LONDON 2012

Today: Saturn!!!!

...if Saturn switched places with the moon...

Cuban Dissident Freed Hours After Violent Arrest

Oswaldo Payá

Guilermo Fariñas

HAVANA – Prominent Cuban dissident Guillermo Fariñas was released
without charges several hours after his "violent" arrest in the central
city of Santa Clara as he paid his respects at the funeral of human rights activist Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas.

Fariñas was headed for church on Sunday together with a group of 10
opposition members when "three (police) patrol cars blocked their way
and the cops began to push and shove them inside," Ramon Jimenez,
spokesman for the dissident group United Anti-Totalitarian Forum, told Efe.

"The police were violent with them and Guillermo was treated worst of
all," Jimenez said.

Fariñas' mother Alicia Hernandez confirmed Monday the account of her
son's detention and said that, after returning home around 7:30 p.m. on
Sunday, he had to go to the doctor "because he was in a lot of pain."

The 49-year-old psychologist and independent journalist went on a hunger
strike last year for more than four months following the death of
opposition prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo, to demand the release of
political prisoners suffering severe illnesses.

Guillermo Fariñas, recipient of the European Parliament's 2010 Sakharov
Prize for the defense of human rights, was arrested briefly on several
occasions this year, the last time in mid-September during a wave of
detentions of dissidents in Santa Clara and other towns in central Cuba.

According to the opposition Cuban Commission on Human Rights and
National Reconciliation, the Communist government has intensified the
"interior repression" against dissidence over the last month, and
estimates that 380 people were arrested for political reasons in
December.

MACHU PICHU

COLTAN : BLOOD MINERAL

Coltan, short for Columbite-tantalite is a metallic ore comprising Niobium and Tantalum.

The mobile (cell) phone is a remarkable piece of engineering. But look inside. There's blood in this machine. There's blood in this device because your mobile contains tiny electronic circuits, and they couldn't work without mineral called COLTAN. It's mined in the eastern Congo. There is blood here, the blood of Congolese who are dying in a terrible conflict.

The West's demand for Coltan, used in mobile phones and computers, is funding the killings in Congo. Under the close watch of rebel militias, children as young as ten work the mines hunting for this black gold. 'Blood Coltan' exposes the web of powerful interests protecting this blood trade. Meet the powerful warlords who enslave local population and the European businessmen who continue importing Coltan, in defiance of the UN.

Johnny Deep's 1000 faces...

Taliban shoot woman 9 times in public execution...

Sad Video. A shot rings out, but the burqa-clad woman sitting on the rocky ground does not respond...
The man pointing a rifle at her from a few feet away lets loose another round, but still there is no reaction.
He fires a third shot, and finally the woman slumps backwards.
But the man fires another shot...and another, and another...Nine shots in all...around him, dozens of men on a hillside cheer: "God is great!"
Officials in Afghanistan, where the amateur video was filmed, believe the woman was executed because two Taliban commanders had a dispute over her, according to the governor of the province where the killing took place.
Both apparently had some kind of relationship with the woman, said Parwan province governor Abdul Basir Salangi.
"In order to save face," they accused her of adultery, Salangi said.
Then they "faked a court to decide about the fate of this woman and in one hour, they executed the woman," he added.
Both Taliban commanders were subsequently killed by a third Taliban commander, Salangi said.
"We went there to investigate and we are still looking for people who were involved in this brutal act," he said.
It is not clear from the video when it was filmed.
The killing took place in the village of Qimchok, not far north of the capital Kabul.