in 1948 will make a High Court bid for a public inquiry into the killings this week.

The government’s refusal to hold a formal investigation into the Batang Kali massacre will be challenged during a two-day judicial review hearing.

Family members of the victims will ask the court to quash the government’s 2010 decision against holding an inquiry.

The massacre occurred on December 12 1948 while British troops were trying to put down the Communist insurgency known as the Malayan Emergency.

Successive British governments have covered up the massacre of 24 unarmed Malaysian rubber plantation workers by British troops in 1948, a lawyer representing relatives of the victims claimed on Monday: here.

Campaigners calling for an official investigation into the massacre of 24 Malaysian rubber plantation workers by British troops more than 60 years ago lost a High Court fight today: here.

This week the relatives of those mudered in a massacre by British troops in colonial Malaya lost their High Court battle to force the British government to hold an inquiry into the killings: here.

Japanese celebrate nuclear switch-off

This video is called 15,000 person anti-nuclear protest in Fukuoka City, Japan on 11-13-2011.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Japan goes no-nuclear… For now

Sunday 06 May 2012

Thousands of anti-nuclear protesters staged marches and rallies in Tokyo today to celebrate as the last of the country’s nuclear reactors was switched off.

The Tomari plant on the northern island of Hokkaido went offline for routine maintenance and is not due to close permanently, but activists said the switch-off meant Japan was not using any electricity generated by nuclear power for the first time in 40 years.

Campaigner Masashi Ishikawa said: “Today is a historic day. There are so many nuclear plants, but not a single one will be up and running today and that is because of our efforts.”

See also here.

The Worst Yet to Come? Why Nuclear Experts Are Calling Fukushima a Ticking Time-Bomb: here.

A nuclear power plant in California had to be closed down after an invasion of jellyfish-like marine organisms called salp: here.

British oil beetle re-discovery

This video from Britain is called Wild Life Skills #9 – Oil beetles.

From Wildlife Extra:

Oil beetles rediscovered in Lincolnshire after 28 years

Oil beetle survey bears fruit

May 2012. For the first time in at least 28 years, an oil beetle has been seen in Lincolnshire. Wildlife charity, Buglife – The Invertebrate Conservation Trust received notification of the sighting as part of their National oil beetle hunt.

Historically, two species of oil beetle have been recorded in Lincolnshire; the Black oil beetle (Meloe proscarabaeus) and the Violet oil beetle (Meloe violaceus), although the last time a Black oil beetle was recorded in Lincolnshire was in 1984 and the Violet oil beetle has not been seen in the County since 1900.

2011 national oil beetle survey

The records generated by Buglife’s 2011 national oil beetle survey and historic data, collated by the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, showed that all of the four British species of oil beetle are in decline. These declines were greatest in the east of England, making the new Lincolnshire record a significant discovery.

Buglife Oil Beetle Project Officer, Anne Halpin, said: “Oil beetles have suffered in recent years from the loss of wildflower rich habitats and the decline in wild bee populations, upon which these beetles depend. Every record is valuable but we are particularly excited that oil beetles have been found in Lincolnshire as we can remove the county from our list of places where oil beetles have gone extinct.”

4 species extinct in UK

Of the eight species of oil beetle recorded in the UK, half are already thought to have gone extinct. Although the Black oil beetle is one of the more widespread species, its decline in recent years is significant and work still needs to be done to protect the flower rich habitats on which this species depends.

Visit the Buglife website www.buglife.org.uk for a free identification guide, more information about these brilliant beetles and to report sightings and photographs.

Ecuador, Brazil WikiLeaks news

This video is called Ecuador, Life at its Purest!-Amazonia & Galapagos.

From WikiLeaks News:

Diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks show that the U.S. Government had plans to conspire with the current Bank of Guayaquil president Guillermo Lasso to destabilize the Ecuadorian Government under President Rafael Correa.

U.S. diplomats are wary of Brazil‘s rising influence, according to diplomatic cables, with Brazil seeing itself as “the natural leader of Latin America.” Emails from Stratfor show similar feelings within the company, commenting that Brazil’s relationships with South American countries “must be watched very carefully.”

Kakapo parrots on New Zealand island

This video is called Kakapo – New Zealand.

From Wildlife Extra:

8th kakapo released onto Auckland island

After three weeks of medication at Auckland Zoo, kakapo moves to Little Barrier Island

May 2012. Rakiura, a 10 year-old female kakapo, who has spent the last 19 days at Auckland Zoo, is on her way to join seven other kakapo on Little Barrier Island (Hauturu).

8 kakapo moved from South Island

Rakiura was captured on Whenua Hou/Codfish Island, near Stewart Island, on Saturday April 18 along with five other kakapo. Two more kakapo were captured on the same day on Anchor Island in Fiordland. All eight of the flightless native parrots were then taken by helicopter to Invercargill airport, where they were placed on an Air New Zealand domestic flights to Christchurch, then Auckland. Rakiura was meant to be freed with the others that day, but an infection meant she was taken to Auckland Zoo for treatment instead.

Now, the healthy Rakiura is joining the seven other kakapo who were released on Little Barrier on April 18. She’s being driven to Warkworth and then flown by helicopter to the island.

Kakapo on Little Barrier Island

Kakapo have been released on Little Barrier to see if they can successfully raise chicks there without aid. Their progress will be closely monitored and support will be provided, if it’s required, to keep the birds alive. Kakapo were living on Little Barrier from 1982 to 1999. They were removed when kiore (Pacific rats) were eradicated from the island. Four of the kakapo released on April 18 had lived on Litte Barrier before: Ox and Merty (male) and Flossie and Heather (female).

Rakiura is Flossie’s daughter and has never lived on Little Barrier before. The other kakapo new to the island are Tiwai (15), Doc (10), both males, and Hananui (10) a female.

Stewart Island: here. And here.

September 2012. Kakapo Recovery was dealt a disappointing blow in August with the discovery of another dead bird – the sixth during the past year. Barnard was found dead by kakapo rangers on Whenua Hou/Codfish Island when they went looking for him for his annual transmitter change: here.

Kaka parrots: here.

Bahrain documentary film controversy

This video is the documentary: Bahrain: Shouting in the dark.

From weekly The Observer in Britain:

Radio Times poll provokes online battle for Baftas

Fierce opposition to al-Jazeera‘s Bahrain documentary generates a million votes

Vanessa Thorpe

Sunday 6 May 2012

This year’s Bafta award for the best current affairs television programme, to be awarded later this month, has provoked an international struggle to undermine the content of at least one of the four powerful documentaries on the shortlist – a film about the uprising in Bahrain last spring.

A fortnight ago the Radio Times magazine launched an online poll to allow readers to vote for their favourite Bafta nominees. There are no prizes on offer, but the current affairs category has now registered an incredible one million votes, even though participants will not decide the final outcome. While fans of Benedict Cumberbatch’s portrayal of Sherlock Holmes or of Dominic West’s role as Fred West have together clocked up only 4,000 votes in the best leading actor poll, more than half a million voters across the world have backed the film Shouting in the Dark, made in Bahrain by journalist May Ying Welsh for al-Jazeera. Another half a million have voted for Channel 4’s film Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields, fronted by Jon Snow.

Welsh’s film, which was shot undercover over three months, went out on al-Jazeera’s English-speaking channel last summer and provoked outrage among officials in Bahrain. They claimed it painted an unfair picture of police brutality during the uprising and played down the involvement of Iranian-backed subversives among the crowds. But since then the controversial film has won a Royal Television Society nomination, a UK Foreign Press Association award and a series of prestigious US prizes.

The fight for the top spot in an innocuous British magazine poll first became part of an international public relations war last weekend, soon after Khalid al-Khalifa, Bahrain’s foreign minister and a member of the ruling family, tweeted a call for his 80,000 Twitter followers to cast a vote for any one of the other nominees in the Radio Times poll.

“I invite everyone to stand with Bahrain and vote against the harmful al-Jazeera film,” he wrote. The tweet caused a Twitter storm of support from the Middle East for the Sri Lankan film. One user called Jaguar wrote: “Oh noble people of the Gulf, vote for Sri Lanka and prevent the Shia infidels from defaming Bahrain.” Another typical tweet came from Ahmed, who wrote: “Everyone vote more than once for the film Sri Lanka in order to make al-Jazeera’s film which harms Bahrain fail to win.”

In response, others began to urge support for Welsh’s documentary. A tweet from Nuwaidrat read: “Urgent – by the time you finish reading this line the thugs will have turned the tables on us – vote for the film Shouting in the Dark.” Another, from a user called Allah Gifted us with Martyrdom, wrote: “Please intensify voting efforts for al-Jazeera’s film Bahrain Shouting in the Dark which uncovers part of the truth about the situation in Bahrain.”

RadioTimes.com acting editor Tim Glanfield said: “For a British entertainment website to become a battleground between Bahrain government loyalists and its opponents has been an unexpected and extraordinary turn of events.”

Al-Jazeera staff commented on the voting patterns in an article for the Radio Times site and drew attention to the abusive nature of some tweets, many of which urged supporters of the Baharaini authorities to vote more than once.

“For several days, thousands of Arabic language tweets – at peak hours several tweets a second – have been pouring out of Bahrain and the Gulf in a steady stream, many of them filled with religious epithets and hate speech,” said the article.

After the al-Jazeera response went up on the site there was a brief hiatus in the flow of votes for the Sri Lankan film, which the commissioning team on the Arabic channel agree is a brilliant and worthy competitor.

Because of its “distressing images”, Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields went out in a late night slot and showed what Channel 4 said appeared to be “extrajudicial executions filmed by Sri Lankan soldiers as war trophies on their phones; the aftermath of shelling in civilian camps and hospitals alleged to have been deliberately targeted by Sri Lankan government forces; dead female Tamil fighters who appear to have been systematically raped; and pictures which document Tamil fighters alive in the custody of Sri Lankan government forces and then later dead, apparently having been executed.”

The film, directed by Callum Macrae, also recognised atrocities alleged to have been carried out by the Tamil Tigers.