British soldiers’ murder of Iraqi civilian

This video is called UK troops slammed over Iraqi’s death in custody.

By Paddy McGuffin in Britain:

Mousa death doctor faces GMC probe

Wednesday 06 June 2012

An army medic is to face a General Medical Concil hearing next week for his role in the 2003 death of Iraqi hotelier Baha Mousa.

Dr Derek Keilloh is to face a six week General Medical Council fitness to practice panel beginning on June 11.

Baha Mousa died on September 15 2003 after three days of abuse at the hands of members of the of 1st Queen’s Lancashire Regiment based at Battle Group Main, close to Basra.

Post-mortem results showed that he had sustained 93 different external injuries including “multiple bruises and grazes situated on the head, neck and torso and the upper and lower limbs.”

The inquiry into his death, presided over by Sir William Gage, found that he had died following an “appalling episode of violence.”

Dr Keilloh was the regimental medical officer at Battle Group Main and was responsible for the welfare of Mr Mousa and the other Iraqi civilians detained with him.

The medic, from Aberdeen, faces a misconduct hearing over allegations that he failed to ensure written records were made of medical examinations of civilian detainees.

Dr Keilloh faces allegations of failing to conduct an adequate examination of the body after death and failing to notify a superior officer of the circumstances of the death.

Two other cases of not recording injuries, and therefore failing to safeguard the physical condition of detainees, will also be considered.

It is also alleged that on September 17 2003 Dr Keilloh made untrue witness statements regarding injuries to the three detainees and maintained these accounts in interview under caution, in evidence at a court martial and subsequently at the Baha Mousa inquiry.

Phil Shiner, solicitor at Public Interest Lawyers – who act for Baha Mousa‘s father Colonel Daoud Mousa – said: “I was shocked when I heard this doctor’s evidence. He had no regard at all for Baha Mousa‘s wellbeing.

“If the GMC conclude that he is fit to practice, in the light of this most compelling of evidence against him, I will eat my copy of the three volumes of Sir William Gage’s report.”

See also here.

The US Senate foreign relations committee said today that it is planning a continuing military presence of 13,500 troops in Kuwait even after the projected withdrawal from Iraq: here.
UPDATE: here.

Afghan air raid survivors demand NATO out

This video from the USA says about itself:

Chicago Afghan Wedding Party Protest

Wedding parties and other celebratory gatherings in Afghanistan are often bombed by US air-strikes and drones. This is intolerable and unacceptable – and must be halted, not escalated. The richest country on earth is destroying one of the poorest! Join us in protesting the surge of troops in Afghanistan and calling for an end to these wars of aggression.

From daily The Morning Star in England:

Afghan villagers demand troops out after 17 killed in US air strike

Wednesday 06 June 2012

Afghan villagers protested against US-led occupation forces in Pul-i-Alam, Logar province, on Wednesday after a Nato predawn air strike killed at least 17 people.

Afghan authorities say the bombing raid hit a house in the district of Baraki Barak. Western journalists at the scene reported seeing the bodies of five women, seven children and six men.

Locals drove the bodies to Pul-i-Alam and staged a rally demanding the withdrawal of all foreign military forces.

Nato released a statement confirming a pre-dawn operation aimed at the capture of a Taliban leader in Logar. It said it has received no reports of civilian casualties but that Nato forces had “requested a precision air strike.”

The Western military alliance issued a separate statement which said that two Nato soldiers died yesterday in a helicopter crash in the east.

It did not reveal the exact location of the incident or the nationality of the victims.

See also, with video, here. See also here. And here.

According to Austrian daily Der Standard, the air strike killed 18, not 17, people.

So says German (Rightist) daily Bild, writing that the air strike probably hit a wedding party. Again and again. It is lethal to have a wedding party in Afghanistan.

Thatcherism in Greece threatens health

This video is called Greek jobs crisis hurts child health.

From daily The Morning Star in England:

Medicine gets too pricey for Greece’s ill

Wednesday 06 June 2012

by Our Foreign Desk

Greece‘s diabetes association warned on Tuesday that thousands of lives are at risk after pharmacies cut credit to state health insurer EOPYY, leaving many unable to pay for medication.

The pharmacists complain that EOPPY has failed to pay them more than €750 million (£600m) for selling medication at a subsidised rate, adding to debts of €250m (£200m) from last year.

A series of meetings between government officials and pharmacists have failed to resolve a two-week stand-off.

The credit freeze means that members of the EOPYY fund – more than nine million of the country’s 11 million people – must now pay the full cost of their medication, which the fund normally subsidises by an average 75 per cent.

“Everyone involved in the dispute must realise that the true victims are those who suffer on a daily basis, as their life depends on taking their medication,” Greece’s diabetics federation said.

It emphasised that the fight over medicine bills is placing its members’ life in danger.

Pharmacists – who complain that the government refuses to offset EOPYY’s debts against their tax dues – cut off credit to the fund last month.

Health ministry officials on Monday struck a deal with pharmaceutical companies to continue supplying cancer patients with subsidised life-saving medication, through hospitals and a tiny number of pharmacies run by EOPYY.

The economic crisis is leading to shortages in vital drugs.

Head of the pharmacies’ association in the Attica region Kostas Lourantos warned: “Pharmaceutical companies are no longer interested in selling to Greece where hospitals and pharmacies are in debt.”

Anti-African violence in Jerusalem

This video from Israel says about itself:

After the Israeli government announces plans to deport all people originally from South Sudan, the community holds a protest in Tel Aviv, pleading that they be allowed to stay until the situation improves there.

Israel Opens Doors to Push South Sudanese Out: here.

By Tom Mellen:

African migrants’ flats firebombed

Tuesday 05 June 2012

Suspected right-wing extremists set fire to a block of flats housing African migrant workers in Jerusalem yesterday, a day after PM Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the “swift deportation” of 25,000 undocumented migrants.

No-one was killed in the arson attack on the building on Jaffa road, but four of the 10 Eritrean people who lived there suffered burns and smoke inhalation. The attackers daubed “Get out of the neighbourhood” on a wall.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement condemning the attack. “There is no justification for such a heinous crime that endangers people’s lives,” it said.

Migrants in Tel Aviv have been targeted by a series of fire bomb attacks in recent weeks but yesterday’s assault was the first in Jerusalem.

The right has sought to shift mounting public anger over deteriorating welfare services and the rising cost of living in Israel onto the estimated 60,000 African people who are believed to have illegally entered Israel over the last few years.

Addressing a large far-right rally in Tel Aviv a fortnight ago, Likud MP Miri Regev said: “The Sudanese are a cancer in our body.

“We will do everything to send them back where they came from.”

The crowd responded by chanting: “The people want to expel the Sudanese.” They then went on a rampage in which African-owned shops were vandalised and looted and Sudanese bystanders beaten up.

Mr Netanyahu criticised the violence. But on Sunday he sought to appease the mob by ordering the “swift deportation” of 25,000 so-called illegal immigrants.

Addressing his cabinet, Mr Netanyahu conceded that Israel cannot deport Eritrean and Sudanese people who have escaped persecution in their home countries because Israel is a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention.

He said his government will accelerate construction of a detention camp to house 10,000 undocumented migrants in the Negev desert.

Sunday also saw a law go into effect that empowers Israeli authorities to jail undocumented migrants for up to three years.

Just two of the 1,500 requests for asylum registered with the Israeli government between 2009 and 2011 were accepted.

Ethiopian Israelis slam attacks against migrants: here.

SOUTH SUDAN: Maternal morality: The biggest threat to a woman’s life: here.

UN: The refugee agency warned today that health problems tied to poor weather and lack of sanitation are acute among 170,000 refugees living in camps in South Sudan: here.

Planned Israeli Detention Camps for Africans Draw Human Rights Protests: here.

Saturday, June 9 2012|Yuval Ben-Ami. Why was the police violent with me at Tel Aviv gay pride? Here.

Abu Dhabi dugong research

This video is called The Dugongs of Abu Dhabi.

From Wildlife Extra:

4 dugong fitted with Satellite tags off Abu Dhabi

EAD successfully satellite tags four dugongs in Abu Dhabi waters

May 2012: Scientists at the Abu Dhabi Environment Agency (EAD) are now actively tracking the movement and habitat use of 4 Dugongs after successfully tagging them with satellite transmitters off the UAE’s Marine Protected Area of Al Yasat Island and Marawah Marine Biosphere Reserve. The tagging was part of an overall effort to better understand dugong migration and movement patterns in Abu Dhabi waters.

These two sites were selected in particular for their close proximity to the Qatar border, in order to better understand dugong migration within the Arabian Gulf and to gain vital information that will enhance regional cooperation on the conservation of dugongs.

The data collected will also help EAD inform and guide the Government of Abu Dhabi in its efforts to set the environmental regulatory and policy framework needed to continue protecting both the local population of this globally endangered species and the fragile marine ecosystem which surrounds the Emirate’s coastline.

Dugong Conservation Programme

… The information collected over the past 13 years has helped EAD to understand dugong behaviour and has contributed to the establishment of the Marawah Marine Biosphere Reserve and Al Yasat Marine Protected Area in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.

Traveling 6-9 Kms per day

The tagging of the dugongs was undertaken in collaboration with Charles Darwin University, Australia, one of the world’s leading institutions in the field of dugong research. Data received so far from the satellites are being analysed by EAD. The dugongs are foraging within a radius of 10 to 15 km from the site they were captured and released. The average distance travelled by the dugongs per day was calculated to be between 6.2 and 8.8 km.

Skin samples

“We tracked the dugongs by helicopter and then signalled to our team, who were in the water on a small inflatable boat and two support boats. When the dugongs swam up to the surface in shallow water, our team dove in to capture the dugong and attached a transmitter on the tail of each of the animals. They also measured each dugong and safely took a small skin sample for DNA testing before releasing each of them back into the water,” said Thabit Al Abdessalaam, Executive Director, Terrestrial and Marine Biodiversity Sector, EAD.

“The results from this study will help us better understand their migration patterns across borders with neighbouring countries and will further facilitate and enhance existing regional cooperation in the conservation,” he added.

Densest population of dugongs in the world

Sometimes known as a ‘sea cow,’ this air-breathing mammal is highly adapted to life in the sea, spending much of its time grazing on sea grass which is found at the bottom of the sea. Abu Dhabi’s Bu Tinah Island is home to the densest population of dugongs in the world. Here, and in other parts of Abu Dhabi waters it occurs, this species continues to flourish in an environment which is not under threat.

However, due to its slow movement, large size and dependence on coastal habitats, the dugong is still vulnerable to human impacts. Globally, the dugong is considered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to be ‘vulnerable to extinction.’ This gentle herbivorous creature is facing extinction around the world due to increased human maritime activity – from targeted and incidental harvesting, the community’s careless disposal of trash, to accidents from boat traffic, and even dredging activity. Additionally, their dependence on seagrass found in coastal habitats further increases their vulnerability due to loss of seagrass habitat as a result of human activity.

British earthworms video

This video from Britain says about itself:

The Amazing World Of Earthworms In The UK – Springwatch – BBC Two

Emma Sherlock, the curator of free-living worms at the Natural History Museum London, introduces us to the recyclers of the planet, the earthworms, and explains why they’re important.

South Korean state creationism

This video from the USA says about itself:

We hear the same Creationist arguments SO OFTEN, we decided to assemble our 10 favorites and address them here. Feel free to use this video as a response to the Creationists in your circle.

The present hardline Right government in South Korea is not very good for science.

From Nature:

South Korea surrenders to creationist demands

Publishers set to remove examples of evolution from high-school textbooks.

Soo Bin Park

05 June 2012

Seoul

Mention creationism, and many scientists think of the United States, where efforts to limit the teaching of evolution have made headway in a couple of states. But the successes are modest compared with those in South Korea, where the anti-evolution sentiment seems to be winning its battle with mainstream science.

A petition to remove references to evolution from high-school textbooks claimed victory last month after the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST) revealed that many of the publishers would produce revised editions that exclude examples of the evolution of the horse or of avian ancestor Archaeopteryx. The move has alarmed biologists, who say that they were not consulted. “The ministry just sent the petition out to the publishing companies and let them judge,” says Dayk Jang, an evolutionary scientist at Seoul National University.

The campaign was led by the Society for Textbook Revise (STR), which aims to delete the “error” of evolution from textbooks to “correct” students’ views of the world, according to the society’s website. The society says that its members include professors of biology and high-school science teachers.

The STR is also campaigning to remove content about “the evolution of humans” and “the adaptation of finch beaks based on habitat and mode of sustenance”, a reference to one of the most famous observations in Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. To back its campaign, the group highlights recent discoveries that Archaeopteryx is one of many feathered dinosaurs, and not necessarily an ancestor of all birds. Exploiting such debates over the lineage of species “is a typical strategy of creation scientists

rather: pseudo-scientists

to attack the teaching of evolution itself”, says Joonghwan Jeon, an evolutionary psychologist at Kyung Hee University in Yongin.

…

In a 2009 survey conducted for the South Korean documentary The Era of God and Darwin, almost one-third of the respondents didn’t believe in evolution. Of those, 41% said that there was insufficient scientific evidence to support it; 39% said that it contradicted their religious beliefs; and 17% did not understand the theory. The numbers approach those in the United States, where a survey by the research firm Gallup has shown that around 40% of Americans do not believe that humans evolved from less advanced forms of life.

Related articles

• Creationist fifth grade science textbook used in Louisiana public school (boingboing.net)
• Creationist Wisdom #288: Religious Dogma (sensuouscurmudgeon.wordpress.com)
• Evolution key to free school deal (bbc.co.uk)
• Demographic Shifts Redefine What It Means to Be Korean (nytimes.com)
• Edis on Among the Creationists [EvolutionBlog] (scienceblogs.com)

Dinosaurs weighed less than previously thought

This video is called Types of Dinosaurs : Brachiosaurus Dinosaur Facts.

By Jennifer Viegas:

Dinosaurs Skinnier Than Previously Thought

The discovery may change the way we imagine and depict dinosaurs.

THE GIST

A new method for measuring the weight and size of dinosaurs has found that these animals weighed less than previously estimated.

A huge Brachiosaur, once thought to weigh 176,370 pounds, is now believed to have weighed 50,706 pounds.

The researchers believe all dinosaurs were lighter than once believed.

Dinosaurs were often hefty, but not as plump as previously thought.

A new study describes a new technique used to measure the weight and size of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals. It could forever change museum exhibits, book illustrations, and other recreations of these now-extinct species. The study appears in the latest issue of Biology Letters.

“This is a huge help for any sort of reconstruction,” lead author William Sellers told Discovery News. “We now have a number that suggests how much flesh to add to the bones and that should help people produce animals that are the right balance of too fat or too thin.”

See also here. And here.

Good Belgian tree frog news

This video is about European tree frogs in Poland.

Translated from Knack weekly in Belgium:

The endangered tree frog is doing quite well now in Flanders. This spring, a record number of 1,250 calling males were counted. This says Hyla, the reptile and amphibian group of [conservation organization] Natuurpunt. The number of calling males has increased tenfold in ten years.

Tony Blair, dictators’ buddy and war criminal

This video from Britain says about itself:

More Lies – Torture & The Special Relationship

This video contains clips highlighting the denials made by the British Government concerning the use of UK territory in CIA rendition “torture” flights.

By Emanuel Stoakes in Britain:

While celebrating Taylor [ex-president of Liberia]’s acquaintance with The Hague and his well-deserved punishment, Mahony referred to his conviction as “an aberration, the exception that proves the rule” about the workings of institutionalised global justice, given that “International courts are unable to exercise jurisdiction over many of the most powerful criminals” in the world.

Pointing to a pertinent example, he referred to statements made by David M Crane, the American lead prosecutor at the Special Court for Sierra Leone, which indicted Taylor and intended to seek the prosecution of Muammar Gaddafi, a man considered by Crane to be “the centre point” of a “long-term criminal conspiracy” that ultimately led to the killing of tens of thousands of people during the civil war.

In an important piece produced by The Times last year journalist Soraya Kishtwari wrote that Professor Crane explained to her that “indicting Gaddafi would have been the “death knell” for the courts as the countries objecting would have pulled funding … Asked why he believed there was opposition from the international community to act on the evidence he had uncovered, he said: “Welcome to the world of oil.”

This brings us back, aptly, to Tony, 2012. It was during Blair’s rapprochement with Gaddafi that this alleged prevention of justice occurred. The “deal in the desert” now seems like typical Blairism: questionable “good intentions” mixed with Realpolitik. As a result a weapons program was defenestrated by Gaddafi, who nonetheless continued [to] mistreat his own people. Britain’s entry into Libya lent false respectability to the regime of Muammar the “Mad Dog” and Libyan cash peregrinated in the direction of BP and the London School of Economics. Our credibly alleged role in “extraordinary rendition” followed hard after.

For the greater “good”, no doubt, Blair also unctuously sidled up to Egypt’s great oppressor Hosni Mubarak, whom he described not long ago as an “immensely courageous” man and a “force for good”. Mubarak was last week effectively sentenced to life in prison for multiple crimes committed against his own people (although, as Robert Fisk rightly reminds us, his greater offences –like those of Saddam Hussein during the time he received western support- were not counted in his … verdict [for] political reasons).

Some ineffable “good”, one presumes, may be being done by Blair and his crew behind-the-scenes in Kazakhstan, as John Rentoul appeared to speculate in these pages. This, in response to Nick Cohen’s recent piece in the Observer concerning the former Prime Minister’s employment by President Nursultan Nazarbayev, whose regime reportedly “shoots strikers, burns the offices of opposition parties and kills their leaders.” Cohen, a Euston Manifesto signatory, trumpeted the millions allegedly paid to Blair by Nazarbayev as the latest dividends of the former Prime Minister’s “moral decline and fall.” On the face of it, you’d be hard pressed not to agree.

“Excuse me, this man is a war criminal!” Lawley-Wakelin asserted before being bundled out of Leveson last week, another statement with which many would concur–vehemently. But Blair will almost certainly never suffer the fate of Taylor, to whom he cannot be honestly compared; even if Iraq was a war of aggression-“the supreme international crime” to quote American jurors present at the Nuremberg [trials].

Benjamin Ferencz, former chief prosecutor at the latter trials, made a compelling case in 2006 that the invasion of 2003 comfortably fits such a description, something that is hardly a fringe view among legal experts.

It is worthy of note that Ferencz’s legal work for the commission that established the International Criminal Court is still considered textbook.

Tony Blair heckled by anti-war protester in Hong Kong: here.

Shell and Gaddafi: here.