Thursday, February 12, 2009

The Coalition to Repatriate Omar Khadr held a press conference in Toronto on Wednesday, where Khadr‘s lawyer Dennis Edney unveiled his reintegration strategy for the sole Western citizen still held at Guantanamo Bay, in hopes that he can be returned to Canada.

Edney presented his “plan of reintegration” for Khadr, which constituted maintaining distance from his controversial family while undergoing physical and psychological tests and counselling while the legal system decides whether to charge him under the Criminal Code of Canada. Nate Whitling, another lawyer representing Khadr, told The Globe and Mail that his defence team had “no objection at all to fair trial”.

However, there has been no indication of acceptance of the plan from government officials, who were delivered an outline of the proposed terms of release earlier this week. Edney reiterated his plea for due process, urging the government to “accept our plan … a plan that says something about who we are as Canadians.”

Khadr, who was 15 years old and serving as a translator for Afghan insurgents when he was captured by American Special Forces in 2002, has been a controversial point in Canadian politics since his capture.

While the ruling Liberal party had initially made motions towards ensuring that the youth would face fair legal proceedings, they were superseded by the current Conservative premiership of Stephen Harper three years ago. Since then, the government has refused to intervene stating that the Guantanamo military tribunals constituted an “ongoing legal process” determining his fate.

When Barack Obama announced the suspension of the tribunals and the closure of the detainment camps in January 2009, Harper maintained his position that Khadr did not constitute a child soldier and was better to be tried by the United States than his native country. Dismissing Harper’s claims on Wednesday, Edney suggested that the Prime Minister “learn some international law”.

Also on Wednesday, the leaders of the three opposition parties in Canadian parliament sent a letter to Obama urging him to repatriate Khadr as both the majority of the House of Commons and the population support his return and reintegration into society.

Last week, 185 Canadian groups and individuals accused the Prime Minister of “harbouring anti-Muslim sentiment” in his refusal to comply with international law, and public opinion, to return Khadr to face justice in Canada. A petition with more than 50,000 signatures was also delivered to Parliament Hill by representatives of Amnesty International calling for Khadr’s release.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

A severe sandstorm has struck north-west China over the past few weeks, reaching Beijing on Saturday morning. The sandstorm, which covered homes, streets, and cars in dust, has left the sky a murky yellow. The air quality was rated as level five. Beijing’s Weather Bureau issued a warning for the sandstorm, and advised citizens to stay in their homes until it passes. As much as 1500 micrograms per cubic meter of dust were reported to be airborne.

Beijing has experienced unusually cold weather this year, with temperatures below freezing at night, even after the start of spring. The sandstorm is affecting more than 50 million people, and forecasters do not see signs of it stopping soon. The desertification of the western China and the Mongolian steppes has made the annual spring sandstorm become worse in the recent years, reaching countries such as South Korea and Japan. The sandstorm has turned the rain and snow yellow.

The storm also impacted Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Hebei for a total of 270 million people over an area of 1.8 million square kilometers. It is expected the storm will last until Monday.

Monday, February 14, 2005

The Brazilian Regional Council of Medicine has protested against a Ministry of Education decision to accept the diplomas of Cuban medical school graduates without subjecting them to a more rigorous evaluation process.

Under the Brazilian 44045 Edict of July 19, 1958, all students of Medicine, Brazilian or non-Brazilian, who studied in a foreign institution must undergo a strict evaluation before their professional registration is granted. The law aims to ensure that the physicians who graduated at foreign universities are properly prepared for and familiarized with the particular medical conditions of Brazil. Some diseases like malaria and dengue for example are very rare in some countries but are more common in Brazilian territory.

However the Brazilian Ministry of Education (MEC) has come to an agreement with the Cuban government to allow medical students who studied in Cuba to go through a less rigorous examination. Furthermore the MEC wants to exempt the students from the Cuban Escola Latino Americana de Medicina (Latin American Medicine School) or ELAM located in Havana from the examination. Under the agreement, the diplomas of ELAM students would be automatically recognized as valid in Brazil. The Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed the endorsement of this agreement last year during his visit to Cuba.

The Brazilian Regional Council of Medicine from São Paulo is opposed to the idea of accepting the Cuban diplomas and is to dispute the deal in Court. The council says the government decision is unfair and disadvantages Brazilian students. It also says that the decision puts the Brazilian community at risk because of differences between Cuban and Brazilian medical education. Cuban physicians are prepared for Cuban conditions and necessities in health which differ from Brazilian ones. Additionally the council argues that the decision is against the law because the Brazilian 44045 Edict demands that all medical students from foreign schools have to pass a careful examination.

The Cuban First Secretary of Technical and Scientific Collaboration in Health, Filisberto Perez, recognizes that both Brazil and Cuba have different models of apprenticeship in medicine. However he believes that Cuba and Brazil can recognize each other’s diplomas without difficulty.

Early this year, a team of Brazilian inspectors visited the leading medical schools in Cuba to evaluate them so the degrees can be formalized.

The MEC’s decision has angered some Brazilian students. “Why would I study for two years so I could get admitted to a Brazilian school if it would be easier to “buy” my diploma in Cuba?” asks Artur Oliveira Mendes in a email sent to a academic organization. He added: “…our schools of medicine are demoralized before the president’s declaration.”

The Brazilian students who are in Cuba were selected by the PT, PCdoB, and MST.

Senator José Agripino Maia (PFL) asked the Minister of Education Tarso Genro to explain before the Senate Education Commission why the students from Cuba are being favoured by the Brazilian government.

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Announced yesterday in Sydney, the shortlist for Australia’s most prestigious literary award, the Miles Franklin Literary Award, includes only women for the first time in the award’s history. The award had been criticized in the past for its exclusion of women on the short list, with no women appearing on it in 2009 and 2011.

This year’s authors on the short list include Romy Ash for Floundering, Michelle de Kretser for Questions of Travel, Annah Faulkner for The Beloved, Drusilla Modjeska for The Mountain, and Carrie Tiffany for Mateship with Birds. The winner gets a cash prize of AU$60,000.

Judges said the shortlist selection was based on the quality of the literature, with gender not playing a role in their decision processes. Richard Neville, a librarian at the State Library of New South Wales and judge, is quoted by the Sydney Morning Herald saying, “People will probably think this is a riposte to the Stella Prize, [..] But I’ve judged this for four years, including the infamous year of the ‘sausage fest’, and we always try to view the books as literature. We felt the books on the shortlist selected themselves.”File:Brian Castro2.jpg

The longlist, announced in the last week of March, included two men out of ten total listed authors: Brian Castro for Street to Street, and Thomas Keneally for The Daughters of Mars.

Perceived discrimination against women’s writers in Australian literary circles led to the creation this year of the Stella Prize. The chair of the Australia Council’s Literature Board Sophie Cunningham played an integral role in creating the Stella Prize, modeled after the United Kingdom’s Orange Prize. The award derives its name from Miles Franklin’s birth name, Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin.

The winner is scheduled to be announced on June 19 in Canberra.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

SpaceX Corporation launched its Falcon I rocket today from Kwajalein Atoll. Liftoff occurred at 6:00 PM PDT, following two previous launch aborts this week.

The first stage was completely successful, although there appeared to be some problems with the second stage. The sub-orbital flight reached an altitude of 300 km, and is on a traectory for re-entry. It was intended to go into orbit, but contact was lost before this could be accomplished

This is the second launch for the low-cost SpaceX rocket, and the first successful launch for the company. The previous launch had a successful lift-off, but failed 35 seconds into the flight and crashed near to the launch pad due to a fuel leak in the engine.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

The Coalition to Repatriate Omar Khadr held a press conference in Toronto on Wednesday, where Khadr‘s lawyer Dennis Edney unveiled his reintegration strategy for the sole Western citizen still held at Guantanamo Bay, in hopes that he can be returned to Canada.

Edney presented his “plan of reintegration” for Khadr, which constituted maintaining distance from his controversial family while undergoing physical and psychological tests and counselling while the legal system decides whether to charge him under the Criminal Code of Canada. Nate Whitling, another lawyer representing Khadr, told The Globe and Mail that his defence team had “no objection at all to fair trial”.

However, there has been no indication of acceptance of the plan from government officials, who were delivered an outline of the proposed terms of release earlier this week. Edney reiterated his plea for due process, urging the government to “accept our plan … a plan that says something about who we are as Canadians.”

Khadr, who was 15 years old and serving as a translator for Afghan insurgents when he was captured by American Special Forces in 2002, has been a controversial point in Canadian politics since his capture.

While the ruling Liberal party had initially made motions towards ensuring that the youth would face fair legal proceedings, they were superseded by the current Conservative premiership of Stephen Harper three years ago. Since then, the government has refused to intervene stating that the Guantanamo military tribunals constituted an “ongoing legal process” determining his fate.

When Barack Obama announced the suspension of the tribunals and the closure of the detainment camps in January 2009, Harper maintained his position that Khadr did not constitute a child soldier and was better to be tried by the United States than his native country. Dismissing Harper’s claims on Wednesday, Edney suggested that the Prime Minister “learn some international law”.

Also on Wednesday, the leaders of the three opposition parties in Canadian parliament sent a letter to Obama urging him to repatriate Khadr as both the majority of the House of Commons and the population support his return and reintegration into society.

Last week, 185 Canadian groups and individuals accused the Prime Minister of “harbouring anti-Muslim sentiment” in his refusal to comply with international law, and public opinion, to return Khadr to face justice in Canada. A petition with more than 50,000 signatures was also delivered to Parliament Hill by representatives of Amnesty International calling for Khadr’s release.

Tuesday, January 3, 2006

The international environmental organisation, Greenpeace, have been shadowing a Japanese whaling fleet currently operating in the Southern Ocean in Australian Antarctic Territory. They claim a minor victory against the six-vessel fleet, saying no whales have been killed since Christmas Eve. However they expect a resumption of whaling and protest activity soon.

Greenpeace has two ships, MV Esperanza and MV Arctic Sunrise, active near Antarctica, in an effort to disrupt the whalers, who intend on slaughtering over 900 Minke whales and 10 Fin whales in the region this summer. The activists aim to stop the Japanese whaling fleet as it tries to catch nearly 1000 whales for what is claimed to be scientific research.

Greenpeace chief Steve Shallhorn states that the protesters have chased the six-ship fleet northwards, with the vessels now away from the designated whaling zone. Greenpeace plan to maintain their efforts to keep the whalers in the public eye.

“What the fleet is doing is trying to outrun Greenpeace so that it can sneak back into the whaling grounds and resume the kill,” he said. “And for that very reason, we’re doing our very best and are succeeding in keeping up with the factory whaling ship. We are certain that they do not want any further publicity.”

He said Greenpeace will continue its high-speed tailing for as long as it takes. “We’re capable of staying out there for many more weeks,” he said. “The [Japanese] fleet is clearly embarrassed by having their actions exposed to the world, since the spotlight on their activities shows what it really is – commercial whaling with a very thin disguise.”

The whalers have been unable to kill any whales since Christmas Eve due to poor weather and harassment by Greenpeace vessels, and the Washington-based Sea Shepherd ship, RV Farley Mowat. The Sea Shepherd is operating independently of Greenpeace but say they are working towards a common objective – “the shutting down of illegal whaling in the Southern Ocean.”

Greenpeace expedition leader Shane Rattenbury says the whalers have a season of about 100 days. “Their quota is 945 whales. If you lose, say, 10 per cent of those through bad weather, they’ve got an average they need to catch of 10 a day and it’s gone 10 days now without having any whales,” he said. “That starts to add up pretty quickly. They’re under a bit of pressure to get on with the business.”

Japan’s Institute for Cetacean Research have rejected the claims made by Sea Shepherd, that Japanese warship was being sent to Antarctica to protect the fleet against the activists.

The Japanese institute spokesman condemned Sea Shepherd over the claim by Farley Mowat captain Paul Watson, who called on the Australian Government to keep the peace.File:Greenpeace Vessels Esperanza and Arctic Sun.jpg

Sea Shepherd had requested the presence of the Australian navy to monitor events in the Southern Ocean. However, Australia’s environment minister, Senator Ian Campbell, said that Sea Shepherd’s threats to attack the fleet “risk setting back the cause of whale conservation many years”.

Capt Watson said yesterday: “Stop threatening us, Mr Campbell, and charge us if you believe we are acting unlawfully. Stop posing for the Japanese [who] are in blatant violation of international conservation laws.”

Japan’s Fisheries Agency, which conducts the whaling, said the claim was a tactic by Sea Shepherd to try to raise the stakes for extra publicity.

“This is why the environmentalists’ campaign in the Antarctic is a PR stunt: every time they get some media coverage there’s always some member not too far away asking the public for money,” an agency spokesman said in a statement. “Only this time, it completely backfired and now people will question what these groups say.”

The spokesman had no response to Greenpeace’s claim that another vessel had joined the whaling fleet and was refuelling the ships within the boundary of the Antarctic Treaty’s nature reserve.

Mr Rattenbury said the 57 activists and crew aboard the Greenpeace ships were in good health following a quiet New Year’s Day celebration on deck under a midnight sun.

He said his ships were not in contact with the Farley Mowat, which is believed to be closer to the Antarctic ice shelf. The Farley Mowat’s weblog quoted ship captain Paul Watson as saying the Sea Shepherd group had no conflict with Greenpeace, despite earlier British media assertions.

“As far as I am concerned both Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace are working towards a common objective – the shutting down of illegal whaling in the Southern Ocean,” said Paul Watson.

Greenpeace believes the fleet killed at least 25 whales from the time it contacted the whalers just before Christmas.