Reuters | Jan 3, 2010

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq will help victims of the 2007 shooting of civilians in Baghdad to file a U.S. lawsuit against employees of security firm Blackwater, an incident that turned a spotlight on the United States’ use of private contractors in war zones.

Last week, a U.S. judge threw out charges against five guards accused of killing 14 Iraqi civilians at a Baghdad traffic circle, saying the defendants’ constitutional rights had been violated.

Iraq called that decision “unacceptable and unjust” and, as well as supporting a lawsuit brought by Iraqis wounded in the shooting and families of those killed, it will ask the U.S. Justice Department to review the criminal case, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said on Sunday.

“The government will facilitate a lawsuit from Iraqi citizens to sue the guards and the company in a U.S. court,” he said.

The guards from Blackwater Worldwide, now known as Xe Services, say they shot across a crowded intersection in self-defense after hearing an explosion and gunfire.

But an Iraqi whose young son was killed in the incident said they indiscriminately fired at cars.

The shooting strained relations between Washington and Baghdad and became a symbol for many Iraqis of foreigners’ disregard for their lives.

Dabbagh said the court had “rejected the case on form, and not on its merits.”

Following the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, private guards protecting U.S. personnel were given immunity from prosecution in Iraqi courts. That ended with a bilateral agreement that took effect last year.

The five guards were charged in a U.S. federal court with 14 counts of manslaughter, 20 of attempting to commit manslaughter and one weapons violation. A sixth Blackwater guard pleaded guilty to charges of voluntary manslaughter and attempting to commit manslaughter, and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

Dabbagh said Iraq was conducting an investigation into whether current or former Blackwater employees were still operating in the country, including with other firms.

He said Iraq did not want them on its soil, but did not say whether they would be expelled.

“We do not want any member of this company, which committed more than one crime in Iraq, to work in Iraq.”

In a speech to Iraq’s parliament on Sunday, lawmaker Omar al-Jubouri suggested a way the government could retaliate for the decision of the U.S. courts.

“Ask the Iraqi courts to release all the (Iraqi) defendants … sentenced to death for killing Americans in Iraq, as an act of reciprocity with the U.S. judicial system,” he said.

(Reporting by Mohammed Abbas; writing by Missy Ryan; editing by Angus MacSwan)

radiovop.com | Dec 28, 2009

Masvingo – Zimbabwean farmers are withholding their farm produce in protest of an influx of cheap Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) products into the country.

Commercial Farmers Union (ZCFU) acting president Robert Marapira blasted government for allowing  GMOs in the country, saying they were putting farmers out of business.

“Farmers have agreed to stop selling their products to government through Grain Marketing Board (GMB) because of the GMOs. We have been thrown out of business, as farmers we also want to make profits out of our business but we can not do anything because the government has
allowed the GMOs,” said Marapira.

Marapira said Mashonaland East alone was withholding more than 600 000 tones of maize. “There are thousands of tonnes of farm produce in all provinces. Each province has an average of over 600 000 tonnes which did not go to GMB as farmers complain over poor prices for their products.”

According to Zimbabwean laws, it is illegal to manufacture GMOs in the country, however, the law does not ban the importation of such foods.

Marapira said one tonne of GMOs of maize goes for about USd 60,  which is ten times less than the money which is needed by farmers for the same quantity.

Protesters hold a picture of dissident Liu Xiaobo during a demonstration at China’s Liaison Office in Hong Kong on Friday. MSNBC

Chinese dissident gets 11 years for subversion

Western nations, rights groups decry sentence over call for political change

MSNBC | Dec 25, 2009

BEIJING – A Chinese court sentenced a prominent dissident to 11 years on Friday — the longest term ever handed down for subversion charges, according to rights groups that say it signals the government will take an increasingly hard line against activists in the year ahead.

The sentencing of Liu Xiaobo, after he called for sweeping political changes and an end to Communist Party dominance, also drew diplomatic criticism, with the United States saying it went against international norms.

Liu was the co-author of an unusually direct appeal for political liberalization in China called Charter 08. He was detained just before it was released last December. More than 300 people, including some of China’s top intellectuals, signed it.

The verdict was issued at the No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court in Beijing after a two-hour trial Wednesday in which prosecutors accused Liu of “serious” crimes.

The vaguely worded charge of inciting to subvert state power is routinely used to jail dissidents. Liu could have been sentenced to up to 15 years in prison under the charge.

A San Francisco-based human rights group, the Dui Hua Foundation, said it was the longest sentence that it knew of since the crime of inciting subversion was established in 1997.

The state-run Xinhua news agency only reported the news in English — a sign the government does not want its people to know about Liu’s case. Instead, the top Xinhua headline in Chinese declared 2009 a year of “citizens’ rights.”

U.S., European Union urge release
The United States and European Union have repeatedly urged Beijing to free Liu.

“We are deeply concerned by the sentence of 11 years in prison announced today,” Gregory May, first secretary with the U.S. Embassy, told reporters outside the courthouse. May was one of a dozen diplomats stopped by authorities from attending the trial and sentencing.

“Persecution of individuals for the peaceful expression of political views is inconsistent with internationally recognized norms of human rights,” May said.

The German government said Chancellor Angela Merkel was “dismayed” by Liu’s sentence.

“I regret it that the Chinese government, despite great progress in other areas, still massively restricts freedom of opinion and of the press,” Merkel said in a brief statement released by her office.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters this week that statements from embassies calling for Liu’s release were “a gross interference of China’s internal affairs.”

“Explicit warning”

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said Friday the sentence was a setback for Chinese activists.

“Cases such as that of Liu Xiaobo risk not just halting, but seriously reversing that momentum” toward increasing democratic freedoms in China, she said.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said the ruling showed the government would be taking a hard line against human rights activists in the year ahead.

“This verdict is also an explicit warning from the government to China’s intellectuals, civil society activists and human rights defenders that the state will severely punish those who the government perceives as a threat to its monopoly on power,” said the group’s Asia researcher, Phelim Kine.

Another rights group, Chinese Human Rights Defenders, said the ruling shows the government is bent on thwarting any reform and is using the courts to silence its critics.

“Giving such a long sentence to one of China’s most prominent dissident intellectuals is a clear sign that the Chinese government is further hardening its stance against political dissent,” said Renee Xia, the group’s international director.

Wife says Liu plans appeal
The defendant’s wife, Liu Xia, told The Associated Press that her husband planned to appeal. “Our lawyers are going to talk to the authorities next week about the appeal,” Liu Xia said. She said her husband looked calm and asked about family and friends during a brief meeting after the sentencing.

Liu is the only person to have been arrested for organizing the Charter 08 appeal, but others who signed it have reported being harassed.

Abolishing the law on inciting to subvert state power is among the reforms advocated in Charter 08. “We should end the practice of viewing words as crimes,” the petition says.

Liu, a former Beijing Normal University professor, spent 20 months in jail for joining the 1989 student-led protests in Tiananmen Square, which ended when the government called in the military — killing hundreds, perhaps thousands.

Charter 08 demands a new constitution guaranteeing human rights, the open election of public officials, and freedom of religion and expression. Some 10,000 people have signed it in the past year, though a news blackout and Internet censorship have left most Chinese unaware that it exists.

Henrik Thomsen faces libel action after raising the alarm over the potentially fatal risks of a drug

Drug giant General Electric uses libel law to gag doctor

London Times | Dec 20, 2009

by Jon Ungoed-Thomas and Jeff Gerth

General Electric, one of the world’s biggest corporations, is using the London libel courts to gag a senior radiologist after he raised the alarm over the potentially fatal risks of one of its drugs.

The multinational is suing Henrik Thomsen, a Danish academic, after he described his experiences of one of the company’s drugs as a medical “nightmare”. He said some kidney patients at his hospital contracted a potentially deadly condition after being administered the drug Omniscan.

GE Healthcare, a British subsidiary of General Electric, has run up more than £380,000 in legal costs pursuing Thomsen.

“I believe the lawsuit is an attempt to silence me,” he said last week. “It’s dangerous for the patient if we can’t frankly exchange views.”

The company admits its product has been linked to serious side effects in some patients, but said Thomsen accused the company of suppressing information in a presentation at a scientific congress in Oxford in October 2007.

A summary of Thomsen’s presentation for the High Court writ, provided by GE Healthcare, appears to show that it was an even-handed account of his clinical experience.

When asked by The Sunday Times to highlight any part of the presentation that explicitly stated wrongdoing by GE Healthcare, a spokeswoman for the company was unable to do so. The writ states that the defamation may have been “by way of innuendo”.

His case will trigger a fresh row over the draconian use of Britain’s libel laws to stifle scientific debate and silence critics. Thomsen now refuses to discuss the possible risks of the drug in any UK public forum.

Evan Harris, a former hospital doctor and the Liberal Democrat science spokesman, who is leading the parliamentary campaign to reform the libel laws, said: “It is hard to conceive a stronger public interest than scientists and clinicians being able to discuss freely their concerns about drugs or devices used on patients. Libel laws should not be used in this way.”

More than 48m doses of Omniscan have been given worldwide and it is safe for the vast majority of people. It is one of a number of “contrast agents” containing the potentially toxic metal gadolinium, which are used to enhance images for magnetic resonance imaging scans.

Omniscan and other products have been linked with a skin condition in kidney patients, known as nephrogenic systemic fibrosis. Sufferers can be confined to a wheelchair and may even die from related causes.

Regulators in Europe and the US are now taking action over the potential risk from Omniscan and two similar products.

Five people in Britain have died from possible side effects after being administered Omniscan, according to the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency.

Patients have launched legal actions in America involving more than 170 deaths where it is claimed Omniscan and similar drugs may have been a factor. Safety problems with the drugs have been highlighted in the US by the independent investigative news organisation ProPublica.

Paul Flynn, the Labour MP, said, “It is a scandal that a company should take action against someone acting in the interests of patients.”

GE Healthcare said it had launched a libel action against Thomsen as a “last resort”. It is also suing Thomsen for an article in a medical magazine published in Brussels, but he said his name had been put on an article that he had not written.

The company said it encouraged scientific debate, but had to act when it was publicly defamed. It said it had worked hard to uncover incidents of any side effects from its drug, which may have inflated the number of cases linked specifically to Omniscan. It added that the product was safe for more than 99% of patients.

Muinir Hussain, pictured (centre) at an Asian Business Council presentation, is feared to be suicidal after being jailed for fighting off a burglar

Have-a-go millionaire ‘close to suicide’ in jail

Daily Mail | Dec 20, 2009

By Ian Gallagher

The millionaire jailed for fighting back against a knife-wielding burglar who threatened to kill his family is feared to be suicidal.

On Monday, a judge jailed Mr Hussain, 53, for two-and-a-half years. But the raider Walid Salem, 57, who has convictions stretching back 30 years, was spared prison.

Described as gentle and a pillar of his community, Mr Hussain’s faith in British justice lies shattered. Mr Hussain, who runs a successful soundproofing company, received threats before the case came to court – and his family are often too frightened to stay at home for fear of reprisal attacks.

Mr Hussain’s nightmare began in September last year when he, his wife, 18-year-old daughter and sons aged 21 and 16 returned from a mosque to find three raiders in their home in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. The family were tied up and told to lie down if they did not want to be killed. One of the boys managed to flee and alert Mr Hussain’s brother Tokeer, 35, who lived nearby.

Walid Salem avoided prison despite raiding Mr. Hussain's home and a record of more than 50 offences

Mr Hussain threw a coffee table at the men. Then he and Tokeer –who was jailed for 39 months –chased the gang and brought Salem to the ground in a front garden before attacking him.

Judge John Reddihough said many would think Salem ‘deserved what happened to him’. But he said the rule of law would collapse if he spared Mr Hussain jail.

Salem’s condition meant he was unable to enter a plea to false imprisonment. He was given a noncustodial sentence in October.

Both Mr Hussain and Salem, of Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, arrived in Britain as children in the Sixties. Both had known hardship but Britain offered infinite possibilities. Here, The Mail on Sunday charts the very different paths the men followed…
Munir ‘The Peacemaker’

Munir Hussain, 53, from High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. Married with two sons and a daughter, he owns a soundproofing company with a £2.5million annual turnover. Winner of many business awards and described as a ‘pillar of the community’.

Even as a child, Munir Hussain was always trying to stop fights. Originally from the village of Lehri, in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, he arrived in Britain in 1964 with his parents. Then only seven, he already possessed a sharp sense of social justice and unusual equanimity.

‘He didn’t like to see his pals scrapping, so he would try to talk them out of it,’ recalled a cousin.

‘He was a calming influence over all. From a very young age, he made it his business to stick up for the little man, not that he was a big guy himself, quite the opposite. But he was gentle, kind and tactful – they were his weapons.’

As a community stalwart in his adult life, his inherent diplomacy and ability to soothe troubled waters (none of his close friends recall him ever raising his voice) earned him the soubriquet The Peacemaker.

Friends say he was often called on to resolve disputes between rival communities in High Wycombe, his home town.

Police frequently sought his skills, notably during tension which followed the arrests of terror suspects in the area in 2007 after detectives had uncovered a plot to blow up planes.

He also organised and led a peace march through the town – and mediated in a disagreement between taxi drivers and the district council.

Munir’s sense of civic responsibility extended beyond his community, however. Bill Reid, a former manager of Wycombe Council for Voluntary Service, recalled teaming up with him to help to save a school from closure.

‘He was passionate about stopping this school from being closed and the land being given over for flats,’ he said.

‘He reaches out to everyone, whatever their colour. He quickly became a friend to me and I was always impressed by the way he got involved in so many different causes.

‘His big thing was helping young people. He hated seeing them lurking on street corners. He would seek them out, talk to them and try to get them fixed up with jobs. He is an incredible guy.

‘None of this he did in a brash way, though. He’s quiet, unassuming and very modest about his achievements.

‘He was made a Buckinghamshire Ambassador a few years ago, quite an honour. It goes to notable people in the community who help to promote the county.

‘I last saw him a week before he was sentenced. I was convinced there was no way someone like Munir could ever be sent to jail but he wasn’t convinced and was, I think, expecting it.’

After leaving school, Munir trained as an engineer. But relatives say he relished the opportunity to ‘go it alone’ as soon as the opportunity came.

Sensing a gap in the market, he founded a soundproofing company which grew steadily into a success story and now has an annual turnover of £2.5million.

He married Shaheen Begum, now 49, in 1983 and they have three children, sons Awais, 21, and Samad, 16, and daughter Arooj, 18.

As his company grew, so did his standing in the community. He was chairman of the Asian Business Council, which he helped to found, and is a former winner of Wycombe’s Asian Businessman of the Year award.

He is also a leading figure in the town’s voluntary organisations.

He is a former head of the Race Equality Council and the Islamic Mission and Mosque Trust.

And he was a major force in setting up Green Street Community Centre, which provides resources for all the community and organises after-school activities for children.

Zafar Iqbal, chairman of the Islamic Mission and Mosque Trust, has known Munir for 20 years and said: ‘He was always prepared to give his time to the community – as well as his money.

‘The Race Equality Council aimed to give advice and help to anyone from the Asian and Afro-Caribbean communities who were having problems with tax, education or housing.

‘It would always have people who spoke the right languages to help people to fill out forms and get through meetings. Munir was at the forefront of that and so willing to give his time.

‘A lot of those people, like Munir, came over in the Sixties and Seventies and initially they needed a lot of help. The REC must have helped thousands and thousands of people. Several times recently, Munir booked out an executive box at Wycombe Wanderers FC and invited 20 young people from the mosque to attend in an attempt to increase integration in the town.

‘Whereas before there were very few young people from our community attending football matches, now there are many. There is even a team being set up.

‘Perhaps his biggest achievement was Green Street Community Centre. A school was shutting down and the county council wanted to sell off the land. But Munir, alongside others, managed to persuade the council to keep a part of it to open a community centre. But it took a big fight.

‘The centre is now thriving, with a creche, after-school clubs and facilities for boxing and gymnastics.’

Munir’s 45-year-old brother Qadeer said of the jailing: ‘The family are so disappointed. What makes it so difficult is that the guy who did the deed has walked free while a perfectly civilised person goes to jail.

‘At the moment we are all trying to come to terms with that. Munir’s wife had a stroke a couple of years ago and then another one a couple of months ago during the trial. It was caused by the pressure of it all.’
Walid ‘The Career Criminal’

Walid Mansour Salem, 57, from Borehamwood, Hertfordshire. Born in Cairo, he is the twicedivorced father of 20-year-old twins. Described in court as a career criminal. Unemployed, he has lived alone for several years.

When the residents of Hillary House in Borehamwood faced problems with young vandals, Walid Salem seemed only too happy to help. In the front room of his bedsit on the two-storey council block, he hosted Neighbourhood Watch meetings where he served tea and coffee and readily offered advice.

Given to lamenting about how Britain was ‘going to the dogs’, he promised action – and installed two CCTV cameras to gather evidence which he promised to hand to police.

But the irony of Salem’s words and deeds was lost on his neighbours, who nodded assent vigorously as he spoke, unaware that the loquacious Egyptian was a career criminal.

At Munir Hussain’s trial at Reading Crown Court, Michael Wolkind, QC, defending, revealed that Salem had committed more than 50 offences, adding with sarcasm: ‘We are really sorry that the thief, cheat, robber, possessor of stolen credit cards, carrier of a knife, the person who threatened to kill Munir and his family, the disgusting career criminal who invaded the home of a good family, got hurt. We mean that most sincerely.’

He added of Mr Hussain: ‘The robber ruined his life, traumatised his wife, threatened his children with a knife. Who is the real victim?’ He said that if Mr Hussain was convicted, ‘Salem wins again’.

But Salem is much-aggrieved by the beating he received from Mr Hussain and, like him, feels let down by the justice system.

‘He believes, and so do his family, that the men who did this to him should have got much, much longer sentences,’ his 20-year-old daughter Hannah said yesterday. ‘If they had hurt anyone else, they would have.’

Born in Cairo in 1952, Salem arrived in Britain in the Sixties. Mahmoud El-Siwidy, who knew him in the Seventies when they worked at a Kentucky Fried Chicken takeaway, recalled him as a ‘nice guy who had a certain charm’. Mr El-Siwidy said Salem later had a managerial job with a wine merchants.

Salem married an English girl in London in 1976 but the relationship foundered. He tried again in 1983, when he married Barbara Scott. They had twins Matthew and Hannah but divorced about ten years ago.

The family who moved into the Salems’ modest three-bedroom house in Borehamwood said it was left in an awful state, with an unkempt garden, canine urine stains on the carpets and boxes full of junk in the attic.

They said that for months they received a torrent of letters for Salem, many from high-class casinos, mostly in London.

Neighbours said he liked to gamble and regularly visited London casinos.

Sylvia Hodgkinson, who lives in the same building as Salem and runs the local Neighbourhood Watch, said: ‘When he came here we all liked him. He would hold meetings in his front room.

‘He thought Britain was in a dire way. He was angry about youths drinking and vandalising property.

‘He felt things were not under control, that other countries dealt with it better. He felt that it was bad and was only going to get worse. But he did have a temper.

‘Then, suddenly, it all just crashed. The police came and broke down his door. He told me he was not very keen on the police after that. He claimed the police had taken his credit card and were using it.’

Referring to Salem’s raid on Mr Hussain’s house, she added: ‘At first, we thought he had been beaten up because he had helped us out with Neighbourhood Watch. Before the attack, he was always out and about –but now we never see him.’

Another neighbour described him as tall and smartly dressed, with a good physique for his age.

He added: ‘I don’t know what he does for a job. He is just a ducker and diver, that’s all I know about him.’

Other neighbours said Salem enjoyed nothing better than playing on his computer ‘for hours on end’. There is still a Neighbourhood Watch sticker on his kitchen window.

He was the only burglar caught after the raid on Mr Hussain’s home but his injuries meant he was not fit to plead after being charged with false imprisonment. At a court hearing in October, he was given a twoyear supervision order and has not been seen at home since.

Last night, his daughter said he was in a prison rehabilitation unit because of his brain damage.

She said: ‘He needs a bit of help in his day-to-day life. He is still so ill he doesn’t really understand it.

‘He doesn’t know what is going on. He has been like that since the attack. But we are all visiting him and doing well by him.’

Adam Henderson shops for a shotgun at Guns and Leather, a firearms store and shooting range, in Greenbrier, Tenn., on Friday. Over the last two years, 24 states, mostly in the South and West, have passed 47 laws loosening gun restrictions. Josh Anderson / AP

Shift in attitude, easing of restrictions attributed to powerful NRA lobby

MSNBC | Dec 11, 2009

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – It’s been the year of the gun in Tennessee. In a flurry of legislative action, handgun owners won the right to take their weapons onto sports fields and playgrounds and, at least briefly, into bars.

A change in leadership at the state Capitol helped open the doors to the gun-related bills and put Tennessee at the forefront of a largely unnoticed trend: In much of the country, it is getting easier to carry guns.

A nationwide review by The Associated Press found that over the last two years, 24 states, mostly in the South and West, have passed 47 laws loosening gun restrictions.

Among other things, legislatures have allowed firearms to be carried in cars, made it illegal to ask job candidates whether they own a gun and expanded agreements that make permits to carry handguns in one state valid in another.

The trend is attributed in large part to a push by the National Rifle Association. The NRA, which for years has blocked attempts in Washington to tighten firearms laws, has ramped up its efforts at the state level to chip away at gun restrictions.

“This is all a coordinated approach to respect that human, God-given right of self defense by law-abiding Americans,” says Chris W. Cox, the NRA’s chief lobbyist. “We’ll rest when all 50 states allow and respect the right of law-abiding people to defend themselves from criminal attack.”

Among the recent gun-friendly laws:

* Arizona, Florida, Louisiana and Utah have made it illegal for businesses to bar their employees from storing guns in cars parked on company lots.

* Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, South Carolina and Virginia have made some or all handgun permit information confidential.

* Montana, Arizona and Kansas have allowed handgun permits to be issued to people who have had their felony convictions expunged or their full civil rights restored.

* Tennessee and Montana have passed laws that exempt weapons made and owned in-state from federal restrictions. Tennessee is the home to Barrett Firearms Manufacturing, the maker of a .50-caliber shoulder-fired rifle that the company says can shoot bullets up to five miles and is banned in California.

The AP compiled the data on new laws from groups ranging from the Legal Community Against Violence, which advocates gun control, to the NRA.

Changes in attitude

Public attitudes toward gun control have shifted strongly over the past 50 years, according to Gallup polling. In 1959, 60 percent of respondents said they favored a ban on handguns expect for “police and other authorized persons.” By last year, Gallup’s most recent crime survey found 69 percent opposed such a ban.

The NRA boasts that almost all states grant handgun permits to people with clean criminal and psychological records. In 1987, only 10 states did. Only Wisconsin, Illinois and the District of Columbia now prohibit the practice entirely.

“The NRA has a stranglehold on a lot of state legislatures,” said Kristin Rand, legislative director the Violence Policy Center, a gun control group in Washington. “They basically have convinced lawmakers they can cost them their seats, even though there’s no real evidence to back that up.”

Tennessee’s new laws came after the Republican takeover of the General Assembly this year, but most other states that loosened restrictions didn’t experience major partisan shifts. Most of the states where the new laws were enacted have large rural populations, where support for gun rights tends to cross party lines.

Loosening of laws?
While some states have tightened gun laws during the same period, the list of new restrictive laws is much shorter. In 2009 alone, more than three times as many laws were passed to make it easier on gun owners.

New Jersey’s 2009 law limiting people to one handgun purchase per month is the most notable of the more restrictive laws. Other examples this year include Maryland’s ban on concealed weapons on public transit and Maine’s vote to give public universities and colleges the power to regulate firearms on campus.

The most contentious of Tennessee’s new gun laws was one allowing handguns in bars and restaurants that serve alcohol. It took effect in July after lawmakers overrode a veto by the governor. Last month, a Nashville judge struck down the law as unconstitutionally vague, but supporters have vowed to pass it again.

Full Story

Police gun victim Menezes memorial for Stockwell

BBC | Dec 10, 2009

The mural will replace an improvised shrine at the station

A permanent memorial to Jean Charles de Menezes will be placed at the south London Tube station where he was shot dead by police.

Transport for London has given the go-ahead for a mosaic of the 27-year-old Brazilian at Stockwell station.

The mosaic will replace an improvised pavement shrine of flowers, candles, pictures and newspaper articles.

Mr de Menezes was shot seven times by counter-terrorist officers on a Tube train at the station, on 22 July 2005.

The officers were hunting for would-be suicide bomber Hussain Osman on the day after the failed 21 July attacks.

Last year coroner Sir Michael Wright recorded an open verdict at the end of a multimillion-pound inquest, after a jury rejected the police account of the shooting.

‘Memory kept alive’

The family of Mr de Menezes accepted a six-figure compensation deal from the Metropolitan Police last month.

His cousin Vivian Figueiredo said she was pleased at the decision to develop the mural, designed by local artist Mary Edwards, next year.

She said: “The pain of never achieving justice for Jean’s killing continues to haunt us every day.

“But knowing his memory will be kept alive in the local community through this memorial is a tribute we could not have dreamed of.”

Associated Press | Dec 1, 2009

by Rohan Sullivan

SYDNEY – Australia’s Parliament defeated legislation to set up a greenhouse gas emissions trading system on Wednesday, throwing a central plank of the government’s plans to combat global warming into disarray.

The Senate, where Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s government does not hold a majority, rejected his administration’s proposal for Australia to become one of the first countries to install a so-called cap-and-trade system to slash the amount of heat-trapping pollution that industries pump into the air.

The 41-33 vote followed a tumultuous debate in which the conservative main opposition party at first agreed to support a version of the government’s bill, then dramatically dumped its leader and switched sides after bitter divisions erupted within the party.

Rudd had wanted the legislation passed before he attends next week’s U.N. summit on climate change in Copenhagen so he could portray Australia as a world leader on the issue.

The government’s next step is unclear. Rudd could use the failure of the bill to call early elections, but is unlikely to do so before next year, when elections are due anyway.

Australia is a small greenhouse gas polluter in global terms, but one of the worst per capita because it relies heavily for its electricity on its abundant reserves of coal, which also make it the world’s largest exporter of the polluting fuel. As the driest continent after Antarctica, it is also considered one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change.

The European Union has a carbon trading system, as do some U.S. states. Canada and New Zealand are among countries considering or in the process of implementing them.

Under the government’s plan, an annual limit would be placed on the amount of greenhouse gases allowed to be pumped into the atmosphere and permits would be issued to regulate that ceiling. The permits could be bought and sold, setting up a market system that would make reducing emissions potentially profitable for polluting companies.

Opponents of the legislation say it amounts to a huge new tax on polluting industries such as power generators, which would put a crimp on the economy and lead to higher prices for consumers. Such costs would have no effect on the level of global greenhouse gas emissions, they say.

Climate Change Minister Sen. Penny Wong accused the opposition members who voted the bill down of being climate change deniers out of step with the world.

“This is about doing our bit as part of a global agreement, this is about responding to what is a global challenge. This nation, too, has to act,” Wong told the Senate. “You have to make polluters pay. If you do not make polluters pay you will not tackle climate change.”

Pangbourne village forces council to remove `Big Brother’ CCTV camera

Residents of Pangbourne, the village that was the setting for the Wind in the Willows, have forced a council to remove a “Big Brother-style” CCTV camera.

Telegraph | Nov 30, 2009

By Richard Savill

A scheme to introduce cameras has divided the Berkshire village with some residents complaining that the scale of local crime did not justify measures “more appropriate to inner city hotspots.”

Some objectors said the surveillance of the whole community was “unacceptable” and the “overpowering” camera poles would change the character of the village. One resident expressed the fear that the cameras could look into bedrooms.

West Berkshire council approved £200,000 to install cameras in three villages. Two other smaller poles supporting CCTV cameras in Pangbourne are to remain, despite opposition, a spokesman said.

Yesterday, council contractors took down the largest of the three cameras in Pangbourne after a firm of estate agents raised a petition calling for its removal.

The pole replaced a street light, half its size, three months ago and now the light has been put back.

Pangbourne and its Thames side landscape are said to have inspired illustrations for Wind in the Willows, written by Kenneth Grahame, who retired to the village.

One of the village objectors who signed the petition referred to George Orwell’s novel, 1984, and said: “Welcome to 1984, remove them all!” Other residents wrote “Big Brother” and “Why?”

Campaigners also put up posters, with tongue-in-cheek messages including: “If I get lost… Please, please return me to my Big Brother.”

Sally Ager-Harris, of the estate agents, Patrick Williams, said the large camera pole “blighted” the picturesque street.

She said: “It was a monstrosity. There was no consultation. It is not as if we are an inner city hot spot here. People are not rolling about drunk.”

Dean Halls, a partner at the estate agents, said the pole should never have been installed.

“It is good to see it go; I don’t know why it went up in the first place. This is a nice-looking building and suddenly there was a huge ugly mast outside. I am not against CCTV as such; it would be fine if it was somewhere discrete.”

West Berkshire Council said that the camera was put up as part of a wider CCTV programme, which included two other villages, and was designed to improve safety and security for residents and businesses.

A spokesman said the large camera in Pangbourne had been chosen for coverage of the car park opposite.

“However, following a request from a local estate agent we have removed it. It will be re-located but not in the village.”

The spokesman confirmed that the two other cameras in Pangbourne would remain.

“We took on board all opinions in the village and the overall wish seemed to be that two should remain, but the third outside the estate agent was superfluous. It will be re-used somewhere else.”

He said the cost of putting the camera up and taking it down was about £1,000. The camera would be used elsewhere, he added.

Bob Boyce is a famous inventor in the world of ultra-efficient electrolysis and hydroxy research.  The chip found in his shoulder at the point of tumor formation turns out to be manufactured by VeriChip.

Bob Boyce, who has invented a super-efficient electrolysis method, as well as a self-looping electrical circuit capable of charging batteries, discovered a microchip implant in his shoulder when having a tumor removed from that spot, which metastasized.  It turns out the chip was made by VeriChip.

Pure Energy Systems News | Nov 28, 2009

Inventor’s terminal cancer courtesy of Verichip?

by Sterling D. Allan

On Nov. 12, we reported that a South African experimenter has modified an electrolysis circuit developed by Bob Boyce so that now it recharges his daughter’s electric vehicle riding toy. We said that what makes this remarkable is that the energy is not drawn from the wall but from the environment somehow; and that he’s done this around 35 times now and knows of three replications of the effect by others.  We created a feature page and a discussion list to facilitate additional replications and development of the technology.

We also reported in the same story that we had become aware the day before that Bob Boyce has “terminal” cancer, and that his days are numbered if some kind of remedy isn’t found.

On Nov. 12, Bob wrote:

The cancer that I have developed was not directly due to my research, as many have suggested. Having said that, it did occur under suspicious circumstances. When I was in Florida earlier this year, I noticed a small, hard lump had appeared under the skin of my right shoulder. I wondered where it came from, of course, but did not give it much thought. Over time, the skin over and around the lump turned reddish and became sore.

What I really want to know is, what was this object, and how in the heck did it get imbedded in the skin of my shoulder without me knowing about it?

Many of you have sent us emails and made phone calls suggesting various possible cures.  We are hopeful that with the information that has come Bob’s way that he will be able to secure a complete cure from his cancer.

Meanwhile, on Thanksgiving evening Bob called and left a voice message in which he informed me that it turns out that the chip that was implanted in his shoulder was made by VeriChip, a company that makes implantable microchips.

According to the VeriChip VeriMed page:

About the size of a grain of rice, the microchip is inserted just under the skin and contains only a unique, 16-digit identifier. The microchip itself does not contain any other data other than this unique electronic ID, nor does it contain any Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking capabilities. And unlike conventional forms of identification, the Health Link cannot be lost, stolen, misplaced, or counterfeited. It is safe, secure, reversible, and always with you.

Close-up of a VeriChip implant device, the size of a small grain of rice.

Another page on their site describes the RFID technology, which is an essential component of their chips, and the proximity required for reading different kinds of chips, such as those used in automated toll collection.

In his message to me, Bob referred me to a website, AntiChips.com, which documents the link between embedded RFID microchips and tumor formation.  It cites a paper, Microchip-Induced Tumors in Laboratory Rodents and Dogs: A Review of the Literature 1990–2006, and summarizes it as follows:

CASPIAN’s new report … is a definitive review of research showing a causal link between implanted radio-frequency (RFID) microchip transponders and cancer in laboratory rodents and dogs. It was written in part to correct industry misstatements and misinformation circulating about the studies.

In almost all cases, the malignant tumors, typically sarcomas, arose at the site of the implants and grew to surround and fully encase the devices. These fast-growing, malignant tumors often led to the death of the afflicted animals. In many cases, the tumors metastasized or spread to other parts of the animals. The implants were unequivocally identified as the cause of the cancers.

This is one story you will want to pass on to your networks to get the word out about the kinds of nefarious deeds going on to suppress new energy technology that could truly empower people to break free of the powers that be.

I’ve got a few questions for Bob the next time I talk to him.

* How did you find out the chip was made by VeriChip?
* Is your source willing to go on record?
* Are you planning legal action?
* Is it okay for Watkykjy1 to disclose to the B-Hex group the full details of how he built his charging device?

I’ll probably append his responses here.

I also tried to contact VeriChip for a comment, but being a holiday weekend, I haven’t heard back yet.

Full Story

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Related

Toronto Star: ‘One generation is all they need’
One day we will all happily be implanted with microchips, and our every move will be monitored. The technology exists; the only barrier is society’s resistance to the loss of privacy.

Bob Boyce Electrolyzer Plans