Wednesday, August 19, 2009
TIMES ONLINE: Scores of people have been killed and hundreds injured by a series of co-ordinated bomb attacks in Baghdad today.
In the deadliest attack in Iraq this year, and the most audacious one in the capital for several more, truck and car bombs and mortar fire were directed against the main centres of power. The targets included the ministries of finance, foreign affairs, health and housing, as well as the Parliament and Cabinet buildings. Also hit was a checkpoint on the approach roads to the fortified Green Zone.
The largest explosion was a truck bomb across the street from the Foreign Ministry, just outside the Green Zone, which is reported to have killed up to 59 people and injured 250. The force of the blast flattened the compound wall and blew concrete slabs off the front of the 10-storey block, killing people working inside the building and devastating cars and bystanders for hundreds of metres around.
It left a crater in the road 3 metres deep and 10 metres wide, full of dozens of burned and twisted cars and a few charred bodies. Other nearby buildings were also damaged, including the Parliament which lies inside the Green Zone. Water tanks collapsed on nearby houses, sending water gushing through people's homes. >>> Oliver August in Baghdad | Wednesday, August 19, 2009
SAUDI GAZETTE: JEDDAH – Saudi males are lazy, eat too much junk food and spend excessive time in front of the television, all which means they are only likely to get fatter, an Arab health and nutrition expert has said.
Dr. Abdullah Musaiqir, head of the Arab Center for Nutrition, has warned of increasing obesity in the Gulf states and particularly Saudi Arabia, and cites a Saudi study showing that over 53 percent of Saudi males live a “lethargic lifestyle”, with only 20 percent described as leading a healthy lifestyle and engaging in activities that help keep them in good physical shape. Twenty seven percent were described by the study as having a “partially active” lifestyle.
Parents, Dr. Musaiqir said, are advised to cut down on television watching time for both themselves and their children, and to remove television sets from dining rooms and bedrooms. According to Musaiqir, watching television encourages further unhealthy eating practices as the activity is popularly accompanied by the consumption of snack foods.
Musaiqir said the first steps toward promoting a healthier lifestyle should come with awareness programs conducted throughout the Gulf with media involvement, and that school and university curricula should be improved to address issues of nutrition and public health.
Schools, Muqaisir said, should make greater efforts to support and encourage sporting activities both inside and outside the confines of their campuses. [Source: Saudi Gazette] Okaz/SG | Wednesday, August 19, 2009
WELT ONLINE: Der nordkoreanische Machthaber Kim Jong-il hat sein Beileid zum Tod des am Dienstag verstorbenen Ex-Präsidenten Kim Dae-jung ausgesprochen. TV-Berichten zufolge will er sogar eine Delegation zu dessen Beerdingung entsenden. Experten spekulieren über eine Wiederannäherung der beiden verfeindeten Staaten.
Nordkorea wird einem Bericht zufolge eine Delegation zum Begräbnis des früheren südkoreanischen Präsidenten Kim Dae-jung entsenden. Der südkoreanische Sender YTN nannte am Mittwoch keine Quelle für seine Informationen.
Nordkoreas Machthaber Kim Jong-il hatte zuvor nach offiziellen Angaben sein Beileid zum Tod des ehemaligen südkoreanischen Präsidenten Kim Dae-jung übermittelt. Die amtliche nordkoreanische Nachrichtenagentur KCNA zitierte am Mittwoch aus dem Kondolenzschreiben Kim Jong-ils: „Obgleich er zu unserem Bedauern verstorben ist, werden seine Leistungen für eine nationale Aussöhnung und für die Verwirklichung des Wunsches nach einer Wiedervereinigung dem Land noch lange bleiben.“ >>> | Mittwoch, 19. August 2009
leJDD.fr: Un militant islamiste de nationalité syrienne, Taha Hadjj Souleïmane, évadé mardi de la prison libanaise de Roumeih, à l'est de Beyrouth, a été repris, a-t-on appris auprès des forces de sécurité. Celles-ci ont ratissé de nombreux quartiers de la capitale libanaise pour retrouver le membre du Fatah al Islam, un groupe proche d'Al Qaïda, qui était incarcéré pour son implication dans des actes de terrorisme, notamment des attentats à la bombe. L'évadé a finalement été retrouvé dans les bois près de la prison. Selon la presse libanaise, sept détenus ont préparé l'évasion du Syrien pendant deux semaines, sciant notamment les barreaux de leurs cellules. [Source: leJDD.fr] | Mercredi 19 Août 2009
REUTERS: BERLIN - In 1942, the Nazis decided that forced labourers in concentration camps would work harder if they were promised sex -- so they made female prisoners work in brothels for them.
The brothels form the subject of "Das KZ Bordell" (The Concentration Camp Brothel) by Robert Sommer, a book that has been hailed as the first comprehensive account of a little known chapter of Nazi oppression in World War Two.
Sommer's 460-page work, due to be presented at the Berlin state parliament on Wednesday, explores the origins, structure and impact of the "Sonderbauten" (special buildings) run by Heinrich Himmler's SS in Germany and Nazi-occupied Europe.
"In the collective memory and written history of World War Two, the camp brothels were for a long time taboo," the 35-year-old Berliner told Reuters. "The former prisoners didn't want to talk about it: it was a difficult subject to handle.
"It didn't fit so easily into the postwar image of the concentration camps as monuments to suffering."
Beginning with the Austrian camp at Mauthausen in 1942, the SS opened 10 brothels, the biggest of which was in Auschwitz, in modern Poland, where as many as 21 women prisoners once worked. The last opened in early 1945, the year the war ended.
The chapter is separate from the annals of the Holocaust of European Jews. Jewish women were not recruited as prostitutes, and Jewish men were not admitted to the brothels.
Sommer estimates around 200 women inmates in total were forced to work in the brothels -- initially offered the prospect of escaping the brutality of the concentration camps.
"They were promised release after half a year if they served in the brothel. But the promises were never honoured," he said. "Later, the SS just selected women they felt were suitable."
"Jews were not allowed in. Neither were Soviet prisoners of war," he added. "Jewish women did not serve as sex workers."
Tens of thousands of captured soldiers, political prisoners and people branded socially undesirable by the Nazis, including Roma and homosexuals, were held in camps alongside the millions of Jews who died in the Holocaust.
"The idea behind the brothels was to raise productivity by providing forced labourers with added incentive," said Sommer. "Yet from what I found, it didn't work at all. Only a few people were actually in a physical condition to go to them."
According to Sommer, the use of prisoners to provide sex to other prisoners was purely a Nazi phenomenon in the war. >>> Dave Graham, Editing by Kevin Liffey | Monday, August 17, 2009
TIMES ONLINE: More than 45,000 NHS workers call in sick each day — one and a half times the rate of absence seen in the private sector.
The first national audit of staff habits has found that high rates of obesity, smoking, absenteeism and poor mental health are having a direct impact on the quality of patient care.
Dr Steve Boorman, a leading occupational health expert, was asked by the Government to assess links between staff habits and NHS productivity. He will present his interim review today. His findings are drawn from six months of staff surveys, workshops, data reviews and responses from trusts and experts.
— More than 45,000 NHS workers are calling in sick every day, one and a half times the rate of absence in the private sector. Reducing the 10.3 million working days lost per year by a third would save the NHS £555 million annually.
— More than one in five staff smoke, the same proportion as in the adult population. About 40,000 NHS workers smoke more than 20 cigarettes a day.
— More than a third of the workforce are in moderate to very poor mental health, with many expressing concern about intimidation from patients and their relatives[.]
— Hospitals with worse staff health are less productive and have higher rates of superbug infection, unnecessary use of agency workers and higher patient mortality rates. More than three-quarters of staff believe that the state of their health affects patient care.
— About 40 per cent undertake exercise less than the Government’s three recommended occasions a week. >>> Sam Lister, Health Editor | Wednesday, August 19, 2009
TIMES ONLINE: Hillary Clinton has made a last-minute attempt to intervene in the Lockerbie bomber case, warning the Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill that it would be "absolutely wrong" to release him from jail.
Spurning diplomatic channels, the US Secretary of State gave a public statement to reporters in Washington saying that Abdel Baset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the Libyan spy who was jailed in 2001 for blowing up Pan Am flight 103 with the loss of 270 lives, should not be released on compassionate grounds or granted a transfer to a Libyan jail but should die in prison.
The statement comes after Mrs Clinton's private phone call to Mr MacAskill last week to warn him against agreeing to either of the requests lodged by al-Megrahi, who is terminally ill with prostate cancer.
Mrs Clinton was spurred to intervene again after the High Court in Edinburgh ruled yesterday that al-Megrahi could withdraw his legal attempt to clear his name, removing one procedural hurdle to his return to his homeland.
“I just think it is absolutely wrong to release someone who has been imprisoned based on the evidence about his involvement in such a horrendous crime,” said Mrs Clinton, a former Senator for New York State from where many of the Lockerbie victims were drawn.
“We are still encouraging the Scottish authorities not to do so and we hope that they will not.” >>> Jenny Booth | Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
LOS ANGELES TIMES: When cryptic posters portraying President Obama as the Joker from "Batman" began popping up around Los Angeles and other cities, the question many asked was, Who is behind the image?
Was it an ultra-conservative grassroots group or a disgruntled street artist going against the grain?
Nope, it turns out, just a 20-year-old college student from Chicago.
Bored during his winter school break, Firas Alkhateeb, a senior history major at the University of Illinois, crafted the picture of Obama with the recognizable clown makeup using Adobe's Photoshop software.
Alkhateeb had been tinkering with the program to improve the looks of photos he had taken on his clunky Kodak camera. The Joker project was his grandest undertaking yet. Using a tutorial he'd found online about how to "Jokerize" portraits, he downloaded the October 23 Time Magazine cover of Obama and began digitally painting over it.
Four or five hours later, he happily had his product.
On Jan. 18, Alkhateeb uploaded the image to photo-sharing site Flickr (shown at right). Over the next two months, he amassed just a couple thousand hits, he said.
Then the counter exploded after a still-anonymous rogue famously found his image, digitally removed the references to Time Magazine, captioned the picture with the word "socialism" and hung printed copies around L.A., making headlines.
Alkhateeb's original Flickr page surpassed 20,000 views. The Times found his Flickr site last week thanks to a tip left by a loyal reader of The Ticket. By Friday, the page had been taken down.
On Alkhateeb's page, a manipulated image condemning fellow Chicagoan and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel (captioned "epic fail") was mixed in with parodies of the "Guitar Hero" game franchises -- dubbed Quran Hero -- and of Napoleon riding a motorcycle (pictured after the jump).
Flickr had removed the Joker image due to copyright-infringement concerns, Alkhateeb says the company told him in an e-mail. A Flickr spokeswoman declined to comment due to a company policy that bars discussing inquiries about individual users.
Alkhateeb says he wasn't actively trying to cover his tracks, but he did want to lay low. He initially had concerns about ... ... connecting his name with anything critical of the president -- especially living in Chicago, where people are "very, very liberal," he said.
"After Obama was elected, you had all of these people who basically saw him as the second coming of Christ," Alkhateeb said. "From my perspective, there wasn't much substance to him."
"I abstained from voting in November," he wrote in an e-mail. "Living in Illinois, my vote means close to nothing as there was no chance Obama would not win the state." If he had to choose a politician to support, Alkhateeb said, it would be Ohio Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich. >>> Mark Milian | Monday, August 17, 2009
YNET NEWS: Germany's Central Council of Jews accuses Prince Hans-Adam II of making a 'mockery' of Holocaust by saying bank secrecy in his principality helped save many Jews during WWII
Germany's Central Council of Jews has accused Liechtenstein's Prince Hans-Adam II of making a "mockery" of the Holocaust by saying bank secrecy in his principality had helped save many Jews during World War II.
The prince made the comments in an interview with the Liechtensteiner Volksblatt newspaper, saying Liechtenstein and Switzerland had "saved the lives of many people, especially Jews" thanks to their bank secrecy laws.
He added Germany "should think about its own past" before attacking Liechtenstein and other countries for banking policies that Berlin says encourage tax dodging.
Germany's Central Council of Jews sharply criticized the comments on Monday, describing them as a misrepresentation of the historical record.
"The comments make a mockery of the Holocaust and those that survived it," Stephan Kramer, general secretary of the Council, told the Bild daily.
"It is an attempt to use the Holocaust as a defense for the prince's political failures. Portraying Liechtenstein as a merciful helper of the Jews does not chime with the historical facts."
Liechtenstein remained neutral during World War II. >>> Reuters | Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Liechtensteiner Volksblatt >>>
LE POINT: L'ancien président réformateur Mohammad Khatami et l'ex-candidat réformateur à la présidentielle Mehdi Karoubi, ont rejoint le "Chemin vert de l'espoir", mouvement récemment lancé par l'un des chefs de file de l'opposition, Mir Hossein Moussavi, selon l'agence Ilna. "Le conseil central du Chemin vert de l'espoir sera formé par un petit groupe de personnes, de cinq à six, parmi lesquelles MM. Khatami et Karoubi", a expliqué Alireza Beheshti, un collaborateur de M. Moussavi, cité par Ilna.
Ce mouvement a été lancé pour poursuivre la contestation de la réélection du président Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a rapporté dimanche le quotidien réformateur Etemad Melli. "Le Chemin vert de l'espoir est constitué pour défendre les demandes légitimes du peuple et l'obtention de ses droits", a expliqué Mir Hossein Moussavi lors d'une réunion, à une date non précisée, avec des membres de l'Association des médecins islamiques, selon le journal. >>> AFP | Mardi 18 Août 2009
FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG: Noch stehen die grauen Holzbänke im Klassenzimmer, und an der Tafel sind die Mathe-Formeln der vergangenen Unterrichtsstunde zu erkennen. Wenig deutet daraufhin, dass in diesem Gymnasium im Herzen Kabuls am Donnerstag 15.000 Hauptstädter ihre Stimmen abgeben sollen. Aber der Schuldirektor ist sicher, dass alles rechtzeitig am Platz sein wird: „Wir werden hier für einen fairen und transparenten Ablauf sorgen“, versichert er - und wagt dann eine Einschränkung: „Was danach mit den Stimmen geschieht, darauf haben wir keinen Einfluss.“
Eine freie und faire Wahl wurde den Afghanen versprochen, aber genau daran wachsen die Zweifel. Seit Wochen häufen sich Vorwürfe und Verdachtsmomente gegen Amtsinhaber Hamid Karzai. Der Präsident ziehe alle Register, um als Sieger aus den Wahlen hervorzugehen, heißt es unter Beobachtern. Von „zu erwartenden Manipulationen“ ist die Rede. Manche gehen sogar soweit, die zweite Präsidentenwahl seit dem Sturz der Taliban als „Farce“ zu bezeichnen.
Ohne Betrug werde Karzai die Wahlen verlieren, sagte sein ernsthaftester Herausforderer, Abdullah Abdullah, Ende vergangener Woche in Kandahar. Am Montag wiederholte der frühere Außenminister seine Vorwürfe, als er in einem Kabuler Stadium seine letzte Wahlkampfrede hielt. „Wenn es keinen Wahlbetrug gibt, dann wird das Volk gewinnen“, „Wenn Eure Stimmen nicht gestohlen werden, werdet Ihr dieser korrupten Regierung ein Ende machen.“
Im Präsidentenpalast werden derartige Vorwürfe zurückgewiesen, und tatsächlich sind bislang nur unbewiesene Meldungen im Umlauf. Wie es heißt, werden derzeit Stimmzettel zu Tausenden verkauft. Im paschtunischen Süden sollen Männer festgenommen worden sein, die ganze Stapel von Stimmkarten im Gepäck hatten. Dorfältesten seien von den örtlichen Wahlbehörden Sammelkarten ohne Identitätsnachweise ausgehändigt worden, heißt es. >>> Von Jochen Buchsteiner, Kabul | Dienstag, 18. August 2009
FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG:
Afghanistan: Wieder Tote bei Selbstmordanschlag in Kabul >>> | Dienstag, 18. August 2009
LE FIGARO: Un an avant sa mort, la reine Élisabeth avait livré sa vision sur la Seconde Guerre mondiale, Margaret Thatcher et l'affaire Diana. Sortie du livre le 17 septembre.
La reine mère parle. Et la Grande-Bretagne tout entière attend avec impatience le livre à paraître dans un mois. Un an avant sa mort en 2002, à l'âge de 101 ans, la reine consort Élisabeth, qui fut l'épouse du roi George VI, avait enregistré des heures de conversation avec un vieil ami, sir Eric Anderson, l'ancien professeur du prince Charles. Une démarche tout à fait inhabituelle dans une famille régnante dont les membres s'expriment le moins possible. Élisabeth n'avait donné qu'une interview dans sa vie, avant son mariage avec George VI. L'entourage et le gouvernement furent horrifiés, et elle ne parla plus jamais à la presse. Ce qui rend encore plus surprenant le choix, par la famille royale, du journaliste chargé d'écrire la biographie officielle de la reine mère. William Shawcross, professionnel réputé, est connu pour ses livres riches en révélations sur Kissinger et la guerre secrète de Nixon au Cambodge.
Élevée par une gouvernante française
Non seulement Shawcross a eu accès aux enregistrements, mais son livre est aussi fondé sur des entretiens avec la reine Élisabeth II et le prince Charles. L'occasion d'éclairer un mystère. Personnage adoré de ses sujets, la reine mère, la «Queen Mum» comme on la surnommait, régnait sur les cœurs sans rien faire d'autre que sourire (une innovation qu'elle apporta à sa nouvelle famille, où ne l'on desserrait pas les dents sur les photos), de porter des chapeaux géants sur des robes pastel à froufrous, et de tenir l'alcool comme un matelot, qualité toujours appréciée outre-manche. >>> Pierre Prier | Jeudi 06 Août 2009
THE INDEPENDENT: He should have been hailed a hero for his wartime codebreaking. Instead he was prosecuted for his homosexuality and took his own life. So why has Britain never said sorry? Jonathan Brown reports
He may have played a pivotal role in securing victory in the Second World War for his country six years earlier, but few outside the academic community would have recognised Alan Turing as he made his way down Manchester's Oxford Street shortly before Christmas in 1951. Someone who did notice the athletically-built scientist, however, was a young working class gay man called Arnold Murray.
Homosexuality was still illegal under the same repressive laws which had sent Oscar Wilde to jail half a century earlier. But regardless of the risk, the chance encounter was to develop into something more substantial and Murray spent a number of nights at the older man's modest home in suburban Wilmslow.
A month later, after Turing, a veteran of the then still secret Bletchley Park code-cracking team, had been giving a talk to the BBC on his pioneering work on artificial intelligence, he returned home to find his house burgled.
The culprit was an acquaintance of Murray's, who would prey on Murray's lovers, thinking they would be so afraid of being outed that they would not report the thefts to the police.
But Turing defied this convention and went straight to the police, where he admitted his affair – a "crime" for which he was spared the normal two-year jail term in favour of a hormonal treatment designed to beef up his masculine urges and suppress his homosexuality. The resulting publicity was to prove too much to bear and in June 1954, the 41-year-old was found dead in bed by his housekeeper. He had eaten an apple he had laced with poison.
The consequences which unfolded were not only a tragedy for Turing, his friends and family, it also robbed the world of one of the greatest thinkers of the 20th century. Now campaigners are demanding an official apology from the Prime Minister Gordon Brown, recognising the "consequences of prejudice that ended his career". More than 700 people have signed a petition started by the leading computer scientist John Graham-Cumming on the Downing Street website, including gay rights campaigners, politicians and scientists.
"What really annoyed me about this was here was a man who died in his early 40s because he was a homosexual. He was a war hero but here was a part of our history that we were turning a blind eye to when we should be celebrating it. There were a lot of homosexual people during the war doing incredible work – if it was not for Turing we would most likely be having this conversation in German," Mr Graham-Cumming said. >>> Jonathan Brown | Tuesday, August 18, 2009
TAGES ANZEIGER: In Bosnien leben seit dem Krieg Hunderte muslimische Eiferer. Liberale Muslime befürchten deshalb, dass die Fanatiker das Zusammenleben gefährden.
Architektonisch wirkt die bosnische Stadt Mostar, als könnten die Religionen hier zusammenleben. Am Ufer der Neretva stehen Moscheen und Kirchen, die im Krieg zerstörte weltberühmte Alte Brücke strahlt in neuer alter Schönheit. Doch politisch bleibt Mostar geteilt: Seit dem Bosnien-Krieg leben die Muslime im östlichen Stadtteil, die katholischen Kroaten im Westen. Nun droht in Mostar eine weitere Spaltung, diesmal in der muslimischen Religionsgemeinschaft. Die Spannungen zwischen islamistischen Fanatikern, die sich als Rechtgläubige bezeichnen, und liberalen Muslimen nehmen zu. Jüngst brach der Streit offen aus: Bei einer Massenschlägerei zwischen einer Gruppe ultrareligiöser Wahhabiten und vermutlich ehemaligen Kämpfern der bosnischen Armee wurde der 34-jährige Magdi Dizdarevic getötet.
Die islamische Gemeinschaft Bosniens bezeichnete den strenggläubigen Dizdarevic als Opfer der Vorurteile und des Hasses gegen die Muslime. Bei der Beerdigung ehrten ihn Glaubensbrüder als islamischen Märtyrer. Einige Wahhabiten sollen laut bosnischen Medien sogar mit Selbstjustiz gedroht haben. Inzwischen bemühen sich angesehene Bürger Mostars um die Beruhigung der Gemüter. 2000 arabische Kämpfer kamen >>> Von Enver Robelli, Zagreb | Dienstag, 18. August 2009
Ladies and gentlemen, please allow me the pleasure of bringing to you the cartoons of the prophet Muhammad, cartoons which the ***** at Yale University Press were too cowardly to bring you. Enjoy! – ©Mark
TIMES ONLINE: Yale University Press was accused of cowardice and censorship yesterday after deciding not to reproduce cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in an academic book for fear of violent reprisals.
This year Yale will publish a scholarly work about reactions to the cartoons printed in a Danish newspaper in 2005, which sparked protests around the world.
But readers will not see the 12 cartoons that are the subject of the book, including one showing Muhammad with a turban like a bomb. In fact, they will not get to see any images of the prophet at all, not even a 19th-century sketch by Gustave Doré.
Yale has decided to publish The Cartoons that Shook the World, by Jytte Klausen, without any likenesses of the Prophet but the howls of protest are all the louder for the fact that there have not been any threats of violence related to the book.
"‘We do not negotiate with terrorists. We just accede to their anticipated demands’. That is effectively the new policy position at Yale University Press,” Cary Nelson, the president of the American Association of University Professors, wrote in an open letter.
Yale took its decision to self-censor after consulting two dozen experts, including counter-terrorism specialists and the highest-ranking Muslim official at the UN.
Yale says that the experts concluded that the book should omit the 12 Danish cartoons but also all illustrations of the Prophet. [sic] including an Ottoman print, a children’s book illustration and the Dore sketch, which portrays Muhammad being tormented in hell in a scene from Dante’s Inferno that has also inspired Botticelli, Blake, Rodin and Dali. >>> James Bone in New York | Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)