Jailed Journalists
Independent journalists demand liberty for jailed colleague
HAVANA, August 22 (www.cubanet.org) - Colleagues of Oscar Mario González Pérez, an independent journalist held by police for the past month, have issued a public appeal for his release.
"The world should not allow Cuba to continue jailing journalists just because they are journalists," said a public statement.
"If this man is condemned to prison, as occurred with other colleagues in 2003, the number of journalists serving long sentences in Cuba will be increased to 22," the statement said.
Those signing were Amarilis C. Rey, Tania Díaz Castro, Ernesto Roque, Juan González Febles, Beatriz del Carmen Pedroso, Ana Rosa Veitía, and Julio César Gálvez Rodríguez.
http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y05/ago05/23e4.htm
PAKISTAN: Sindh bans three newspapers, editor jailed
New York, August 23, 2005—The government of the southern province of Sindh banned three Karachi-based weekly newspapers last week accusing them of creating “sectarian extremism and hatred.”
Officials withdrew the publication permits of the three weeklies on August 15 because they published “objectionable material” that caused “danger to public safety/order.”
Police had already raided the offices of Zarb-i-Islam, Friday Special, and Wajood on July 19, shutting down the publications and arresting several journalists including Wajood editor and publisher Mohammad Tahir, who is still in jail.
http://www.cpj.org/news/2005/Pak23aug05na.html
Reporters told they face jail
Christine Caulfield
24aug05
A JUDGE has warned two senior Herald Sun journalists they could be jailed for refusing to reveal the name of a source who blew the whistle on a controversial federal government policy.
Reporters Michael Harvey and Gerard McManus will be formally charged with contempt of court after declining to give evidence identifying the source of documents revealing a $500 million rebuff to war veterans.
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,16364526%255E2862,00.html
Journalists under threat
Michael DeGolyer
August 25, 2005
Press freedom is slipping just when it is most needed to ensure healthy governance
The Chief Executive must have felt like Daniel entering the lion's den Wednesday when he ventured among journalists at the Foreign Correspondents' Club. Escaping harm after being thrown into a den of starving lions is so rare it made it into the Bible as divine intervention.
The biblical story has the hero walking unhurt among ravenous beasts. But Daniel did not try to eat with the lions. That might have made things turn out differently, especially since Daniel, like Donald, was intended as the main course.
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/stdn/std/Opinion/GH25Df01.html
Film directors and writers call for release of jailed journalist
Julian Borger in Washington
Thursday August 25, 2005
The Guardian
More than two dozen prominent European film directors, writers and journalists have published an open letter calling for the release of Judith Miller, a New York Times reporter who is today spending her 50th day in jail for refusing to identify confidential sources.
The film directors Pedro Almodovar and Wim Wenders, the German writer Günter Grass and the former BBC reporter Kate Adie were among the 27 signatories of the letter, which called Miller's imprisonment "more than a crime: it's a miscarriage of justice".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1555907,00.html
Europeans join campaign to free jailed US journalist
Leading figures from the arts and media in Europe have joined forces to appeal to Washington for the release of Judith Miller, the veteran New York Times reporter who yesterday marked her 50th day in prison for refusing to testify in the inquiry into the leaking of the identity of the CIA operative Valerie Plame.
"At a time when the most extremist ideas are gaining ground, and when growing numbers of reporters are being killed or taken hostage, arresting a journalist in a democratic country is more than a crime: it's a miscarriage of justice," the group said. Its 27 members include the Spanish film director, Pedro Almódovar, the German literary Nobel laureate, Gunther Grass, and the former chief BBC reporter, Kate Adie.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article307976.ece
… isms
Jewish group denounces video on Auschwitz
By JOCELYN GECKER
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
PARIS -- An Internet video that depicts the Nazi death camp Auschwitz as a rave party drew sharp criticism Wednesday from a Jewish rights group, which urged authorities to have it removed from European Web sites.
The three-minute video titled "Housewitz" - a pun on house music and Auschwitz - casts Nazi soldiers as DJs. It alternates black-and-white still photos of Holocaust atrocities with color images of youths at an outdoor party. And it advertises a "Free taxi ride home," showing a wheelbarrow full of corpses.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apeurope_story.asp?category=1103&slug=Auschwitz%20Video
Gender-segregated classes for visiting Saudi professors spark faculty complaint
By Zinie Chen Sampson
ASSOCIATED PRESS
3:03 p.m. August 10, 2005
RICHMOND, Va. – The creation of gender-segregated classes at Virginia Tech for visiting faculty from Saudi Arabia is drawing complaints from professors, who say a state-supported school shouldn't promote discrimination.
King Abdulaziz University paid Virginia Tech $246,000 to design and operate the faculty development program this summer.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20050810-1503-virginiatech-saudis.html
Seminar On Gender Issues Continues
Luanda, Aug 10 - The seminar on gender issues that started Tuesday in Luanda under the NGO "Angola2000", continues today its work of sensitising members of various organisations on human rights matters.
The seminar is also to inform the participants on the importance of resolution of conflicts through dialogue and endeavour to secure women with full representation and participation in decision making in various sectors of activity.
On the first day of the meeting, the participants discussed issues related to gender discrimination at workplace, at home, society and women role in the society. Sixteen NGOs are attending the seminar.
http://www.angolapress-angop.ao/noticia-e.asp?ID=364340
Gender equality taking root
Females must believe in themselves, says commission, which has also helped to educate men
August 10, 2005
By Linda Mbongwa and Poloko Tau
The lives of women have improved since the birth of the new South Africa - but the struggle continues as fresh challenges present themselves.
Chana Mojake, CEO of the Commission on Gender Equality, (CGE), said the commission dealt with between 500 and 700 complaints from the public concerning issues of equality every year.
She was speaking in Johannesburg on the eve of Women's Day.
In the past, Mojake said, men used to dominate both at home and in the workplace, but through the commission's efforts to advance gender equality, most women now knew about their rights.
http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=129&fArticleId=2831544
Nadia in tears after Oz housemates discuss gender
Filed: 19:39, Aug 10 2005 by Neil Wilkes
Nadia was left in tears on her first night in the Aussie Big Brother house after the issue of her gender was raised.
All three remaining housemates - Greg, Tim and Vesna - had had suspicions that Nadia was not born as a female but Vesna decided to confront the question as the four sat in the jacuzzi.
As she stuttered around the subject, Greg cut to the chase and asked: "Are you a transexual, Nadia?"
http://bigbrother.digitalspy.co.uk/article/ds8505.html
Women can transform state of gender relations
RECENTLY I was invited to Mendi by “Meri I Kirap Sapotim” (MIKS) group to conduct a session on freedom and empowerment to a group composed mainly of women.
The workshop was part of an NGO’s efforts to create greater awareness of the limited preferential voting (PLV) system, while bolstering women’s rights, good governance and active public participation.
This workshop was held in anticipation for the coming Mendi by-election.
http://www.thenational.com.pg/0811/column6.htm
Society's ambivalence about nudity emerges in reactions to art
‘Sensation still works on people. So there is always someone who aims for that first time.'
August 24, 2005 ㅡ The price for nudity was more severe than anyone had expected. Late last month, the Supreme Court ruled that Kim Un-gyu, an artist and middle-school art instructor who posted a nude photo of himself and his pregnant wife on his Web site, violated the country's anti-pornography laws. A few days later, two punk rock musicians from The Couch who exposed themselves during a live television broadcast were arrested for violating public performance laws.
While the two incidents stirred media outrage for challenging social norms over public nudity, many in the cultural sphere argued that the cases should have been handled differently, taking into account the artists' intentions in using nudity and their way of displaying it.
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/200508/23/200508232028293139900091009101.html
Study: Race disparity during traffic stops
By Michael J. Sniffen, Associated Press Writer August 24, 2005
WASHINGTON --Black, Hispanic and white motorists are equally likely to be pulled over by police, but blacks and Hispanics are much more likely to be searched, handcuffed, arrested and subjected to force or the threat of it, a Justice Department study has found.
The study, by the department's Bureau of Justice Statistics, was completed last April and posted on the agency's Web site after Bush administration officials disagreed over whether a press release should mention the racial disparities.
Traffic stops have become a politically volatile issue as minority groups have complained that many stops and searches are based on race rather than on legitimate suspicions.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/08/24/study_race_disparity_during_traffic_stops/
WRETCHED SETTLERS.
DO ANYONE NEED THAT KIND OF HATE?
NO, of course not.
Transparent Sham in Gaza
Fawaz Turki, disinherited@yahoo.com
So the wretched settlers — all 8,500 of them who had occupied 20 percent of Gaza’s choice land to build their colonies on — have pulled out, leaving a desolate landscape of rubble and garbage behind. But whatever you do, hold the celebrations, and think not of what has changed, but what has not. The settlers may have folded their tents, as it were, and headed north — for many, to settle on expropriated Palestinian land in the West Bank — but the military occupation remains very much in place, determining the economic and social future of the strip.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=68933&d=24&m=8&y=2005
Hydro One denies racial discrimination
Canadian Press
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
CREDIT: (CP file photo/Frank Gunn)
Hydro One adamantly denies allegations it's firing workers based on race.
TORONTO -- Hydro One is strongly denying suggestions by the union that represents its striking engineers that it fired a group of young employees based on their ethnicity.
“There have been several allegations from (the union) that we're trying to go after certain ethnic groups or new immigrants,” spokesman Peter Gregg said Wednesday after the union alluded to discrimination in its latest salvo against the utility.
http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/toronto/story.html?id=dda6b4eb-c411-488c-a39c-2a84c89be480
Indian lawyer fights race discrimination
Nabanita Sircar
London,
An Indian lawyer is fighting a race discrimination case at an employment tribunal against Mudassar Arani, who is the solicitor for a terror suspect for a UK bomb plot. The suspect has given evidence in support of his solicitor.
Ms Arani, representing terror suspect Omar Rehman, who also represents cleric Abu Hamza, has been accused of being a foul-mouthed racist bully who exploits poorly paid employees.
Her former paralegal Jitendra Sharma, 40, has told Watford Employment Tribunal that Arani made his life a misery because he was Indian.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/5983_1471059,00430004.htm
Fresno State Responds to Lawsuit
August 24, 2005 — Fresno State is responding to the lawsuit filed by fired women's basketball coach Stacy Johnson-Klein.
The lawsuit against the university claims Johnson-Klein has been the victim of gender discrimination, sexual harassment and inappropriate touching.
Fresno State has not yet been served with the lawsuit, but in a short statement, the school said Stacy Johnson-Klein was terminated after a careful investigation.
http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/news/082405_nw_johnson_klein.html
Crime big worry for ethnic groups
A photo of slain dairy owner, Bhagubhai Vaghela on stage at a meeting to express the Asian community's safety concerns in Auckland. Picture / Paul Estcourt
25.08.05
Law and order and immigration are top issues among New Zealand's ethnic communities this election, although a new voter dynamic is emerging among the young, writes
Errol Kiong.
An old scab was ripped open to bleed afresh with the killing of Auckland minimart worker Bhagubhai Vaghela in June.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10342302
Global Warming
Federal Judge OKs Global Warming Lawsuit
By DAVID KRAVETS
The Associated Press
Wednesday, August 24, 2005; 9:52 PM
SAN FRANCISCO -- Environmental groups and four U.S. cities can sue federal development agencies on allegations the overseas projects they back financially contribute to global warming, a judge has ruled.
A coalition of environmental groups sued two government agencies that provide loans and insure billions of dollars of U.S. investors' money for development projects overseas. Many are power plants that emit greenhouses gases such as carbon dioxide that are believed to be a leading cause of global warming.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/24/AR2005082402080.html
Court allows suit linking U.S. aid, global warming
Wed Aug 24, 2005 9:00 PM ET
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Two environmental groups and four U.S. cities may sue U.S. federal agencies which finance overseas projects which they say contribute to global warming, a federal judge has ruled.
The two federal agencies -- Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the Export-Import Bank of the United States -- had asked the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to dismiss the lawsuit.
It was brought by Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and the cities of Boulder, Colorado, Santa Monica, California, Oakland, California and Arcata, California.
http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2005-08-25T010105Z_01_N24507450_RTRIDST_0_LIFE-GLOBALWARMING.XML
N.H. still ranks low in efforts to reduce global warming
By COLIN MANNING
:N.H. Statehouse Writer
statehouse@fosters.com
PORTSMOUTH -- New Hampshire is still at the “back of the class” when it comes to its efforts for reducing global warming.
A coalition of environmental groups released its global warming report card on Tuesday with New Hampshire receiving a C-, once again giving the state the dubious distinction of having the lowest grade in New England. While the grade was the lowest of the six New England states, New Hampshire did improve on the previous year's grade of a D+. Meanwhile, Maine had one of the better scores in the region with a B-. It marked a noticeable improvement for Maine which last year received a C.
http://www.citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050824/NEWS0202/50824062/-1/CITIZEN
Global warming: The flaw in the thaw
Campaigners have seized upon the world's shrinking glaciers as proof of global warming. But there is more to it than that, reports Fred Pearce
A SNOW-CAPPED mountain on the equator? "Impossible," declared the learned gentlemen of the Royal Geographical Society in London. In 1848, the Swiss missionary and explorer Johannes Rebmann had become the first European to gaze upon the snows of Mount Kilimanjaro. But when his account reached London, some of the society's members refused to believe him. One even suggested that Rebmann's eyesight must be deficient.
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/earth/mg18725141.500
Meteor dust obscures climate change views
By Deborah Smith, Science Editor
August 25, 2005 - 7:16AM
When a meteor the size of a small house exploded with the force of an atomic bomb high above the remote Antarctic coast last year there was no one to witness the fireball or hear the sonic booms.
The nearest people in Antarctica were 900 kilometres away, too distant to observe what would have appeared like a second sun streaking across the cold afternoon sky.
"Only the penguins would have seen it," said Andrew Klekociuk, of the Australian Antarctic Division in Hobart.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/science/meteor-dust-obscures-climate-change-views/2005/08/25/1124562946827.html
Nine states plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions
Wed Aug 24, 2005 8:31 PM BST
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Officials in nine Northeastern U.S. states have reached a preliminary agreement to cap and then cut greenhouse gas emissions from power plants by 10 percent by 2020, a Delaware official said on Wednesday.
If the agreement is made final, it would be the first of its kind in the United States. The Bush administration has refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol, a greenhouse gas reduction plan that has been adopted by more than 150 other countries.
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2005-08-24T193155Z_01_DIT422372_RTRIDST_0_SCIENCE-ENVIRONMENT-EMISSIONS-DC.XML
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