Read a little. Learn a lot. • Tightly-written news, views and stuff • Follow us on Twitter • Be a Facebook Fan • Tumble us!

28 May 2011 14:02

tags

World: Hosni Mubarak has to pay huge fine for Egypt Internet shutdown

  • $90 million the amount Hosni Mubarak and other Egyptian leaders were fined for their role in shutting down Internet and mobile phone service for five days
  • $34 million the size of the fine Mubarak has to pay personally, an amount that has to be paid immediately to the country’s national treasury source
  • » A fine still owed, appeal or not? The fine, which the judge ordered must be paid now, still must be paid even if Mubarak and the other defendants appeal the decision. Legal analyst Aly Hassan puts it as such: “The court ordered an immediate payment and the fine may be increased by the state if the damages increase during the year as compensation for lost revenue.” When Egypt’s Internet went down in January, it was an unprecedented event on the world stage — never before had anyone thought that a political leader had the power to shut the whole thing down.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 May 2011 12:29

tags

World: Egyptian Gaza border opens, finally giving Palestinians a way out

  • Opening this door does not mean Egypt wants to allow bombs and explosives … Egypt wants to allow safe passage of individuals who want to conduct their lives.
  • Senior Fatah official Nabil Shaath • Expressing his approval for Egypt’s decision to permanently open their Rafa Border to Gaza, the region’s main outlet to the outside world. It’s all a part of the Egyptian government’s desire to build a stronger relationship with the Palestinians. Hamas’ Deputy foreign minister, Ghazi Hamad, calls this “a unique move and a positive development.” As for those allowed to leave the tiny, dense region of Palestine, they’re thrilled to finally get to leave. “The closure did not affect only the travel of passengers or the flowing of goods. Our brains and our thoughts were under blockade,” said Khaled Halaweh, a 28-year-old man who hopes to study at Alexandria University, but hasn’t been able to leave the Gaza region in seven years. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 May 2011 09:40

tags

World: G8 Summit: Arab Spring nations will receive billions in aid

  • what G8 leaders plan to pledge around $20 billion to Arab Spring countries — particularly Egypt and Tunisia, where successful protests led to the ousting of dictators and the possible rise of democracy.
  • why To put it simply, they feel that if they don’t, the countries could face economic hardships that might lead to the rise of extremism. Many G8 nations will also act on their own to help the countries. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

26 May 2011 17:30

tags

World: Ratko Mladic arrives at war crimes court in Serbia

  • Ratko Mladic arrives in court: Mladic, one of the most sought-after international figures in the world, was caught today and brought before a court in Serbia for war crimes and genocide, making this a very big day in the world of both international and Serbian justice. Mladic eluded capture for sixteen years. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

26 May 2011 15:18

tags

World: Chinese labor camps: Where MMO games stop being fun?

  • World of Warcraft meets the world of forced labor: The Guardian has an interview up today with a 54-year-old prisoner at the Jixi labor camp in China, who makes an extremely bizarre and terrible claim; that prison bosses forced some inmates to play World of Warcraft after finishing the day’s grueling physical labor. The idea is that they’re being forced to grind out high-level characters with choice equipment and lots of gold, which are then sold by the guards to cash-rich, lazy gamers who want all the gain with none of the pain. It’s sort of like the anti-drug argument that your money might be financing terrorism or violence — don’t take the shortcut to World of Warcraft glory, or you might do it on the back of a Chinese prisoner. Bizarre story. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

26 May 2011 11:40

tags

World: Ratko Mladic arrest: The most wanted man in Europe

  • A pariah of the Yugoslavian War: Missing from view since his 1995 indictment on war crimes, Mladic’s capture allows for the closure of a dark era of Europe’s post-World War II history. In leading a war that killed as many as 100,000, the Bosnian Serb saw it as a form of historic revenge against hundreds of years of Turkish-Ottoman rule. And he was something else, too. He used phrases like this one when talking to soldiers: “When I give you guarantees, it’s as if they are given by God.” Hours before leading a masacre of the town of Srebrenica, he went into the town and gave the children there candy, while reassuring them everything would be OK. Could you imagine? Mladic’s arrest finally offers the end of a dark chapter of modern history that needs closure. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

25 May 2011 17:37

tags

World: Obama and Cameron stay firm on NATO in Libya

  • Obama wants patience on Libya: In a joint press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron. President Obama sought to erase any doubt that the NATO action against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi would let up while Gaddafi clings to power through his military. “Gaddafi and his regime need to understand that there will not be a let-up in the pressure that we are applying.” Obama refused to give a timetable for the military action, saying it would be resolved “in a timely fashion,” and stressed the need for “patience.” source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

25 May 2011 15:19

tags

World: In Soviet Russia, CNN competes with … uh, itself. Kinda.

  • A Russian fan went above and beyond, it seems. It seems like someone has taken the liberty to set up a CNN site for Russia — but the site is not officially associated with CNN in any way. In fact, the stories are just run through an online translator, so they often translate horribly. One story referenced the head of the IMF Dominique Strauss-Kahn as the head of a penis, not an organization. No one knows who’s running this thing, but a note on the website says that it only republishes parts of stories from CNN.com and links back to them. To do this, the site uses Joomla, a CMS system like similar to WordPress. A spokeswoman from CNN said that they’re “evaluating the next steps.” Hopefully they can get to the, er…head of the problem. (thanks to Mediaite for pointing us in the right direction with this one) source
Posted by Justin Jones • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 May 2011 15:41

tags

World: Hosni Mubarak to be tried for the deaths of protesters

  • Mubarak will stand trial over Tahrir Square protests: Reportedly in ill health, former Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak will stand trial for his alleged crimes, among them the deaths of protesters during the nation’s revolutionary movement in Tahrir Square (over 800 died before Mubarak’s departure), and the illegal acquisition of wealth during his time in office. Mubarak is in a hospital at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, while authorities also detained his two sons, also charged with corruption, in Cairo’s Tora prison. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 May 2011 11:17

tags

World: Ryanair flies plane through Iceland’s volcanic ash to prove it’s safe

  • How badly does Ryanair want to fly in this mess? Well, the ultra-cheap airline, which is trying to argue that the air plume from the Iceland volcano isn’t that bad, just sent a test plane through the thickest part of the plume for an hour. To put it simply, the plane got through OK, which means that now RyanAir is really arguing that officials allow airlines to fly their passenger planes through this murky soup. Look, we know your entire business model relies on tight profit margins, Ryanair, but is this really how you want to save money? (amazing eruption photo via NASA Goddard Photo and Video’s Flickr page) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
<< newer 
top tags
older >>