Who'd fight that? :lol:

"Our nation's Koalas are slowly becoming pudding. Only you can help"

Angry mob undresses woman and rip her clothing after she dressed provocatively


Victim who was stripped
By: John Roberts

(Scroll down for video) A group of men attacked a woman who was dressed in a mini skirt.

The men attacked the woman claiming that she was dressed inappropriately. The woman was spotted walking on the street in Kitengela, a town in Kenya.

The angry mob claimed the dress was too short. They argued with the woman to change into something more appropriate. When the woman ignored their request the men attacked her and undressed her.

The men then ripped her clothing apart so she could not put them back on, claiming that “it was better for her to go naked because her intentions were clear,” according to press reports in Kenya.

According to a witness, the crowd gathered around the woman and forcibly undressed her. Her clothes were torn and thrown away ensuring that she had nothing to cover her body as a punishment for dressing provocatively.

“Most women in the town of Kitengela, dress modestly, and everyone is expected to adhere to their standards,” Aminah Wangai, 62, from Kenya told YourJewishNews.com.

Many people gathered to watch as the drama unfolded.

The woman was left on the floor with nothing to cover her body.
A Good Samaritan who witnessed the incident offered the woman a long dress so she could go home.

The victim's mothers was warned not to let her daughter leave the house without her approval, according to press reports in Kenya.Mobile video not loading? Click here to view

http://www.yourjewishnews.com/2013/04/w6885.html

Could you pick a more bizarre news source?

Germany tops world popularity poll

Published: 23 May 13 10:16 CET | Print version

Germany is the most popular country in the world, according to a poll released on Tuesday asking people to rate the positive and negative influence of 16 major nations.

Fifty-nine percent of the 26,000 people asked said they saw Germany as being a “mainly positive” global influence. This is an increase of three points from 2012, when Japan came out on top.

The outcome is three fewer points than last time Germany won, though. In 2011, 61 percent of the world saw it as a “mainly positive” influence.

Conducted with pollsters GlobeScan and PIPA for the BBC World Service, the poll showed that Germany was most popular in Ghana – where 84 percent of those asked considered it a positive influence.

Eighty-one percent of Germany's neighbours in France gave it the thumbs up, as did 76 percent of Austrians asked. Greece, which has been the subject of Germany's strict austerity plans, was the clear exception as the majority had negative feelings towards the country's power.

People in 25 countries worldwide were asked to rank 16 countries, as well as the European Union as a whole, as to whether they thought a nation had a “mainly positive” or “mainly negative” influence globally.

Iran came in at the bottom with 59 percent viewing it negatively. Following was Pakistan, with 55 percent, then North Korea with 55 percent. Following Germany came Canada and the UK with a joint 55 percent of “mainly positive” votes.

The EU struggled to get positive votes this year, as 49 percent said they saw it as having a good influence, worldwide. Germans seem, the BBC said, to have fallen out of love with it though as positive rating dropped by 14 points to 59 percent from 2012.

The Local/jcw

http://www.thelocal.de/national/20130523-49867.html

No fucking shit they're popular, they're propping up most of Europe.

A driver suspected of killing a man trying to dribble a football 10,000 miles from Seattle to Brazil for the World Cup has been arrested, police said.

Scott van Hiatt was arrested on a charge of criminally negligent homicide and bailed after the May 14 incident.

Richard Swanson, of Seattle, had planned to dribble the ball for more than a year through 11 countries before reaching Sao Paolo, Brazil.

The opening game of the World Cup will be played there on June 12 next year.

He was hit from behind by a pick-up truck while walking south along the busy US 101 highway just a few days before his 43rd birthday.
Van Hiatt stayed at the scene and has been cooperative with the investigation, police said.

He was indicted by a Lincoln County grand jury last week, said Lincoln County district attorney Rob Bovett.

Mr Swanson started his intercontinental journey in Seattle on May 1.

He was partly promoting the California-based One World Futbol Project, which donates durable blue balls to people in developing countries.

On the day of his death, Mr Swanson posted a video on his Facebook page that shows him walking along the beach, kicking his blue football.

He said he was looking forward to his journey south along US 101. ‘Very exciting moment today,’ he said.

‘I’m going to be on the ocean for thousands of miles. This is my first taste of it and I’m very excited about this.’

In an earlier interview with a Seattle TV station, Mr Swanson joked that he hoped he would not be run over on the coastal road.

‘I’ll be on Highway 101, but I’ll also try to utilise any of the trails that run along the coast, just trying to get off the beaten path – there’s a lot of cars – and just not get run over,’ he told Q13 FOX News.

Lincoln City police chief Keith Kilian said officers do not believe Mr Swanson was dribbling the ball at the time he was hit but would not reveal details about the the circumstances that led to the crash.

http://metro.co.uk/2013/06/18/driver-suspected-of-knocking-down-man-dribbling-football-to-world-cup-arrested-3845429/?

More than 1000 feared dead as monsoon flooding strikes India

Date
June 20, 2013 - 9:20PM

Thousands of Indian soldiers battled on Thursday to reach villages and towns cut off by flash floods and landslides in the country's north as officials warned at least 1000 people may have been killed.

Helicopters and close to 10,000 soldiers have been deployed to reach tourists and pilgrims stranded after floods caused by torrential monsoon rains hit the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand at the weekend.

The soldiers were mobilising to "provide leadership, succour, medical, air and engineer efforts", the army said in a statement.


Houses, buildings and vehicles have collapsed or been swept away by flooding rivers and landslides, while bridges and narrow roads have also been destroyed, leaving some 65,000 people stranded mainly at remote pilgrimage sites, officials said.

Advertisement
Torrential rains four and a half times as heavy as usual have hit Uttarakhand, known as the "Land of the Gods", where Hindu shrines and temples built high in the mountains attract many pilgrims.

One of those stranded was Indian cricket star Harbhajan Singh, who was attempting to reach a Sikh pilgrimage site but had to take refuge in a police station.


A member of the Indian army's rescue team walks towards the officers' training centre damaged by floods at their campus in Srinagar. Photo: Reuters
"Some people are saying that we're stuck but I wouldn't say that we're stuck, I'd say we've been saved by God," the spin bowler said. "With the kind of rainstorm we witnessed, anything could have happened. Many people lost their lives."

At least 138 people have been killed across Uttarakhand and two neighbouring states also hit by floods and landslides, officials said, but shrine authorities warned the toll was more than 1000.

"We estimate more than 1000 people have died as unattended bodies are scattered all around," said Ganesh Godiyal, chairman of a trust in charge of several shrines in the pilgrimage towns of Kedarnath and Badrinath.

Over the border in Nepal, floods and landslides also triggered by the monsoon have left at least 39 people dead mostly in remote parts of the country, officials said.

In India, the military operation was concentrating on reaching the worst-hit Kedarnath temple area, as families of those missing and stranded faced an anxious wait in Uttarakhand capital's Dehradun.

"Never seen anything like this ... entire roads have vanished and villages destroyed ... there's rubble everywhere," a military officer said, on condition of anonymity as he was not allowed to speak to the media.

One state lawmaker put the death toll at 2000, although disaster management officials could not confirm the figure.

"The entire area is destroyed. Nothing is left," lawmaker Shaila Rani Rawat from Kedarnath said.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said late on Wednesday the priority was rescuing those still stranded and helping the more than 10,000 people already evacuated, describing the floods as "most distressing".

Nearly 10,000 soldiers along with 13 teams from the National Disaster Response Force have been deployed for the rescue and relief effort, a statement from the prime minister said.

Local officials said 40 relief camps have been set up to house evacuated residents and tourists. Some 18 air force helicopters are ferrying many of those rescued to the camps.

Soldiers from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police have been building rope and log bridges across raging rivers to try to reach those stranded.

In New Delhi, the rain-swollen Yamuna river was swirling close to a level last recorded in 1978 when flash floods inundated parts of the Indian capital.

The monsoon, which covers the subcontinent from June to September, usually brings some flooding. But the heavy rains arrived early this year, catching many by surprise and exposing the country's lack of preparedness.

AFP



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/more-than-1000-feared-dead-as-monsoon-flooding-strikes-india-20130620-2olys.html#ixzz2Wl57O1mL

1000 dead and it's only a drop in the ocean (pardon the pun) of their population.

Mystery miracle will make John Paul a saint
Date
June 20, 2013 - 9:11AM

ROME: The Vatican has secretly attributed a mystery miracle to the late John Paul II, clearing the way for him to be declared a saint.

The Holy See has yet to disclose what the miracle was or where and when it took place but Vatican sources said it would "amaze the world".

It concerns the "extraordinary healing" of a Costa Rican woman who was cured of a severe brain injury after her family began praying to the memory of the late Polish pope, according to reports in the Italian media.

Details of the miracle are likely to be announced at the end of this month or at the beginning of July, a Vatican insider said.

Advertisement
John Paul II was beatified - the first step towards sainthood - in May 2011. The second miracle, which is required in order for him to be given full sainthood, reportedly occurred on the day of his beatification.

It has been recognised by theologians from the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints, which is in charge of examining the "dossiers" of candidates for sainthood, and now has to be signed off by a commission of cardinals and bishops, which is expected to happen within the next few weeks.

John Paul's first attributed miracle was the apparent healing of a French nun, Sister Marie Simon-Pierre.

Her recovery from Parkinson's disease after praying for the late pope's "intercession" had no medical explanation, the Church says.

The Polish pontiff is likely to be formally made a saint in the autumn.

The canonisation ceremony is likely to be attended by hundreds of thousands of Catholic faithful and will be presided over by Pope Francis, who was elected in March.

- THE DAILY TELEGRAPH



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/mystery-miracle-will-make-john-paul-a-saint-20130620-2ojx6.html#ixzz2Wl8vtTOR

At least 25,000 bumble bees found dead in Oregon parking lot

Published June 21, 2013
Associated Press

Thousands of dead and dying bees have been found in the parking lot of a shopping center in Wilsonville, Ore., southwest of Portland. Oregon officials say their preliminary investigation indicates blooming trees in the lot were recently sprayed with an insecticide known to be toxic to bees.
Rich Hatfield, a biologist with the Portland-based Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation estimates at least 25,000 bumble bees have been killed. Shoppers called Hatfield on Monday to report the carnage, the Xerces Society said in a statement. The bees were clustered under dozens of linden trees.
Dan Hilburn, plant programs director at the state Agriculture Department, visited the parking lot Wednesday. He confirmed "thousands of dead bees."
"I've never seen anything like that before," Hilburn said.
Most of the dead were gold-and-black bumble bees although honey bees and some ladybugs were found dead as well.
A primary focus of the Agriculture Department's preliminary investigation is a pesticide called Safari that apparently was applied in the area last Saturday to control aphids, said Dale Mitchell, program manager in the Agriculture Department's pesticide compliance and enforcement section.
Safari is part of a family of pesticides called neonicotinoids that are considered acutely toxic to pollinators.
Mitchell noted that approved pesticide products carry very specific hazard labels.
Bee and vegetation samples were taken for testing to confirm what's responsible for the kill, Mitchell said. His investigation will look at any potential pesticide use in the vicinity.
Bumble bees play a crucial role in pollinating berries, flowers and other plants.
"Honey bees and bumble bees were arriving as we were there, and bees are still dying," Hilburn said in a telephone interview Wednesday evening.
He planned a conference call Thursday with researchers and Xerces Society officials. Possibilities include netting the trees, stripping them of their flowers and using non-toxic repellents to keep the bees away.
"We're not coming up with a lot of good options," Hilburn said.
With the investigation just beginning, Mitchell declined to identify the property management company responsible for the area. Even if lab tests confirm the pesticide as a cause of the bee kill, it might have been applied by a subcontractor or other party, he said.
The agency would also investigate whether the pesticide was used according to label instructions and whether it was applied in a faulty, careless or negligent manner, Mitchell said.
If violations are found, Agriculture Department civil penalties could range from a standard maximum of $1,000 per violation to a maximum of $10,000 per violation for gross negligence or willful misconduct, Mitchell said.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/06/21/at-least-25000-bumble-bees-found-dead-in-oregon-parking-lot/?#ixzz2WpupUZ9c

Edited by Joffa: 21/6/2013 08:57:00 PM

Who counted them all? :?

We were wrong, admits 'gay cure' group

In perhaps the most startling example of the recent advances by the gay rights movement in America, one of the nation's most prominent religious opponents of homosexuality has dissolved itself, issuing a long and detailed apology for the harm it caused during its 37 years of existence.

Exodus International was formed in 1976 after a conference of Christian ministries and since then has been a proponent of what the group has called "conversion therapy", which it claimed could "cure" people of homosexuality through prayer and psychotherapy.

During annual conferences sponsored by the evangelical group Focus on the Family and via local churches, Exodus recruited gays with the message that "the sin of homosexual behaviour, like all sins, can be forgiven and healed by the grace revealed in the life and death of Christ".

The group was never without critics who said the so-called therapy caused confusion, distress and often despair. Studies found time and again that only a very small minority of those that sought to change succeeded – about 15 per cent, in one longitudinal study.

Exodus was embarrassed in 1979 when senior members Michael Bussee and Gary Cooper divorced their wives and left the group to be together. They eventually shared a commitment ceremony in 1982.

It now appears that for more than a year Exodus International's leadership has been suffering a crisis of conscience. In January 2012 its president, Alan Chambers, told a Gay Christian Network conference that 99.9 per cent of conversion therapy participants did not undergo a change in their sexuality.

Then in July he told The New York Times that virtually every "ex-gay" he has ever met still harbours homosexual cravings, himself included.

On Wednesday, after a unanimous vote during its annual meeting, the group's leadership decided to dissolve, with Mr Chambers telling the gathering: "I am sorry for the pain and hurt many of you have experienced. I am sorry that some of you spent years working through the shame and guilt you felt when your attractions didn't change. I am sorry we promoted sexual orientation change efforts and reparative theories about sexual orientation that stigmatised parents."

In an interview with The Atlantic magazine on Thursday, Mr Chambers said he still believed the organisation had done some good: "Exodus saved my life. I was vulnerable and I had no other place to go. I didn't know what the gay community was or how to find it.

"It was a safe haven for this little kid of faith who needed an option."

But he also said he understood why so many people were angry with Exodus. "It's been traumatic for many people. It's been horrific," he said.

"And it's not just Exodus. It's the church. It's a religious system that has taught us how to be contrary to the heart of Christ, to treat people who are sinners in ways that God himself wouldn't ever treat them."

Response to the apology has been mixed.

"This is a welcome first step in honestly addressing the harm the organisation and its leaders have caused," Sharon Groves, director of the Human Rights Campaign's religion and faith program, said. "Now we need them to take the next step of leadership and persuade all other religious-based institutions that they got it wrong."

One person commenting on a Los Angeles Times online report wrote: "Thirty-seven years spewing lies, dealing in the commerce of guilt and self-loathing and the shame that comes from failing is more than a generation of ruined lives.

"Someone who went to Exodus International 37 years ago at 18, for example, would now be 55, with the best years of his or her life lost. There is no amount of apology that can repair those countless numbers of lives."

The US Supreme Court is expected to make two crucial decisions on gay marriage. In one it will rule on whether or not the federal Defence of Marriage Act, which forbids federal agencies from recognising gay marriage, is constitutional. In the other it will consider a ban on gay marriage in California.



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/we-were-wrong-admits-gay-cure-group-20130621-2ooat.html#ixzz2WqrKpInI

Not really, Israel is comparatively up the road from Kenya.

Pro-gun advocate shamelessly heckles father of gun-violence victim before getting Tasered by police and arrested

John Cantin's daughter was fatally shot by her husband in 2009 after he was arrested for choking her and throwing her down a flight of stairs just days earlier
Heckler Daniel Musso - in addition to getting Tasered - has been charged with disorderly conduct and assault

Cantin: 'what happened to my daughter wasn't propaganda'

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
PUBLISHED: 01:46 GMT, 22 June 2013 | UPDATED: 01:46 GMT, 22 June 2013

The father of a woman who was fatally shot by her husband in 2009 was heckled by pro-gun protesters - one of whom was eventually Tasered by police - at a rally outside of the New Hampshire statehouse on Tuesday, which has added new fuel to the fire in the already torrid debate over gun control.

John Cantin, whose daughter Melisa was fatally shot by her estranged husband when she was just 29 years old, was speaking at a rally for stricter gun control measures, including additional background checks for people purchasing firearms.

Father of gun violence victim heckled at rally

In the middle of his speech, a man - later identified by police as Daniel Musso - started harassing him.

Below is a transcript of some of the exchange, as captured in a video posted on Youtube:
CANTIN: We know that when there is a gun in the home of a domestic abuser, a woman is 500 times more likely to be killed—
MUSSO: What kind of gun are you talking here?
CANTIN: And we know in states where there are background checks—
MUSSO: A pellet gun? Or a machine gun? What kind of guns?
CANTIN: All kinds of guns.
MUSSO: Well, it doesn’t say that in your speech.
Musso and his pro-gun cohorts went on to call Cantin's speech nothing but propaganda, to which Cantin replied, 'what happened to my daughter wasn't propaganda,' during an interview with CNN's Martin Bashir this afternoon.


Melisa Cantin Charbonneau - a 29-year-old mother and nurse - was murdered by her estranged husband, Jonathan Charbonneau, in October of 2009, just days after he was arrested for throwing her down a flight of stairs and strangling her
The day Jonathan Charbonneau shot his wife, he was out of jail on $30 bail for the previous misdemeanor assault.
In addition to murdering his wife, Jonathan Charbonneau shot her father, John, and killed himself.
John Cantin survived the attack and then spent years lobbying for stricter domestic violence laws, arguing that if his former son-in-law hadn't been out on bail after assaulting Melisa Cantin, she might still be alive.
'I don't believe this bill will stop the person doing the choking, but at least when it does happen and they are arrested, they are put away,' Cantin said in a 2010 interview with USA Today.
He's since shifted his lobbying efforts to include advocating for stricter gun-control laws.

Many of the pro-gun advocates who showed up at Tuesday's rally are supporters of Republican New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte, who in April voted against a bill that would have expanded background checks to include people who buy guns online and at gun shows.
While 40 other Republicans and five Democrats opposed the bill, New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg's pro-gun-control organization, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, has specifically targeted Ayotte by spending more than $400,000 on an ad campaign in her home state claiming she opposes background checks for gun-buyers.
'I supported legislation that would have improved our background check system,' Ayotte told the Washington Times last month. 'These are clearly out-of-state interests coming into New Hampshire spending a lot of money, and I think at the end of the day people will sort through these types of false attacks, they will examine the issue, and I trust the people of New Hampshire to make their own judgments.'
Bloomberg's attack on Ayotte has only increased her fanfare amongst pro-gun advocates, many of whom started chanting her name as Musso harassed Cantin at Tuesday's rally.
'While Senator Ayotte wasn’t there, she hopes that everyone would be civil at all events no matter what their viewpoint is,' Ayotte spokesman Jeff Grappone said in a statement to the website BuzzFeed.
According to the local Patch.com, Musso was later Tasered by police and arrested after an altercation with officers who were summoned by gun-control advocates to monitor the situation.
Musso has been charged with one count each of disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, and two counts of simple assault, allegedly against a rally attendee and a police officer. He was held on $5,000 cash bail



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2346278/Pro-gun-advocate-shamelessly-heckles-father-gun-violence-victim-getting-Tasered-police-arrested.html#ixzz2WuKEiT9C

Shame, 94 y/o's rarely survive lung infections...

What a great man. Perhaps he didn't achieve ALL he set out to but he achieved more than most thought was humanly possible. And prevented a potential bloodshed in the early '90s.

There's going to be a documentary on Nelson Mandela on television some time this week...it's just a question of which day.

It's time to let him go. Stop clinging to him and trivialising him as some kind of token. What he stood for and his achievements will live on long after his death.

Who's trivialising him as a token?

They're keeping him alive purely because he's Nelson Mandela.

Germany can keep Eichmann records secret, court rules

Attempt to prove West Germany knew the senior Nazi was in Argentina in the 1950s frustrated by ruling

guardian.co.uk, Friday 28 June 2013 15.12 AEST

Germany's foreign intelligence agency can keep secret some of its records on Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi known as the architect of the Holocaust, a court ruled on Thursday.

The federal administrative court ruled that the intelligence agency was within its rights to black out passages from the files sought by a journalist attempting to shed light on whether West German authorities knew in the 1950s where Eichmann had fled after the second world war.

Thursday's ruling followed a decision last year in which the court said the Federal Intelligence Service had to release some files it had previously kept secret.

Israeli agents abducted Eichmann in Buenos Aires in 1960 and brought him to Jerusalem for trial. Eichmann, who helped organise the extermination of Europe's Jews as the head of the Gestapo's Jewish affairs office during the war, was found guilty of war crimes, sentenced to death and hanged in 1962.

The mass-circulation Bild daily, whose reporter sued for the files' full release, has reported that West German intelligence knew as early as 1952 that he was in Argentina.

In 2006, the CIA released documents showing that it wrote to its West German counterpart in 1958, saying it had information that Eichmann "is reported to have lived in Argentina under the alias 'Clemens' since 1952". Eichmann's alias was Ricardo Klement.

The German intelligence service said in an emailed reaction to the ruling that most of the files it held on Eichmann were already public and only a small portion still needed to be blacked out. It said the need to do so stemmed from laws on "protecting state security interests" and on data protection.

A lawyer for Bild's publisher, Axel Springer, said after Thursday's ruling that it reserved the right to take the case to Germany's highest court. Christoph Partsch said in a statement that Germany's interests would be harmed by redacting the files, not by releasing them.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/28/germany-eichmann-holocaust-records-secret?

Edited by Joffa: 28/6/2013 06:47:10 PM

Ethiopia’s Plan to Dam the Nile Has Egyot fuming

The heat is stifling but the construction workers and red-hatted engineers don’t let up. Mechanised excavators batter into the mighty, arid peaks on either side of the site of Ethiopia’s Grand Renaissance dam, set to be the largest in Africa. The foundations are growing. The dark brown waters of the Nile River flow through the site. But the punishing sun and tough terrain aren’t the only challenges facing the dam’s progress. Downstream, Egypt is furious – and some politicians there have talked in private of war. Ethiopia is defiant. “There is nothing that will stop Ethiopia now from realising our country’s dream,” says Bereket Simon, an Ethiopian government spokesman, as he walked around the site on a recent morning.

The Ethiopian government believes that the dam, which is due to start generating electricity next year and will be paid for from the proceeds of government bond sales, will become an image of national pride and a symbol of the country’s recent development. Egypt, a country whose identity and economy are already inseparable from the Nile, feels deeply threatened by the project. Egypt’s President Mohammed Morsi said in a speech in Cairo on June 10, “We will defend each drop of the Nile with our blood,” but he has also said that dialogue is the best means of solving the crisis. Not all of Egypt’s politicians have been so diplomatic; during a cabinet meeting on June 3, which was being broadcast by Egyptian state TV without the knowledge of the political figures attending, several told Morsi that he must destroy the dam through any means available.

On June 18 tempers seemed to calm a little when the Ethiopian foreign minister met his Egyptian counterpart in Addis Ababa, afterwards saying relations remained “brotherly” and that the two men had agreed to conduct further studies to ascertain the likely future impact of the dam on all countries through which the river flows. But the specter of a regional conflict remains. In February, Saudi Arabia’s deputy defense minister was harshly critical of the dam project. “The Dam is being built close to the Sudanese border for political plotting rather than for economic gain and constitutes a threat to Egyptian and Sudanese national security,” said Prince Khaled bin Sultan, the deputy minister. “Ethiopia is hell-bent on harming Arab peoples.” (Bin Sultan was dismissed by the Saudi king in April; it is unclear whether there is any connection between his dismissal and his comments about the dam). On Ethiopia’s side, both South Sudan and Uganda recently said Egypt should not undermine Ethiopia’s right to the Nile.

The challenge Ethiopia faces is to persuade not just the Egyptian government but a whole nation that appears convinced right now that Ethiopia is about to plug the Nile. There is no geographical feature of Egypt more important to its people. As the Greek historian, Herodotus, put it in 50 B.C., Egypt is the “gift of the Nile.” Extremely arid and lacking in rainfall, Egypt has always relied heavily on the Nile for its freshwater. Following Sudan’s independence, Egypt negotiated with Sudan in 1959 that it would have rights to over 14,500 billion gallons per year of the Nile’s flow, leaving over 488 billion gallons for Sudan, and less for the upstream states – Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania and Burundi. Ethiopia was not party to these talks, and many Egyptians now see the new dam as a way for Ethiopia to bypass the agreement, control the Nile, and gain leverage over Cairo. For Ethiopia and Egypt, whose populations are predicted to grow steeply in the coming years, the water of the Nile and how they use it could determine whether they can cater for the demands of their fast growing populations.

Experts differ on whether the dam will, in fact, negatively impact the Nile. According to Dia El-Quosy, the former chairman of Egypt’s National Water Research Centre, the dam will reduce water flow anywhere from 1,300 billion gallons to 6,600 billion gallons per year. El-Quosy also argues that the reduction in water flow would increase pollution in the river and harm the fisheries in Egpyt, as well as making it difficult for ferries and other boats to navigate the river. Another serious concern, el-Quosy says, is the possible reduction in fertility for farmland along the banks of the river that could be caused by the dam holding back nutrient-rich salts. He claims that every 260 billion gallon reduction in water flow created by the dam will mean half a million farmers lose their farms. “So if we lose 30bn kilolitres (8,000 billion gallons) in water flow, that would mean losing 25% of Egypt’s cultivated land,” he says.

Not all experts, though, agree that the dam necessarily spells disaster for the downstream states of Sudan and Egypt. According to Professor Dale Whittington, an expert on the Nile’s hydropower potential, hydropower dams do not generally consume water. “After the reservoir behind the Grand Renaissance Dam is filled, the dam will not reduce the total water supply available to Egypt and Sudan,” he says. Whittington also says, however, that Ethiopia needs to recognise that Egypt has legitimate concerns about how Ethiopia will operate the Grand Renaissance Dam. If Ethiopia attempted to fill the dam’s reservoir during years of drought and at a time when there was little water stored in Egypt’s Aswan High Dam Reservoir, for example, this would seriously reduce Egypt’s water supplies at a crucial time. “Similarly, during a multi-year drought in the Nile basin, Egypt needs guarantees that Ethiopia will not act strategically to withhold water, but instead will coordinate the operation of the Grand Renaissance Dam with Egypt’s Aswan High Dam in order to minimize the costs of the drought on all the” countries through which the Nile flows, said Whittington.

Although the Egyptian government has been highly vocal in its opposition to the dam, Sudan appears to support the project. “Our government is mostly positive about the dam,” says Alhajj Hamad, a Khartoum-based political analyst. “There is a small minority of Islamists who feel they should back their Islamist brothers in Cairo but mostly our government is being pragmatic and sees the benefits.” Experts have noted that the dam could reduce sediment flows down the Nile, which would increase the lifespan of hydropower dams in Sudan, of which there are six, mostly built during colonial times. It would also reduce the fertility of Sudan’s farmlands, however. “No one is sure quite yet,” said one Sudanese water official. Although Egypt also has two dams on the Nile, which could coordinate with Ethiopia’s dam to efficiently regulate water flow, it is the size of Ethiopia’s dam that is irking Egypt – and the perceived secrecy by which the dam is being built.

In spite of the uncertainty surrounding the dam project – and its potential to create friction in the region – it could ultimately turn out to bring greater harmony to the countries through which the Nile flows. “If transparency is increased then this dam can be a great opportunity for the region to work together,” says Cleo Paskal, a specialist in water and food security at London’s Chatham House think tank. “Ethiopia will now be a stakeholder of the Nile and it will be in all the countries’ interests to increase dialogue and to protect the river in a way that benefits all.”

Read more: http://world.time.com/2013/06/28/ethiopias-plan-to-dam-the-nile-has-egypt-fuming/#ixzz2XV2qGJQB

In your medical opinion?

He's a 94 year old man with a lung infection, his survival rate was put at below 20% BEFORE he was put on life support.

Number of rough sleepers rises again in London

Annual figures show 6,437 people were seen spending night on streets in 2012-13, up 13%, despite mayor's pledge

Patrick Butler, social policy editor
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 20 June 2013 21.54 AEST

The number of homeless people recorded as spending a night on the streets of London has risen again, confirming that the mayor, Boris Johnson, has missed his ambitious target to end rough sleeping in the capital by the end of 2012.

The latest annual figures show that 6,437 people were seen rough sleeping in 2012-13, compared with 5,768 the previous year, a 13% rise year on year and an increase of 62% since 2010-11.

Homelessness charities said the problem was likely to get worse as a result of cuts to welfare and local authority budgets, and called on Johnson to take action.

Leslie Morphy, chief executive of the charity Crisis, said: "The mayor of London pledged to eliminate rough sleeping in the capital by 2012. Instead we see today the number of people sleeping on London's streets – in absolute destitution in one of the world's richest cities – has more than doubled on Boris's watch."

However, the statistics contained some positive news, revealing that a greater proportion of those recorded as rough sleepers were spending no more than one night out before being found accommodation or being returned to their home area by street outreach teams under the government's No Second Night Out initiative.

Three-quarters of rough sleepers were recorded as not sleeping out again after their first night, compared with 70% the previous year.

Johnson pledged during his mayoral election campaigns in 2008 and 2012 to end rough sleeping in London and to ensure that by the end of 2012 no one would spend a second night on the streets.

The figures collected by the Broadway charity and the Greater London Authority show:

• Just over half of rough sleepers (53%) were non-UK nationals. Of these, 28% were from central and eastern European member states of the EU.

• Nine per cent of people seen sleeping rough were over 55 years old, and six people aged under 18 were contacted by outreach teams.

• Among UK nationals, 3% of rough sleepers (145 people) were known to have served in the armed forces.

Howard Sinclair, the chief executive of Broadway, said: "While any increase in the number of rough sleepers in London is concerning, there is much work being done to support those in need. This is reflected in the fact that three-quarters of new rough sleepers were only seen sleeping rough once and figures show that a small number of people were contacted in all four quarters of 2012/13.

"However, while we acknowledge and welcome the significant investment made in services for rough sleepers in London, and the positive impact of that investment, we are clear that we need to maintain a similar investment level in preventative services so as to stop people arriving on the streets in the first place. Yet this is the area which has experienced dramatically reduced funding over the past two years."

Darren Johnson, a Green party London Assembly member, said: "The mayor has helped more people off the streets, but he has failed to tackle the reasons why they end up there in the first place. The mayor has supported cuts to our welfare safety net, overlooked damaging cuts to homelessness services and opposed reforms to our insecure private rented sector. If he doesn't change course, his aim of ending rough sleeping will remain a distant dream."

The figures do not include homeless people who are squatting or "sofa surfing" on friend's couches. London has the highest proportion of recorded rough sleeping of any area in England.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/jun/20/homeless-rough-sleepers-rise-london?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487

Uzbekistan, Australia discuss prospects of cooperation

inShare


1 July 2013, 16:37 (GMT+05:00)

The delegation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Australia headed by Ambassador William Fischer and representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan discussed topical issues of international and regional affairs on Monday, the Foreign Ministry of Uzbekistan said.
During the meeting, the sides exchanged views on further expanding cooperation in various specific areas of mutual interest.
Despite the geographical distance, Uzbekistan and Australia have expressed mutual interest in deepening cooperation all-around, particularly with regards to trade, the economy and investment.
Uzbekistan is interested in bringing modern Australian practices and technologies to its agricultural sector, as well as energy saving technology, equipment production as well as projects within the Navoi Free Industrial-Trade Zone (FITZ).
Currently, there are ten enterprises backed by Australian capital in Uzbekistan, including three enterprises fully owned by Australian capital that work in agriculture, mediation, perfumes, cosmetics and textiles.
Representative offices of Rio Tinto and the Worley Parsons company's engineering center were opened in Uzbekistan in 2011.
Do you have any feedback? Contact our journalist at agency@trend.az

http://en.trend.az/regions/casia/uzbekistan/2166438.html?

Joffa, what are you doing? Joffa, stahp!