Always wanted to prove just how popular you are on Facebook? Try wearing your friends on your sleeve. Literally. In this video, a woman has her 152 Facebook friends tattooed on her arm. The whole process takes two weeks and leaves her with a colorful statement of just how friendly she is. YouTube user Suzyj87,
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Government troops unleashed a barrage of rockets and mortars against rebels outside of Misrata, followed by an infantry assault Muammar Gaddafi’s forces have responded to Nato’s intensified aerial bombardment of Tripoli by launching a heavy attack on rebel positions outside the liberated city of Misrata. Government troops unleashed a barrage of Grad rockets and mortars against rebel positions to the east, west and south of Misrata early on Wednesday morning, and followed up with an infantry assault. By mid-afternoon, the Hikma hospital reported 10 rebel fighters dead and 26 wounded. The attack came as Liam Fox, the defence secretary, expressed increasing frustration with the slow progress of the western-led military campaign, forcefully telling fellow Nato ministers at a meeting in Brussels they should contribute more. The attack on Libya’s third biggest city was the heaviest since loyalist forces were overwhelmed there in April, and came a day after Nato pounded military sites in Tripoli from the air. It was the heaviest 24 hours of bombing yet in the capital, with the alliance conducting 66 strike sorties. The targets struck in and around the city included six command and control centres, two anti-aircraft guns, a radar system and a vehicle storage facility, according to Nato. The worst damage occurred at Gaddafi’s Bab al-Aziziya compound, where several buildings were destroyed, sending giant plumes of smoke into the sky. Bombing continued on Wednesday morning, but with less intensity. Gaddafi, who is in hiding in the capital and has rarely been seen or heard from in recent weeks, reacted with fury to the attack, insisting he would fight to end in an audio broadcast on state television. Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said 31 people – soldiers, guards, and civilians – had been killed in Tuesday’s bombing raids, and described Nato as “the forces of evil”. The casualty figure could not be independently verified. In an attempt to show that Nato had struck non-military targets, government minders on Wednesday morning took journalists to see a “nature reserve”, occasionally used by Gaddafi to entertain guests, which had been hit the previous evening. The missiles had destroyed two trucks, one of them very large, a golf cart, a large tent and several containers, including one that had computer equipment and a paper shredder inside. Officials were unable to explain what the vehicles were doing on a nature reserve, or why there were windsocks nearby, which appeared to suggest the presence of an airfield. The surge in the number of attacks on targets in Tripoli, which follows the incorporation of attack helicopters into Nato’s mission on the weekend, is a clear attempt to end the military stalemate on the ground and hasten Gaddafi’s exit. Nearly four months into the conflict, rebels control large parts of eastern Libya, a string of towns in the western mountains, near the border with Tunisia, as well as Misrata. Opposition fighters there said they had repelled Wednesday’s attack by government forces. “Our will is stronger than theirs,” said Sadik Ibrahim Mohammed, an injured rebel fighter. “The Shebab [rebels] have the heart. The Gaddafi soldiers ran away.” But the various frontlines are all still some way from Tripoli, where the regime still has a tight grip on the population. The Libyan government says that the escalated aerial campaign against Gaddafi had gone far beyond the mandate of protecting civilians, a point some critics of the operation outside Libya agree with. Fox told a meeting of Nato ministers: “I firmly believe that we must intensify our pressure on the regime and it is imperative our military commanders have the assets and capabilities they need to do the job all of us around this table have asked of them: to defeat those regime elements which continue to threaten civilians.” He added: “Let me be frank. Nato is not just about military hardware. It is also about values. And those values are not an optional extra.” Libya Middle East Muammar Gaddafi Nato Arab and Middle East unrest Xan Rice Richard Norton-Taylor guardian.co.uk
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A fire official in Arizona says they have the resources needed to successfully combat a massive blaze that has scorched an area larger than the size of Phoenix. (June 8)
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Captain Paul Watson and his crew of volunteer conservationists are back for a fourth season of Animal Planet’s popular show ‘Whale Wars’ and are claiming some victory in their efforts to end Japanese whaling. (June 8)
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WebMD discusses ways to help determine what you can expect when it comes to your final height.
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Questions arise over identity of lesbian feminist blog’s author after apparent kidnapping by security forces US embassy officials in Syria are urgently seeking to establish further details about Amina Abdallah Araf al Omari – who according to a post on her blog, A Gay Girl in Damascus , was abducted by security forces on Monday evening – as questions emerged over the identity of the blogger. According to the blog, which has gained a growing following in Syria and further afield since popular protests against the government began in March, Araf was snatched by three armed men on a Damascus street and has not been heard from since. The update was signed by Rania O Ismail, who said she was Araf’s cousin. The blogger, who writes of her life as a lesbian feminist participating in the protests, has said that her mother is American and she is a joint US-Syrian citizen. Angela Williams from the US embassy in Damascus told the Guardian that US officials had not been able to confirm any of the details in the blog, and had no records of someone of that name living in Damascus. “We and our colleagues in Washington are continuing to attempt to ascertain more information about Ms Araf, including confirmation of her citizenship. We are unable to make a consular representation to the Syrian authorities on Ms Araf’s behalf without first determining that she is a US citizen.” Other questions have arisen over the identity of the blog’s author. A London woman, Jelena Lecic, issued a statement saying that photographs that had been published and widely circulated as being of Araf were in fact of her. The Guardian removed a picture after it received a complaint from Lecic, replacing it with another image supplied directly to the paper last month by the blog’s author. That picture has also been removed following a second complaint from Lecic, pending an investigation. Emails to an address supplied by Ismail have not met a response and the Guardian has been unable independently to verify Araf’s identity or that of her parents, in Syria or the US. No individual has been identified who can confirm they have met Araf or spoken to her by Skype or telephone. Activists in Syria frequently take elaborate steps to conceal their identities, often communicating by Skype or secure email rather than meeting face to face and using pseudonyms or multiple identities. At least 750 activists have been killed by security forces since the uprising began. Tal al-Mallouhi, a 20-year-old Palestinian-Syrian blogger from Homs, was sentenced to five years in jail in February, accused of spying for the US. Other bloggers and dissidents have faced similar fates. The Guardian last month published an interview with the blog’s author , conducted by a Damascus journalist who wrote under the pseudonym Katherine Marsh. Marsh was given an email for the blogger by a trusted Syrian contact, and suggested in extensive email correspondence that they meet in person or talk by Skype. The contact had never met Araf. Araf, who according to blogposts was living on the run, agreed to meet Marsh in person but did not turn up for the rendezvous. In later emails she said she had been followed, and so aborted the meeting. Araf told Marsh that Skype had been blocked, which was why she was unable to communicate by that means. The site is not blocked in Syria but was blocked from download, according to Marsh. On an earlier blog, dated December 2007, the author wrote she would post “samples of fiction and literature I am working on. This blog will have what may sometimes seem likely deeply personal accounts. And sometimes they will be. But there will also be fiction. And I will not tell you which is which.” Some experts on gay communities in the Middle East say that much on the blog feels authentic, but others have expressed unease about some of the details outlined in individual posts. Dan Littauer, executive editor of GayMiddleEast.com, told the Guardian his colleagues in Damascus were seeking to verify Araf’s identity, but were sceptical about the details of some incidents, including an account of security services turning up to arrest her but being sent away by her father. Sandra Bagaria, a Canadian who said she was an online friend of the blogger, told the New York Times that she had never met Araf or spoken to her on Skype, but said she had spoken to Ismail after Araf’s disappearance. Paula Brooks, the American executive editor of the blog Lezgetreal.com, which hosted several postings under Araf’s byline dating from before the uprising in Syria, said she too had corresponded only by email with the blogger. A search of the IP address on which Araf contacted Brooks can be traced to a server in Edinburgh, but the trail also leads to a number of untraceable servers. Activists keen to obscure their identities frequently use “proxy” servers to disguise the source of their postings. A number of internet sites appear to lend credence to the blogger’s story, but are extremely difficult to verify independently. Abandoned sites on Myspace and Linkedin appear to belong to the same person, as does a cached lesbian dating site page dated to 2007, in which “almondeyez” describes herself as “the coolest, sexiest half-Arab SF loving geek girl you’ll ever meet”. Many details on the sites are consistent with those outlined on the blog. A Facebook page apparently belonging to Ismail has also been identified. A post of erotic poetry, dating from 2007, is bylined Amanda L McClure, the “American” name which Araf says on her blog she could have taken (she identifies her mother as Caroline McClure Araf). It is not unusual for genuine bloggers writing under pseudonyms to face questions over the authenticity of their voice, including Salam Pax, the “Baghdad Blogger” who wrote a column for this newspaper and was a genuine Iraqi writer. A number of prominent blogs, including Plain Layne, supposedly the diary of a bisexual young woman, have been exposed as elaborate fictions, however. That blog was written by a man, Odin Soli, who now calls himself a writer of “online fiction”. The administrator of the Facebook page Free Amina Araf posted the following update: “At the time this site was created, there was no reason to doubt her authenticity of the story … We think it is possible that the writer of the blog is indeed in custody, in which case, it is important to continue to support her. Many people in Syria are forced to use alternative identities to protect themselves.” Syria Middle East Blogging Digital media Arab and Middle East unrest Newspapers & magazines Esther Addley Nidaa Hassan guardian.co.uk
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Institutions including Harvard and Vanderbilt reportedly use hedge funds to buy land in deals that may force farmers out Harvard and other major American universities are working through British hedge funds and European financial speculators to buy or lease vast areas of African farmland in deals, some of which may force many thousands of people off their land, according to a new study. Researchers say foreign investors are profiting from “land grabs” that often fail to deliver the promised benefits of jobs and economic development, and can lead to environmental and social problems in the poorest countries in the world. The new report on land acquisitions in seven African countries suggests that Harvard, Vanderbilt and many other US colleges with large endowment funds have invested heavily in African land in the past few years. Much of the money is said to be channelled through London-based Emergent asset management, which runs one of Africa’s largest land acquisition funds, run by former JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs currency dealers. Researchers at the California-based Oakland Institute think that Emergent’s clients in the US may have invested up to $500m in some of the most fertile land in the expectation of making 25% returns. Emergent said the deals were handled responsibly. “Yes, university endowment funds and pension funds are long-term investors,” a spokesman said. “We are investing in African agriculture and setting up businesses and employing people. We are doing it in a responsible way … The amounts are large. They can be hundreds of millions of dollars. This is not landgrabbing. We want to make the land more valuable. Being big makes an impact, economies of scale can be more productive.” Chinese and Middle Eastern firms have previously been identified as “grabbing” large tracts of land in developing countries to grow cheap food for home populations, but western funds are behind many of the biggest deals, says the Oakland institute, an advocacy research group. The company that manages Harvard’s investment funds declined to comment. “It is Harvard management company policy not to discuss investments or investment strategy and therefore I cannot confirm the report,” said a spokesman. Vanderbilt also declined to comment. Oakland said investors overstated the benefits of the deals for the communities involved. “Companies have been able to create complex layers of companies and subsidiaries to avert the gaze of weak regulatory authorities. Analysis of the contracts reveal that many of the deals will provide few jobs and will force many thousands of people off the land,” said Anuradha Mittal, Oakland’s director. In Tanzania, the memorandum of understanding between the local government and US-based farm development corporation AgriSol Energy, which is working with Iowa University, stipulates that the two main locations – Katumba and Mishamo – for their project are refugee settlements holding as many as 162,000 people that will have to be closed before the $700m project can start. The refugees have been farming this land for 40 years. In Ethiopia, a process of “villagisation” by the government is moving tens of thousands of people from traditional lands into new centres while big land deals are being struck with international companies. The largest land deal in South Sudan, where as much as 9% of the land is said by Norwegian analysts to have been bought in the last few years, was negotiated between a Texas-based firm, Nile Trading and Development and a local co-operative run by absent chiefs. The 49-year lease of 400,000 hectares of central Equatoria for around $25,000 (£15,000) allows the company to exploit all natural resources including oil and timber. The company, headed by former US Ambassador Howard Eugene Douglas, says it intends to apply for UN-backed carbon credits that could provide it with millions of pounds a year in revenues. In Mozambique, where up to 7m hectares of land is potentially available for investors, western hedge funds are said in the report to be working with South Africans businesses to buy vast tracts of forest and farmland for investors in Europe and the US. The contracts show the government will waive taxes for up to 25 years, but few jobs will be created. “No one should believe that these investors are there to feed starving Africans, create jobs or improve food security,” said Obang Metho of Solidarity Movement for New Ethiopia. “These agreements – many of which could be in place for 99 years – do not mean progress for local people and will not lead to food in their stomachs. These deals lead only to dollars in the pockets of corrupt leaders and foreign investors.” “The scale of the land deals being struck is shocking”, said Mittal. “The conversion of African small farms and forests into a natural-asset-based, high-return investment strategy can drive up food prices and increase the risks of climate change. Research by the World Bank and others suggests that nearly 60m hectares – an area the size of France – has been bought or leased by foreign companies in Africa in the past three years. “Most of these deals are characterised by a lack of transparency, despite the profound implications posed by the consolidation of control over global food markets and agricultural resources by financial firms,” says the report. “We have seen cases of speculators taking over agricultural land while small farmers, viewed as squatters, are forcibly removed with no compensation,” said Frederic Mousseau, policy director at Oakland, said: “This is creating insecurity in the global food system that could be a much bigger threat to global security than terrorism. More than one billion people around the world are living with hunger. The majority of the world’s poor still depend on small farms for their livelihoods, and speculators are taking these away while promising progress that never happens.” United States Africa Hedge funds Investing Aid John Vidal Claire Provost guardian.co.uk
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State troopers escorted a mother and her goslings along a Washington highway on Wednesday. (June 8)
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Associated Press sports writer Rob Maaddi says wide receiver Plaxico Burress is not in the plans of the Philadelphia Eagles. Burress was released from prison Monday after serving nearly two years for a gun charge. (June 8).
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