information is sketchy but it seems as if ingrid betancourt was ‘freed’

El Tiempo :: En rueda de prensa, el ministro de Defensa, Juan Manuel Santos, informó que las Fuerzas Militares acaban de rescatar a Íngrid Betancourt y los tres norteamericanos y 11 miembros de la fuerza pública que se encontraban en poder de las Farc desde hace más de seis años.

By MIKE CORDER, Associated Press Writer
14 minutes ago
Judges at the International Criminal Court on Wednesday ordered the release of the first suspect the tribunal took into custody, saying he cannot get a fair trial because prosecutors are withholding evidence in his case.

Former Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga’s trial at the world’s first permanent war crimes tribunal was suspended before it began last month after the prosecution refused to release documents it received from the United Nations that could help clear Lubanga.

He is charged with conscripting and sending children under the age of 15 to fight in bloody conflicts in Congo’s Ituri region in 2002-2003.

In an order issued Wednesday and posted on the court’s Web site, the trial chamber said that “in the absence of the prospect of a trial, the accused cannot be held in custody.”

The order added that as the situation now stands, “a fair trial of the accused is impossible, and the entire justification for his detention has been removed.”

Prosecutors have five days to appeal and Lubanga will not be released before then. An appeals chamber could still order his continued detention while it considers the appeal.

There was no immediate comment from the court’s prosecutors.

Lubanga was to have been the first suspect to stand trial at the court and his release comes as a major blow to prosecutors. His would also have been the first international war crimes trial focusing solely on the use of child soldiers.

Lawyers representing victims of atrocities in Congo warned in court last week that releasing Lubanga without a trial could unleash “a fireball” in the Ituri region where his support is based.

The three-judge panel that ordered the release said it took those fears into account when making the decision.

“The chamber particularly stresses that it has given full weight to the fears of, and possible consequences to, the victims as a result of a decision to release the accused,” the judges wrote in their ruling.

Lubanga is founder of the Union of Congolese Patriots and prosecutors say he swelled the ranks of its armed wing with child soldiers at a time when thousands of people were killed, maimed or raped in brutal ethnic warfare.

Democracy Now! Meanwhile a prominent Palestinian journalist has been hospitalized after being strip-searched and assaulted by Israeli officials at a border crossing between Jordan and the West Bank. The journalist, Mohammed Omer, was on his way back to Gaza after visiting London where he won the prestigious Martha Gellhorn Prize for journalism. Omer is the Gaza correspondent for the Inter Press Service and has been a guest on Democracy Now. According to Omer, Shin Bet officials interrogated him, pointed an M16 gun at his face then forcibly removed all of his clothing. Then officials pinned him to the floor and searched every cavity of his body. He began vomiting and fainted. He was then dragged on the floor with his head banging on the ground. He woke up in a Palestinian hospital

But Lucom, a native of rural Pennsylvania who spent much of his life in Palm Beach, Florida, surprised everyone in his will, which was disclosed upon his death two years ago at the age of 88. After doling out relatively small portions of his tens of millions of dollars to survivors, he left the rest to a foundation he had dreamed up in secrecy to aid the poor children of Panama, where he spent the final years of his life.

HARARE, ZIMBABWE - Zimbabwe’s opposition leader emerged from his refuge at the Dutch Embassy Wednesday to call for African leaders to guide talks to end Zimbabwe’s crisis, saying a presidential runoff this week was no solution.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday threw out the record $2.5 billion in punitive damages that Exxon Mobil Corp had been ordered to pay for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska, the nation’s worst tanker spill.
By a 5-3 vote, the high court ruled that the punitive damages award should be slashed — limited by the circumstances of the case to an amount equal to the total relevant compensatory damages of $507.5 million.

Meanwhile, Obama, Durbin, and three other farm-state senators opposed a proposal this year by the Bush Administration to lower stiff tariffs on cheaper sugarcane-based ethanol from Brazil and other countries. To lower such tariffs, the senators suggested, would leave the nation dangerously dependent on foreign ethanol. “Our focus must be on building energy security through domestically produced renewable fuels,” wrote the senators in a letter to Bush. That Obama would lend his name to such an argument—with its dubious implication that Brazilian ethanol is a national-security liability comparable to Saudi crude—indicates that he is at least as interested in protecting domestic producers of ethanol as he is in weaning America from imported petroleum.

Architecture for Humanity is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization that seeks architectural solutions to humanitarian crisis and brings design services to communities in need. We believe that where resources and expertise are scarce, innovative, sustainable and collaborative design can make a difference.

By tapping a network of professionals willing to lend their time and their talents to helping those who would not otherwise be able to afford their services, we support community development, help communities rebuild after disaster and provide pro bono design services to community partners around the world.

Through the power of professional design, we build safer, more sustainable and highly innovative structures–structures that become assets to their communities and ongoing symbols of the ability of people to come together to envision a better future.

Our vision is one of a world where designers innovate globally to build housing, schools, clinics and other essential infrastructure locally. We believe that this can be achieved not by replicating a design that was successful in one situation in another, but by encouraging locally-inspired designs and by enabling these solutions to be shared and freely adapted by all.

To realize this vision, Architecture for Humanity created the Open Architecture Network, the first site on the Web to provide access to open source architectural plans.

Finally, through competitions, workshops, educational forums, exhibitions, and other activities, we foster public appreciation for the many ways that architecture and design can improve lives.

Open Architecture Network

In 2007, Architecture for Humanity launched the Open Architecture Network, a collaborative online resource and project management tool for those dedicated to improving the built environment. But it’s not just for professional architects–community leaders, nonprofits, technology partners, educators, materials specialists, healthcare workers, and others collaborate and share their expertise on the network.

I love life. God has me here for a purpose, and I am enjoying this journey.

the most accurate source for breaking news and propaganda in Guyana has done it again. and we speak of anti-government blogger livinguyana

Guyana’s first President Arthur Chung died this morning in Georgetown. He was 90 years old. He was born on January 10 1918.

MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai has gone into hiding in the Dutch embassy in Zimbabwe, a day after he announced he was pulling out of the presidential run-off election.

The MDC won the March 29th elections despite conditions that were far from free and fair. Our party’s message of peaceful, democratic change and rebuilding a New Zimbabwe enjoys the support of the vast majority of Zimbabweans.

Our election victory confirmed this to Mugabe and since that date, he and his supporters have been waging a war against the people of Zimbabwe

by Jean-Marc Mojon Fri Jun 20, 12:30 PM ET

Halimu, a 20-year-old with a disability, feels she escaped hell when she and three friends embarked on a three-month odyssey to flee Ethiopia’s conflict-torn Ogaden region.

Now that she has reached the safety of the Dadaab refugee camp in northern Kenya, she cannot contemplate ever returning to her village.

“The government soldiers attacked our village one day, accusing all of us of supporting the rebels… I woke up that morning and all my family was gone,” she recounts, hiding her malformed foot under a long black Muslim garment.

She left what remained of her village of Garbo in January 2008 with three friends her age.

“We had heard and seen what happened to people and were scared of everyone so we would hide during the day and walk at night. We had taken some food with us and sometimes we were able to find some in the villages we found.”

Garbo was attacked by rebels from the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) in January 2007 and became the scene of some of the worst violence since the government launched a major crackdown in April the same year.

“I still don’t know where the rest of my family is and I’m only in Dadaab for the security but I don’t think I will ever go back, I just can’t face the idea of risking the same ordeal a second time,” Halimu says.

Dadaab, a cluster of three camps sprawling in a hostile area of northeastern Kenya, is home to around 200,000 refugees.

The vast majority are Somalis who fled 17 years of civil unrest and poverty. This year alone, 40,000 have poured in, fleeing the crossfire of almost daily fighting between Ethiopian-backed government troops and Islamist insurgents.

But most Somalis say they are hoping to return to their homeland soon and the fact that their Ogadeni kinsmen have forsaken any desire to return is a measure of the horror they left behind.

As global refugee day is marked on June 20, the plight of the civilian population in Ogaden remains one of the most under-reported crises in the world, due to drastic aid and media access restrictions imposed by Addis Ababa.

In a report released earlier this month, the New York-based organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused the Ethiopian army of executing, torturing and raping civilians in the Ogaden.

Ethiopia vehemently denied the allegations, which also include beatings, burning entire villages and other abuses HRW said were tantamount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Abdidahir Osman sees himself as being almost fortunate to have reached Dadaab alive, in barely a month and with his wife and eight children.

The 42-year-old first fled his native Ogaden during the 1977 war between Ethiopia and Somalia. He settled in Mogadishu but returned home when civil unrest broke out following president Siad Barre’s 1991 ouster.

Then in February 2008, he left everything he had once again.

“There were too many dangers. We are pastoralists and the army started limiting access to water for our livestock. Our animals gradually died after which several people were arrested and our land was eventually seized.

“Then I had a small kiosque in town, in Laasoole. But the whole place was burned down. Four hundred families were living there… The soldiers forced us to sit and watch while our village was being torched,” he says.

“I don’t expect ever to go back to my country. Even if I wanted to, everything I had is lost. The place where we lived doesn’t exist anymore, it will now remain a place where a village once was,” Abdidahir mourns.

Nasra Ali Adan and her six children were also among the 40,000 new arrivals registered in Dadaab since the start of the year.

She fled the Ogaden late last year to join her sister in Mogadishu but was forced back on the road almost immediately by the fighting there.
“I still consider myself Ethiopian but I never dream of going back to the Ogaden… My husband was shot by soldiers in front of me. Now that I’m here in Kenya, I can live without the fear of my children being killed.”

TimesOnline: Archfred Chipiyo was one of three men discovered by the roadside in Harare today with their skulls smashed after they were abducted by loyalists of the president’s Zanu-PF party on Tuesday. The body of a fourth man was later discovered nearby.
Archfred Chipiyo was kidnapped on Tuesday night after armed security forces raided the home of his father, Suleiman, the MDC chairman in the Chinunwiza district. Suleiman Chipiyo escaped from the scene with a number of other activists, but his son and three others were left in the house, surrounded, and badly beaten up before being abducted. One of those killed was believed to have been a passer-by caught up in the attack by chance.

Thu Jun 19, 2:58 PM ET
Militants from Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger Delta said they released an American oil worker captured in an attack on an offshore oil facility earlier on Thursday.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said U.S. captain Jack Stone from oil services company Tidex was freed at 12:45 p.m. EDT.
(Reporting by Randy Fabi and Nick Tattersall)

UK Chagos Support Association. The UK Chagos Support Association has just circulated this notice. I thought you would want to know, in case any of you will be in London in late June.

“As you probably already know, the Foreign Office Appeal to the House of Lords begins on Monday 30th June. If anyone wants to show support for the Chagossians, they will be meeting up from 9.00 outside the Houses of Parliament to attend the hearing.”

Nepal-Leader-Arrest
Succumbing to Chinese pressure, Nepal has arrested three top pro-Dalai Lama Tibetan leaders along with 700 activists from different parts of the capital, Kathmandu.
The police raided the residences of Kelsang Chung, Director of the Tibetan Reception Centre, Ngawang Sangmi, President of Regional Tibetan Women’s Association and Tashi Dolma, vice-president of RTWA and arrested them Thursday, PTI reported here quoting Superintendent of Police Sarvendra Khanal said.
The cops also arrested around 700 Tibetan exiles staging anti-China demonstrations in different parts of Kathmandu.
“We will release the ordinary Tibetan demonstrators as usual, but we won’t release the three Tibetan leaders,” Khanal said.
“They will be put in to jail for a longer period on charges of provoking anti-China demonstrations,” he added without specifying the time period.
Nepal backs China’s policy on Tibet and has vowed not to allow any anti-China activity on its soil.
Since March 10, when dozens of Tibetan demonstrators were killed following a crackdown by the Chinese military in Lhasa, they have been regularly staging protests in front of the Chinese Embassy and the United Nations Office in Nepal demanding human rights and freedom in the region.
China has virtually closed its border with Mustang, the North-west border district of Nepal, creating famine in the region, which is located in a remote and difficult terrain.
The Chinese have stopped issuing visas to Nepalese to visit Tibet through this route for over a month, causing acute shortage of food grains.
Every year nearly 2,000 Tibetans arrive in Nepal through illegal routes on their way to meet the Dalai Lama, who is residing at Dharamshala in India.
According to an estimate, there are more than 20,000 Tibetan refugees living in Nepal at present.

U N I T E D  N A T I O N S | N A T I O N S  U N I E S

THE SECRETARY-GENERAL — MESSAGE FOR WORLD REFUGEE DAY

Intolerance, political breakdown and war have long, pernicious histories. Yet the fragility of political systems, the devolution of societies into catastrophic violence have also provoked a humane reply, the protection of those forced to flee their countries in escape from persecution. Granting asylum can be traced back thousands of years and is one of the earliest hallmarks of civilization. Today, the principle is firmly recognized in Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which this year marks its 60th anniversary: “Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.”

The United Nations Refugee Convention of 1951 defined a refugee as a person who is outside his or her country of nationality or habitual residence and who has a well-founded fear of persecution because of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion. Since 1951, human displacement has become a far more complex issue. Distinguishing a refugee from a person driven across a border by sheer hunger is often very difficult. Population flows are now driven by interrelated factors and, as barriers to human mobility have fallen, protecting the displaced has become a greater challenge.

Conflict and poverty, the most common reasons people are compelled to leave their homes, are now amplified by the effects of climate change, increasing scarcity of resources and food shortages — factors which may lead to greater insecurity in the future. Compounding these challenges is the fact that the responsibility of providing asylum currently falls disproportionately on developing nations. Contrary to public perceptions in many industrialized nations, developing countries actually bear the burden of hosting a larger number of refugees, despite their limited resources.

In the past year, the number of refugees has grown to more than 11 million worldwide.
I urgently call on the international community to redouble efforts to address both the causes and consequences of forced human displacement. Greater international solidarity is crucial if we are to share the burden of protection more equitably.

I thank the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and UN agencies that have worked together to protect and help repatriate the displaced. We must not lose sight of the individual people who are fleeing persecution, what they face on a daily basis as they try to meet their basic needs.

Our goal must be no less than to ensure that refugees will be free one day to return home, in safety and dignity. But on World Refugee Day, let us first reaffirm that all refugees have the right to asylum, and let us do everything we can to give them the full protection they deserve.

BAGHDAD - Iraqi troops on Thursday arrested the top official in Amarah, a Muqtada al-Sadr loyalist, officials said, drawing swift condemnations from followers of the anti-U.S. cleric and raising tensions as a military operation against Shiite militias got under way.
Rafia Abdul-Jabbar, who also was acting deputy governor for Maysan province, was seized from his office Thursday morning along with a member of the provincial council, a local official said.

AllAfrica: South African President Thabo Mbeki headed to Zimbabwe on Wednesday to hold talks with Robert Mugabe ahead of next week’s presidential run-off poll. Mbeki also met with MDC leader Morgan Tsvangerai as well as United Nations envoy Haile Menkerios before setting out to Bulawayo to meet Mugabe.

it’s just gettig warm. this is only the beginning..the point has already been made, so you can go through the motions of apologising and giving money to charity et cetera

that’s how the game is played

AUSTIN – The Republican Party of Texas will donate to charity the $1,500 it received for leasing a booth at its state convention to a vendor who sold a racist button.

Simon Mann, a British-born former serviceman, has appeared for the second time before a kangaroo court in Equatorial Guinea on charges of masterminding a coup plot to topple the country’s government. Mann is accused of attempting to depose the oil-rich country’s dictator, Teodoro Obiang, with the assistance of 70 other suspected hired mercenaries. He has admitted involvement but denies being the ringleader. He also named Mark Thatcher, the son of former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, as a co-conspirator. Attorney General Jose Olo Obono said the charges merited the death penalty but an extradition deal struck with Zimbabwean authorities forbids the sentence.

Burundi’s last active rebel leader has declared the end of the armed struggle against the government. Agathon Rwasa, head of the Palipehutu-Forces Nationales de Libération (FNL), has allowed his fighters to be integrated into the government’s army in a gesture that he said showed a commitment to implementing a ceasefire agreed last month. At a ceremony to mark the start of the cantonment of FNL troops, Rwasa said he was committed to a lasting peace but he added the government must withdraw its troops from villages and confine them to barracks.

Umoja Fest Planning Meeting tonight 7pm-8:30
Seattle Vocational Institute, Rm. 210
2120 S. Jackson St.

Please RSVP if you plan to attend. Thank you.

————–

2008 Umoja Fest African Heritage Festival

FACT SHEET

What: Umoja Fest 2008 African Heritage Festival & Parade
Where: Seattle, WA
Venue: Judkins Park
When: Friday – Sunday, August 1-3, 2008

Format:
§ African Heritage Parade
§ Children’s Day & Activities
§ Youth Empowerment Rally & Talent Show
§ Heal The Hood 4-on-4 AAU Tournament
§ Umoja Soul of The City Awards
§ A Great Day In Seattle Photo Shoot
§ Fashion Expo
§ Gospel Fest
§ African Drum & Dance
§ Jazz, Soul, Blues
§ Spoken Word & Poetry
§ Bite of Africa
§ Vendor Marketplace
§ Knowledge Is The Key Education Expo
§ Community Resource Fair
§ Voter Registration

Partnerships: For more info on partnership, sponsorship and exhibitor opportunities contact 2069.941.2527 or email wyking@gmail.com.

–
Wyking
Remix Marketing & Communications, LLC
206-941-2527 (Seattle)
646-241-9122 (New York)
866-846-0106 (Toll Free)

Indybay:On June 16th, around a dozen protesters gathered at Ashby and MLK in Berkeley to protest the shooting of Anita Gay, grandmother, mother, and resident of Berkeley. She was killed on February 16, 2008 by a Berkeley Police officer who is now back on the street. Following the killing of Anita Gay by Berkeley police Justice for Anita! Justice for All! was formed.
The group is composed of family, friends, and concerned community members.

Freddie Kissoon is up to his ole tricks giving the devil the blues

knock dem dead Freddie knock dem dead

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe yesterday indicated he will refuse to stand down if he loses forthcoming elections. He told supporters at a rally, “how can a ballpoint fight with a gun?” after reminding them of Zimbabwe’s bloody war of liberation. Observers say election violence against opposition supporters has escalated from beatings and torture to mutilation and murder. Meanwhile, a senior UN envoy, Haile Menkerios, arrived in the country to assess the political and humanitarian crisis. The run-off presidential poll between President Mugabe and Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai is on 27 June.

Chadian rebels from the National Alliance say they have captured the eastern town of Biltine. If confirmed, it will be the third town they have taken in recent days. The rebels aim to march to the capital N’Djamena to oust President Idriss Deby. Mr Deby has accused the French-dominated 3,700-strong EU force in Chad of “turning a blind eye” to the killings of civilians and refugees by the rebels. On Monday, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) halted activities in eastern Chad because of safety fears. There are 12 refugee camps in the area housing some 250,000 refugees from the war-torn Darfur region in neighbouring Sudan.

Reports are that Angad Chand left home on his bicycle to purchase fish and was returning when the vehicle, a white Toyota Mark II, PKK 885 that was heading in the direction of the Rosignol Stelling hit him from behind.
Residents said that on impact the man was pitched a short distance away from where the accident occurred.

apparently someone set the cultural centre on fire and left what seem to be a device of some sort to go boom. this is supposed to be one of the major venues for Carifesta X. frank anthony look like it is taking a toll on his mind, body and soul. he look tired and fedup

By (AP)
Location: GEORGETOWN, Guyana
A spate of maulings by pit bulls prompted Guyanese authorities on Monday to ban imports of the breed into the South American nation.

Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud told reporters the import ban would last until Guyana’s lawmakers review the matter in coming weeks.

“I am not sure that we want these dogs,” Persaud said. “We have to see whether these types of animals are suited for this country.”

Public debate about the breed erupted when a pit bull escaped from a yard and severely mauled a jogger in the capital. The victim had to be flown to the U.S. for reconstructive surgery to his hands, legs and upper body.

In May, a 58-year-old security guard died after he was attacked by a pack of pit bulls.

Pit bulls are often kept as pets in Guyana’s residential areas or for commercial breeding purposes.

Current owners of pit bulls will be allowed to keep their dogs only if the animals are registered. Those who don’t comply could have their dogs seized and can be fined.

[Tamilnet :: Sun, 15 Jun 2008, 18:32 GMT]
Thangamma AppakuddiVeteran religious and cultural personality of Eezham Tamils, Thangamma Appakkuddi, passed away on Sunday noon, at the age of 84, after bedridden for a few weeks in a stage of coma at the Jaffna Teaching Hospital. Apart from her religious leadership, Ms. Thangamma Appakkuddi, was a philanthropist and a social worker, caring for the much needed requirements of women and children in a war-torn society. She was an institution by herself.

Shelisha Khan - 15 years old - raped, shot to death, dumped on the side of the road

Guyana govt will soon legalise some more of its illegal acts

UN I T E D N A T I O N S | N A T I O N S U N I E S
THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
–
MESSAGE ON THE WORLD DAY TO COMBAT DESERTIFICATION
17 June 2008

The theme of this year’s Day, “Combating land degradation for sustainable agriculture” reminds us of the importance of land as a global heritage which no human being can live without. Land degradation affects a significant portion of the Earth’s arable lands, directly impacting the well-being of people and economic development of countries. It causes agricultural economic losses, disorganizes local and regional food markets, and causes social and political instability.

As the population grows, and with it the demand for agriculture production, traditional systems of managing the land are collapsing. This is aggravated by the adoption of new practices, often monocultures. More and more of the good land is pressed into service, without proper attention to conservation, and poor farmers and pastoralists are forced onto marginal land. Land degradation impacts women particularly hard, since in traditionally they who devote time and effort to the land — growing, processing, managing and marketing most of the food and other natural resources.

These issues are holistically covered within the framework of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, which serves as the nexus between poverty reduction and ecosystem protection in the drylands. Today, the Convention is the sole international legal framework to reclaim dry and degraded land, and could offer a long-term solution to producing more food for more people. These unused lands could also serve for biofuel production, and thus offer new benefits for their inhabitants.

The time has come for the international community to recognize that drylands and marginal lands, where nearly half of the world’s poor live, are not waste land