Monsoon rains have flooded large parts of Pakistan’s southern Sindh province over the last six weeks, killing more than 200 people and displacing more than 1.8 million, according to the United Nations. (Sept. 19)
Continue reading …
If you’re not familiar with The Westboro Baptist Church, it’s a hate group seemingly masquerading as a religious organization based in Topeka, Kansas. It has only 71 members, mostly from the same family, and they’re known for tastelessly traveling across the U.S. and protesting against homosexuality and gay rights at the funerals of fallen U.S. soldiers. Foo Fighters “Perform” for Westboro Baptist… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Open Culture Discovery Date : 19/09/2011 15:54 Number of articles : 3
Continue reading …If you’re not familiar with The Westboro Baptist Church, it’s a hate group seemingly masquerading as a religious organization based in Topeka, Kansas. It has only 71 members, mostly from the same family, and they’re known for tastelessly traveling across the U.S. and protesting against homosexuality and gay rights at the funerals of fallen U.S. soldiers. Foo Fighters “Perform” for Westboro Baptist… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Open Culture Discovery Date : 19/09/2011 15:54 Number of articles : 3
Continue reading …
Cicciolina to get €39,000 a year for serving one term as an MP in Italy’s Radical party She is famed for being the first woman to uncover her breasts live on Italian television, for recording a song entirely about the male organ, and for offering sex to Osama bin Laden (in return, she said, for giving up the terrorism). But now Ilona Staller, better known as Cicciolina, is the unlikely centre of a bitter row over the cost to ordinary Italians of the perks enjoyed by their country’s tens of thousands of politicians. It emerged on Monday that the Hungarian, who starred in almost 40 hardcore pornographic movies, will soon be enjoying a €39,000-a-year (£34,000-a-year) pension, provided by the taxpayers of her adoptive homeland. The stipend, which is for life, is her reward for labouring as a member of parliament for all of five years, from 1987 to 1992. Staller was elected for the libertarian Radical party and sponsored a number of mainly sex-related bills, including one to set up “love parks and hotels”. Her entitlement is no different from that of any other one-term politician in Italy. But their pensions have come under resentful scrutiny at a time when politicians are seeking painful sacrifices from the rest of society to prevent a Greek-style debt crisis: last week, parliament gave final approval to an austerity package that includes an increase in VAT and provision for big cuts in income tax allowances. Commenting on news of Staller’s pension on the website of the daily Corriere della Sera, one reader said the country’s politicians “got rich doing almost nothing” and cared little about “people who work: people who often struggle to make ends meet and pay their taxes by doing real work”. But the former porn star, who will start to get the pension in November when she turns 60, told the Guardian: “I earned it and I’m proud of it.” She said that during her five years in parliament she had tabled 12 bills including measures to introduce sex education in schools, give prisoners conjugal visits and ban vivisection. None had made it on to the statute book, but in those days, she said, it required a couple of parliaments to get bills passed. “All politicians who are ex-members of parliaments get pensions for life and I think it is fair that I should too,” Staller said. According to one recent estimate, Italy’s cohorts of politicians cost the taxpayers almost €1.3bn a year. With four levels of government – national, regional, provincial and municipal – the country has an inordinately large number of elected representatives. But that has not stopped them from giving themselves a distinctly comfortable lifestyle. According to the Italian parliament website, the gross salary of a member of the lower house is €140,000 a year plus an attendance allowance of up to €42,000 and a contribution towards expenses of up to €63,000. They are also entitled to free public transport, free air and sea travel within Italy and exemption from motorway tolls. Italy Europe European debt crisis John Hooper guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Cicciolina to get €39,000 a year for serving one term as an MP in Italy’s Radical party She is famed for being the first woman to uncover her breasts live on Italian television, for recording a song entirely about the male organ, and for offering sex to Osama bin Laden (in return, she said, for giving up the terrorism). But now Ilona Staller, better known as Cicciolina, is the unlikely centre of a bitter row over the cost to ordinary Italians of the perks enjoyed by their country’s tens of thousands of politicians. It emerged on Monday that the Hungarian, who starred in almost 40 hardcore pornographic movies, will soon be enjoying a €39,000-a-year (£34,000-a-year) pension, provided by the taxpayers of her adoptive homeland. The stipend, which is for life, is her reward for labouring as a member of parliament for all of five years, from 1987 to 1992. Staller was elected for the libertarian Radical party and sponsored a number of mainly sex-related bills, including one to set up “love parks and hotels”. Her entitlement is no different from that of any other one-term politician in Italy. But their pensions have come under resentful scrutiny at a time when politicians are seeking painful sacrifices from the rest of society to prevent a Greek-style debt crisis: last week, parliament gave final approval to an austerity package that includes an increase in VAT and provision for big cuts in income tax allowances. Commenting on news of Staller’s pension on the website of the daily Corriere della Sera, one reader said the country’s politicians “got rich doing almost nothing” and cared little about “people who work: people who often struggle to make ends meet and pay their taxes by doing real work”. But the former porn star, who will start to get the pension in November when she turns 60, told the Guardian: “I earned it and I’m proud of it.” She said that during her five years in parliament she had tabled 12 bills including measures to introduce sex education in schools, give prisoners conjugal visits and ban vivisection. None had made it on to the statute book, but in those days, she said, it required a couple of parliaments to get bills passed. “All politicians who are ex-members of parliaments get pensions for life and I think it is fair that I should too,” Staller said. According to one recent estimate, Italy’s cohorts of politicians cost the taxpayers almost €1.3bn a year. With four levels of government – national, regional, provincial and municipal – the country has an inordinately large number of elected representatives. But that has not stopped them from giving themselves a distinctly comfortable lifestyle. According to the Italian parliament website, the gross salary of a member of the lower house is €140,000 a year plus an attendance allowance of up to €42,000 and a contribution towards expenses of up to €63,000. They are also entitled to free public transport, free air and sea travel within Italy and exemption from motorway tolls. Italy Europe European debt crisis John Hooper guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Heavy rain and thick cloud hamper relief effort after more than 100,000 homes in India, Nepal and Tibet were damaged Rescuers trying to reach villages cut off by mudslides after a powerful earthquake killed at least 63 people and damaged more than 100,000 homes in India, Nepal and Tibet are battling heavy rain and thick cloud. Thousands of soldiers and rescue workers continued to pull victims from rubble as the number of deaths climbed to 35 in the north-eastern Indian state of Sikkim, site of the epicentre of the 6.9-magnitude quake that rattled through the Himalayas on Sunday night. Thick cloud prevented helicopters from flying over parts of the affected areas, but some mountain passes blocked by landslides were reopened, police said. “The earthquake has loosened the hill faces, and when it rains, it causes landslides. So the situation is still very dangerous,” said Deepak Pandey, a spokesman for the Indo-Tibetan border police. More than 400 people had been rescued overnight, he said, including some in the worst-hit area of Pegong in the north. Although it may take days for the final number of fatalities to be confirmed, border police said they did not think the death toll would rise significantly. More than 6,000 troops have been drafted in to clear concrete slabs, bricks and mud and reach scores of people trapped under collapsed houses. India’s home secretary, Raj Kumar Singh, said that airforce helicopters had dropped food to villages, airlifted a medical team, evacuated the injured and conducted damage assessments. Heavy construction equipment had also been used to clear some of the blocked roads. “The rescue and relief operations are in full swing, though they were hampered … by poor weather,” he said, “[but] there may still be villages where people are trapped under collapsed houses that we have not been able to reach.” Singh said that at least 10 of those who died in Sikkim worked for the same hydroelectric project. At least 13 other people were killed in the neighbouring Indian states of Bihar and West Bengal, he added. Eight people died in Nepal, and China’s official Xinhua news agency reported seven deaths in Tibet. Most of the deaths occurred when houses already weakened from recent monsoon rains collapsed because of the force of the quake. By midday on Monday, workers had managed to clear landslides from one lane of the main highway connecting Sikkim with the rest of India, and an initial convoy of 75 paramilitaries had started moving toward Mangan, the village closest to the quake’s epicentre, officials said. In Gangtok, Sikkim’s capital, 42 miles south-east of the epicentre, police said they had cordoned off the office of the state’s top elected official after the building was severely damaged. TV footage showed buckled buildings, cracked pavements and two major roads collapsed. Shops, businesses and offices were closed in the town and neighbouring settlements, and many areas remained without electricity. Water supplies were scarce because of burst pipes and telephone communication was patchy. Nepal’s government said at least eight people died there, including two men and a child who were killed when part of the perimeter wall of the British embassy compound in Kathmandu collapsed. A spokesman for the UK Foreign Office confirmed the incident, adding that it “deeply regrets” the death of the three Nepali citizens and the injuries to others. “The ambassador met with and offered his condolences to the local community on Sunday evening and met with relatives of the victims on Monday[yesterday] morning,” he said. “The embassy will continue to do everything possible to help the local community and the government of Nepal.” In West Bengal, utility workers toiled through the night to restore power to a large swath of the state which plunged into darkness after power lines were snapped. The earthquake, which was followed by several aftershocks, was felt as far away as the Indian capital. An official from the UN’s disaster management team in New Delhi said that humanitarian assistance would still be needed even if casualties turned out to be low, as people who lost their homes would need food and shelter. The region has been hit by major earthquakes in the past, including in 1950 and 1897. Natural disasters and extreme weather China India Nepal Tibet Sam Jones guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Heavy rain and thick cloud hamper relief effort after more than 100,000 homes in India, Nepal and Tibet were damaged Rescuers trying to reach villages cut off by mudslides after a powerful earthquake killed at least 63 people and damaged more than 100,000 homes in India, Nepal and Tibet are battling heavy rain and thick cloud. Thousands of soldiers and rescue workers continued to pull victims from rubble as the number of deaths climbed to 35 in the north-eastern Indian state of Sikkim, site of the epicentre of the 6.9-magnitude quake that rattled through the Himalayas on Sunday night. Thick cloud prevented helicopters from flying over parts of the affected areas, but some mountain passes blocked by landslides were reopened, police said. “The earthquake has loosened the hill faces, and when it rains, it causes landslides. So the situation is still very dangerous,” said Deepak Pandey, a spokesman for the Indo-Tibetan border police. More than 400 people had been rescued overnight, he said, including some in the worst-hit area of Pegong in the north. Although it may take days for the final number of fatalities to be confirmed, border police said they did not think the death toll would rise significantly. More than 6,000 troops have been drafted in to clear concrete slabs, bricks and mud and reach scores of people trapped under collapsed houses. India’s home secretary, Raj Kumar Singh, said that airforce helicopters had dropped food to villages, airlifted a medical team, evacuated the injured and conducted damage assessments. Heavy construction equipment had also been used to clear some of the blocked roads. “The rescue and relief operations are in full swing, though they were hampered … by poor weather,” he said, “[but] there may still be villages where people are trapped under collapsed houses that we have not been able to reach.” Singh said that at least 10 of those who died in Sikkim worked for the same hydroelectric project. At least 13 other people were killed in the neighbouring Indian states of Bihar and West Bengal, he added. Eight people died in Nepal, and China’s official Xinhua news agency reported seven deaths in Tibet. Most of the deaths occurred when houses already weakened from recent monsoon rains collapsed because of the force of the quake. By midday on Monday, workers had managed to clear landslides from one lane of the main highway connecting Sikkim with the rest of India, and an initial convoy of 75 paramilitaries had started moving toward Mangan, the village closest to the quake’s epicentre, officials said. In Gangtok, Sikkim’s capital, 42 miles south-east of the epicentre, police said they had cordoned off the office of the state’s top elected official after the building was severely damaged. TV footage showed buckled buildings, cracked pavements and two major roads collapsed. Shops, businesses and offices were closed in the town and neighbouring settlements, and many areas remained without electricity. Water supplies were scarce because of burst pipes and telephone communication was patchy. Nepal’s government said at least eight people died there, including two men and a child who were killed when part of the perimeter wall of the British embassy compound in Kathmandu collapsed. A spokesman for the UK Foreign Office confirmed the incident, adding that it “deeply regrets” the death of the three Nepali citizens and the injuries to others. “The ambassador met with and offered his condolences to the local community on Sunday evening and met with relatives of the victims on Monday[yesterday] morning,” he said. “The embassy will continue to do everything possible to help the local community and the government of Nepal.” In West Bengal, utility workers toiled through the night to restore power to a large swath of the state which plunged into darkness after power lines were snapped. The earthquake, which was followed by several aftershocks, was felt as far away as the Indian capital. An official from the UN’s disaster management team in New Delhi said that humanitarian assistance would still be needed even if casualties turned out to be low, as people who lost their homes would need food and shelter. The region has been hit by major earthquakes in the past, including in 1950 and 1897. Natural disasters and extreme weather China India Nepal Tibet Sam Jones guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Backstage at the Primetime Emmy Awards, winners talk about their awards and reflect on some of the evening’s highlights. (Sep. 19)
Continue reading …
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has suggested that time has run out for the international community to talk him out of seeking UN recognition of a Palestinian state. (Sept. 19)
Continue reading …Ever wonder what it would be like to fly around the globe? Check out this time-lapse video from the International Space Station, which Radiolab describes as providing a “Superman-esque view of the planet.” The video begins over the Pacific Ocean and then moves over North and South America and Antarctica, according to science educator James
Continue reading …