Students from Haiti to receive Russian state funding

26/01/2010 |

Students from Haiti to receive Russian state funding

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin during his talk with students of Chuvashia State University on Monday said that all current Haitian students in Russia will receive state funding from the federal budget for their tuition fees. He mentioned that according to his sources, there are 75 students from Haiti in Russian universities at the moment, some of whom are already receiving free tuition. Earlier reports said that some Haitian students of RUDN (People's Friendship University of Russia) in Moscow received money for their tuition fees from their parents, but could not get in touch with them after the earthquake. According to RIA Novosti, there are 51 students from Haiti studying at RUDN. At least three of them lost their parents in the earthquake. The students previously applied to the University with requests to receive aid with their tuition fees. There are students from Haiti in the universities of Moscow, Voronezh, Rostov-on-Don, Ryazan, Cheboksary and Novosibirsk.

Hamas to take Israel to court over alleged organ theft

©  blog.case.edu

28/01/2010

Hamas has started gathering evidence that Israel harvested body parts from dead Palestinians to support its future legal claims against Tel Aviv in international courts.

The organ theft issue made headlines last summer, when the Swedish Aftonbladet newspaper published an article reporting that Israel had been stealing the organs of those Palestinians who were killed in fights with Israeli soldiers.

"We have started collecting documents and information which could prove that the Israeli occupants have stolen body parts of martyrs," Hamas' Minister of Justice Muhammad Faraj Al-Ghoul told reporters in Gaza on Wednesday.

"We plan to prepare a complete legal file to be used in lawsuits against the Israeli government in international courts," Al-Ghoul said, adding that Hamas officials had urged Palestinians in Gaza to provide them with any evidence of Israeli organ harvesting.

Hamas is in control of the Gaza Strip after kicking Abbas's Fatah party out of the enclave in the summer of 2007 following a series of armed clashes. Fatah now governs the West Bank.

Settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, both occupied by Israel since the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, has been the main obstacle to reviving peace talks between Israel the Palestinians, which were halted over a year ago.

Despite broad international efforts to bring Palestinians and Israelis back to the negotiating table, Hamas refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist and opposes Abbas's efforts to negotiate a permanent peace deal.

GAZA, January 28 (RIA Novosti)

Sky launches 3D channel in pubs

Fans will be able to enjoy 3D from the comfort of their bar stool

Sky is kicking off the UK's first 3D channel with a live Premier League football match to be broadcast from nine pubs around the UK this weekend.

The match between Arsenal and Manchester United will be viewable in 3D in pubs in London, Manchester, Cardiff and Edinburgh.
In April Sky will roll out its 3D channel to hundreds of other pubs.
Later in the year, Sky 3D will be made available to all Sky+HD customers with a range of content on offer.
This will include movies, sport, documentaries and entertainment.
Sky 3D will initially be available as a free add-on for those with Sky+HD boxes.
Viewers need to wear a special pair of glasses to watch the content.
There has been a great deal of hype around the technology since cinemas began showing films in 3D.
Avatar, shot in 3D, has become the highest grossing film of all time.
It is expected that 3D-ready TVs will hit the consumer market later this year.
"People have already embraced 3D cinema and because Sky's 3D service uses the same kind of technology, we're confident there will be demand for sport, movies, concerts and drama in 3D," said Gerry O'Sullivan, Sky's director of strategic product development.
In February, two rugby matches in the Six Nations championship will be filmed in 3D and shown at cinemas around the UK.
The 2010 World Cup will also be filmed in the format.
The BBC was the first to show a 3D sports event, broadcasting a Scotland v England rugby match at the Six Nations championship in 2008.
HOW 3D BROADCASTS WORK

Who claims rights in Antarctica?

US runs 'secret' military operations in Yemen

US runs 'secret' military operations in Yemen

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 10:56:40 GMT

Washington has involved in secret joint operations in Yemen after President Barack Obama approved US military and intelligence teams to be dispatched to the country, the Washington Post revealed Wednesday.

The operations begun six weeks ago, involving troops from the US military's clandestine Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), whose main mission is tracking and killing suspected terrorists, the Post reported.

The American agents are helping the Yemeni army develop tactics and providing Sana'a forces with electronic and video surveillance, as well as three-dimensional terrain maps, the report said.

In addition to "highly sensitive intelligence," the US is sending weapons and munitions to be used against what the White House describes as an al-Qaeda cell operating in the Arabian Peninsula, it added.

In late December, President Obama even approved a strike against a compound in southern Yemen where US citizen Anwar al-Aulaqi was allegedly meeting with regional "al-Qaeda leaders," the report added.

"We are very pleased with the direction this is going," the Washington Post quoted an unnamed senior administration official as saying of the cooperation with Yemen.

Washington has also been sending a steady stream of high-ranking officials to visit Sana'a, including the rarely seen JSOC commander Vice Adm. William McRaven, White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan, and head of US Central Command Gen. David Petraeus.

Earlier in January, the White House pledged $121 million in aid to help the unpopular Yemeni government crush uprisings.

However, amid rising concerns over the US role in military operations in Yemen, the government continues to its offensive against the country's Shia minorities in the north.

Backed by the Saudi military, the operation has left hundreds killed and tens of thousands displaced in the battle zone, prompting repeated warnings of a humanitarian disaster in the making from international organizations.

"AGORA"_ the film on Hypatia's life and death.

Hypatia of Alexandria ((Greek: Ὑπατία, Hypatía, pronounced /haɪˈpeɪʃə/ in English; born between 350 and 370; died 415) was a Greek^[2][3] scholar from Alexandria inEgypt,^[4][5] considered the first notable woman in mathematics, who also taughtphilosophy and astronomy.^[6] She lived in Roman Egypt, and was killed by a Christianmob who falsely blamed her for religious turmoil.^[7] Some suggest that her murder marked the end of what is traditionally known as Classical antiquity,^[8][9] although others such as Christian Wildberg observe that Hellenistic philosophy continued to flourish until the age of Justinian in the sixth century.^[10]

A Neoplatonist philosopher, she belonged to the mathematical tradition of theAcademy of Athens represented by Eudoxus of Cnidus;^[11] she followed the school of the 3rd century thinker Plotinus, discouraging empirical enquiry and encouraging logical and mathematical studies.^[12]

Hypatia was the daughter of Theon, who was her teacher and the last known mathematician associated with the Museum of Alexandria.^[13] She traveled to both Athens and Italy to study,^[14] before becoming head of the Platonist school at Alexandria in approximately 400.^[15] According to the 10th century Byzantine encyclopedia the Suda, she worked as teacher of philosophy, teaching the works of Plato and Aristotle.^[16] It is believed that there were both Christians^[17] and foreigners^[12] among her students.

Although Hypatia was herself a pagan, she was respected by a number of Christians, and later held up by Christian authors as a symbol of virtue.^[12] The Suda controversially^[18] declared her "the wife of Isidore the Philosopher"^[16] but agreed she had remained a virgin.^[19] Hypatia rebuffed a suitor by showing him her menstrual rags, claiming they demonstrated that there was "nothing beautiful" about carnal desires.^[16]

Hypatia maintained correspondence with her former pupil Synesius of Cyrene, who c. 410 became bishop of Ptolemais.^[20] Together with the references by Damascius, these are the only writings with descriptions or information from her pupils that survive.^[21] The contemporary Christian historiographer Socrates Scholasticus described her in his Ecclesiastical History:

There was a woman at Alexandria named Hypatia, daughter of the philosopher Theon, who made such attainments in literature and science, as to far surpass all the philosophers of her own time. Having succeeded to the school of Plato and Plotinus, she explained the principles of philosophy to her auditors, many of whom came from a distance to receive her instructions. On account of the self-possession and ease of manner, which she had acquired in consequence of the cultivation of her mind, she not unfrequently appeared in public in presence of the magistrates. Neither did she feel abashed in going to an assembly of men. For all men on account of her extraordinary dignity and virtue admired her the more.^[12]

[edit]Works

Many of the works commonly attributed to Hypatia are believed to have been collaborative works with her father, Theon Alexandricus; this kind of authorial uncertainty being typical for the situation of feminine philosophy in Antiquity.^[22]

A partial list of specific accomplishments:

• A commentary on the 13-volume Arithmetica by Diophantus.^[16]
• A commentary on the Conics of Apollonius.^[16]
• Edited the existing version of Ptolemy's Almagest.^[23]
• Edited her father's commentary on Euclid's Elements^[24]
• She wrote a text "The Astronomical Canon."^[16] (Possibly a new edition of Ptolemy's Handy Tables.)^[25]

Her contributions to science are reputed to include the charting of celestial bodies^[6] and the invention of the hydrometer,^[26] used to determine the relative density and gravity of liquids.

Her pupil Synesius, bishop of Cyrene, wrote a letter defending her as the inventor of the astrolabe, although earlier astrolabes predate Hypatia's model by at least a century - and her father had gained fame for his treatise on the subject.^[27]

[edit]Death

Believed to have been the reason for the strained relationship between the Imperial Prefect Orestes and the Bishop Cyril, Hypatia attracted the ire of a Christian population eager to see the two reconciled. One day in March 415,^[28] during the season of Lent, her chariot was waylaid on her route home by a Christian mob, possibly Nitrian monks^[28] led by a man identified only as Peter, who is thought to be Peter the Reader, Cyril's assistant. The Christian monks stripped her naked and dragged her through the streets to the newly Christianised Caesareum church, where she was brutally killed. Some reports suggest she was flayed with ostraca(potsherds) and set ablaze while still alive, though other accounts suggest those actions happened after her death:

Antiquity to the Age of Reason

Shortly after her death, a forged letter attacking Christianity was published under her name.^[29] According to Bryan J. Whitfield, the pagan historian Damascius was "anxious to exploit the scandal of Hypatia's death",^[30] and laid the blame squarely on the Christians and Bishop Cyril. His account was incorporated in the Suda and so became widely known. However, Damascius is the only ancient source to say that Cyril was responsible.^[31]

In the 14th century, historian Nicephorus Gregoras described Eudokia Makrembolitissa as a "second Hypatia".^[21]

In the early 18th century, the deist scholar John Toland used her death as the basis for ananti-Catholic tract entitled Hypatia: Or the history of a most beautiful, most vertuous, most learned, and every way accomplish’d lady; who was torn to pieces by the clergy of Alexandria, to gratify the pride, emulation, and cruelty of their archbishop, commonly but undeservedly stil’d St. Cyril.^[32] This led to a counter-claim being published by Thomas Lewis in 1721 entitled The History Of Hypatia, A most Impudent School-Mistress of Alexandria.^[33]

Eventually, her story began to be infused with Christian details, as it was first substituted for the missing history of Saint Catherine of Alexandria.^[

KAIΣΑΡΙΑΝΗ - ο Δήμαρχος και μέλη του Δημοτικού Συμβουλίου θα εμποδίσουν τους επιβάτες να πληρώσουν εισιτήριο

ΕΠΙΣΤΟΛΗ ΤΟΥ ΔΗΜΑΡΧΟΥ ΚΑΙΣΑΡΙΑΝΗΣ

Προς τον Υπουργό Υποδομών κ. Ρέππα Δημήτριο –

Αρ πρωτ 380 / 12-1-2010

Αξιότιμε κύριε Υπουργέ,

Επανερχόμενος για μια ακόμα φορά στο θέμα της κακής συγκοινωνίας στην πόλη μας, θέλω να σας ενημερώσω για τις μέχρι τώρα άκαρπες προσπάθειες μας, να διατυπώσω για πολλοστή φορά τα αιτήματα μας και να σας γνωστοποιήσω τις ενέργειες μας:

1.0 Δήμαρχος Καισαριανής Σπύρος Τζόκας, με επιστολή προς τον Υπουργό Κο Λιάπη και τον Πρόεδρο του ΟΑΣΑ στις 2-4-2007 εξέθετε τις σοβαρές ελλείψεις που παρατηρούνται με ευθύνη της Εταιρείας στις λεωφορειακές γραμμές 223 και 224. Σημείωνε ότι η γραμμή 223 έχει ήδη καταστεί γραμμή - φάντασμα και ζητούσε την στελέχωση της, καθώς είναι αυτή που έχει μεγαλύτερες δυνατότητες εξυπηρέτησης των πολιτών, δεδομένου ότι η γραμμή αυτή είναι περισσότερο σύντομη (Καισαριανή - Κάνιγγος) και είναι αυτή που θεωρείται τοπική. Απαιτούσε, επίσης, την αύξηση των λεωφορείων της διαδημοτικής γραμμής 224.

2. Ο ΟΑΣΑ με έγγραφο του απάντησε: α) η γραμμή 223 δεν είναι απαραίτητη για την πόλη μας και συνεπώς καταργείται, β) η συχνότητα προγραμματισμένων δρομολογίων του 224 κατά τις ώρες αιχμής είνα» 8-9 λεπτά!! και γ} ότι από 1-5-2007 η συχνότητα θα είναι 7,5 λεπτά με την προσθήκη ενός οχήματος.

3.Το Δημοτικό Συμβούλιο θεώρησε τις απαντήσεις αυτές άδικες και παραπλανητικές. Άδικες, καθώς η μεγάλη ταλαιπωρία των συμπολιτών μας συνεχίζεται και παραπλανητικές, καθώς η συχνότητα των δρομολογίων πόρω απέχει από αυτή που καταγράφει ο ΟΑΣΑ και αυτό το γνωρίζουν όλοι οι χρήστες της συγκοινωνίας.

4. Η κατάσταση στη συνέχεια όχι μόνο δεν βελτιώθηκε, αλλά διαρκώς επιδεινώνεται. Η γραμμή 223 καταργήθηκε και τα λεωφορεία της γραμμής 224 μειώθηκαν. Την αγανάκτηση των συμπολιτών μας εισπράττουμε καθημερινά. Η τελευταία επιστολή και παράσταση του Δημάρχου ήταν τον προηγούμενο Ιούνιο 2009 και η απάντηση του ΟΑΣΑ ήταν η ίδια που προαναφέρθηκε, χωρίς διαφοροποιήσεις.

5. Προκειμένου να εξυπηρετηθεί ο λαός της Καισαριανής, ο οποίος χρόνια ταλαιπωρείται, το Δημοτικό Συμβούλιο της Καισαριανής έχουν διατυπώσει συγκεκριμένες προτάσεις.

Η επαναφορά και ενίσχυση της γραμμής 223 κρίνεται απαραίτητη, γιατί οι περισσότερες μετακινήσεις των κατοίκων της Καισαριανής είναι προς το κέντρο και όχι προς το Πολύγωνο, το οποίο εξυπηρετεί η γραμμή 224. Συγκεκριμένα προτείνονται περισσότερα δρομολόγια για τη λεωφορειακή γραμμή 223 (Καισαριανή Κάνιγγος), όπως αυτά της γραμμής 224, δηλαδή η συχνότητα των δρομολογίων να μειωθεί στα 5 λεπτά, μέσος χρόνος για τα ευρωπαϊκά δεδομένα, και τα οχήματα να αυξηθούν, ώστε να καλύπτουν τον παραπάνω χρόνο. Επίσης προτείνεται να θεσπιστεί λεωφορειακή γραμμή, που να συνδέει τους Δήμους Ζωγράφου, Καισαριανής και Βύρωνα και η οποία να ακολουθεί τη διαδρομή της υφιστάμενης γραμμής 214 (Ακαδημία-Ζωοδόχος Πηγή) στο τμήμα από την είσοδο της στη Φορμίωνος έως το τέρμα (Ζωοδόχος Πηγή). Η ίδρυση μιας τέτοιας γραμμής είναι αναγκαία, γιατί η επικοινωνία μεταξύ αυτών των γειτονικών Δήμων γίνεται είτε μέσω του κέντρου της Αθήνας, είτε χρησιμοποιώντας την γραμμή 140, η οποία όμως έχει ένα δρομολόγιο κάθε 30'και διέρχεται από οδούς όπως η Φιλολάου, η Υμηττού και η Ούλωφ Πάλμε και όχι από κεντρικούς δρόμους των Δήμων αυτών.

Επειδή όλες οι μέχρι τώρα προσπάθειες μας έχουν πέσει στο κενό και η ταλαιπωρία των συμπολιτών μας συνεχίζεται και δυστυχώς επιδεινώνεται είμαστε αποφασισμένοι να προχωρήσουμε σε δυναμικές λύσεις, ώστε να ακουσθούμε.

Συγκεκριμένα την Πέμπτη 28 Ιανουαρίου 2010 ο Δήμαρχος και μέλη του Δημοτικού Συμβουλίου θα εμποδίσουν τους επιβάτες να πληρώσουν εισιτήριο σε ένδειξη διαμαρτυρίας νια την αδιαφορία της πολιτείας σε ένα μείζον θέμα ποιότητας ζωής. Η ίδια κίνηση θα επαναλαμβάνεται καθημερινά μέχρι να εισακουσθούμε και να σταματήσει η ταλαιπωρία των συμπολιτών μας.

Ελπίζουμε ότι θα αποδεχθεί η κυβέρνηση το δίκαιο αίτημα μας που αφορά τον κόσμο της εργασίας της πόλης μας και δεν θα χρειαστούν οι παραπάνω κινήσεις. Παρακαλώ για τις δικές σας ενέργειες.

Horror of Nigeria clashes uncovered

Horror of Nigeria clashes uncovered

An estimated 300 people have died in violence between Muslims and Christians in northern Nigeria.

Reports on Saturday said that about 150 bodies had been recovered from wells in Kuru Jantar, near the city of Jos, where clashes began last week before spreading to nearby villages.

Locals in Kuru Jantar, also known as Kuru Karama, told Andrew Simmons, Al Jazeera's Africa editor, that a massacre had taken place in the village.

They said armed men had surrounded and attacked the village on Tuesday.

Al Jazeera saw the bodies recovered from wells, as well as the burnt bodies of children recovered from ransacked houses.

Up to 18,000 people in the area are thought to have been left homeless by the clashes in Nigeria's Plateau State.

Military presence

The violence abated after Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria's vice-president, deployed the military to contain the situation.

Simmons reported that the military presence in Jos was extensive, but that it did not spread effectively into the countryside.

"The whole area is inundated, everywhere there are roadblocks and a curfew, which has been relaxed, is still fairly limiting ... the military have orders to shoot on sight after warning shots right the way through the night," he said.

"But many, many people are packing their bags and leaving [Jos]. They're going outside the control of the military and into the rural areas, which are virtually unprotected - as we saw in Kuru Jantar."

The military said it had arrested three people, all wearing military-style uniforms and in possession of a firearm. Two men were detained and one was released.

Political failure

Muslim leaders have told Human Rights Watch at least 364 people have been killed in the region in the last week, while the Christian death toll was still being compiled.

The state government has given no official death toll for the violence.

Jos and other central and northern areas in Nigeria have been plagued by religious violence in recent years.

There are conflicting reports about what triggered the violence. But some residents say the clashes started due to a dispute over the building of a mosque.

But Christian and Muslim leaders in Plateau State said previous bouts of unrest owed more to the failure of political leaders to address ethnic differences than to inter-faith rivalries.

Children missing from Haiti hospitals

Children missing from Haiti hospitals

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 17:04:59 GMT

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said Friday children have gone missing from hospitals in Haiti following the devastating earthquake in the country, raising fears they are being trafficked for adoption abroad.

"We have documented around 15 cases of children disappearing from hospitals and not with their own family at the time," said UNICEF adviser Jean Luc Legrand.

"UNICEF has been working in Haiti for many years and we knew the problem with the trade of children in Haiti that existed already beforehand,” he said. "Unfortunately, many of these trade networks have links with the international adoption market."

The UN agency said it has warned countries around the world during the past week not to step up adoptions from Haiti in the immediate wake of the quake, ABC News reported. Despite the warning, many fast-tracking adoption procedures are already under way in Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and the United States.

Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said child enslavement and trafficking in Haiti was "an existing problem and could easily emerge as a serious issue over the coming weeks and months." The UN mission in Haiti has stepped up surveillance of roads, UNICEF officials said.

"We have seen over the past years many children being taken out of the country without any legal procedure," Legrand said. "This is going on. This is happening now. We are starting to have the first evidence of that, this is unquestionable." He was unable to give details about 15 children missing from hospitals or their conditions.

-----------------------------------

Organ trading is a possibility also ..

Τωρα χρηματοδοτούμε και Ουγγρικές ΜΚΟ !!

Ταϊζουμε και τα αλλοδαπά λαμόγια των ΜΚΟ

10:29 π.μ. by giorgis ·
Για τις λεγόμενες Μη Κυβερνητικές Οργανώσεις και το φαγοπότι που έχουν στήσει γύρω τους μια σειρά λαμόγια –με χρήματα του φορολογούμενου λαού φυσικά- έχουμε αναφερθεί αρκετές φορές. Θυμηθείτε μια πρόσφατη ανάρτησή μας όπου ανάμεσα στα άλλα υπήρχε και η πρόταση:

«Ο (ο θεός να τον κάνει) Τσάρος πετσοκόβει τους μισθούς των υπαλλήλων προσπαθώντας να εξοικονομήσει 500 εκατομμύρια από δω και κάποιες χιλιάδες από κει, ενώ την ίδια ώρα διασπαθίζει 500 εκατομμύρια ή μήπως χίλια; χορηγώντας Μη Κυβερνητικές Οργανώσεις -τα αγαπημένα πετ του Γιωργάκη».

Και ερχόμαστε στα σημερινά. Το τηλεγράφημα του Αθηναϊκού Πρακτορείου Ειδήσεων που αναπαράγετε από πολλές εφημερίδες – εδώ από την «Εξπρες»- σε κάνει τουλάχιστον να αγανακτείς.

Την στιγμή που χιλιάδες αγρότες βρίσκονται στους δρόμους προσπαθώντας να αποτρέψουν τον παντελή ξεριζωμό τους και η κυβέρνηση επικαλείται την «οικονομική κρίση» ξεκαθαρίζοντας ότι δεν μπορεί να τους στηρίξει οικονομικά, την ίδια ώρα μοιράζει εκατοντάδες χιλιάδες ευρώ σε … ουγγρικές «Μη Κυβερνητικές Οργανώσεις». (αρκετά μπούκωσε τις ντόπιες θα σκέφτηκε).

Η Ελλάδα θα δώσει 300.000 ευρώ για την «εκτέλεση αναπτυξιακών προγραμμάτων στο Αφγανιστάν, μέσω δύο ουγγρικών ΜΚΟ, οι οποίες θα διαχειριστούν το συγκεκριμένο ποσό (...)»! Η σχετική συμφωνία «υπογράφηκε στο ουγγρικό υπουργείο Εξωτερικών, παρουσία του πρέσβη της Ελλάδας στην Ουγγαρία, Σπυρίδωνα Γεωργιλέ».

Μάλιστα, σύμφωνα με το Ουγγρικό Πρακτορείο Ειδήσεων ΜΤΙ, «η Ελλάδα, συνεισφέροντας στην υλοποίηση έργων υποδομής στο Αφγανιστάν, είχε ενισχύσει το 2007, με 500.000 ευρώ, ανάλογα ουγγρικά αναπτυξιακά προγράμματα στη χώρα αυτή»!

Δεν μας φτάναν δηλαδή τα δικά μας λαμόγια των ΜΚΟ τώρα μαθαίνουμε ότι ταϊζουμε και τα ... αλλοδαπά!!!