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16 Feb 2011 10:46

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U.S., World: More details on the Lara Logan case: What happened?

  • egypt The Wall Street Journal reports that CBS’ Logan was separated from her crew from 20 to 30 minutes. While she was beaten and sexually assaulted, she was not raped.
  • hospital The Daily Beast’s Howard Kurtz reports that Logan, who is staying in an NYC hospital, will likely be let out today. Her injuries have not been disclosed. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

16 Feb 2011 09:41

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World: Middle Eastern unrest reaches Libya, but will it go any further?

  • Last night was a bad night. … There were about 500 or 600 people involved. They went to the revolutionary committee (local government headquarters) in Sabri district, and they tried to go to the central revolutionary committee … They threw stones.
  • An anonymous Benghazi, Libya resident • Describing the scene during the riots that took place in the city the night before. Leader Muammar Gaddafi has been in power for over 40 years, and his country neighbors Egypt and Tunisia, so he’s obviously a key target for protests in the current spate of them. However, Libya is different from those countries in that their oil revenues are so significant that they could just throw money at the problem to placate unhappy citizens. Still though, this is obviously a huge issue for Gaddafi’s government. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

16 Feb 2011 08:34

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World: Kim Jong-Il’s son: Huge Eric Clapton fan, apparently

Middle child Kim Jong-chol was reportedly seen at a Clapton concert in Singapore. We imagine he mouthed all the words to “Layla.” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

15 Feb 2011 21:18

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Tech, World: Apple, Foxconn worked really hard to stop worker suicides

  • Recognizing that we would need additional expertise to help prevent further tragedies, we launched an international search for the most knowledgeable suicide prevention specialists — particularly those with experience in China — and asked them to advise Apple and Foxconn.
  • A statement from Apple’s annual Supplier Responsibility report • Describing the process that Apple went through to help stop the spate of suicides at Foxconn’s Chinese factories last year. Apple personally sent Tim Cook, the company’s Chief Operating Officer and the guy covering for Steve Jobs while he’s on medical leave, to China to check out the factories. They brought in psychologists and Buddhist monks. They played calming music. They did a survey of employees, along with personal interviews of workers. They put up nets in the factory to prevent people from committing suicide on a lark. They made a room for releasing stress, complete with punching bags. Foxconn is even working on making more factories in China, so people can live closer to their homes. The result? Suicides are reportedly way down. Apple doesn’t mess around. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

15 Feb 2011 20:46

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World: On Lara Logan and journalists who do difficult, dangerous work

Lara Logan

  • » And one journalist died during the crisis: According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a watchdog group, three journalists have died in Egypt since 1992. One of them, Ahmad Mohamed Mahmoud, a journalist for the state-owned newspaper Al-Ta’awun, died February 4 from gunshot wounds sustained while attempting to shoot video of security forces and demonstrators fighting. Security forces noticed him, and a sniper shot and killed him. “They meant to kill him; they aimed at his head with live ammunition,” said his wife, Inas Abdel-Alim. “The perpetrator did this to him because he was filming what was happening. They didn’t want us to cover the massacre that happened that day.” And as awful as this all is, it pales in comparison to what journalists faced in nearby Iraq. Journalists do difficult work. Bloggers? We type into laptops. The biggest danger we face is spilling a macchiato on our hands while fervently typing. Don’t forget who does the real work.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

15 Feb 2011 14:19

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World: Iranian leaders, lawmakers call for execution of political rivals

  • What makes Iran different from Egypt: Well, innumerable things, really, but here’s a good example: the Iranian parliament, chanting from their chamber for the executions of opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi. The extent of the totalitarian power the Iranian regime holds over its people is immense, and to this point the strategy of media blackout has worked far more successfully than it did in Tahrir Square, but make no mistake – a video of a parliament chanting for the deaths of their political opponents should chill you no less than a video of some thugs beating up people in the streets. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

15 Feb 2011 13:13

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World: Tunisian unrest has human cost as refugees flee uncertainty

  • 5,700 Tunisian refugees in Lampedusa, Italy source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

15 Feb 2011 10:31

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U.S., World: Dalai Lama’s nephew killed in unfortunate car accident

  • Yesterday, Jigme K. Norbu, the nephew of the Dalai Lama, started a 300-mile walk across Florida (with a large group of other people, by the way) to help raise awareness for the Tibetan Independence Movement. He didn’t get very far. Norbu was hit by a car less than 50 miles from his starting point, near the end of the first leg of the journey, off the coastal State Road A1A. A terrible, meaningless accident. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

15 Feb 2011 10:13

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World: Berlusconi’s facing trial in wild underage prostitution case

  • YES Berlusconi’s trial starts in April; get yo cameras ready!
  • yes The girl Berlusconi reportedly had paid for sex was over the age of consent in Italy, which is a fairly-young 14.
  • yes Prostitution in Italy is also pretty much legal, meaning that Berlusconi likely broke no laws for simply paying for sex.
  • no Paying for sex with someone under 18 isn’t legal. Ruby Heart-Stealer wasn’t 18 before the incident. Oops. source
  • » And there’s an Egypt tie to this story, too: Perhaps the most bizarre spare detail of the entire incident might be the reason why Berlusconi was caught this time. See, Ruby Heart-Stealer, a Moroccan whose real name is Karima El Mahroug, was arrested last May for theft, and he called the Police to intervene – because, get this, he believed she was Hosni Mubarak’s niece. Random. Berlusconi and Heart-Stealer both deny they had sex, though there must have been an interesting story about how they met, then. Right?
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

14 Feb 2011 14:57

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World: Higher Military Council in Egypt issues timeline for reforms

  • 2 months maximum expected before Egypt’s constitutional referendum source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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