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Sunday, January 3, 2010

About 300 new or amended laws took effect at midnight of New Year’s Day last Friday in Illinois, ranging from government ethics reform to driving laws.

One law that is likely to affect residents’ lives the most is a ban on reading or sending text messages through a hand-held device. Drivers who wish to text must put their vehicle on park or neutral while stopped in traffic or on the shoulder. The law also prohibits reading email or surfing the Internet, although using GPS capabilities is still allowed. Breaking this law is considered a primary offense, which means that law enforcement officers may pull violators over for it, similar to a seat belt violation.

Motorists also are prohibited from talking on their phones in a construction or school zone unless they are using earphones. Truck drivers outside the six-county Chicago area now have a speed limit of 65 mph, increased from 55 mph. In addition, injuring somebody while driving uninsured has become a misdemeanor, punishable with up to a year in jail or a $2,500 fine.

Former governor Rod Blagojevich’s removal from office has led to new legislation to reform state government as well. Changes to the state’s Freedom of Information Act requires government agencies to respond more quickly to requests for information. The Illinois Attorney General also gets broad powers to oversee enforcement of this law. In addition, lobbyists will have to pay a $1,000 annual registration fee, up from $150–$350. They will also have to report frequently on their activities and expenditures.

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Marking the anniversary of an incident at Tak Bai police station which led to 78 people suffocating while being detained by the Thai army, relatives of the deceased plan to file a lawsuit with the Pattani provincial court seeking 80 million baht (approx. US$2 million, 1.6 million euro) in compensation.

Utt Bueraheng, the lawyer representing the families is confident they will win their case as an investigation into the incident took some disciplinary action against involved senior officers.

The suit will name the Thai Defence Ministry, Army, Royal Thai Police Office, Interior Ministry, and Narathiwat provincial authorities as defendants. Earlier in the week other lawsuits were filed in relation to the incident; in all cases the named defendants are the same.

The Tak Bai incident is one of the most publicised events of the South Thailand insurgency. On October 25, 2004 six local men were arrested, accused of supplying defence force weapons to insurgents. Villagers organised a protest, demanding that the police release the accused. Instead, the police called in army reinforcements who used tear gas and water cannons on the crowd; shooting started, and seven people were killed.

Hundreds of local citizens, mostly young Muslim men, were arrested. They were made to strip to the waist and lie on the ground. Their hands were bound behind their backs and later in the afternoon they were loaded into trucks to be taken to an army camp where they were to be detained. The prisoners were stacked on top of each other in the trucks, and by the time the three-hour trip to the camp was completed, 78 men had suffocated in the heat.

The incident provoked widespread protest, not limited to Muslims in the south. Many non-Muslim Thais were shocked by the army’s behaviour. However the Thai Prime Minister, Thaksin Sinawatra, gave his full support to the army and until these lawsuits were brought, very little disciplinary action had been taken against those responsible. Thaksin’s response in defending the army’s actions was to say the men died, “because they were already weak from fasting during the month of Ramadan.”

The lawsuits brought earlier this week against the five state agencies seek a total of more than eighteen million baht (approx. US$ 440,000 or 370,000 euros) in compensation. The first lawsuit was filed on behalf of relatives of five of the seven protesters killed outside Tak Bai police station; this suit seeks 5.8 million baht. The second lawsuit was filed by a group of seventeen of the protesters who were injured in the clash with police and security forces; this suit seeks 12.4 million baht compensation for injury and loss of property. All of the lawsuits have been brought with the assistance of the Law Society of Thailand.

The aftermath of the Tak Bai incident saw many of the protesters seeking asylum in neighbouring Malaysia. Recently forty of those who had fled across the border returned after they had been given assurances by authorities regarding their safety.

The leadership of the insurgents remains unclear, with no clearly identified organisational structure, or announced objectives. However, there have been separatists in the former Malay sultanate since the 1930s. Under military rule, they were firmly suppressed and only since early 2004 has violence flared in the troubled provinces. The government reacted to this by declaring Martial law in January of 2004.

Despite the imposition of Martial law, attacks on police, government officials, schools and military compounds continued unabated. This prompted the Prime Minister to introduce an executive decree for administration in emergency situations early in 2005. Additional troops were dispatched to the troubled provinces bringing the total in the area to 30,000; however, lack of counter-insurgency training and experience meant they have done little in the way of quelling the violence. In the past six months the army has reported that 298 have been killed, and over 300 injured in attacks. The estimated total killed since the start of 2004 is claimed to be over one thousand.

Saturday, February 3, 2007

At least 19 people have been killed in central Florida in the city of Lady Lake and Paisley after severe storms and a tornado ripped through the cities in the middle of the night. Eleven of those killed were in Paisley and three were in Lady Lake.

The death toll is expected to rise as rescue crews resume tomorrow morning.

Volusia, Sumter, Lake and Seminole counties have all been declared a state of an emergency as dozens of houses, mobile homes and a church were destroyed. Clothes and furniture are scattered around the wrecked houses and pieces of trees are scattered about. Cars are reported to have been turned over or thrown around in the air.

“Our priority today is search and rescue,” said Gov. of Florida, Charlie Crist. Rescuers are still looking through the wreckage to find survivors of those who might have been killed.

A spokeman for the emergency response team of Lake county, Chris Patton calls the damage “devastating” and worse than “hurricanes in 2004.”

“We have complete devastation of homes, of businesses, religious institutions. It was unlike even perhaps the hurricanes of 2004 when we had minor roof damage, screen damage, pool damage. This is way far more devastating,” said Patton.

The storms hit at about 3:15 [EST] a.m. on Friday morning. At least 20,000-30,000 people are without power.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

The American celebrity disc jockey Adam “DJ AM” Goldstein has been found dead in his apartment in Manhattan, New York. The cause of death is suspected to be a drug overdose. Goldstein was found dead by paramedics at 5:20 pm. Drug paraphernalia was found at his apartment, but the star had claimed to be clean for years after an addiction to crack cocaine.

Goldstein was a disc jockey at some of Hollywood’s most exclusive clubs and parties. He became a celebrity in his own right after relationships with actress Mandy Moore and the daughter of Lionel Richie, Nicole.

The disc jockey escaped death in September 2008 after he was involved in a plane crash that killed four people. Former drummer for rock band Blink-182, Travis Barker was also injured in the plane crash.

Several members of the Hollywood community released statements about Goldstein’s death. Television host Maria Menounos said “So horrible. In shock” and blogger Perez Hilton wrote on his Twitter page saying “He survived a deadly plane crash and now THIS, I can’t stop crying”.

Thursday, July 28, 2005

The U.S. House of Representatives approved the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) early morning Thursday, with a narrow vote of 217 in favor, 215 against. Voting was held open for an hour, 45 minutes past the House’s 15-minute voting rule as the President along with other supporters lobbied into the night.

The vote was so close, if one House member changed a “Yea” vote to a “Nay” vote, CAFTA would have failed in a 216-216 tie.

In tallying the votes, 25 Republicans, mostly from Midwest Corn Belt and Rust Belt states and the Southeast United States’s textile industrial belt, broke party line to vote against the measure. Two Republicans were present, but refused to vote.

The Democrats presented a more united front. All but 15 Democrats present voted against the treaty. Independent House members, who usually vote with the Democrats also voted against the measure.

Supporters of the measure include President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez. Opponents included most House Democrats.

The trade agreement already passed the Senate in June. President Bush has said he will sign it into law.

DR-CAFTA encompasses the following components:

• Services: all public services are to be open to private investment.
• Investment: governments promise to grant ironclad guarantees to foreign investment.
• Government procurement: All government purchases must be open to transnational bids.
• Market access: governments pledge to reduce and eventually to eliminate tariffs and other measures that protect domestic products.
• Agriculture: duty-free import and elimination of subsidies on agricultural products.
• Intellectual property rights: privatization of and monopoly over technological know-how.
• Antidumping rules, subsidies and countervailing rights: governments commit to phase out protectionist barriers in all sectors.
• Competition policy: the dismantling of national monopolies.
• Dispute resolution: the right of transnationals to sue countries in private international courts.
• Environmental protection: the enforcement of environmental laws and improvement of the environment.
• Labor standards: the enforcement of the International Labour Organization‘s core labor standards.
• Transparency: the reduction of government corruption.
• Test-Data Exclusivity for pharmaceutical corporations

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Aung San Suu Kyi, the detained leader of the National League for Democracy in Myanmar marked her 62nd birthday today, still under house arrest, where she has spent most of the past 17 years.

About 250 supporters met at the National League for Democracy (NLD) headquarters in Yangon, not far from Suu Kyi’s home, and held a rally calling for her release. Doves and balloons were released into the air, under the watchful eyes and video cameras of around 50 plainclothes police officers, who were stationed across the street.

The police force was augmented by a dozen truckloads of members of the Union Solidarity and Development Association, the political arm of the State Peace and Development, the junta that rules Myanmar.

“The doves symbolise peace. We also released colourful balloons, which rise like her prestige when they fill the sky,” NLD women’s wing leader Lai Lai was quoted as saying by Agence France Presse.

With the party marking marking Suu Kyi’s birthday as “Myanmar Women’s Day,” Lei Lei read out a statement at the ceremony, calling Suu Kyi “irreplaceable” and praising her “honesty, bravery and perseverance.”

Security was beefed up around Suu Kyi’s lakeside home on University Avenue, which is usually open to traffic during daytime, but is closed on significant anniversaries such as Suu Kyi’s birthday or the May 30 anniversary of her detention.

NLD supporters said police were also watching their homes.

“Plainclothes police circled around my house on their motorcycles last night until dawn,” Su Su Nway, 34, was quoted as saying by Agence France-Presse. She was arrested on May 15 with 60 others during a prayer rally for Suu Kyi in Yangon, and was released for health reasons on June 7. She said around 52 NLD supporters were still in custody.

Suu Kyi is generally barred from receiving visitors, so she spent the day alone. Except for her maid, a personal physician, a dentist and an eye specialist, the only other person to visit with Suu Kyi in the past year was United Nations Undersecretary-General for Political Affairs Ibrahim Gambari, whom she met for one hour last November at a government guest house.

Winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for 11 of the past 17 years, continuously since 2003. Her National League for Democracy won a landslide election in 1990, but the military, which has ruled Myanmar since 1962, refused to honor the results. The country is also known as Burma, but the military government renamed it Myanmar in 1989.

Calls for Suu Kyi’s release have been issued by the NLD, various world bodies and other countries, but the pleadings have been met by no response from the generals.

“In our view, until their constitution is ratified, she will not be released,” Sann Aung, a Bangkok-based leader of the Burmese government-in-exile was quoted as saying by Reuters.

“They are worried that she will be a threat to the National Convention and the referendum,” he told Reuters, referring to the planned national referendum on a new constitution that is being written by the generals.

The Nation newspaper in Bangkok marked Suu Kyi’s birthday with an editorial, saying that sanctions against the Myanmar regime have been ineffective.

“The junta has earned huge amounts of foreign revenue from oil and gas exports, with prices jacked up many times over. With rich mineral resources, energy hungry countries have been attracted to Burma despite the repressive nature of the junta,” the editorial said, also making note of a recent deal that Russia has made to build nuclear reactor in Myanmar.

The paper also said Myanmar bodes ill for the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations regional grouping.

“As long as Aung San Suu Kyi remains incarcerated, ASEAN’s reputation and the group’s international standing will be tarnished. Asean leaders have repeatedly appealed to the Burmese junta to free her, but to no avail … today, Burma is the black sheep of ASEAN. Without any current provisions for sanctions, Burma will remain as intransigent in the future as it is today.”

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

It has been confirmed that a NATO helicopter of the International Security Assistance Force has crashed near Herat, Western Afghanistan.

Two Eurocopter Cougar helicopters were apparently on a training mission for the forthcoming Afghan parliamentary elections when one of the aircraft crashed, killing twelve Spanish soldiers and five crew members. The second Cougar helicopter made a forced landing which injured five personnel.

A rescue team from ISAF was sent to the scene, evacuating the dead and wounded to a military hospital in Herat.

It is presently unknown whether the crash was the result of an accident or an attack by the Taliban or Al Qaida.

Initial reports suggest that the crash may have been caused by a sandstorm. A spokesman for the Spanish prime minister told CNN that there were no indications that the chopper was brought down by enemy fire.

Taliban commander Mullah Daldullah claimed to news agency Reuters that insurgents had shot the helicopter down.

Testimonial from one of the second helicopter soldiers would confirm the attack: “We felt a blast and fell down while turning”

NATO has currently some 8,500 ISAF soldiers stationed in Afghanistan, some 800 of them are Spanish.

It had been reported that the helicopter had experienced techinical problems before takeoff.