Palestinian full member status at UN

Palestinians begin campaign for full member status at UN | World news | The Guardian

The Palestinian people have officially launched their campaign to join the United Nations as a full member state, saying they will stage a series of peaceful events in the runup to the annual gathering of the UN general assembly this month.

Some 100 Palestinian officials and activists gathered at the UN offices in Ramallah for a short ceremony, where they announced their plans in a letter addressed to the secretary general, Ban Ki-moon. The letter urges Ban to add his "moral voice in support of the Palestinian people".

"Families of the tens of thousands of victims of Israeli occupation, including those martyred, wounded and imprisoned, and countless others who were expelled from their homes or lost their homes and their property, hope that you will exert all possible efforts toward the achievement of the Palestinian people's just demands," it says.

The letter was handed over by Latifa abu Hmeid, a 70-year-old woman who lost one son in fighting with Israel and has seven other sons in Israeli prisons because of alleged militant activities.

Officials said Abu Hmeid was selected to deliver the document because her personal story reflected the plight of the Palestinians. A resident of a West Bank refugee camp, her house has twice been demolished by Israeli authorities as punishment for her sons' activities, they said.

The Palestinians have decided to turn to the UN to recognise their independence after two decades of unsuccessful peace efforts with Israel. The latest round of talks broke down a year ago.

The campaign seeks recognition of an independent Palestine in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem – areas captured by Israel in the 1967 six-day war. Israel rejects a return to its 1967 lines.

While any UN vote will be largely symbolic, the Palestinians believe a strong international endorsement will boost their position and put pressure on Israel should negotiations resume. Israel has been lobbying the international community to oppose the vote, saying peace can only be achieved through negotiations.

The letter says the campaign will include a series of peaceful events "in various international cities and capitals" leading up to the 21 September opening of the general assembly. Two days later, the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, will address the gathering in New York and ask for admission to the United Nations.

It remains unclear whether the Palestinians will turn to the security council or the general assembly. The council needs nine votes out of 15 and no veto from any of its permanent members to pass a decision. However, the US, which opposes the Palestinian bid, is expected to veto any request in the council.

The Palestinians could then seek admission as a "non-member state" of the general assembly, like the Vatican. Approval in the assembly, which is dominated by developing nations sympathetic to the Palestinians, is assured. But the vote would not be legally binding. The Palestinians say they will continue their campaign until they gain full UN membership.

Although the Palestinians say their campaign will be peaceful, Israeli military officials fear that mass demonstrations in the West Bank could turn violent. Security forces have been preparing for the possibility of violence, conducting exercises and stockpiling what they say is "non-lethal" riot-control equipment such as teargas, water cannon and stun grenades.

Snaptu: As he hits a new approval rating low, do you think President Obama can win re-election in 2012? |…

With widespread pessimism about the economy and jobs, President Obama's job approval rating has fallen to a new low. Given the situation, do you think he can win re-election in 2012?

Click here to read the full story

--
This email was sent to you from Snaptu mobile application.

Snaptu: Palestinian statehood must come about by the democratic will of the people

The international community has a legal and political interest in who effectively represents the Palestinian people in the UN

In August 2011, I drafted an opinion on certain legal questions regarding the issue of "popular representation", so far as…

Click here to read the full story

--
This email was sent to you from Snaptu mobile application.

Everything that NATO has done in Libya has been illegal

The 4th Media »

WAGING A WAR OF AGGRESSION

Kellogg-Briand Pact, 1928, Art. I. The High Contracting Parties solemnly declare in the names of their respective peoples that they condemn recourse to war for the solution of international controversies, and renounce it, as an instrument of national policy in their relations with one another. Art. II. The High Contracting Parties agree that the settlement or solution of all disputes or conflicts of whatever nature or of whatever origin they may be, which may arise among them, shall never be sought except by pacific means.

HELPING REBELS IN A CIVIL WAR

Convention on Duties and Rights of States in the Event of Civil Strife, 1928, Art. 1. To forbid the traffic in arms and war material, except when intended for the Government, while the belligerency of the rebels has not been recognized, in which latter case the rules of neutrality shall be applied.

CONSPIRACY TO WAGE WAR

Nuremberg Charter, 1945. Crimes against peace: namely, planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression, or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances, or participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the foregoing . . .

PROPAGANDA FOR WAR

Civil & Political Rights Covenant, 1966, Art. 20. (1). Any propaganda for war shall be prohibited by law.

SECRET CONTRACT AWARDSHague II, 1899, Art. 48. If, in the territory occupied, the occupant collects the taxes, dues, and tolls imposed for the benefit of the State, he shall do it, as far as possible, in accordance with the rules in existence and the assessment in force, and will in consequence be bound to defray the expenses of the administration of the occupied territory on the same scale as that by which the legitimate Government was bound.

FUNDING MERCENARIES

Mercenaries Convention, 1993, Art. 5. (1). States Parties shall not recruit, use, finance or train mercenaries and shall prohibit such activities.

By Global Research

TwitTerrorist : Gilberto Martinez Vera and Maruchi

2 Mexicans deny terrorism, face 30 years for tweet - Yahoo! News

Think before you tweet.

A former teacher turned radio commentator and a math tutor who lives with his mother sit in a prison in southern Mexico, facing possible 30-year sentences for terrorism and sabotage in what may be the most serious charges ever brought against anyone using a Twitter social network account.

Prosecutors say the defendants helped cause a chaos of car crashes and panic as parents in the Gulf Coast city of Veracruz rushed to save their children because of false reports that gunmen were attacking schools.

Gerardo Buganza, interior secretary for Veracruz state, compared the panic to that caused by Orson Welles' 1938 radio broadcast of "The War of the Worlds." But he said the fear roused by that account of a Martian invasion of New Jersey "was small compared to what happened here."

"Here, there were 26 car accidents, or people left their cars in the middle of the streets to run and pick up their children, because they thought these things were occurring at their kids' schools," Buganza told local reporters.

The charges say the messages caused such panic that emergency numbers "totally collapsed because people were terrified," damaging service for real emergencies.

Veracruz, the state's largest city, and the neighboring suburb of Boca del Rio were already on edge after weeks of gunbattles involving drug traffickers. One attack occurred on a major boulevard. In another, gunmen tossed a grenade outside the city aquarium, killing an tourist and seriously wounding his wife and their two young children.

On Aug. 25, nerves were further frayed when residents saw armed convoys of marines circulating on the streets, making some think a confrontation with gangs was imminent.

That is when Gilberto Martinez Vera, who works as a low-paid tutor at several private schools, allegedly opened the floodgates of fear with repeated messages that gunmen were taking children from schools.

"My sister-in-law just called me all upset, they just kidnapped five children from the school," Martinez tweeted.

In fact, no such kidnappings occurred that day. Defense lawyer Claribel Guevara said the rumors already had started and that Martinez Vera was just relaying what others told him. She said he never claimed to have firsthand knowledge of the incident.

But in a subsequent tweet about the kidnap rumor, he said, "I don't know what time it happened, but it's true." He also tweeted that three days earlier, "they mowed down six kids between 13 and 15 in the Hidalgo neighborhood." While a similar attack occurred, it didn't involve children.

Prosecutors say the rumors were also sent by Maria de Jesus Bravo Pagola, who has worked as a teacher, a state arts official and a radio commentator. She says she was just relaying such messages to her own Twitter followers.

"How can they possibly do this to me, for re-tweeting a message? I mean, it's 140 characters. It's not logical,'" said Guevara, quoting her client.

Better known on the radio and social networks as "Maruchi," her Facebook site now features the Twitter logo, a little bluebird, blindfolded and standing in front of the scales of justice, with the slogan "I too am a TwitTerrorist."

Online petitions are circulating to demand her release, and the pair's cause has been taken up by human rights groups that call the charges exaggerated. Amnesty International says officials are violating freedom of expression and it blames the panic on the uncertainty many Mexicans feel amid a drug war in which more than 35,000 people have died over the past five years.

"The lack of safety creates an atmosphere of mistrust in which rumors that circulate on social networks are part of people's efforts to protect themselves, since there is very little trustworthy information," Amnesty wrote in a statement on the case.

In violence-wracked cities in the northern state of Tamaulipas, citizens and even authorities have used Twitter and Facebook to warn one another about shootouts.

Anita Vera, Martinez Vera's 71-year-old mother, said her 48-year-old son still lives at her house with his girlfriend. She said he told her that had posted his messages after the panic had already started.

"He told me "Mom, I didn't start any of this, I just transmitted what I was told,'" Vera Martellis said after visiting her son in prison.

"He used the computer, but I swear that my son never wanted to do anybody harm, or start a revolution, like they say he did," said Vera, who ekes out a living selling flowers.

Raul Trejo, an expert on media and violence at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said the terrorism charge is unwarranted, but described the case as "a very incautious use of Twitter."

He noted that in Mexico, "Twitter has been used by drug traffickers to create panic with false warnings." In one case, a wave of messages about impending violence shut down schools, bars and restaurants in the central city of Cuernavaca last year.

Trejo said Twitter users must learn "not to believe everything, and simply take the Twitter messages as an indication that some (report) is making the rounds."

But the real problem appears to be that governments cannot prevent drug cartel violence or even accurately inform citizens about it. Local news media are often so battered by kidnappings and killings of reporters that, in many states, they are loath to report about it.

"These Twitter users had accounts with a few hundred followers," Trejo noted. "If these lies grew, it is not so much because they propagated them, but because in Veracruz as in most of the rest of the country, there is such a lack of public safety that the public is inclined to believe unconfirmed acts of violence ... The government doesn't make clear what is happening."

Defense attorneys also say their clients were held incommunicado for almost three days, unable to see a lawyer.

It appears one of the most serious sets of charges ever brought for sending or resending Twitter messages.

Tweeter Paul Chambers was fined 385 pounds and ordered to pay 2,000 pounds ($3,225) in prosecution costs last year for tweeting that if northern England's Robin Hood Airport didn't reopen in time for his flight, "I'm blowing the airport sky high!!"

Venezuelan authorities last year charged two people with spreading false information about the country's banking system using Twitter and urging people to pull money out of banks. They could serve nine to 11 years in prison if convicted.

In 2009, a Chinese woman was sentenced to a year in a labor camp for posting a satirical Twitter message about the Japan pavilion at the Shanghai Expo.

165 million Europeans suffer brain disorder

Nearly 40 percent of Europeans suffer mental illness - Yahoo! News

Europeans are plagued by mental and neurological illnesses, with almost 165 million people or 38 percent of the population suffering each year from a brain disorder such as depression, anxiety, insomnia or dementia, according to a large new study.

With only about a third of cases receiving the therapy or medication needed, mental illnesses cause a huge economic and social burden -- measured in the hundreds of billions of euros -- as sufferers become too unwell to work and personal relationships break down.

"Mental disorders have become Europe's largest health challenge of the 21st century," the study's authors said.

At the same time, some big drug companies are backing away from investment in research on how the brain works and affects behavior, putting the onus on governments and health charities to stump up funding for neuroscience.

"The immense treatment gap ... for mental disorders has to be closed," said Hans Ulrich Wittchen, director of the institute of clinical psychology and psychotherapy at Germany's Dresden University and the lead investigator on the European study.

"Those few receiving treatment do so with considerable delays of an average of several years and rarely with the appropriate, state-of-the-art therapies."

Wittchen led a three-year study covering 30 European countries -- the 27 European Union member states plus Switzerland, Iceland and Norway -- and a population of 514 million people.

A direct comparison of the prevalence of mental illnesses in other parts of the world was not available because different studies adopt varying parameters.

Wittchen's team looked at about 100 illnesses covering all major brain disorders from anxiety and depression to addiction to schizophrenia, as well as major neurological disorders including epilepsy, Parkinson's and multiple sclerosis.

The results, published by the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ENCP) on Monday, show an "exceedingly high burden" of mental health disorders and brain illnesses, he told reporters at a briefing in London.

Mental illnesses are a major cause of death, disability, and economic burden worldwide and the World Health Organization predicts that by 2020, depression will be the second leading contributor to the global burden of disease across all ages.

Wittchen said that in Europe, that grim future had arrived early, with diseases of the brain already the single largest contributor to the EU's burden of ill health.

The four most disabling conditions -- measured in terms of disability-adjusted life years or DALYs, a standard measure used to compare the impact of various diseases -- are depression, dementias such as Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia, alcohol dependence and stroke.

The last major European study of brain disorders, which was published in 2005 and covered a smaller population of about 301 million people, found 27 percent of the EU adult population was suffering from mental illnesses.

Although the 2005 study cannot be compared directly with the latest finding -- the scope and population was different -- it found the cost burden of these and neurological disorders amounted to about 386 billion euros ($555 billion) a year at that time. Wittchen's team has yet to finalize the economic impact data from this latest work, but he said the costs would be "considerably more" than estimated in 2005.

The researchers said it was crucial for health policy makers to recognize the enormous burden and devise ways to identify potential patients early -- possibly through screening -- and make treating them quickly a high priority.

"Because mental disorders frequently start early in life, they have a strong malignant impact on later life," Wittchen said. "Only early targeted treatment in the young will effectively prevent the risk of increasingly largely proportions of severely ill...patients in the future."

David Nutt, a neuropsychopharmacology expert at Imperial College London who was not involved in this study, agreed.

"If you can get in early you may be able to change the trajectory of the illness so that it isn't inevitable that people go into disability," he said. "If we really want not to be left with this huge reservoir of mental and brain illness for the next few centuries, then we ought to be investing more now."

(Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Matthew Jones)

SBY Gives WikiLeaks Silent Treatment

http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/sby-gives-wikileaks-silent-treatment/463574

SBY Gives WikiLeaks Silent Treatment
Camelia Pasandaran | September 05, 2011

The government announced on Monday that it would not respond to any information found in US diplomatic cables presented by whistle-blowing Web site WikiLeaks, saying that the information is far from credible.

"We won't give any response," presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha told the Jakarta Globe. "It is difficult to complain about things like this because the information WikiLeaks reveals is from secondary sources."

Julian also questioned the reliability of the latest release about President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. It talked of efforts to repay the financiers that facilitated his 2004 bid for the presidency by offering them jobs in his administration.

"Too much information is presented without clear sources," he said. "It's just the issue of the day, without clear information on sources. Therefore we're not enthusiastic about responding to WikiLeaks news. The primary sources don't understand how such rumors could spread."

WikiLeaks cited remarks from Democratic Party official Silo Marbun saying that Yudhoyono reportedly offered Vence Rumangkang — the party's deputy general chairman — a position in the administration as well as a check for Rp 5 billion ($585,000) to repay Vence's substantial contribution to the party.

Vence reportedly declined to accept both the check and the offer of a political position. He did allegedly say that he hoped to have Yudhoyono's support as he continued his business endeavors.

Marbun also claimed that Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie's contributions to Yudhoyono's presidential campaign totaled Rp 200 billion. Aburizal would subsequently become Yudhoyono's Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs and later his Coordinating Minister for Social Affairs during the president's first term.

Julian said the president was at first shocked after WikiLeaks revealed diplomatic cables from the US Embassy in Jakarta that generated considerable attention from international media. But he said that Yudhoyono had stopped caring about the leaked cables "after learning about the methodology used."

"We believe the public will later know and realize just how credible [the information leaked by WikiLeaks is]," he said.

Here is another one ...

http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/leaked-us-cables-slam-megawati-pdi-p/463418

Leaked US Cables Slam Megawati, PDI-P
September 05, 2011

Leaked US diplomatic cables paint a negative picture of Megawati Sukarnoputri's presidency and predict the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) would do poorly in the 2009 elections due to its "dysfunctional leadership."

The cables also claim that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono went to "great lengths" but ultimately failed to restore his relationship with Megawati, who remains bitter that Yudhoyono ran against her in 2004.

The cables quote former PDI-P legislator Amris Hassan as saying there was a "growing sense of disillusionment within the PDI-P ranks over Megawati's stewardship of the party."

"Hassan bemoaned Megawati's inability to chart a coherent opposition strategy for PDI-P and said that he expected a growing number of high profile defections from the party unless changes were forthcoming," the cable from late 2006 said.

"Hassan told us that Megawati's obsequious inner circle contributed to her leadership struggles as she was rarely challenged or prompted to consider alternative viewpoints from her own."

The former legislator said party members were becoming more and more aware that the party was viewed as little more than a "Megawati cult of personality, and that most party members understood this would not translate into electoral success in 2009."

The source told the embassy that his decision to accept an ambassadorial posting to New Zealand would help "distance himself from the party's dysfunctional leadership."

The party gained just 14 percent of the vote in the 2009 legislative elections to finish in third place, well behind Yudhoyono's Democratic Party, which secured 20 percent of the vote. PDI-P secured almost 20 percent of the vote in the 2004 elections.

Another cable labels Megawati as the only serious threat to Yudhoyono in the 2009 presidential elections but said she had "stumbled in the opposition and failed to articulate a competing vision for the country."

"Having already beaten back one challenge to her authority in PDI-P, several of our contacts in the party report growing disenchantment with her policy of 'opposition for the sake of opposition,' and openly admit they believe she could never be re-elected as president," the cable reads.

"Though it is hard to imagine a PDI-P ticket without her at the top, Megawati would have to overcome lingering questions about her first presidency, and very low favorability numbers (28% in the most recent credible polling), to beat SBY in 2009.

Wikileaks : Indonesian Police Used FPI as ‘Attack Dog,’

http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/indonesian-police-used-fpi-as-attack-dog-leaked-us-cable-alleges/463174

Indonesian Police Used FPI as 'Attack Dog,' Leaked US Cable Alleges

Jakarta Globe | September 03, 2011

Unredacted US diplomatic cables published by antisecrecy Web site WikiLeaks on Friday allege collusion between Indonesian security forces and the radical Islamic Defenders Front.

Though the claims are not new, the leaked cables go into far greater detail than before and name the sources providing the US Embassy in Jakarta with information on a number of recent controversies, each of which has the potential to embarrass the Indonesian government.

One of the cables states that a contact within the State Intelligence Agency (BIN), Yahya Asagaf, had "sufficiently close contacts within" the Front, known as the FPI, to warn the embassy that it would be attacked by the vigilante group on Feb. 19, 2006, during protests against the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

The cable says the contact alleged that then National Police Chief Gen. Sutanto, the current head of BIN, had provided the FPI with funds prior to the attack, but cut off the funding after the incident.

"When we questioned [the contact's] allegation that Sutanto funded FPI, Yahya said the police chief found it useful to have FPI available to him as an 'attack dog,'" the cable says.

"When pressed further on the usefulness of FPI playing this role, noting that the police should be sufficiently capable of intimidation, Yahya characterized FPI as a tool that could spare the security forces from criticism for human rights violations, and he said funding FPI was a 'tradition' of the Police and BIN."

The contact said the FPI had obtained the "majority of its funds from the security forces" but faced a "budget crunch" after the attack.

Another cable also alleges the FPI had close contacts with former Jakarta Police Chief Nugroho Djayusman, who admitted the connections to embassy officials.

"He then explained defensively that it was natural for him, as the Jakarta Police Chief, to have contacts with all sorts of organizations," the cable continues. "This was necessary because the sudden release of energy from the Islamists, who had been repressed under [former dictator] Suharto, could have posed a security risk.

"'But it doesn't mean I was involved,' he said, distancing himself from responsibility for any violent activities."

The cable said that Nugroho illustrated his point by claiming that Sutanto lacked useful connections, "and when the violent FPI demonstration took place, Sutanto had to call Nugroho to request assistance."

"Nugroho told us that he then called FPI Chairman Habib Rizieq and arranged the surrender of three men who had arranged the violence outside of the US Embassy. "

Nugroho, a controversial figure also blamed for failing to prevent the deadly anti-Chinese riots after the downfall of Suharto in 1998, also took a swipe at the FPI's Islamic credentials.

Though he acknowledged the FPI had a "clear track record of violence" he labeled the group a "small, relatively insignificant group" that was "not ideological, except insofar as it opposed gambling, prostitution and pornography."

"By contrast, he noted that 'Ngruki' (shorthand for [Abu Bakar] Bashir's pesantren and, one can assume, the Jemaah Islamiyah organization) was a much more serious ideological group."

In a later cable in the second quarter of 2006, Yenny Wahid, the daughter of former President Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid, said the retired group of security officers who had helped form and finance the FPI — including Nugroho — had lost control of the group, saying they had "'created a monster' that now functioned independently of its former sponsors and did not feel beholden to them."

"Although anyone with money could hire FPI for political purposes, no one outside of the group could control FPI head Habib Rizieq, who functions as his own boss," the cable said.

A movie you need to watch

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy – review | Film | The Guardian

A thunderstorm rolled into Venice overnight, flash-bulbing the sky and lancing the boil of heat that has enveloped the city these past six days. One could have sworn that the temperature dropped still further, to practically Baltic levels, during the morning screening of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, a marvellously chill and acrid cold war thriller from Swedish director Tomas Alfredson. Right here, right now, it's the film to beat at this year's festival.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Production year: 2011
Country: UK
Directors: Tomas Alfredson
Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Ciaran Hinds, Colin Firth, Gary Oldman, Mark Strong, Simon McBurney, Tom Hardy
More on this film

Nimbly navigating the labyrinthine source novel by John Le Carré, Alfredson eases us through a run-down 70s London, all the way to a municipal MI6 bunker, out by the train yards. This, it transpires, is "the Circus", a warren of narrow corridors and smoke-filled offices, patrolled by jumpy, ulcerous men with loose flesh and thinning hair, peering into the shadows in search of a spy. There's a mole at the top of the Circus, a "deep-penetration agent" leaking secrets to the Soviets. Control (John Hurt) has narrowed the hunt to five likely suspects. Now all that remains is for diffident George Smiley (Gary Oldman), working off the books and under the radar, to steal in and identify the culprit.

Oldman gives a deliciously delicate, shaded performance, flitting in and out of the wings like some darting grey lizard. We have the sense that Smiley has seen too much and done too much, and that a lifetime's experience has bled him of colour. His eyes are tired, his collar too tight, his necktie a noose. Yet still he keeps coming, quietly infiltrating a first-rate supporting cast that includes Mark Strong, Kathy Burke and Colin Firth. Away in Istanbul, Tom Hardy raises the roof as Ricki Tarr, the tale's bullish rogue element, while Benedict Cumberbatch is mesmerising as the well-groomed gentleman conspirator coming slowly apart at the seams.

If there is any flaw to the film, it's that the whistle is blown too soon and that some eagle-eyed George Smiley types are liable to identity the bad apple before Smiley does himself. But possibly even that doesn't matter as much as it might, because Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is finally more about the journey than the destination; more fascinated with the detail than the denouement. The Circus, after all, is precisely that: an outmoded sideshow of clowns, strong-men and acrobats, founded on dodgy principles and banging the drum for a war that may not be a real war anyway. Who cares who is responsible? All these men are guilty of something; all of them drinking from the same dirty water fountain. Tinker, Tailor … treads a shifting, dangerous world where 70s London looks a lot like 70s Moscow and where Santa Claus wears a Lenin mask. It invites us to look from our spy to their spy and treat those two impostors just the same.



'

Snaptu: Is the Arab world now ready to invest in ideas?

For years, Arabs have struggled to define their identity because their regimes have stifled open debate and critical thinking

The Arab Spring is tearing down barriers; no longer are citizens afraid of repression. Many Arab streets are imagining new…

Click here to read the full story

--
This email was sent to you from Snaptu mobile application.

Snaptu: The failure of Australia's 'Malaysia Solution' is a positive step for refugees| Fergal Davis

The ruling that Australia can no longer send 'boat people' back to Malaysia shows countries cannot dodge their refugee obligations

This week, Australian immigration policy was dealt a significant blow by a judgment of the high court of Australia on…

Click here to read the full story

--
This email was sent to you from Snaptu mobile application.

Snaptu: Our demand for metals could cost us the Earth | Melody Kemp

For too long mining companies have used the mantra of growth to excuse environmental destruction

Have you noticed that mining is increasingly getting up people's noses? Globally, more communities are fighting it. Gaggles of poor villagers are taking…

Click here to read the full story

--
This email was sent to you from Snaptu mobile application.

Cheap House ..Price starts from $99

Tumbleweed Tiny House Company makes tiny, 65 sq ft build-it-yourself homes | Mail Online

For those who are too broke to get on the housing ladder, an American firm is here to help.

Jay Shafer's Tumbleweed Tiny House Company makes cute little homes that start from the bargain price of $99.

The cheapest home is a flat-pack to be built by the owner but, if you're not very handy, there are ready-made versions for $38,997.

Let us clean the space junk!

Space junk littering orbit; might need cleaning up - Yahoo! News

Space junk has made such a mess of Earth's orbit that experts say we may need to finally think about cleaning it up.

That may mean vacuuming up debris with weird space technology — cosmic versions of nets, magnets and giant umbrellas, according to the chairman of an expert panel that issued a new report on the problem Thursday.

There are 22,000 objects in orbit that are big enough for officials on the ground to track and countless more smaller ones that could do damage to human-carrying spaceships and valuable satellites. The International Space Station has to move out of the way of debris from time to time.

"We've lost control of the environment," said retired NASA senior scientist Donald Kessler, who headed the National Academy of Sciences report.

Since the space age began 54 years ago, civilization has littered the area just above Earth's atmosphere with leftover boosters and other parts that come off during launches, as well as old satellites. When scientists noticed that this could be a problem, they came up with agreements to limit new space junk and those plans had been working.

Those agreements are intended to make sure what is sent into orbit eventually falls back to Earth and burns up.

But two events in the past four years — a 2007 Chinese anti-satellite weapon test and a 2009 crash-in-orbit of two satellites — put so much new junk in space that everything changed, the report said. The widely criticized Chinese test used a missile to smash an aging weather satellite into 150,000 pieces of debris larger than four-tenths of an inch (1 centimeter) and 3,118 pieces can be tracked by radar on the ground, the report said.

"Those two single events doubled the amount of fragments in Earth orbit and completely wiped out what we had done in the last 25 years," Kessler said.

All that junk that means something has to be done, "which means you have to look at cleaning space," said Kessler.

The study only briefly mentions the cleanup possibility, raising technical, legal and diplomatic hurdles. But it refers to a report earlier this year by a Defense Department science think-tank that outlines all sorts of unusual techniques. The report by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is called "Catcher's Mitt" and it mentions harpoons, nets, tethers, magnets and even a giant dish or umbrella-shaped device that would sweep up tiny pieces of debris.

While the new report does not recommend using the technology, Kessler said it is needed. He likes one company's idea of a satellite that is armed with nets that could be sprung on wayward junk. Attached to the net is an electromagnetic tether that could either pull the junk down to a point where it would burn up harmlessly or boost it to safer orbit.

NASA officials said they are examining the study.

The report is from the National Research Council, a branch of the National Academy of Sciences, which is an independent organization chartered by Congress to advise the government on science.

Funny vacation with Chris Jeon

One Student’s Libyan Vacation, Who Donald Trump Is Fighting With Now, FEMA’s Waffle House Index | Trending Now - Yahoo! News

It's the wildest summer vacation story I've ever heard. Chris Jeon, a 21-year-old American UCLA student, said he "thought it would be cool" to spend his summer joining rebels in Libya in their fight against ruler Moammar Gadhafi. The Los Angeles native bought a one-way ticket to Cairo for $800, and then he hopped on a train to Alexandria, Egypt. After riding a bus to Benghazi, he hitchhiked with rebels to Tripoli. When the Christian Science Monitor's Kristen Chick came across Jeon in Libya she tweeted, "The American kid at front lines today came to see 'a real revolution,' said he was helping rebels but clearly didn't know how to fire a gun." She then tweeted, "He speaks no Arabic, no one knows he is there, he is staying with families/fighters. He is from LA, wearing a lakers jersey. Nuts." The photo of Jeon in a vintage Lakers jersey standing in the middle of a group of war-ravaged fighters says it all. Jeon told the National that when a rebel handed him an AK-47, he asked "How do you fire this thing?" Jeon told the Christian Science Monitor that he lied to his parents about where he was going and planned to return to California at the end of September for the first day of school. But his trip might end a bit early. Al-Jazeera English's Evan Hill tweeted, "Our team in east #Libya said rebels fed up with Chris Jeon, US kid who tried to join, told him 2 go, last seen on pick-up going 2 Benghazi." What do you think of Jeon's summer vacation trip? Tell us on Facebook.com/TrendingNow and Twitter @YahooTrending.

I know it's out of character, but Donald Trump is ranting! He took to his YouTube soapbox Wednesday to tell the world what he thinks of Dick Cheney's new book, and it's not pretty. In the video taken in the Donald's office he doesn't mince his words. He says, "I didn't like Cheney as vice president. I don't like him now. And I don't like people who rat out everybody like he's doing in the book." "The Apprentice" star has been using YouTube to voice his opinions on a number of issues. It seems none of his previous bashings have received the amount of social media attention this one has. One tweeter said, "Happy to see that Trump has found his calling as a YouTube ranter."

And finally, you won't believe one of the ways FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) measures the severity of disasters. It goes to the Waffle House! The 24-hour restaurant prides itself on being open all day every day no matter what. After a disaster, FEMA checks out the affected area's Waffle Houses. It even created a complex color-coded system. Green, or a full Waffle House menu, means minimal damage. Yellow, or a limited menu, means Waffle House is using a generator and the damage is serious. And red means Waffle House is closed and the damage is close to catastrophic. Waffle House kept it humble, tweeting "We're so proud of our disaster response team!"

Melbourne: The best city in the world to live!

89.9 LightFM -

So far, I agree with that title. For me, indeed, Melbourne has been the best city in the world to live.

This afternoon, I saw four mormon guys at
Lingkar Selatan. I'd like to chat but I was in hurry. So, if any of you read this post, don't hesitate to contact me through this blog.

What Happened to the Eid-ul-Fitr celebration at Rye Playland ?

Soirce : news.yahoo.com

Rye Playland was shut down Tuesday after cops scuffled with Muslims upset that women wearing head scarves were barred from the rides, witnesses said.

Fifteen people, including three women, were charged with disorderly conduct and assault in the chaos, authorities said.

The Westchester County park was packed with Muslims celebrating Eid-ul-Fitr - the holiday marking the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

One woman, Entisai Ali, began arguing with cops over the amusement park's head scarf, or hijab, rule, said Dena Meawad, 18, of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

The ban, which is not Muslim specific, was imposed about 3 years ago mostly to prevent hats from falling onto the tracks of roller coasters and other rides, park officials said.

"The cops started getting loud with her and she started getting loud, too. They pushed her on the ground and arrested her," Meawad said.

Her cousin, Kareem Meawad, 17, went to try to protect the woman and was beaten by cops and also arrested, she added. Her brother, Issam Meawad, 20, was pushed to the ground and taken into custody when he tried to help his cousin, she said.

"She just wanted to get on a ride. That was it," Dena Meawad said of the initial confrontation. "It's clear, this all happened because we're Muslim."

John Hodges, chief inspector of Westchester County Public Safety, insisted that police did not use excessive force.

He said up to 100 cops from surrounding departments converged on the park.

Two park rangers were injured in the melee, prompting felony assault charges against two people arrested, officials said.

The ugly incident happened just after 1 p.m. The event was organized by the Muslim American Society of New York, and attracted 3,000 Muslims from Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Westchester County.

Ali's sister, Ayman Alrabah, 24, of Brooklyn said her husband, brother and father were all tackled by cops and put into handcuffs when they tried to help her sister.

Alrabah said she was unaware of the head-scarf rule until she and her sister tried to get on the park's Dragon Coasters.

"We requested a refund and all of a sudden an argument became a riot," Alrabah said. "Cops came. They were hitting my brother, my dad. My husband was on the floor and they were handcuffing him.

She said her 4-year-old son was "traumatized" by seeing his father arrested.

"They treated us like animals, like we were nothing," Alrabah said. "They came with their dogs and sticks. We came to have fun."

'It's clear, this all happened because we're Muslim,' says Dena Meawad. (Norman Y. Lono for NY Daily News)

The park was closed for about two hours because of the fracas. It reopened at about 6 p.m.

Peter Tartaglia, deputy commissioner of Westchester County Parks, said the Muslim American Society of New York was warned in advance of the rule barring head scarves on rides for safety reasons.

"Part of our rules and regulations, which we painstakingly told them over and over again, is that certain rides you cannot wear any sort of headgear," Tartaglia said. "It's a safety issue for us on rides, it could become a projectile."

Many Muslims were given refunds as they left the park disappointed.

"In this heightened state of Islamaphobia, a woman wearing a hajib is an easy target these days," said Zead Ramadan, president of the Council on American-Islamic Relations - New York. "Unfortunately, this turned ugly due to a lot of miscommunication."

Snaptu: How US firms profited from torture flights

Court documents illustrate how US contracted out secret rendition transportation to a network of private companies

The scale of the CIA's rendition programme has been laid bare in court documents that illustrate in minute detail how the US…

Click here to read the full story

--
This email was sent to you from Snaptu mobile application.

Snaptu: Unredacted US embassy cables available online after WikiLeaks breach

Guardian denies allegation in WikiLeaks statement that journalist disclosed passwords to archive

A security breach has led to the WikiLeaks archive of 251,000 secret US diplomatic cables being made available online, without redaction to protect…

Click here to read the full story

--
This email was sent to you from Snaptu mobile application.