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Intolerable: Nato units left 61 African migrants to die of hunger and thirst

Jack Shenker
Guardian UK
Sun, 08 May 2011 21:59 UTC
Image
© European Press Association/Francesco Malavolta
Refugees from Libya reach Lampedusa. A Nato ship failed to rescue a boat in trouble – leaving 63 people on board to die.

Boat trying to reach Lampedusa was left to drift in Mediterranean for 16 days, despite alarm being raised

Dozens of African migrants were left to die in the Mediterranean after a number of European and Nato military units apparently ignored their cries for help, the Guardian has learned.

A boat carrying 72 passengers, including several women, young children and political refugees, ran into trouble in late March after leaving Tripoli for the Italian island of Lampedusa. Despite alarms being raised with the Italian coastguard and the boat making contact with a military helicopter and a Nato warship, no rescue effort was attempted.

All but 11 of those on board died from thirst and hunger after their vessel was left to drift in open waters for 16 days. "Every morning we would wake up and find more bodies, which we would leave for 24 hours and then throw overboard," said Abu Kurke, one of only nine survivors. "By the final days, we didn't know ourselves ... everyone was either praying, or dying."
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Mr. Potato

Dick Cheney praises Obama for Osama's death, but laments end of harsh tactics


ANI
Sun, 08 May 2011 21:47 UTC
cheney
© AP
Washington: Former US Vice President Dick Cheney has praised President Barack Obama for authorizing the military operation that killed Osama bin Laden, but he lamented the end of controversial Bush-era interrogations that many conservatives believe to have contributed to America's greatest counterterrorism success.

Cheney appreciated Obama for sending Navy seals on a risky helicopter raid to Osama's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan

But he fanned the flames of a renewed debate over whether the so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" used by the Bush-era CIA were successful and lawful.
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USA

Robed Muslim clerics kicked off U.S. flight after pilot refuses to take off with them (and they were en route to conference on Islamophobia)


Daily Mail
Sat, 07 May 2011 22:47 UTC
Two Muslim religious leaders were asked to leave a commercial airliner in Memphis - and were told it was because the pilot refused to fly with them aboard.
North American Imams
© KCNC
Ironically, the two men were headed to a North American Imams conference discussing Islamophobia or fears of Islam and discrimination against American Muslims.

Masudur Rahman and another imam had already been allowed to board their Delta Connection flight from Memphis, Tennessee, to Charlotte, North Carolina before they were asked to get off the plane.

'It's racism and bias because of our religion and appearance and because of misinformation about our religion.' Mr Rahman said. 'If they understood Islam, they wouldn't do this.'

Mr Rahman said he and Mohamed Zaghloul, of the Islamic Association of Greater Memphis, were cleared by security agents and boarded the plane for an 8.40am departure.

The aircraft pulled away from the gate, but the pilot then announced the plane must return, Mr Rahman said.

When it did, the imams were asked to go back to the boarding gate where they were told the pilot was refusing to accept them because some other passengers could be uncomfortable.
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Family

Mother's Day Proclamation


Peace.ca
Sun, 08 May 2011 17:11 UTC
Image

Mother's Day was originally started after the Civil War, as a protest to the carnage of that war, by women who had lost their sons. Here is the original Mother's Day Proclamation from 1870:
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Heart - Black

Cheney undecided on heart transplant operation


Associated Press
Sun, 08 May 2011 17:10 UTC
Dick Cheney leer
© unknown
Former Vice President Dick Cheney says he hasn't decided whether to seek a heart transplant.

Cheney tells "Fox News Sunday" that his health has improved since last year, when he was diagnosed with end-stage heart failure. He had an operation last summer to fit his body with a battery-powered device that helps his heart pump blood.
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Card - VISA

US: Personal Bankruptcies, Especially Among Elderly, Surge in Massachusetts

Steve Adams
The Patriot Ledger
Sun, 08 May 2011 16:51 UTC
Kathleen Kane of Quincy
© Gary Higgins/The Patriot Ledger
Personal bankruptcy cases are on the rise in Massachusetts. Bankruptcy attorney Kathleen Kane of Quincy in her office at Spillane Law Offices in Quincy.
Personal bankruptcy filings have risen to their highest levels since bankruptcy reform legislation was enacted in 2005, spurred by widespread job losses, underemployment and a stagnant real estate market.

The bankruptcy epidemic has affected a wide variety of households, from people in their prime earning years who are struggling after layoffs to retirees who are no longer able to pay their mortgages.

In Massachusetts, the total number of Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 personal bankruptcy filings rose to nearly 23,000 last year, up 16 percent from 2009. Nationally, personal bankruptcy filings rose 9 percent over the same time.
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Take 2

Lawrence O'Donnell and Condi Rice at Loggerheads in Testy Interview

David Ferguson
Raw Story
Fri, 06 May 2011 00:00 UTC
On last night's Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, Condoleezza Rice stood firm on the Bush administration's actions in Iraq. The discussion got quite heated at points with Rice repeatedly threatening to end the interview and O'Donnell accusing her of evading his questions.

Watch the video, from MSNBC, below:


Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
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Arrow Down

West Virginia: Man High on Bath Salts Kills Neighbor's Goat, Police Say

Gary A. Harki
The Charleston Gazette
Mon, 02 May 2011 00:00 UTC
Mark Thompson
© The Charleston Gazette
Mark Thompson, 19, of Alum Creek, is charged with animal cruelty
Police say an Alum Creek man high on bath salts killed his neighbor's pygmy goat and that neighbors found him in his bedroom, dressed in a bra and panties, next to the dead animal, said Lt. Bryan Stover of the Kanawha County Sheriff's Department.

Mark Thompson, 19, of Greenview Road, is charged with animal cruelty after police got a call from a woman who said he stole her goat at about 3:15 a.m. Monday, Stover said.

Lisa Powers said she bought the goat on Friday as a gift to her 4-year-old grandson. They named the male goat Bailey after a female character on the Disney Channel television show The Suite Life on Deck.

"The baby just loved him," she said.

Powers' nephew, Joshua Pollis, got a call from a neighbor early Monday morning, she said.

"They told him that my goat was wandering around in Mark's house and he'd better come and get it," she said. "They called my nephew because he'd been there before."

Pollis and two women walked into Thompson's house looking for the goat, according to the criminal complaint filed in Kanawha County Magistrate Court.

The three entered the house and made their way to Thompson's bedroom door when Thompson spoke to them, Powers said.

Comment: In case readers are wondering what "high on bath salts" means, check out this article:

Officials fear bath salts becoming the next big drug menace

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Beaker

Officials fear bath salts becoming the next big drug menace

Sheila Byrd
The Washington Post
Sun, 23 Jan 2011 10:51 UTC
Bath Salt
© Unknown

When Neil Brown got high on bath salts, he took his skinning knife and slit his face and stomach repeatedly. Brown survived, but authorities say others haven't been so lucky after snorting, injecting or smoking powders with such innocuous-sounding names as Ivory Snow, Red Dove and Vanilla Sky.

Law enforcement agents and poison control centers say the bath salts, with their complex chemical names, are an emerging menace in several U.S. states where authorities talk of banning their sale. Some say their effects can be as powerful as those of methamphetamine.

From the Deep South to California, emergency calls are being reported over exposure to the stimulants the powders often contain: mephedrone and methylenedioxypyrovalerone, also known as MDPV.

Sold under such names as Ivory Wave, Bliss, White Lightning and Hurricane Charlie, the chemicals can cause hallucinations, paranoia, a rapid heart rate and suicidal thoughts, authorities say. In addition to bath salts, the chemicals can be found in plant foods that are sold legally at convenience stores and on the Internet. However, they aren't necessarily being used for the purposes on the label.

Mississippi lawmakers this week began considering a proposal to ban the sale of the powders, and a similar measure is being sought in Kentucky. In Louisiana, the bath salts were outlawed by an emergency order after the state's poison center received more than 125 calls in the last three months of 2010 involving exposure to the chemicals.

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Ambulance

Indonesia plane crash kills at least 17


The Telegraph, UK
Sat, 07 May 2011 10:46 UTC
A passenger plane carrying 27 people plunged into the ocean on Saturday as it approached an airport in bad weather in Indonesia's eastern province of West Papua, killing at least 17.

Image
© EPA
Parts of a plane wreckage lies on the ground after it crashed near Kaimana airport in Papua, Indonesia
Herry Bakti Singayuda, director general of Indonesian air transportation, said the Chinese-made Xian MA60 twin turboprop plane went down just before landing in Kaimana.

The flight, operated by state-owned Merpati Nusantara Airlines, originated in Sorong, another town in the province.

He said rescuers had recovered 17 bodies from the wreckage of the aircraft, which crashed into Kaimana Bay about 500 yards from the end of the runway. Searchers were hampered by heavy rain.

"Technically there was no problem with the plane," Mr Singayuda said.

He said the plane had only 615 flight hours and had been purchased in October.
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