armed groups

Desperation and hope among Misratah’s wounded

Charlotte_K — Wed, 11 May 2011 15:56:32 +0100

Hanan Mohamed had sustained multiple shrapnel injuries to both legs, as well as her right arm. She was relatively lucky; three of her relatives were killed when her home in the Garara area was hit by several projectiles which she believes to be Grad rockets, on 28 March. Hanan told Amnesty International that she had just finished her afternoon prayer, when she heard an explosion.

Source: Desperation and hope among Misratah’s wounded

Human tv.. youtube channel.

protectthehumanatshoreditchchurch2010 — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 11:38:04 +0100

Interesting interactivity. showing protect the human project.

Source: Human tv.. youtube channel.

Resilient Iranians still dream of a new revolution | World news | The Guardian

DrPot — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 20:27:26 +0000

Tehran University students have been filing into their classes past giant posters of Ayatollah Khomeini and the stern slogans of the Islamic revolution for the last 30 years. But the angry scenes on the university's sprawling campus this week seemed like a throwback to another age.
"Marg bar diktatur" (Death to dictatorship), they chanted in their thousands, waving green banners and posters behind high canvas screens tied to the railings as basij miltiamen and revolutionary guards prowled the streets outside.
Some held up Iranian flags with the symbol of the Islamic republic cut out of the middle.

Source: Resilient Iranians still dream of a new revolution | World news | The Guardian

The Associated Press: Mob, police force nuns to leave Vietnam monastery

Lightowl — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 23:26:28 +0100

HANOI, Vietnam — Followers of a world-famous Buddhist teacher say police and an angry mob have forced them out of a monastery in central Vietnam, ending a religious experiment in the communist country that turned into a monthslong standoff with authorities.

Followers of Thich Nhat Hanh, an Vietnam-born monk who has popularized Buddhism in the West, said about 150 monks were forced from the Bat Nha monastery in Lam Dong province Sunday, and about 230 nuns left on their own Monday morning.

Source: The Associated Press: Mob, police force nuns to leave Vietnam monastery

G20_Demo_April02_London_2009

Radfax — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 00:37:40 +0100

Ali Khamenei warns of 'collapse' after Iran referendum calls | World news | The Guardian

DrPot — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:31:36 +0100

Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, warned today that continuing divisions would lead to the collapse of the country's ruling elite, after a former president called for a referendum on the government's legitimacy.
The referendum call from Mohammad Khatami appeared to be part of an opposition strategy to keep Khamenei and allied hardliners on the defensive over last month's disputed elections.
It coincided with a demand from Mir Hossein Mousavi, the leading opposition candidate in those elections, for the release of opposition supporters detained for protesting against the official results, which gave a landslide victory to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Source: Ali Khamenei warns of 'collapse' after Iran referendum calls | World news | The Guardian

Paramilitaries deployed to quell ethnic violence in Xinjiang | World news | The Guardian

DrPot — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 22:02:07 +0100

Chinese security forces put on a show of strength in the capital of Xinjiang province today as Hu Jintao, China's president, cut short his trip to Italy for the G8 summit to return home and deal with continuing ethnic violence.
Helicopters hovered, loudspeaker vans broadcast messages urging calm and hundreds of paramilitary officers marched around the city chanting. Hundreds more guarded the perimeter of the city's largely Uighur area, several with bayonets. .....Li Zhi, head of Urumqi's communist party, pledged to execute those responsible for the 156 deaths or more in vicious attacks on Sunday. More than 1,100 people were wounded and more than 1,400 have been arrested.

Source: Paramilitaries deployed to quell ethnic violence in Xinjiang | World news | The Guardian

BBC NEWS | Israel admits Tube advert map 'mistake'

unicorn27 — Fri, 22 May 2009 16:27:47 +0100

Israel's tourist ministry has admitted to a "mistake" over adverts on the London Underground after complaints that they "wipe Palestine off the map".

Source: BBC NEWS | Israel admits Tube advert map 'mistake'

BOOK REVIEW: 'Into the Killing Zone: Dispatches from the Frontline in Afghanistan'

Patrick Corrigan — Wed, 06 May 2009 00:53:43 +0100

With the media reporting that citations for bravery earned by soldiers of the Royal Irish Regiment (RIR) in Afghanistan, may have been falsified, it is perhaps timely to consider the role of our neighbours in that distant land.

Source: BOOK REVIEW: 'Into the Killing Zone: Dispatches from the Frontline in Afghanistan'

Amnesty Blogs: Belfast and Beyond : Shadow of the gunman lengthens

Patrick Corrigan — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 11:52:25 +0000

Now, we need to put an end to complacency and realise that the job of making peace and ensuring justice is not yet finished, nor perhaps will be for a generation and more.

I'll be standing in determined silence with my Amnesty colleagues and thousands of other ordinary citizens on Wednesday at the peace rallies called by the ICTU. If you're in Belfast, I hope to see you there.

Source: Amnesty Blogs: Belfast and Beyond : Shadow of the gunman lengthens

Take Action: Help stop weapons-supplying countries from arming a war criminal

Wily Fox — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 22:45:05 +0000

The conflict in Darfur continues, but arms still flow unabated to the government of Sudan

Source: Take Action: Help stop weapons-supplying countries from arming a war criminal

Amnesty International Research Mission to Gaza

SamSam — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 12:43:57 +0000

In Conversation With Ishmael Beah: Ishmael's story

Noodle — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:36:44 +0000

Brown to be briefed over the Troubles legacy plan - Belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Patrick Corrigan — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 10:25:30 +0000

Prime Minister Gordon Brown is to be briefed within the next 24 hours on the plan for dealing with Ulster’s violent past.

He will meet Lord Eames and Denis Bradley — co-chairs of the Consultative Group on the Past — in Downing Street tomorrow afternoon. Secretary of State Shaun Woodward will also be present.

Source: Brown to be briefed over the Troubles legacy plan - Belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Rwandan troops enter DR Congo to hunt Hutu militias

Bellter — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 12:33:19 +0000

A Rwandan expeditionary force has crossed into the Democratic Republic of the Congo to hunt down Hutu rebels in a dangerous attempt to end a long-running jungle war.

The 1,500-2,000 Rwandan troops crossed the border at the invitation of the Congolese government, determined to uproot Hutu guerrillas whose violent attacks on Tutsis sparked a new round of fighting last year.

Source: Rwandan troops enter DR Congo to hunt Hutu militias

Uganda rebels kill 500 in DR Congo

Euley — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 10:37:41 +0000

Rebels from the Lord’s Resistance Army have murdered about 500 people in a series of massacres in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Source: Uganda rebels kill 500 in DR Congo

Soldiers beheaded as Mexican drug cartels step up terror to protect $15bn-a-year trade

Niluccio — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 14:56:26 +0000

The discovery of a dozen decapitated bodies scattered across a city in Mexico has become the latest symbol of the terrifying price this country is paying for drug consumption in America.

Source: Soldiers beheaded as Mexican drug cartels step up terror to protect $15bn-a-year trade

BOOK REVIEW: Chasing the Flame - Sergio Vieira de Mello and the Fight to Save the World

Patrick Corrigan — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 09:54:44 +0000

Chasing the Flame: Sergio Vieira de Mello and the Fight to Save the World (Hardback, 640 pages, Allen Lane, rrp £25, available £17.50)

Samantha Power is mostly famous for one thing on this side of the Atlantic. She was the foreign policy advisor on Barack Obama's campaign who had to resign back in March after she was quoted in The Scotsman newspaper calling Hillary Clinton a "monster".

Source: BOOK REVIEW: Chasing the Flame - Sergio Vieira de Mello and the Fight to Save the World

Somali Islamists approach Mogadishu, impose sharia

Niluccio — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 23:14:13 +0000

Islamist rebels moved on Friday into a small town on the outskirts of Somalia's capital near a checkpoint manned by Ethiopian troops, sparking fears among residents of renewed fighting.

This week's advance by al Shabaab militants toward the capital Mogadishu has raised the stakes in a two-year insurgency and is a setback for a fledgling U.N.-brokered peace process to end 17 years of conflict in the Horn of Africa nation.

Source: Somali Islamists approach Mogadishu, impose sharia

Sacked for being gay, we deserve better

Niluccio — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 17:16:34 +0000

So, the MoD has made "strenuous efforts" to adequately compensate sacked gay forces personnel (£4m MoD payout to gay personnel, November 8). In March this year, the MoD "compensated" me and others by paying us less than a 10th of our actual losses, and nowhere near the average £65,000 payout mentioned in other sections of the media.

Source: Sacked for being gay, we deserve better

Congolese rebels make new gains

Niluccio — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:47:01 +0000

Rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have seized control of another town, forcing government forces and residents to flee, the UN has said.

UN spokesman Lt-Col Jean Paul Dietrich said Gen Laurent Nkunda's troops had taken Nyanzale in North Kivu province, breaking the ceasefire he had declared.

Earlier, rebel forces entered nearby Kiwanja after two days of fighting and ordered about 35,000 people to leave.

Meanwhile, Rwanda has blamed Congo's army and the UN for the crisis.

Gen Nkunda's forces say they are trying to protect the Tutsi community against Hutu FDLR rebels who fled to DR Congo after the Rwandan genocide in 1994.

Source: Congolese rebels make new gains

The big picture

Niluccio — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 23:36:13 +0000

Palestinian militants from the Popular Resistant Committee wait for their comrades at a bus stop prior to holding a press conference in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. The group expressed hope the new US president would help bring a solution to the Palestinian-Israel conflict (Photo: Mahmud Hams)

Source: The big picture

I played piano for Congo warlord Laurent Nkunda

Niluccio — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 17:25:02 +0000

The corpses of the dead were still rotting on the streets of Bukavu, a ramshackle port in the country's east. The living had barricaded themselves inside their homes as marauding rebels tore through the city, raping nuns and pillaging shops.

Above the town, in the gardens of a shabby but elegant colonial-era villa built overlooking lovely Lake Kivu, the architect of the chaos sat snoozing in a deck chair.

It was June 2004, and I had come up to the villa - now officially the home of the governor of South Kivu province - in the hope of interviewing Laurent Nkunda, the renegade brigadier whose men had inflicted days of misery on Bukavu.

Source: I played piano for Congo warlord Laurent Nkunda

Death toll from serial blasts in India's Assam state rises to 77+

Niluccio — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 22:28:36 +0000

NEW DELHI, Oct. 31 (Kyodo) - The death toll from over a dozen blasts that hit India's restive northeastern state of Assam on Thursday rose to 77 on Friday, with 11 more people succumbing to their injuries overnight, the Press Trust of India reported.

The report said a total of 41 people died in six blasts in the state capital Guwahati, while 36 died in blasts in two of four targetted districts -- 21 people in Kokrajhar and 15 in Barpeta.

Hundreds of people were injured in the coordinated blasts that went off around noon Thursday, reportedly using high-intensity explosives placed in cars, autorickshaws, motorcycles and bicycles that were triggered by timed devices.

Source: Death toll from serial blasts in India's Assam state rises to 77+

Taleban kill many in bus attacks

Niluccio — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 14:10:22 +0100

Taleban insurgents have killed at least 27 people travelling on buses in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar.

A Taleban spokesman said that all those killed in the attacks on three buses were Afghan government soldiers, but officials said they were civilians.

The attacks happened on Thursday but the bodies have only just been found, dumped over a wide area.

A number of the men were beheaded after the attack in the Maiwand district, local and military sources say.

A Taleban spokesman said its fighters had boarded the buses travelling on the province's main highway, removed men identified as soldiers and shot them.

Source: Taleban kill many in bus attacks

Young Iraqi girls turned into perfect weapon

Niluccio — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:36:37 +0100

The teenage girl, handcuffed to an iron railing, hangs her head as an Iraqi explosives expert cuts the trigger cords on a suicide vest strapped to her body. Gunshots echo in the distance as the white vest, carrying about 30lb (15kg) of explosives, is peeled off the 15-year-old, leaving her standing in the street in a sleeveless, orange frock.

The footage was taken in August, when police said they found Rania Ibrahim Mutlib in a side road in Baquba, north of Baghdad, having failed to detonate her charge.

Source: Young Iraqi girls turned into perfect weapon

Doctors die after UN becomes Taleban target

Niluccio — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:36:05 +0100

Two United Nations doctors working on a polio vaccination campaign for children were killed by a suicide bomber yesterday in the first significant Taleban attack against the organisation in Afghanistan.

The men, both Afghan nationals, died with a driver when the bomber rammed their UN vehicle in the market town of Spin Boldak, close to the border with Pakistan in the southern province of Kandahar.

Source: Doctors die after UN becomes Taleban target

Tory MP Michael Fabricant forced to eat coffee whitener at gunpoint

Niluccio — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 15:53:33 +0100

Michael Fabricant was ordered to swallow several mouthfuls of the white powder in the middle of the jungle after he was taken for a drug smuggler.

The Lichfield MP said when he didn't drop dead they believed his story and let him carry on his journey.

Source: Tory MP Michael Fabricant forced to eat coffee whitener at gunpoint