Allegation follows Libyan leader’s speech railing against Nato’s air strikes and insisting he will win conflict Nato has accused Muammar Gaddafi of using mosques and children’s parks as shields after the Libyan leader taunted the alliance in an address broadcast to protesters in Tripoli. In a speech piped through loudspeakers to a few thousand people demonstrating in Green Square, Gaddafi railed against Nato’s intensified air strikes in the capital. “Nato will be defeated,” Gaddafi yelled in a hoarse, agitated voice to the crowd. “They will pull out in defeat.” Nato spokeswoman Oana Lungescu dismissed Gaddafi’s speech as propaganda, and countered claims from Libya’s prime minister on Friday that the alliance was deliberately targeting civilian buildings. “We are saving countless lives every day across the country,” she said. “We are conducting operations with utmost care and precision to avoid civilian casualties. Civilian casualties figures mentioned by the Libyan regime are pure propaganda.” She also accused Gaddafi and his regime of “systematically and brutally attacking the Libyan people”, saying government forces “have been shelling cities, mining ports and using mosques and children’s parks as shields”. Nato has been ramping up the pressure on Gaddafi’s entrenched regime. Though most air strikes happen at night, daytime raids have grown more frequent. Officials on Saturday took journalists to visit a university building that the government claims was hit by a Nato air strike. Students and staff told reporters that an explosion that tore a hole in a three-story building housing classrooms and offices happened sometime on Friday, though accounts differed on the timing. No one was reported injured or killed. One English-speaking student interviewed by the Associated Press was told what to say in Arabic by a plainclothes government official standing nearby. The campus sits a few hundred meters from what appears to be a military installation. The building that was damaged was an aging concrete structure next to what students said were new university buildings under construction. Libya’s health ministry released new casualty figures that put the number of civilians killed in Nato air strikes up until 7 June at 856. There was no way to independently verify the figure and previous government-announced tolls from individual strikes have proven to be exaggerated. Nato Muammar Gaddafi Libya Arab and Middle East unrest Middle East Africa guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Bill Press: Obama’s Acting Like Bush, ‘And We Are All Engaged In One More Illegal War’
June 18, 2011 No Comment
Hand it to Bill Press. He's one of the rare liberals who's upset at Obama's dismissal of the War Powers Act. On his radio show Thursday, Press went after the White House claims that there were no American “hostilities” in Libya that Congress needs to ratify:
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With the school holidays in sight, we pick exciting and good-value family holidays in Britain or just a short flight away All prices are for July/August and based on a family of four Alpine activity, France Coastal Europe hikes up its prices for July and August, but head for the mountains and you can bag yourself some great deals in the ski resorts, where summer is classed as low-season. Esprit Holidays has expanded its range of Family Alpine Summer Adventures, offering accommodation in family-friendly chalet hotels with the option of childcare and multi-activity packages. The Chalet Hotel Mariandre is an Alpine-style property in the French resort of Alpe d’Huez, a short walk from the town’s swimming pools, ice rink and Palais du Sport leisure centre. Adults and older children can choose from daily activities such as zip-wiring, rafting, mountain biking, hiking, glacier safaris and pony trekking, while younger children are looked after in the on-site nursery and Alpies Club. • A week full-board in July at the Chalet Hotel Mariandre with Esprit Holidays (01252 618300, espritfamilyadventures.com ) costs from £599 for a family of four. A five-day multi-activity package costs from £135 for adults, £113 for children. Return rail travel from London to Grenoble for a family of four costs from £428 with Rail Europe ( raileurope.co.uk ) Farm glamping, Leicestershire Children will love the chance to help out on the farm while parents will appreciate the home comforts of their cosy canvas cottages at this new “glampsite”. The Dandelion Hideaway at Osbaston House Farm on the edge of the National Forest ( nationalforest.org ) opened only recently so there is still availability for the summer. The five luxury “cottages” are kitted out in vintage country style with butler sinks,
Continue reading …Light aircraft piloted by James Balmer and carrying wife Jacqueline crashes near Monaco in French Riviera A British pilot and his wife have died after their small plane crashed into a mountain near the French Riviera. James and Jacqueline Balmer are understood to have set off from Italy and were making their way towards Troyes, some 100 miles south east of Paris, before they were killed. The wreckage of their light aircraft was discovered yesterday on Mont Agel, between the port of Menton and the principality of Monaco. A spokesman for the Nice-Montagne prefecture said the crash happened early on Friday afternoon. Plane crashes France Europe guardian.co.uk
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Games giant Sega sends email to users to say email addresses, dates of birth and passwords have been accessed Sega has become the latest computer games giant to fall prey to hackers after warning users of its Sega Pass system that some of their personal information may have been stolen. The company sent an email on Friday to say that email addresses, dates of birth and encrypted passwords had been accessed by hackers, but that no financial information was at risk. The Sega Pass system was taken offline on Thursday and all users’ passwords have been reset. Customers have been advised to be on the alert for suspicious emails asking for further personal information. The hacking group Lulz Security appeared to deny involvement, despite leading a wave of recent cyber-attacks such as that on Sony. A tweet using the account @LulzSec said: “@Sega – contact us. We want to help you destroy the hackers that attacked you.” In April, Sony had data stolen from the 77 million users of the PlayStation network , one of the worst security breaches of its kind. There was then a second attack when another 24.6 million computer game users might have had their personal details stolen. Personal information and passwords were taken in another hack on Codemasters earlier this month, but not financial details. The email from Sega to customers said: “We have identified that unauthorised entry was gained to our Sega Pass database. “We immediately took the appropriate action to protect our consumers’ data and isolate the location of the breach. We have launched an investigation into the extent of the breach of our public systems. “We have identified that a subset of Sega Pass members emails addresses, dates of birth and encrypted passwords were obtained. To stress, none of the passwords obtained were stored in plain text. “Please note that no personal payment information was stored by Sega as we use external payment providers, meaning your payment details were not at risk from this intrusion.” Hacking Games Data and computer security Internet Computing guardian.co.uk
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The prime minister, George Papandreou, reshuffles cabinet but vows to push on with deeply unpopular austerity measures Thousands of Greeks have marched on parliament in a show of renewed public anger after the prime minister, George Papandreou, reshuffled his cabinet and vowed to push on with deeply unpopular austerity measures. In a move aimed at stifling dissent in his Socialist party, Papandreou on Friday dismissed his finance minister, George Papaconstantinou, who masterminded the five-year austerity programme that has sparked weeks of protests. The reshuffle coincided with a pledge by France and Germany to continue funding Athens, a move that may have bought Greece and its fellow euro zone members time to prevent a messy default, even if doubts over its longer-term solvency persist. The European Union and International Monetary Fund have made the reforms a condition for a new bailout package worth an estimated €120bn ($170bn) that Greece, shut out of capital markets, will need to fund itself through 2014. Around 5,000 protesters from the Communist group Pame marched into Athens’ central Syntagma square, where demonstrations turned violent earlier this week, chanting “the measures are killing us!”. French activists also performed with a 3m puppet depicting a bloodied figure of Lady Justice to rhythmic drumming in a gesture of solidarity with Greek protesters who have camped in the square for three weeks. “What has changed with the reshuffle? Nothing,” said Costas, a 22-year-old student who has been camping on the square since the beginning of the month. “We are not planning to leave unless they take back the measures.” Papandreou appeared to curb a revolt in his party by including some of the austerity package’s harshest critics in the new administration, but that might also weaken the reforms. He named political heavyweight Evangelos Venizelos, his biggest party rival, as finance minister. Shortly after his nomination, Venizelos said he would travel to Brussels on Sunday to ask lenders to allow some “improvements … for social justice” in the reform package. On the same day, euro zone finance ministers are expected to agree to release a 12 billion euro tranche of an existing, year-old bailout loan that Greece needs to pay back debt maturing in July and August and avoid default. “They’ve bought themselves time until September,” said Howard Wheeldon, strategist at BCG Capital Partners in London. “Germany and France are the main countries involved here, and neither of them are going to let the euro fail, and they’re not going to let Greece fail.” Luxembourg’s Jean-Claude Juncker, the chairman of the euro zone finance ministers’ Eurogroup, criticised German pressure to involve bondholders, telling a German newspaper this has pushed up the cost of the bailout. Successful negotiations over a new aid package for Greece are vital to the economic health of the euro zone, Juncker said. “We are playing with fire,” he said, adding that in the worst case, ratings agencies could declare a default leading to dire consequences for the currency union. Papandreou’s new cabinet is expected to survive a parliamentary confidence vote on Tuesday night, and then approve a package which envisages €28bn in tax hikes and spending cuts by 2015. But Greek media were less certain about implementation, an issue that dogged Venizelos’s predecessor when he struggled to meet deficit targets agreed with Greece’s bailout lenders. “Greece needs a strong government. But does it need a strong government to finally implement what has been agreed with the EU or to break these deals?,” columnist Yiorgos Karipidis wrote in main Greek financial daily Imerisia. Greece Europe Euro European Union Economics European debt crisis European banks guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Rep. Louis Gohmert says Obama has more of an allegiance to the Muslim Brotherhood than America
June 18, 2011 No CommentRepublican rodeo clown Rep Louie Gohmert really has tried hard to take the lead from Reps Steve King and Michele Bachmann for saying the most egregious things coming out of the House of Representatives. Speaking on the House floor yesterday, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) charged that the Obama administration had been “complicit in helping people who want to destroy our country” and speculated that a mistake then-Senator Obama made on the campaign trail in 2008 might have been an admission that the president’s loyalties are actually with the Organization of the Islamic Conference. GOHMERT: And I know the President made the mistake one day of saying he had visited all 57 states, and I’m well aware that there are not 57 states in this country, although there are 57 members of OIC, the Islamic states in the world. Perhaps there was some confusion whether he’d been to all 57 Islamic states as opposed to all 50 U.S. states. But nonetheless, we have an obligation to the 50 American states, not the 57 Muslim, Islamic states. Our oath we took is in this body, in this House. And it’s to the people of America. And it’s not to the Muslim Brotherhood, who may very well take over Egypt and once they do, they are bent upon setting up a caliphate around the world, including the United States. And this administration will been [ sic ] complicit in helping people who wants [ sic ] to destroy our country. As Political Corrrection mentioned, Gohmert even attacked sainted Gen. Petraeus for condemning the insane Florida pastor for holding a Quran burning ceremony because of the hate it would stir up. The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan said the planned burning of Qurans on Sept. 11 by a small Florida church could put the lives of American troops in danger and damage the war effort. Gen. David Petraeus said the Taliban would exploit the demonstration for propaganda purposes, drumming up anger toward the U.S. and making it harder for allied troops to carry out their mission of protecting Afghan civilians. “It could endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort,” Gen. Petraeus said in an interview. “It is precisely the kind of action the Taliban uses and could cause significant problems. Not just here, but everywhere in the world we are engaged with the Islamic community.” We gotta be careful not to promote Sharia law, don’t you know? Gohmert even accused Gen. David Petraeus of implicitly endorsing Sharia by speaking out against a planned burning of the Quran by a Florida-based pastor. As Gohmert saw it, Petraeus’ warning against the burning was effectively saying that “we need to subvert Americans’ First Amendment rights to Sharia.”
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Helen Cowie tells radio show she helped her son Robert take his own life in Switzerland Police are considering the circumstances surrounding the death of a man whose mother took him to the Swiss euthanasia clinic Dignitas to help him take his own life. Helen Cowie told a radio chat show how she helped her son Robert, 33, kill himself after he was left paralysed from the neck down. Cowie, of Cardonald in Glasgow, told BBC Radio Scotland’s Call Kaye programme how her son went to Dignitas in October and “had a very peaceful ending”. A Strathclyde police spokeswoman stressed that there was no investigation at present, but said the matter was “being given consideration in an effort to establish the circumstances”. Cowie said her son was once a “big fit healthy boy” who went training four times a week. He was reportedly paralysed in a swimming accident three years ago. She said: “His life was terrible. He suffered every single day. He couldn’t do anything for himself but sit there. He was just a head and just didn’t want to be like that any more.” She described Monday’s BBC documentary Choosing to Die, presented by author Terry Pratchett, who has Alzheimer’s, as “brilliant” and empathised with the mother who helped her disabled son to die in the television soap Emmerdale. She described the Dignitas experience as “wonderful, relaxed, peaceful and happy”, and said her son died to strains of the Oasis song Listen Up. The song includes the line: “One fine day I’m gonna leave you all behind. It wouldn’t be so bad if I had more time.” She said: “We were in Zurich for four days with my three sons and his friend, and one of my sons said it was the happiest he had seen his brother in three years. “I would rather have been able to do it in this country. That really upsets me that I had to take my son to Switzerland, and I had to leave his body there and wait for the ashes to come back. “It should be allowed here, but not willy-nilly to everybody. It should be investigated hard because you have to be in a sane mind to have it done.” Cowie added: “We are a very close family. We asked him not to do it but it was his decision. “As a mum, your first reaction is that you don’t want them to do it. “There’s a scene going on in Emmerdale right now, and I would have loved to have done what that woman had done but I couldn’t because my son didn’t want me to get into trouble so the only option was to go to Switzerland with him. “That’s what he wanted and nobody could change his mind. We tried everything to change his mind, because he wasn’t a burden, and I am a carer. He just wanted to end his life. He was really unhappy.” Cowie said after his death “the first thing that came to my mind was peace”. She added: “He was at peace, because he was tormented in the body that he was in.” Assisted suicide Scotland guardian.co.uk
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Italian child killer tells American student’s appeal hearing that fellow convict Rudy Guede gave him information in prison A convicted child murderer has told an Italian court that he has information clearing Amanda Knox of the killing of British student Meredith Kercher. Giving evidence at the American student’s appeal hearing in Perugia, Mario Alessi recounted a confession made to him in prison by Rudy Guede, who was also convicted of killing the 21-year-old. The Ivory Coast national confided in him that Knox and her Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were innocent, Alessi said. Knox, 23, from Seattle, is appealing against her conviction and 26-year prison sentence for the murder of her University of Leeds student housemate in November 2007. Sollecito, 26, who was sentenced to 25 years for the murder, is also trying to clear his name, and Alessi was called by his defence. Alessi told the court that Guede made his claim about the pair’s innocence in November 2009 during recreation time at the Viterbo prison. Guede, who was convicted in separate proceedings from Knox and Sollecito, denies the claim. Kercher, from Coulsdon in Surrey, was studying in Perugia when she was found with her throat slit in her bedroom at the house she shared with Knox and others. Prosecutors said the murder followed a sex game that went too far. Amanda Knox Italy guardian.co.uk
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