[The Nation (Nairobi)] The pilgrimage to Loliondo for the alleged "miracle cure" was stopped on Sunday as it emerged 52 people had died awaiting treatment.
This came amid reports of a humanitarian crisis as thousands of sick people swamped the village for a herbal concoction, mugariga, administered by the Rev Ambilikile Mwasapile. It is claimed to cure all ailments.
"There will be no more trips to Samunge village (in Loliondo area) until people who are currently there have been served and left the area," Ngorongoro district commissioner Elias Wawa Lalie said.
Medical experts have also expressed concerns about the potency and efficacy of the herbal treatment, although this has not stopped the flow of patients into Loliondo.
The Rev Mwasapile, 76, had on Saturday warned of a crisis as thousands mobbed his compound for treatment. (READ: Loliondo pilgrimage marred by deaths and accidents)
The remote village lacks basic amenities such as toilets, hotels and lodgings to cater for the large number of people streaming in.
Unconfirmed reports indicated that about 24,000 sick people and their relatives were queuing to see the holy man-turned-traditional healer.
Journalists at the weekend counted a convoy of up to 4,000 vehicles snaking into the village. About 100 vehicles had broken down on the rough road to the rugged hills overlooking Lake Natron where the old man has set up his "clinic".
The holy man said in a two-page statement on Saturday as he pleaded with the authorities to stop the traffic for at least a week to clear the jam: "This is a pathetic situation and something should be done to stem the crisis."
He added: "From today (March 26th) those intending to seek my services should wait until after April 1st when those in the queue should have been cleared."
The retired pastor also warned that patients in hospital should not be rushed to him, especially those at death's door.
On Sunday, government officials in Arusha were not categorical on how they would implement the directive amid reports thousands of people were stranded in the town awaiting transport to Loliondo.
The Rev Mwasapile wanted each vehicle or helicopter to be surcharged Sh5,000 and Sh150,000 respectively by the Ngorongoro District Council.
He also proposed the upgrading of the road leading to the area, construction of toilets and proper management of the long queues.
"We don't have any statement to make. We concur with what Rev Mwasapile had suggested and we will ensure there is an orderly transiting to him," Arusha regional commissioner Isidore Shirima said.
Reporters on the ground said on Sunday people were still flooding the village for the "miracle" cure.
Reports about the Rev Mwasapile first trickled into Arusha in September last year, initially as an HIV/Aids cure but were largely ignored as country was in the peak of election campaigns.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2011 00:00 ||
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24,000 already-ill people without shelter, sanitation. What could go wrong?
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[Straits Times] A RARE Sumatran elephant has died in Indonesia after blocking a village street for a week, an official said Sunday. "Hello, boss?... Yeah, I won't be in to work again today. That dead elephant's still blocking the street..."
The female elephant was in a 'weak condition' after becoming separated from its herd about a week ago in Bengkalis district, Riau province, conservation agency official Adit Gunawan told AFP. "What kind of elephant? A dead one!... Oh, I see what you mean. I think it's Sumatran... Yeah, they are pretty rare..."
'It was hungry. We gave it food, water and medical attention. We tried our best to nurse it back to health but it wasn't getting better and died on Saturday evening,' he said. "Yep. Just rolled its poor little elephant eyes and went tusks up."
An autopsy to determine the cause of death is being carried out, he said. "What's the matter, Dr. Quincy?"
"The cause of death better be on this side, Sam, 'cause I ain't turnin' this sucker over!"
Antara state news agency reported that the elephant, along with her two calves, had been blocking a tarred road near a housing complex since last Monday. The elephant could have been poisoned, the report added. "Ahah! Iocaine powder! I'd bet my life on it!"
However Gunawan said there was only one calf, which would be taken to the agency's elephant training centre and 'may be released to the wild again if conditions allow'. "Nope. There was only the one calf... That? No, no! It's naugahyde. I guess it does look a lot like elephant skin, doesn't it?"
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03/28/2011 00:00 ||
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[Maghrebia] The Office of the United Nations ... aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) announced Friday (March 25th) that it will open a country office in Tunisia and will send a second human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... officer next week to follow up on recommendations made by a team of senior experts last month. The UN commissioned the team in early February, led by Bacre Waly Ndiaye. Its responsibilities included investigating any human rights violations by the security forces as well as advising the government.
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[The Nation (Nairobi)] The name of the man against whom dozens of protesters rallied in London last week was hardly visible on their placards.
Zim-bob-wean exiles were protesting against the excesses of Bob Muggsy Mugabe's Octogenarian President-for-Life of Zim-bob-we who turned the former Breadbasket of Africa into the African Basket Case... regime, which they say continues to violate human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... and arbitrarily detain members of coalition partner Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
But the protesters aimed their anger not at Mr Mugabe but at leaders from Africa and the West who they feel have ignored the crisis besetting the coalition in Zim-bob-we and allowed the Zanu-PF leader to renew a campaign of terror against his rivals.
"Blood on Zuma hands," one placard read, referring to South African president Jacob Zuma. "Bloody SADC Where are You?" "AU act now". Yet another declared, "Bloody Zuma must go now".
The fact that the focus of the protests were figures such as the president of regional power South Africa and the leaders of other countries that have leverage with the Mugabe regime such as Mozambique, illustrates how bad things are in the coalition in Harare.
There is an acceptance that the power-sharing arrangement between Mr Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai has virtually collapsed and only international pressure can get the parties to avert a return to crisis.
"The world thinks that there is a government of national unity in Zim-bob-we," said Ottilia Chiwashira, interim chair for women in the MDC UK and Ireland chapter.
"The truth is that Mugabe is governing alone and is committing human rights violations at will to cow his opponents."
The protesters who gathered outside the South African embassy before proceeding to several other missions in the UK expressed frustration that the international community was quick to rush into intervention in Libya but had forgotten the plight of Zim-bob-weans.
"It is as if the UN charter on human rights only applies to those countries that have oil," said Lovemore Mazivisa, one of the protest organisers.
"But the primary responsibility for solving this lies with African leaders. SADC (Southern African Development Community) and the AU have now become a club of fascist dictators."
The 2008 MDC-Zanu-PF power sharing deal was modelled on the Kenyan grand coalition. But unlike President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga who have maintained a veneer of civility and held the coalition together, the Zim-bob-wean leaders have little time for each other and Mr Mugabe in particular barely disguises his impatience with the arrangement.
The veteran leader has engaged in several acts of provocation against the MDC widely viewed as aimed at bringing down the coalition and forcing early elections.
The security forces have incarcerated several leading opposition figures and MPs including Energy and Power Development minister Elton Mangoma who was charged with criminal abuse of office. The recent election of Lovemore Moyo, MDC chairman, as Speaker was nullified.
Analysts say these moves are designed to stall the drafting of a new constitution and force elections before new rules that are designed to level the playing field are in place.
MDC supporters say with the security forces being solidly behind President Mugabe, only regional intervention or a United Nations ... aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... sanctioned observer mission can save the coalition from collapse and ensure the constitution review process is completed before the election.
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03/28/2011 00:00 ||
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Tribal and sectarin governance produces few success stories. Unfortunately the leftest policy wonks of Washington and 10 Downing St. do not seem to have caught on to the end game.
[The Nation (Nairobi)] An article on the Cote d'Ivoire crisis carried in a British newspaper last week seemed to have beat feet West African leaders' attention.
The Financial Times story appeared on Tuesday. Leaders of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, began a two-day summit in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, a day later. Twelve from 12 of the 15 member states attended.
The day the summit ended was supposed to be the African Union and Ecowas's deadline for Laurent Gbagbo ... President of Ivory Coast since 2000. Gbagbo lost to Alassane Ouattara in 2010 but his representtive tore up the results on the teevee and Laurent has refused to leave despite the international community's hemming, hawing, and broad hints... to step down.
Since November, he has refused to let Alassane Ouattara, the internationally recognized winner of the November presidential elections, take office.
According to the Times, Mr Gbagbo wants international cocoa traders to pay export taxes on cocoa stocks worth $1.3 billion. Cote d'Ivoire produces 40 per cent of the global crop.
Cocoa isn't anywhere close to petroleum in world trade. Nonetheless, millions of sweet teeth abound. The commodity fetches good money.
Gbagbo's demand has caused jitters among some traders. They are inclined to pay. Reasons vary: Gbagbo might confiscate the stocks or have them destroyed.
One trader, Ricardo Leiman, head of a Hong Kong-based trading house, the Noble Group, reportedly said, "If the local government who is in charge tells us to pay the taxes, we will pay the taxes."
The Times said the stocks are about 400,000 metric tons. At 22 per cent taxation rate, Gbagbo would pocket nearly $300 million. Diplomats believe he needs $150 million a month to pay the military and civil servants.
If Gbagbo can't pay, he would become expendable. It isn't an accident that one of the anti-Gbagbo measures the Frenchie-loving, West African states who use the CFA franc, did was freeze Cote d'Ivoire's money at their central bank in Senegal. ... a nation of about 14 million on the west coast of Africa bordering Mauretania to the north, Mali to the east, and a pair of Guineas to the south, one of them Bissau. It is 90 percent Mohammedan and has more than 80 political parties. Its primary purpose seems to be absorbing refugees...
Already, due to sanctions imposed by various countries and organizations, Gbagbo can't boast of an economy. Businesses, including banks, have shut down; employees continue being laid off, and little activity exists at the once busy Abidjan port. That means loss of revenue for the government.
Reasons exist why Gbagbo shouldn't get any money, at least not enough to maintain loyalty of the army and civil servants.
Gbagbo has obviously taken advantage of the African Union, the European Union and the United Nations ... aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... ' et al preoccupation with Libya's Muammar Qadaffy benga benga (alleyways and alleyways) slaughter.
In Cote d'Ivoire, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said on Friday 700,000 people have decamped their homes.
Louise Arbour, president, International Crisis Group, said last week, "Ivory Coast is no longer on the brink of s civil war; it has already begun."
The ECOWAS leaders whined about "incendiary rhetoric" against themselves by Gbagbo's supporters and then passed the buck to the UN, with Nigeria and La Belle France as emissaries to seek tougher sanctions against Gbagbo & Co.
Just as they abandon their threat to use "legitimate force" to oust Gbagbo, ECOWAS states failed to give support to cocoa traders who plan to deny Gbagbo one thing he needs most: money. That's some support for Gbagbo.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2011 00:00 ||
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This is only getting worse, and with everything else going on it only gets more buried.
ANTEATERVILLE ANTANANARIVO - Three opposition groups in Madagascar led by former presidents have rejected a new unity government named as part of a road map to end the Indian Ocean islands two-year political impasse.
The government, named on Saturday, has 23 new ministers while nine members of the previous administration retain their posts including the ministers of finance, mines and hydrocarbons, justice, defence, and the environment and forests.
Eight out of 11 political groups in Madagascar have initialled the road map which allows President Andry Rajoelina, who grabbed power with military support in March 2009, to remain in power until free and fair elections are held.
And of course free and fair elections just flow after a military coup. Why it's the very next thing that happens...
The three groups led by former presidents Marc Ravalomanana, Didier Ratsiraka and Albert Zafy declined to initial the plan late on Saturday. Rajoelina did, however, include some members of the party founded by Ravalomanana and some dissidents within his movement.
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03/28/2011 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Former BNP politician Md Abdul Alim has been jugged on charges of crimes against humanity in 1971. Police picked him in front of his Joypurhat residence last night, said the district's superintendent of police.
Earlier, the International Crimes Tribunal issued the arrest warrant for Alim who was a member of Ziaur Rahman's cabinet.
A three-judge panel headed by Justice Nizamul Huq ordered police to produce Alim before the tribunal within 24 hours of his arrest, excluding the journey period. The court, however, directed law enforcers to consider health of Alim, aged over 80, while arresting him and producing him before it.
So you can't taser him, boys...
The tribunal issued the warrant in response to a petition filed by the prosecutors on March 23.
Alim was involved in the killing of more than 10,000 innocent people with the assistance of Razakars and Pak occupation forces during the Liberation War, reads the petition.
The petition also stated that Alim, the then peace committee chairman in Joypurhat, killed local Awami League leader Dr Abul Kashem on July 26, 1971. Alim should be jugged to be quizzed, the petitioners insist.
Meanwhile, ...back at the secret hideout, Scarface Al sneeringly put his proposition to little Nell... the tribunal adjourned till April 5 the hearing on another petition filed by the prosecutors seeking permission for a three-day interrogation of Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami in the custody of the war crimes probe body.
The court asked the prosecutors to inform it by April 5 about the place where the jugged Jamaat leader would be kept during the interrogation.
The prosecutors filed the petition on March 23.
They yesterday also submitted a petition to the tribunal's registrar to allow the investigation agency to quiz jugged Jamaat secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed for three days in its custody.
Advocate Syed Rezaur Rahman and barrister Syed Haider Ali appeared as prosecutors, while advocate Tajul Islam stood for Nizami.
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[Arab News] Tens of thousands of Britons opposed to government austerity cuts were expected to join the biggest rally in the capital since protests against war in Iraq in 2003.
Union leaders say more than 200,000 people angry at deep public spending cuts, rising unemployment, tax rises and pension reforms could join the demonstration on Saturday.
Police fear simmering resentment could lead to a repeat of violence seen last December when student protests against higher university tuition fees erupted into the capital's worst rioting in decades.
Some 4,500 coppers will be on duty along with hundreds of union-trained stewards.
The Conservative-led coalition is pushing ahead with a tough debt reduction program to virtually eliminate a budget deficit, currently running at about 10 percent of GDP, by 2015 to protect Britain's triple-A credit rating.
Unions and the opposition Labour Party say the measures go too far, too fast and are bringing misery to millions of Britons with unemployment at its highest level since 1994.
"People know we've got to get the deficit down... but to do things this far and this fast, to destabilize communities, pushing unemployment up, people are worried about that," Labour shadow chancellor Ed Balls, surrounded by protesters holding banners, told BBC television.
Brendan Barber, general secretary of the umbrella labor organization, the Trades Union Congress (TUC), said earlier he expected the march to be London's largest since up to 1 million protested against the planned invasion of Iraq in 2003.
"I think it's going to be a very, very big event and a kind of powerful message to the government they are losing public support," he told Rooters earlier this week.
Many European countries have seen mass protests in recent months as governments slash public spending to try to help their economies to recover from the global financial crisis.
The government says it is cleaning up a mess left by the previous Labour government and that failure to act would leave Britain exposed to market turmoil.
The Labour Party says it would reduce the deficit at a slower pace, aiming to halve it by the time of the next election in 2015.
"They have a secret plan of their own of 14 billion pounds' worth of cuts next month and they won't even level with people about where those cuts will fall," Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg told Rooters in an interview on Friday.
"Have they told their trade union paymasters, have they told the demonstrators, that Labour is now the only party that wants to go into the next general election advocating three more years of cuts?"
Posted by: Fred ||
03/28/2011 00:00 ||
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Most British People support the cuts, or want more.
It's roughly
30% OK with Current Cuts
30% Want MORE cuts.
30% want more of other peoples money.
and that figure was in a Grauniad (i.e. far left) poll!
The junior partner in the Norwegian government, the Socialist Left Party of Kristin Halvorsen, (Sosialistisk Venstreparti), plans to vote on a measure calling for military action against Israel if it decides to act against the Hamas in Gaza.
"The credibility of the world community in its confrontation with the Gadafi regime is undermined when there is no reaction against other states in the region who commit injustices against civil population. The greater world community must therefore also react against Israeli air attacks on the Gaza strip." The SV party is the fourth largest party in Norway, and the junior party in a coalition with the Norwegian Labour Party (Socialist Democrat). The SV holds 11 seats in parliament, behind Labour, with 64 seats; Progress Party (liberal), with 41 seats; and the Conservative Party, with 30 seats.
#1
ION HERRING, TOPIX > [Helge Luraas of Nowegian Institute of Int'l Affairs] NORWEGIAN EXPERT WORRIED OVER POSSIBLE FALLOUT OF LIBYA WAR | NORWEGIAN EXPERT: LIBYA NO-FLY ZONE COULD LAST FOR MONTHS OR YEARS, as enforced by NATO + UNO, + at roughly the same time that Libyuh as a sovereign State may also divide + partition into separate polities???
#2
SV party, or former Reichskommissariat Norwegen, same goals, same objectives. It is not dead, it simply slumbers. Move along will you, no surprises found here.
#7
It's just a passive-aggressive way of completely breaking NATO from the parties that were in the old days a branch of the KGB that spent decades trying to do that and failing.
[Arab News] The UN Human Rights Council unanimously adopted a new resolution on the elimination of forms of discrimination and violence based on religious beliefs.
The Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), which represents the Islamic group at the council participated in the March 24 discussion. The United States and the European Union too were represented.
Informed sources in the OIC General Secretariat here said that the new resolution related to combating religious intolerance and negative stereotypes, stigmatization, discrimination, and incitement to violence, and violence against individuals based on religion and belief is not a substitute for an earlier resolution adopted by the UN on combating defamation of religions, which the Human Rights Council had adopted many times in the past several years.
The sources stated that the new resolution is a qualitative breakthrough because it was adopted unanimously, adding, it gives the widest margin of freedom of expression, with the rejection of discrimination and incitement and stereotypes used by the other or against the symbols of the followers of religions.
What a lovely thought!
The sources emphasized that the OIC approved the new resolution from a position of strength, particularly after the adoption of the Human Rights Council resolution on defamation of religions over the past four years with a clear majority.
However, The punctuational However... the sources stressed that the issue of acceptance of the new resolution comes as a goodwill gesture by the organization in order to reach the necessary consensus, bridge the gap, and partner with the West in addressing the anti-Islam sentiments that prevailed in some Western communities toward Mohammedans.
Oh. It's not a universal declaration, but only to protect Islam from insult. And it was adopted universally, including the American vote, you say? The times, they are indeed a-changing.
The new resolution came after the OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu proposed last year, a number of proposals on the possibility of reaching a common ground toward a solid platform for its adoption.
According to informed sources, the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Edmund Randolph ... had invited the OIC to lead, along with both Washington and the European Union, the efforts to draft a new resolution to ensure the foundations adopted by the previous resolution, giving a wider margin of freedom of expression.
The sources confirmed at the same time that the decision regarding defamation of religions has not been abandoned.
This is the most contentious of the resolutions, because in countries with strong protections on speech and other forms of expression, the idea that a religion can have the same defamation protections as living individuals is considered an affront to individual rights.
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[Straits Times] PHILIPPINE workers at a swimming pool site stumbled on a mass grave containing 14 skeletons believed to be prisoners of war from the Japanese occupation in World War II, police said Sunday.
Police cordoned off the area in Nasugbu town, about a three-hour drive south of the capital Manila, shortly after the workers discovered the remains on Friday.
'Further investigation disclosed that the said site was a former Japanese garrison during World War II and the residents there believed that the recovered skeletal remains were victims of war,' police said in a statement.
A forensic investigation was being carried out to determine the nationalities of the victims, although they are believed to be Filipinos, police said.
The Philippines, a former US colony, fell to Japanese control in 1942 during World War II, and the three-year occupation is considered to be one of the darkest periods of the country's history.
Thousands of Filipino and American soldiers died during the occupation, many of them starved to death in Japanese garrisons around the country, historians said. US General Douglas MacArthur, supreme commander of allied forces in the South-west Pacific, eventually returned to retake control of large parts of the Philippines until Japan formally surrendered in 1945.
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Straits Times] A RARE Sumatran elephant has died in Indonesia after blocking a village street for a week, an official said Sunday.
Laurent Gbagbo
[Arab News] Tens of thousands of Britons opposed to government austerity cuts were expected to join the biggest rally in the capital since protests against war in Iraq in 2003.
The junior partner in the Norwegian government, the Socialist Left Party of Kristin Halvorsen, (Sosialistisk Venstreparti), plans to vote on a measure calling for military action against Israel if it decides to act against the Hamas in Gaza.
Hillary Clinton
