Random News Stories

[Junkenstein]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-22245873

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni has publicly handed a sack containing about $100,000 (£66,000) in cash to a youth group, raising questions about how the money will be spent.

The donation was broadcast on national television, with many social media comments condemning it.

"There should have been a system to make sure the youth spend the money properly," said analyst Peter Magelah.

A minister said giving the money in public would ensure transparency.

Mr Museveni pledged to help the group during the 2011 election campaign.

This is practically a cartoon. Would open record keeping not better serve transparency? Where did the sack of cash come from in the first place? Who's cash was it? Apparently this is done so "The youth can see who has their money" for various schemes.

No potential problems with that I'm sure.

[Junkenstein]

Things you would never see in the US:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22289456

Current policy on illegal drugs creates victims of crime and more prisoners at a cost to taxpayers, the Prison Governors Association (PGA) has argued.

It says blanket prohibition of Class A drugs allows criminals to control the quality and supply of them to addicts, who turn to crime to fund their habits.

The PGA has signed up to the international Count the Costs campaign against an enforcement-led approach.

The Home Office said drugs were illegal "because they are dangerous".

PGA president Eoin McLennan-Murray said it believed "a substantial segment of the prison population have been convicted of low-level acquisitive crimes simply to fund addiction".

"The current war on drugs is successful in creating further victims of acquisitive crime, increasing cost to the taxpayer to accommodate a higher prison population and allowing criminals to control and profit from the sale and distribution of Class A drugs," he said.

"A fundamental review of the prohibition-based policy is desperately required and this is why the Prison Governors Association are keen to support the Count the Costs initiative."

'Futility of approach'
Count the Costs co-ordinator Martin Powell said PGA members witnessed "the day-to-day futility of the UK's current enforcement-led approach to drugs".

"Increasingly, those involved in picking up the pieces of our failed war on drugs want to see alternatives to prohibition explored," he said.

He also called on the government to commission a comprehensive policy review "as a matter of urgency".

Naturally nothing will be done and this is another group that can be safely ignored. It's just nice to see people point out the obvious occasionally.

[P3nT4gR4m]

Things you would never see in the US:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22289456

Current policy on illegal drugs creates victims of crime and more prisoners at a cost to taxpayers, the Prison Governors Association (PGA) has argued.

It says blanket prohibition of Class A drugs allows criminals to control the quality and supply of them to addicts, who turn to crime to fund their habits.

The PGA has signed up to the international Count the Costs campaign against an enforcement-led approach.

The Home Office said drugs were illegal "because they are dangerous".

PGA president Eoin McLennan-Murray said it believed "a substantial segment of the prison population have been convicted of low-level acquisitive crimes simply to fund addiction".

"The current war on drugs is successful in creating further victims of acquisitive crime, increasing cost to the taxpayer to accommodate a higher prison population and allowing criminals to control and profit from the sale and distribution of Class A drugs," he said.

"A fundamental review of the prohibition-based policy is desperately required and this is why the Prison Governors Association are keen to support the Count the Costs initiative."

'Futility of approach'
Count the Costs co-ordinator Martin Powell said PGA members witnessed "the day-to-day futility of the UK's current enforcement-led approach to drugs".

"Increasingly, those involved in picking up the pieces of our failed war on drugs want to see alternatives to prohibition explored," he said.

He also called on the government to commission a comprehensive policy review "as a matter of urgency".

Naturally nothing will be done and this is another group that can be safely ignored. It's just nice to see people point out the obvious occasionally.

Heh! Luckily for us, the guys in charge are complete fucking retards. Prohibition is here to stay. Ka-ching! 

[Junkenstein]

UK press response to attemped reform : NO U

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22294722

A number of newspapers are to publish a proposal for self-regulation backed by royal charter, after rejecting plans from the main political parties.

The government and Labour Party agreed to a royal charter last month in response to Lord Justice Leveson's report on press standards and ethics.

They said an independent watchdog would be set up by royal charter with powers to issue fines and demand apologies.

But newspapers argue that they had no say in the final discussions.

According to a statement released by the Newspaper Society on behalf of a number of national and local newspapers, they said the royal charter published by the government on 18 March had been condemned by a "range of international media freedom organisations" and enjoys "no support within the press" in the UK.

"A number of its recommendations are unworkable and it gives politicians an unacceptable degree of interference in the regulation of the press," warned the statement.

The clusterfuck continues with no sign of progress on any front. This should only drag on for a couple more years before being quietly killed.

[Junkenstein]

Palesitinian Marathon encounters problems:

http://www.policymic.com/articles/37037/bethlehem-marathon-thrown-by-palestinians-can-t-find-26-miles-to-run-on

Hundreds of people braved the freezing rain and blistering winds on Sunday to participate in the West Bank's first marathon. The race, also called the Right to Movement, was held to successfully demonstrate two things — the first, to show what peaceful resistance looks like, and second, to show how difficult the simple task of finding 26.2 miles (or 42 kilometers) of contiguous land under occupied Palestine is. The marathon was also successful in demonstrating that until Israel lets go of its hard-line stance on the Palestinian occupation and allow Palestinians their basic freedoms, any solution to the conflict will be nearly impossible to reach.

Unsurprisingly, Israel's actions had already given the runners yet another reason to demonstrate against the occupation before the race could even take place — last week, around 26 runners from the Gaza Strip were unable to participate in the marathon, having been denied permission to travel to the West Bank by the COGAT, the Israeli defense ministry unit that is responsible for coordinating civilian issues with Palestinians.

According to COGAT, "The request of 26 Gaza residents to take part in the Bethlehem marathon was examined by the relevant authorities and it was decided to reject the request because it does not fall within the determined criteria for crossing from Gaza to the West Bank."

The only time Gaza residents can travel to the West Bank, where their fellow estranged Palestinians reside, is only if there is an exceptional humanitarian reason or an urgent medical issue.

In a statement, the organizers of the marathon lamented the difficulties of finding a mere 26-mile stretch under occupied Palestine, saying, "The EU and the U.S. talk about a two-state solution, an independent Palestine – but we cannot find the 42 kilometers needed for a marathon. Not 42 kilometers of an area, which [is] supposed to be an independent state [that is] controlled by the Palestinian themselves."

Palestinians, they added, "do not have a state, and their lands are controlled by a foreign army — that army controls their movement with roadblocks, checkpoints, military zones, an illegal wall and a complex set of discriminatory laws."

And the organizers of the marathon are right. Although everyone has the right to movement, it is clear from the Palestinian's plight that not everyone has the option to movement. Until this vital component of self-determination is granted to the Palestinians, the U.S. and EU's calls for a two-state solution are meaningless.

An elegant way to highlight the issue.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I continue to find Israel ironically evil.

[Junkenstein]

It's such a basket of crazy/evil, It fascinates me.

This :
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Extreme-Rambling-Walking-Separation-Barrier/dp/0091927811/ref=la_B001JRUXM8_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1367022598&sr=1-1

And the stageshow that he did a while ago was excellent. Well worth a read.

As is pointed out, it's the constant barrage of little impediments on freedom that become noticeable. These restrictions become normalised and then new ones imposed. Resistance is met with further restrictions.

Maybe the new pope will sort shit out.

[P3nT4gR4m]

I continue to find Israel ironically evil.

My (admittedly oversimplified) view is of the cycle of abuse, acted on a state-level. The Jews got herded into ghettos, then camps by ze Germans and now it's their turn to do it to the Palestinians.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I continue to find Israel ironically evil.

My (admittedly oversimplified) view is of the cycle of abuse, acted on a state-level. The Jews got herded into ghettos, then camps by ze Germans and now it's their turn to do it to the Palestinians.

Yeah, basically. And this time, instead of feeling compelled to stop them, we feel compelled to support them, because we basically set them up in this situation.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I continue to find Israel ironically evil.

My (admittedly oversimplified) view is of the cycle of abuse, acted on a state-level. The Jews got herded into ghettos, then camps by ze Germans and now it's their turn to do it to the Palestinians.

Yeah, basically. And this time, instead of feeling compelled to stop them, we feel compelled to support them, because we basically set them up in this situation.

Also, they are our "allies", though they've never helped us at all.  Mostly, I think, because they are in our minds "white people" in a very "scary neighborhood" (ie, non-white and angry).

[Junkenstein]

This will end well:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-22349239

An Israeli settler has been killed by a Palestinian at a bus stop in the northern West Bank, police say.

The attack took place at Tapuah Junction, near the city of Nablus, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

Reports say the Palestinian stabbed the man before grabbing his gun and shooting him. The attacker was shot and wounded by security forces, police say.

Palestinians and Israeli troops have clashed recently in the West Bank, but fatal attacks on settlers are rare.

Mr Rosenfeld said the Palestinian attacked the Israeli from behind, stole his weapon and then shot him at close range.

Israeli media reports say the Palestinian shot at security forces when they arrived at the scene. The man was shot and wounded by border police before being arrested.

[Junkenstein]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22315469

The biggest cocaine smugglers in Europe are the 'Ndrangheta, a mafia from the "toe of Italy", Calabria. They may not be as well known as their Sicilian counterparts but their drugs and extortion business is worth billions of euros. When cornered their bosses hole up in secret bunkers.

I don't think I've ever been so relieved to see sunlight. Since dead of night I had been crawling through tunnels strewn with rat excrement, personal effects and the paraphernalia of the cocaine business.

The dust and damp were choking. How long had I been underground? Four hours? Five? Eight? Then at last, filthy, tired, and disorientated, I surfaced into a gorgeous mountain landscape, and a breeze bearing the perfume of wild oregano.

I felt as if I had just escaped a brush with insanity, with evil.

The tunnels were in the town of Plati, on Aspromonte, the "harsh mountain" that dominates the landscape at the very toe-tip of Italy's boot.

Plati has been notorious for a century as a stronghold of the 'Ndrangheta, the Calabrian mafia.

Its bosses are among the world's leading cocaine traffickers, and they have particularly strong links to the 'Ndrangheta's outposts in Australia.

But recently they have not been having things their own way.

Pursued by a newly determined police, the 'Ndranghetisti constructed an astonishing network of secret hiding places under the streets and houses.

It is virtually a parallel city, an underworld Plati where bunkers located behind sliding staircases, hidden trapdoors and even inside a pizza oven are linked by endless tunnels.

There is a kind of madness to the bunkers of Plati.

Even the deepest and best-concealed bolt-holes have secret escape routes within them.

The tunnels merge and separate, feed into the sewer system, and branch out again for hundreds of metres, emerging right outside town, amid the bushes of a dry river bed.

Now the tunnels have been discovered, and left to the curiosity of rats and mafia historians like me.

[Junkenstein]

Saudi Arabia acting calmly and rationally:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-22355376

Police in Saudi Arabia say they have shot and wounded a man wanted over his involvement in protests in a restive province in the east of country.

The interior ministry said Abdullah al-Asrih was one of two men arrested after a gun battle in the town of Qatif.

The ministry said both men were wounded in their legs.

There have been low-level protests for more than a year in the Qatif region of Eastern Province, where most of Saudi Arabia's Shia Muslim minority live.

Mr Asrih, a Shia, was on a list of 23 suspects wanted in connection with the protests, which broke out in February 2011.

A security spokesman said Mr Asrih and the second man were involved in the selling of drugs and alcohol, both of which are banned in the conservative kingdom.

No prizes for guessing the likely penalty for these horrific crimes.

[Junkenstein]

People... People who eat people....

Newly discovered human bones prove the first permanent British settlers in North America turned to cannibalism over the cruel winter of 1609-10, US researchers have said.

Scientists found unusual cuts consistent with butchering for meat on human bones dumped in a rubbish pit.

The four-century-old skull and tibia of a teenage girl in James Fort, Virginia, were excavated from the dump last year.

James Fort, founded in 1607, was the earliest part of the Jamestown colony.

The evidence is absolutely consistent with dismemberment and de-fleshing of this body," said Doug Owsley, a forensic anthropologist at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC.

Written documents had previously suggested the desperate colonists resorted to cannibalism - but the discovery of the 14-year-old girl's bones offers the first scientific proof.

"It's somebody doing what they had to do," said Dr Owsley of the cannibalism.

Are the hungrieeeeest people in the world.....

edit- linkage http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22362831

[Cain]

Or possibly not:

While the flashiest modern headlines about cannibalism are confined to the depraved (Dorangel Vargas and Jeffrey Dahmer) or the desperate (the Uruguyan rugby team who crashed in the Andres in 1972), stories of European cannibalism during the middle ages celebrated its supposed fierceness and utility.

Survival cannibalism with a sprinkling of simple greed is one thing, but the chroniclers cannot help but note the propagandistic utility of the idea of cannibalism because it strikes such fear in enemy hearts: "The Saracens and Turks reacted thus: 'this stubborn and merciless race, unmoved by hunger, sword, or other perils for one year at Antioch, now feasts on human flesh; therefore, we ask, 'Who can resist them?'" The infidels spread stories of these and other inhuman acts of the crusaders, but we were unaware that God had made us an object of terror." Thus the first major encounter between Christians and Muslims was coloured - in fact and folklore - by European cannibalism.

All I'm saying is 1609 is a lot closer to the Crusades than the modern world, in many ways.