News – Amnesty International Reports

Worth reading, though it’s a big doc and could take a few sittings to get it all.

Amnesty International has released its report on 2002 human rights abuses. There was condemnation across the board for countries in the Middle East, Africa, South America and more, but heavy words were there as well for the US and its tactics after 9/11.

Iran struck back at the US today with a few allegations of its own. Largely on a terrorism double standard. That the US isn’t really serious about fighting terrorism. Meanwhile US government officials continue to court ‘tougher action’ against Iran, with some hints at attempts to destabilize their government.

Hossein Derakhshan opened the doorway to Bolgs for Iranian youth, offering them an outlet for repressed creativity and the like. But the Iranian governement might be catching on and could try to subdue this outlet as well.

US troops havedetained a Palestinian Diplomat in Baghdad. They say they found illegal weapons in the vehicle he was traveling it, but he denied it as he was taken away.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas is calling for Israel to accept the peace road map as is, without alteration or reservation. But the disagreements between these two sides are likely to sink the process before it can start. Two key points are as follows. 1. Israel wants to retain the right to respond to militants that attack Israel. Understandable, but obviously with the Israeli military continuing to make incursions into Palestine, it will be much harder to quell the terrorists within Palestinian borders. It’s like telling someone to stop a fire as you continue to fuel it yourself. 2. Palestine wants to let back in the 4 million refugees to return to land that they had which are now in Jewish territory. Which, of course, Israel won’t allow.

N Korea is calling for bilateral talk with the US, after which it said it would be fine with the multilateral talks that Washington is pushing for. But the bilateral talk call continues to be rebuffed.

International Papers delves into the Middle Eastern response to bush’s road map as of late, which largely focuses on Bush himself now. An interesting side note is agreeable state of Syria’s Bashar Assad as of late. Has he seen the light and turned over a new leaf? Today’s Papers has a flurry of concerns, from the recent Iraq attacks, to the Supreme Court decision that sate employees can sue the state if they violate a federal law that allows them to take off time for family emergencies. Did you know Canada lowered the penalties for possession of a small amount of weed? Read up and you will now!

A recent public forum with seven of the democratic hopefuls has hinted that some taboo subjects are back out in the debate pool. Things like anti-war campaigning and positive words on Bill Clinton are returning, perhaps not being diplomatic suicide at this point in time. Interesting.

Peru’s president has declared a national state of emergency as massive protests look about to shut down the country. Alejandro Toledo’s approval rating currently stands at a brow raising 14 percent.

Bush signs the tax cut into law. More is promised. After previous grumbles that 500B would be the minimum, am I the only one to find the shift in tone from firm to happy to get this a little disconcerting?

Bush as also signed on the 15 billion AIDS package. Some laud it, some say it isn’t enough. Bush is challenging Europe to match it.

Microsoft vs. Linux turns weird. Microsoft’s investment in SCO Unix, after their suit against IBM over claims that IBM unlawfully sold parts of SCO’s Unix code to Linux developers, has some industry folk worried.

Here’s something strange and freaky out of CNN. So freaky it might just work. Jay Walker, inventor of Priceline.com, has considered the idea to set up the 47,000 ‘critical sites’ in the US(power plants, airports and the like) with web enabled cameras. Ones that citizens can access and watch, with those who watch them being paid something like $10 an hour by the government. Personally, I can think of so many things wrong with the idea that its almost laughable. Ignoring the technical issues and ease of exploit by hackers, how can you make sure someone isn’t just ignoring their duty to watch the camera? It could be a quick way to scam $10 an hour out of the government.

Funny PIcs

Backseat Driving Gets a New Meaning

When you’re smoking habit has gotten out of hand

No Parking means no parking

Modern Workday Fantasy