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Thursday, November 29, 2007

President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan gave up his uniform in a ceremony yesterday in Rawalpindi. He handed power over to General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani at the headquarters of the Pakistani Army, after being the leader of the army for nine years.

In his final address as leader of the army, he said that the army was the saviour of Pakistan and that the army was his life. He also expressed his pride in being the leader of what he called a “great force.”

Musharraf had been under a lot of pressure to quit as army chief, since the country was put into the spotlight as a result of a state of emergency being declared. He is expected to be sworn in as the civilian president of Pakistan on Thursday.

Both the opposition leader, Benazir Bhutto, and the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, welcomed the change of duties. However, Bhutto indicated her party may not be prepared to accept Musharraf in his new non-military leadership role. Condoleezza Rice requested the state of emergency be lifted before the planned elections, which are due to take place in January.

Musharraf said General Kayani was “an excellent soldier” and that “the armed forces under his command will achieve great heights.”

General Kayani was named as the successor to Musharraf in October, before the state of emergency was declared in early November.

Monday, April 11, 2005

PBS has recently decided it was time their Cookie Monster was sent on a diet. Sesame Street‘s cookie-loving Muppet icon developed a sudden interest in vegetables, as part of PBS’s drive to instill a healthy lifestyle in children.

The blue furry monster’s makeover comes as part of a larger plan, introducing additional characters as well. Intended new cast members include talking eggplants and carrots, among others.

According to the Sesame Street Muppet Bios, “This season, Cookie Monster learns a lot about health and nutrition. Hoots the Owl explains in a song that ‘A Cookie is a Sometimes Food,’ and he joins Wyclef Jean in a rap song, ‘Healthy Food’.”

Every other day, health will be the focus of the shows. In addition, every other day there will be segments dealing with health/nutrition. There will be a “Health Moment” at the top of every show featuring special guests, celebrities and Sesame Street characters.

The producers of the show insist that they are not asking small children to go on a diet.

“We would never use the word ‘diet’ with pre-schoolers,” a spokeswoman told The New Zealand Herald.

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

In the latest of a series of prison riots in prisons across Brazil, dozens of inmates, mostly rival gangs, were reported dead at the State Penitentiary of Alcaçuz, a state prison located in Natal, the capital of the Brazilian state, Rio Grande do Norte. Reports vary but, as of Sunday, the death toll may have reached 26. According to the BBC, this figure is triple the initial reports.

Prison authorities said that some victims were decapitated. Prison coordinator Zemilton Silva witnessed this happen to three men, and forensic report that there have been more.

The Ministry of Justice and state-run news outlet Agência Brasil said the latest riot started at around 5:00 p.m., local time, on Saturday. It continued until the security forces quelled the riot on Sunday at around 7:15 a.m..

Agence France Presse (AFP) and Rio de Janeiro newspaper O Globo report that the gang members of the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) and Comando Vermelho were the latest riot’s participants. CNN reports that its participants were PCC and Sindicato do Crime do RN. The gangs had been housed in separate parts of the prison. Six of the ringleaders have been captured and sent to other facilities. Like other riots this year, overcrowding may have contributed to the latest riot. According to Brazil’s justice department, the Alcaçuz prison houses more than 1,000 inmates on a capacity of 620.

Reports about authorities killed or injured in the riots are not yet confirmed, says the BBC.

O Globo also reported that one inmate attempted to escape but was quickly recaptured. No other inmates have been reported missing, but nine injured inmates were sent to hospital.

O Globo says the cause of the riot was drug-related. PCC and Comando Vermelho cooperated on drug trade from mid-1990s to reportedly summer 2016. Their split led Comando Vermelho to team up with five other gang organizations “to counter the PCC’s growing might.”

The Alcaçuz prison riot is part of a series of Brazilian prison riots this year. At least 100 inmates died in this month’s previous two riots, one in Amazonas and another in Roraima. The Amazonas prison riot on January 1–2 resulted in at least 56 killed inmates, of whom many were beheaded and dismembered. The Roraima riot on January 6 resulted in at least 33 killed, of whom many were disembowelled.

In the wake of this year’s riots, the Brazilian President Michel Temer announced to Reuters yesterday a plan, under joint cooperation of state and federal governments, to build nearly thirty prisons by 2018, including “five maximum security prisons to house the most violent convicts,” and to create intelligence units in effort to counter the influence of powerful inmates. Temer announced more than one billion Brazilian reals (US$309 million) as the budget of the plan.

However, human rights activists and experts were skeptical about building more prisons. Camila Nunes, a sociologist of the Federal University of ABC, told the AFP “medium- and long-term policies to reduce the vulnerability of certain social groups [and] to prioritize prevention rather than repression” are needed.

Reuters reported Alexandre de Moraes, minister of the Justice Department, recently authorized the state of Rio Grande do Norte to spend 13 million Brazilian reals to upgrade and expand prison equipment. De Moraes promised to prevent more prison riots by increasing funds and prison security.

Meanwhile, Luiz Alberto Cartaxo, the prison chief for the southern Paraná state, said an explosion on Sunday broke a guarding wall of a Piraquara prison, prompting at least 21 inmates to escape. Cartaxo also reported that two other inmates were killed by police during their escape attempt.

A 2014 report by Brazil’s justice department analyzes the statistics of the nation’s prison population. The country has more than 622,000 inmates, mostly young black men, exceeding the capacity by at least 50 percent. Brazil is placed fourth in the world’s largest prison population, surpassed by the respective numbers of those in the United States, in China, and in Russia.

Sunday, May 1, 2005

The FOX Morning News broadcast from Harvard Square this morning in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Anchors Liz Carrigan and Gene Lavanchy profiled a restaurant and a musician who will take part in the 22nd annual Mayfair, which starts on Sunday, May 1. The restaurant, Grafton Street, is on Massachusetts Avenue.

The Mayfair is a festival that takes place in Harvard Square on an annual basis. On Sunday, the Square will be closed from noon until 6 pm to vehicular traffic; according to the Mayfair website, “200 artists and merchants” will participate in the event this year.

The musician, Halsey Burgund, works for a computer security firm, but plays the drums and piano in his spare time. This morning, he had set up his portable recording booth to demonstrate the means by which he records passersby for voice samples in his music. Burgund will have his booth set up on Sunday and hopes to record festival visitors. Eventually, Burgund hopes to release his music under a Creative Commons license. Burgund noted that he previously tried recording people on the street with just a microphone, but he found that there was too much ambient noise for the quality of recording he desired.

Sunday, May 27, 2007

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the United States Border Patrol and local officials from both sides are looking into tightening security at a Quebec library. The library has been deliberately on the border of Canada and the U.S. since it was built in 1904 by American sawmill owner Carlos Haskell and Canadian wife Martha Stewart Haskell for availability to both countries.

At Haskell Free Library and Opera House, in Rock Island, Quebec, a black line diagonally runs across the center of the library to mark the international border. Ironically the line puts the seats in the U.S. and the opera stage in Canada.

Both towns share the same water supply, sewer systems and emergency crews thus they cross the border without going against the law. In total, there are three streets that cross the border and there are cameras on both sides to monitor illegal activity, but that doesn’t tighten border security enough officials say.

“There’s been an increase in illegal activity, both north and south, in the last little while,” said operations officer for the Border Patrol’s Swanton sector, Mark Henry.”There have been some significant cases. This all fits in to the larger picture of the Border Patrol strategy to gain operational control of our borders.”

“I don’t think they’re aiming at people who go pick up groceries and come back. It’s people that want to use this in a bad way,” says Cpl. Luc Bessette, a spokesman for the RCMP.

To enter the U.S. at Haskell Free Library and Opera House, in Rock Island, Quebec, all one needs is directions to go to Stanstead, Quebec, directions to the local library and walk through the doors; they have illegally entered Derby Line, Vermont, U.S. If one walks across from Stanstead St. to Derby Line they will be at the checkout in the U.S., go to the library from Derby Line to Stanstead St. and they have officially entered back into Canada. The international border also is on Canusa St., a residential street in Stanstead, Quebec and Beebe Plain, Vermont.

If someone wants to see their neighbour across the street, they would be re-entering the U.S. Anyone who comes from Stanstead St. to Derby Line, to visit their neighbour, must report to Customs or they could be sent to jail for illegally entering. However, residents do not need to notify Customs if they cross the border inside buildings.

Currently, the front door is in Vermont and if Quebecers couldn’t enter the front they would have to go through the back way. If Americans wanted to park in the parking lot they couldn’t because it is legally in Canada.

A meeting will take place this 19 June at 7 p.m. local time asking whether residents want to prevent people from crossing the border regularly or, in some cases, illegal crossings. During a meeting last Thursday in Stanstead, Quebec, local officials from both countries (towns) said border walls and fences will not be put up due to local residents’ concerns. They say there are other alternatives.

There is also a movement to separate Vermont from the U.S. or to make it the 11^th province of Canada, with three territories. The website “Vermont Canada” says the state should join Canada due to its remaining liberal policies as opposed to the U.S.

Saturday, April 29, 2006

Veteran anti-nuclear activist and journalist Praful Bidwai claims that while Iranian authorities “will not sacrifice [Iran’s] rights under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to engage in peaceful activities, including uranium enrichment for power generation”, they are also “keen to reach a deal or compromise on the nuclear issue” and “are also working diplomatic channels to let it be known that Tehran wants talks which will lead to a peaceful resolution of the nuclear issue.”

The alternative news website Raw Story published a story on April 20 that alleged United States vice-president Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld have obstructed the progress of diplomatic discussions which could help solve the conflict between the United States and Iran. The conflict involves the alleged plan of attack on Iran led by the United States, and Iran’s alleged intention to develop nuclear weapons. Diplomatic relations between the United States and Iran have remained suspended since 1980, following the Iranian hostage crisis.

The website alleges that information from several different unnamed sources claim that expatriate arms dealer Manucher Ghorbanifar, a key figure in the Iran-Contra Affair, has been ordered by US authorities to monitor and report on “any interaction and attempts at negotiations between Iranian officials and US ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad.” Raw Story also claims that sources “close to the UN Security Council“, a “high ranking intelligence official” and another “intelligence source” attributed the failure of the recent attempts at direct contacts between Khalilzad and Iranian officials as “part of an ongoing attempt by Cheney and Rumsfeld to squash diplomatic activities”. The claims of the Internet publication’s allegations have not yet been independently verified.

In addition, the Raw Story also claims that US House of Representatives Intelligence Committee Chairman Peter Hoekstra (R-MI) “approved using Ghorbanifar as an intermediary” and “attended at least one meeting in Paris with Curt Weldon (R-PA) and Harold Rhode to meet with Ghorbanifar.”

Bidwai states that Dr. Hasan Rowhani, a member of the Supreme National Security Council chosen by Iranian head of state Ayatollah Khamenei, as saying that Iran is prepared to suspend its uranium enrichment for a short time.

On April 18, when asked whether US action against Iran could include a strike using nuclear weapons, U.S. President George W. Bush answered “All options are on the table. We want to solve this issue diplomatically and we’re working hard to do so.”