Retribution granted to woman who had acid thrown in her face by man she refused to marry In a literal application of the sharia law of an eye for an eye, Iran is ready for the first time to blind a man with acid, after he was found guilty of doing the same to a woman who refused to marry him. Majid Movahedi, 30, is scheduled to be rendered unconscious in Tehran’s judiciary hospital at noon on Saturday while Ameneh Bahrami, his victim, drops acid in both his eyes, her lawyer said. Bahrami who had asked for an eye for an eye retribution in the court, was disfigured and blinded by Movahedi in 2004 when he threw a jar of acid in her face while she was returning home from work. “He was holding a red container in his hand. He looked into my eyes for a second and threw the contents of the red container into my face,” she told the court in 2008. According to Iranian media, Bahrami’s lawyer, Ali Sarafi, has said: “A very good sentence has been given and an appropriate method has been adopted so that the convict will be blinded by few drops of acids in eyes after he is rendered unconscious.” In a highly publicised dossier in November 2008, a criminal court in Tehran ordered qisas (retribution) on Movahedi after he admitted throwing acid at Bahrami, and entitled her to blind him with acid. He was also required to pay compensation to the victim. Bahrami refused to accept the “blood money” and told the court: “Inflict the same life on him that he inflicted on me.” Iranian officials have endorsed the the sentence in the hope of halting an increase in the rate of acid attacks. But human rights activists have warned against an “inhumane” sentence. The British Foreign Office urged Iran to halt the sentence. “The attack on Ameneh Bahrami in 2004 was a horrific crime,” a spokesman said. “However, we are deeply concerned by reports that Majid Movahedi’s sentence of being blinded by having acid dripped into his eyes may be carried out. “The FCO calls on the Iranian authorities to commute this inhumane punishment to an appropriate sentence in line with Iran’s international obligations and to cease the practice of corporal punishment for crimes.” Iranian media have reported that Movahedi will be blinded in both eyes but Bahrami, in an interview in 2009, said that the man would be blinded only in one eye because “each man is worth two women” under Iranian law. “The person who did this deserves to go through the same suffering. Only this way will he understand my pain … my intention is to ask for the application of the law not just for revenge but also so that no other woman will have to go through this. It is to set an example,” Bahrami was quoted by the Spanish newspaper ABC as saying. Bahrami, who has an electronics degree and worked in a medical engineering company before the attack, moved to Spain with the help of the Iranian government where she has undergone a series of unsuccessful operations. She briefly recovered half vision in her right eye in 2007 but an infection blinded her again. Bahrami has recently published a book in Germany, Eye for an Eye, based on her personal life and her suffering since she was blinded. In recent months, human rights organisations have expressed alarm over the unprecedented increase of capital punishment in Iran, which last year executed more people than any other country apart from China. Iran Middle East Human rights Saeed Kamali Dehghan guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Oil Company CEO Tells Senate Hearing: It’s ‘UnAmerican’ To Take Away Oil Company Subsidies
May 13, 2011 No CommentYou’d think Sen. Chuck Schumer would know the answer by now : Because they want those breaks. Because they think they deserve it, and anyone who says no to them is un-American. Kicking the unemployed, cutting social programs? Fine with big business and their Republican handmaidens. But touching oil company subsidies is a very bad thing! ConocoPhillips, one of the world’s largest and most profitable oil companies, yesterday said it’s “un-American” to take away taxpayer subsidies from the oil industry . This wasn’t a verbal slip; the comment was put in a press release. Congressional Democrats weren’t pleased, and at a Senate Finance Committee hearing featuring executives from all of the major oil companies, Dems sought an apology. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) repeatedly pressed ConocoPhillips CEO Jim Mulva on this point, but there were no regrets from the oil man. SCHUMER: I want to ask you a specific question, do you think anyone who advocates cutting these subsidies is un-American? Yes or no, sir. That one we deserve a yes or no answer on, it was your release that said “un-American.” Yes or no? MULVA: Senator, maybe you can hear me out on this because it’s a very important question. SCHUMER: Do you apologize for it? MULVA: Make no mistake, were these proposals enacted … they would place U.S. oil companies like our company … SCHUMER: Sir, I have limited time. I know your view. Do you consider it American to have another view? Yes or no? MULVA: Senator, I believe policies under consideration are going to have a very adverse impact with respect to energy policy . SCHUMER: There are many people who disagree with that. We all know by now it has nothing to do with facts, and everything to do with the right of multinational corporations to rape and pillage — which is why they hate it when they’re confronted with the facts: Trying to counter Republican claims that ending some tax breaks for the five largest oil companies would ultimately hurt consumers, Democrats are now armed with a Congressional Research Service report that predicts a negligible impact on the price of gasoline if the changes are carried out. . The document, sent to Senator Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat and majority leader, said that with the cost of oil over $100 per barrel, “ prices are well in excess of costs, and a small increase in taxes would be less likely to reduce oil output , and hence increase petroleum product (gasoline) prices.” In a review of the five specific tax changes being advocated by Democrats, the research service also said that tightening the tax code would make a very small dent in the huge revenues of the industry and that the price of oil hinged on many other, larger considerations.
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“If public opinion is against [the U.S.], then I cannot resist it to stand with you. I have to go with public opinion.” — YOUSUF RAZA GILANI, Pakistan’s Prime Minister, arguing that there’s a “trust deficit” between his state and the U.S. and, being an elected official and not an “army dictator,” he must listen
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Ethiopian man tells UN refugee agency two military vessels refused to rescue boatload of migrants, many of whom died The crew of a naval vessel took photographs of African migrants begging for help from a broken-down boat adrift on the Mediterranean but refused to offer any assistance, a survivor told the UN refugee agency. The account, given to the UN high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) by an Ethiopian survivor now in a Tunisian camp, confirms a Guardian report on Sunday and adds new details that make clear western military forces off the Libyan coast were well aware of the plight of the migrants they failed to help. “We passed by a military big boat,” one of the survivors, an ethnic Oromo, told a UNHCR official. “We wanted to go with them as it looked safer than staying in our boat, but they refused [to allow us to board] their boat. We also saw a military helicopter flying above us. “A second helicopter flew above us and threw biscuits and water at us. Then we passed by a second military boat, but they did not rescue us – they just took pictures of us from their boat.” The refugees’ boat set off from Libya on 25 March carrying 50 men, 20 women and two small children. When the boat washed up back on the Libyan coast only 11 were left alive after 15 days at sea without food or drinkable water. A woman survivor died on the beach and the remaining 10 men were arrested by the Libyan authorities and put in jail, where another of the men died. “People were dying every day on board, from dehydration, sun stroke, hunger,” the Ethiopian survivor told the UNHCR. “When some of us realised others were about to die, we were trying to pay more attention to them, to comfort them. We were keeping the bodies one or two days, hoping to reach a coast and give them a proper burial and prayers, but also sometimes we did not know if they were really dead or just in a coma. After two days and no coast in view, we had to throw the bodies overboard as they were starting to smell bad.” Nato repeated its denial that warships under its command were involved. A spokesman said there were two reports from Nato ships about migrant boats in distress in the week in question, and both were offered help. Nato also said a Romanian ship under alliance command helped another boatload of 150 migrants on Thursday night, fixing their engine, mending a leak and providing food. Nato said the defective boat in this latest incident was “allegedly provided by Libyan military officials and crewed by three Syrians”. There have been allegations that the regime in Tripoli has been using migrants as a propaganda weapon , deliberately allowing them to leave in unseaworthy vessels. The US, France, Germany and Spain all have warships off the Libyan coast that are not formally taking part in Nato operations there. None has admitted being involved in the incident described by the survivors. Melissa Fleming, the UNHCR spokeswoman, said: “We are hugely concerned that boats are encountering other boats in distress at sea but are doing nothing. There is a legal obligation to carry out rescue at sea.” According to the account given to the UNHCR, the Oromo survivor was one of three Ethiopian men on the boat. They had paid smugglers $800 (£495) to make the sea voyage to Europe, although the migrants were expected to operate the boat on their own. They had to pay a further $900, provided by Ethiopian friends, to get out of the Libyan prison, from where they crossed the border into Tunisia. According to the UNHCR, a total of 12,505 migrants have arrived in Italy from Libya since March. There have been 130 arrivals in Malta. At least 800 – possibly many more – are believed to have drowned making the crossing. Refugees Libya Middle East Africa Julian Borger guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …How to Deal with Republican Hostage Takers: Make the GOP Cough Up the Details to Slash Medicare
May 13, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media I guess the Compressional Republicans are feeling pretty good right now about their brinksmanship in the debt ceiling debate. At this snapshot of time, their extreme hard line message is resonating with majority of Americans , who do not seem to have a detailed understanding about the stakes of not raising the ceiling. No wonder Senator Mitch McConnell is out there blustering – insisting that Democrats must agree to “significant changes” in Medicare in exchange for raising the debt ceiling. The easy way to expose these guys to American public is to force them to caught up their plans in public instead of letting them hide behind their childish soundbites. Jed pointed out how McConnell and his crazy band of Congressional Republicans are bluffing : Obviously, Republicans are bluffing. Their financial backers would be furious if they refused to raise the debt ceiling and touched of a global economic crisis. So Democrats shouldn’t take the GOP threats of economic terror too seriously. Steve Benen lays out the options for both sides in light of McConnell’s predictable GOP hooliganism “strategy”: That leaves Republican leaders with two choices to get what they want. Option #1: the GOP can agree to some tax increases and Pentagon cuts as part of a grand bargain with Democrats. Option #2: the GOP can threaten to destroy the economy, on purpose, unless Democrats give in to Republican demands on entitlements. Guess which one the GOP prefers? Neither McConnell nor Boehner have been willing to speak publicly about exactly what’s on the GOP’s ransom note, but that’s part of the game, too — they’re keeping things vague so they can wait and see how far Democrats will go to fill in the blanks. With that in mind, the White House is also effectively left with two options. Option #1: tell Republicans there will be no deal and when the economy crashes, it will be their fault. Option #2: tell the GOP negotiations can proceed after Republican leaders start adding details to their own ransom note . Aahaa. There is a reason I highlighted that second option. Follow me after the split. Even the Politico, which is basically a house organ for the Congressional GOP, noted that Boehner is ” dodging specifics on debt limit cuts “: What does Speaker John Boehner want out of the debt ceiling vote? It’s now unclear, as Boehner is avoiding any specifics, dodging questions three days after calling for “trillions” in cuts. Here’s a snapshot: In a Thursday briefing with the Capitol Hill press corps, Boehner said he didn’t “want to tie myself down” on budget process reforms, refused to “lock myself into” a time frame for the trillions of dollars in savings he’s seeking. He declined to respond to whether tax increases and offsetting the debt limit hike are completely non-negotiable bargaining positions. Now is the time for Democrats to put all out pressure and make Boehner and McConnell cough up the details on their planned cuts. Make them caught up the details on how they envision gutting medicare and other programs, and hang those around their necks. We have already seen how these guys can get easily flustered if you put a little pressure on them and force them to deal with facts . Democrats need to keep pushing them to cough up their plans on how they want to cut the deficit. Make them spell out the details on their plan to gut medicare. Now is the perfect time to turn that heat up even more.
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Rachel Cowles ‘was scared and in tears’ after turning down lift from man said to be Levi Bellfield A schoolgirl whom double murderer Levi Bellfield allegedly tried to entice into his car the day before Milly Dowler disappeared told a court the incident left her scared and in tears. Rachel Cowles, now 21, was 11 and bore an “uncanny resemblance” to Milly when a man in a red car, claiming to be a new neighbour, offered her a lift as she walked home from school. She refused and the car drove off after a police car passed in the opposite direction, the Old Bailey was told. When she got home she looked but could not see the car parked outside any neighbouring houses. After her mother phoned police, she burst into tears as she spoke to a police operator. “I felt scared. I suddenly realised the enormity of what had happened,” she told the jury. Rachel, who was wearing school uniform and had her hair in a ponytail, was walking home from school alone in Shepperton – three miles from where Milly vanished in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, the next day. Milly’s unclothed body was found 25 miles away in Yateley Heath Wood, Hampshire, six months later. Bellfield, 43, a former club doorman, formerly of West Drayton, west London, denies the kidnap and murder of Milly, aged 13, on 21 March 2002, and the attempted abduction of Rachel the previous day. Recalling the incident nine years ago, Rachel Cowles said a red car pulled alongside her around 3.30pm that day. The passenger window was wound down and the driver leaned towards her. “I remember him saying, ‘Hello, I’ve just moved in next door; would you like a lift home?’
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Internet users suspect government is interfering with method they have been using to tunnel under the ‘Great Firewall’ Chinese internet users suspect that their government is interfering with the method they have been using to tunnel under the “Great Firewall” to prevent them connecting with the outside world. Sites such as search engine Google and news site MSN have become difficult to access, they say. And a number of universities and businesses have begun warning their users not to try to evade the firewall. Since 6 May, a number of users says that internet connections via China Telecom, the largest telephone company, and China Unicom have become “unstable”, with intermittent access when trying to access sites in foreign countries using a “virtual private network” (VPN) – a preferred method of evading the blocks put up by China’s censors to external sites. Even Apple’s app store has been put off-limits by the new blocks, according to reports. The disruption has mainly affected corporate connections such as universities while home connections that use standard broadband systems have been unaffected, according to the prominent Chinese technology blogger William Long . Normally traffic flowing over VPN connections is secure because it is encrypted, meaning that the Chinese authorities were unable to detect what content was flowing back and forth over it. A VPN connection from a location inside China to a site outside China would effectively give the same access as if the user were outside China. Sites including Twitter and Facebook are blocked in China; by using a VPN linked to an outside “proxy” which acts a conduit for links to other sites, a China-based internet user could access either site directly from their computer without the authorities being able to monitor them. But this month that appears to have changed. According to Global Voices Advocacy , a pressure group that defends free speech online, the disruption follows new systems put in place in the “Great Firewall” – in fact monitoring software on the routers that direct internet traffic within and across China’s borders. The new software appears to be able to detect large amounts of connections being made to overseas internet locations. The problem has become so bad that some universities and businesses have told their users not to try to use VPNs, and only to visit “work-related” sites; to do otherwise could lead to “trouble” for the company and the users involved. China’s approach to internet connectivity has been a bone of contention between it and the international community for years. Google dithered over the fact that it would have to censor its search results in order to function inside the country; in January 2010 it withdrew from China’s mainland over allegations of state-sponsored hacking of its Gmail service . The US secretary of state Hilary Clinton has criticised the use of the Great Firewall, and earlier this week the US said it would provide $30m of funding to break web censorship in repressive regimes, and added that China had a “deplorable” human rights record and that it was a “fool’s errand” to try to hold off democratic changes such as those sweeping the Middle East. Internet China Charles Arthur guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Tea Party Activists denounce Mitt Romney as a ‘walking hypocrite’ for the GOP Presidential Candidate in 2012
May 13, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media Mitt Romney gave a speech yesterday praising his own health care plan in MA and then denounced it at the same time and then promised to abolish HCR if he’s elected as the next President. It’s been pretty entertaining watching Romney come up with idiotic excuses why he’s against Obama’s health care since parts are so similar to his own. He’s flip flopped so many times on a host of issues that hard core Tea Party activists like Katrina Pierson of Texas wants nothing to do with his candidacy and said as much to Tamryn Hall on MSNBC’s NewsNation. Hall: Is he trying to reinvent the past? Pierson: It seems that he’s trying to reinvent the past, but the reality of the situation is that Romney’s sequel is that I apologized instead of no apology simply because now he’s a walking hypocrite . Hall: So basically you do not see him as a person I assume from those words should run for President to represent the Republicans against President Obama? Pierson: No, absolutely not. The base of this movement, the conservative base the tea party movement, they’re 100% against any type of government health care, RomneyCare, ObamaCare, it’s all the same to us. He has not once apologized for what he did and he will not admit that he was wrong … She also said that the Republican party should be aware that they won’t come out and vote for him in 2012 and they should listen to the base. Most Republican insiders believe Romney is their best hope for the upcoming election since the current field looks like they are contestants from a 1970′s game show . Slate: In 2008, the so-called authenticity problem dogged him over his switchback positions on social issues such as abortion. Now it’s health care. Where does the Mitt Romney who signed health care reform in Massachusetts with an individual mandate end, and where does the one denouncing President Obama’s health care reform with an individual mandate begin? — Substantively, Romney was also confusing. When Romney makes the case for what worked in Massachusetts, the uninitiated are likely to wonder why such a success shouldn’t be a national model—like the one President Obama signed. Democratic spokesman Brad Woodhouse joked in a tweet to his colleague Hari Sevugan “Romney is making a great case for national health reform. Book him on cable tonight? As for Romney’s speech, Ezra Klein shares some thoughts: So Romney is also saying that it’s un-American for the federal government to pass and impose an individual mandate. A violation of the 10th Amendment, don’cha know. His problem, of course, is that he didn’t mention the 10th Amendment when he, like so many other Republicans , was praising, passing and selling both state-based and national individual mandates in the 1990s and early-aughts. So how exactly is he going to sum this up for the Republican primary? “The individual mandate is great policy, but as president, I pledge to oppose it”? “I believe in states’ rights first and a functional health-insurance market second”? As for the rest of the speech, it was vague and contradictory in the same places as his op-ed, so my analysis from yesterday holds up. Vote for me because I’ll repeal something I believe and passed, but I only passed it because I used my constituents as lab rats like Doctor Moreau did to test it out on my state. I’d never do that to other subjects. Are you confused? So are Republican voters.
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“It is edgy to have people on the mainstream of Hollywood who celebrate cop killers,” but it's quite another thing when the president of the United States invites such a person like rapper Common to the White House for a poetry event, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell told Fox News's Sean Hannity last night. Although Common wrote a rap song defending a convicted cop killer and has been known to be critical of interracial dating, the media largely ignored the controversial figure to protect President Obama from another Rev. Wright-like row, Bozell noted. [See video after the page break or click here for MP3 audio ] “Imagine President Bush inviting two people in one night to the White House that were against interracial relationships,” Hannity posited, arguing the media would have reacted negatively as well they should have. In addition to the Common controversy, the Media Research Center founder discussed President Obama's poll numbers returning back to earth following the bin Laden bounce, illustrating the dopiness of
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Ira Cohen, who died last month at the age of 76, is renowned for his Mylar Chamber images, in which he photographed Jimi Hendrix and others in his New York loft apartment. Here we take a look at his life’s work
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