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24 Oct 2011 14:45

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World: Libyan NTC says they will investigate Gaddafi’s death

  • Let us question who has the interest in the fact that Gaddafi will not be tried. Those who wanted him killed were those who were loyal to him or had played a role under him. His death was in their benefit.
  • Mustafa Abdel-Jalil • Speaking on the NTC’s new committee to investigate the killing of Muammar Gaddafi, after what glimpses of video have made clear was an initial live capture of the deposed dictator. The tact of this quote is a little bothersome, though, for the simple reason that Abdel-Jalil is already implying that Gaddafi’s people, not his people, are to blame for this. At best this is an opinion for which there’s yet no evidence, or none the NTC has presented — we’d feel a bit better about this if, with today’s formation of a Libyan committee to investigate the killing, the NTC leader wasn’t promoting any pre-conceived notions of may have happened. Hopefully the committee will be impartial, and pursue an independent analysis of what took place, even if it doesn’t end up reflecting well on the rebels who surrounded Gaddafi in his final moments. It’s an early test. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 Oct 2011 10:55

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World: Wikileaks temporarily suspends operations amidst financial issues

  • what A year after first drawing significant attention for its whistle-blowing ability, Wikileaks is temporarily stopping publication, leader Julian Assange said Monday.
  • why Rather than the significant legal issues he’s facing, Assange blames a bank transaction blockade has that decimated their ability to raise revenue. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 Oct 2011 20:40

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World: One long march later, Bolivia’s indigenous people score major victory

  • cause Evo Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous leader, backed building a major road to link Brazil with the Pacific Ocean, it’d go through the Isiboro-Secure Indigenous Territory National Park.
  • reaction The highway proved very controversial to many indigenous people; some protesters walked hundreds of miles to the country’s capitol, La Paz — a two-month trek that galvanized opposition.
  • result On Wednesday, they completed their trek; on Friday, Morales promised that the bridge, which will still get built, will not cut through the reserve as originally planned. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 Oct 2011 16:33

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Politics, U.S., World: Bachmann: Iraq should repay money used in US invasion

  • I believe that Iraq should reimburse the United States fully for the amount of money that we have spent to liberate these people. They are not a poor country.
  • Rep. Michele Bachmann during an interview with CBS News’ “Face the Nation” Sunday morning.• Bachmann added that Iraq was a “wealthy country” that would be “subject to dominance by Iran and their influence in the region” once American troops withdraw by the end of the year. source
Posted by Matthew Keys • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 Oct 2011 12:12

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World: Not like Ben Ali’s rule: Tunisian elections draw massive crowds

  • then Elections during the rule of Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali generally drew a fairly small number of people, due to the fact that many believed that the results were pre-determined.
  • now Ten months after the end of Ben Ali’s regime, today’s elections have drawn huge numbers of people, with lines spreading far beyond the polling booths. source
  • » Not without some controversy: A notable Islamist figure in the country, Rachid Ghannouchi, was heckled as he came out of the voting booth today. “You are a terrorist and an assassin! Go back to London,” one shouted. Ghannouchi, the leader of the moderate Ennahda party, spent over two decades in Britain, exiled from the country where he was once imprisoned for his political views. He returned earlier this year, and his party is expected to do well today.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 Oct 2011 10:52

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World: Western leaders call for investigation into Muammar Gaddafi’s death

  • It’s certainly not the way we do things. We would have liked to see Col. Gaddafi going on trial to answer for his misdeeds.
  • British Defense Secretary Philip Hammond • Calling for an investigation into Muammar Gaddafi’s violent, bloody death on Thursday. The Libyan leader’s method of death — Human Rights Watch suggests it’s an execution that took place after the leader was detained — could cast a violent pall on the new government. Gaddafi’s wife Safiya, as you might guess, also wants an investigation. “I am proud of the bravery of my husband, Moammar Gadhafi, the holy warrior, and my sons who confronted the aggression of 40 countries over the past six months,” she told Syria-based Al-Rai TV. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

22 Oct 2011 22:45

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World: Arab Spring: Islamists expected to win big in Tunisian election

  • Now I am happy that my son’s death has given the chance to get beyond fear and injustice. I’m an optimist, I wish success for my country.
  • Manoubia Bouazizi, mother of notable Tunisian self-immolator Mohamed Bouazizi • Discussing her son’s death and the spark for democracy it provided both in her own country but throughout northern Africa and the Middle East. Tomorrow Tunisia holds its first democratic election after the toppling of Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali ten months ago. (Ben Ali is now in exile in Saudi Arabia.) The Islamist Ennahda party, banned while Ben Ali was in power, is expected to garner the most votes, but not without controversy due to the long-encouraged secular culture in the country. It’ll be interesting to see what happens next. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

21 Oct 2011 11:05

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World: News Corp. pays off phone-hacking scandal victim’s family

  • $3.2 million the settlement headed to Milly Dowler’s family, via News Corp.
  • $1.6 million the settlement headed to a charity of the Dowler family’s choosing source
  • » The scandal that killed a newspaper: With the News of the World scandal a bit of a low point for the company this year, it’s understandable that they might want to get this dealt with. But the Dowler family has made sure it was to their liking: “Nothing that has been agreed will ever bring back Milly or undo the traumas of her disappearance and the horrendous murder trial earlier this year,” they said. “The only way that a fitting tribute could be agreed was to ensure that a very substantial donation to charity was made in Milly’s memory. We hope that projects will be undertaken so that some good can come from this.” Meanwhile, News Corp. now has a second scandal under its large journalistic umbrella, though this one (the WSJ’s circulation scandal) is fortunately more business-oriented and less invasive on another person’s life.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Oct 2011 23:47

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World: Meteor shower: An excuse for folks with binoculars to look less weird.

  • Keep your eyes on the skies, folks. It’s time for another Orionid meteor shower, guys! “From tomorrow up to 30 meteors an hour could be seen as they burn up, which can be best viewed in the northern hemisphere, with the optimum viewing times likely to be at around 1am or 5am.” This happens every October as the Earth passes through what’s been left by Haley’s Comet. source
Posted by samimain • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Oct 2011 15:25

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World: NTC says Libyan forces, not NATO, killed Gaddafi

  • Libyan NTC claims credit for Gaddafi killing: It’s been a rather wild day as far as world news is concerned, which you’d probably expect when a notorious dictator of forty years is slain; in the aftermath, Libya’s National Transitional Council has said that Gaddafi’s capture and subsequent death (what happened exactly is yet unknown, as video has surfaced of Gaddafi once being alive under rebel custody, albeit in chaotic circumstances) was the work of Libyans, contrary to speculation NATO may have had a hand in it. Said spokesman Ahmed Bani: “It was our courageous revolutionaries who have killed the tyrant and not NATO.” source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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