Daily Archives: May 1, 2013

Pope condemns ‘slave labour’ in Bangladesh

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հռոմի պապPope Francis on Wednesday condemned as “slave labour” the work conditions of victims of a factory collapse in Bangladesh in which more than 400 people have been found dead, Vatican radio reported.

“A headline that really struck me on the day of the tragedy in Bangladesh was ‘Living on 38 euros a month’. That is what the people who died were being paid. This is called slave labour,” the pope was quoted as saying at a private mass.

“Today in the world this slavery is being committed against something beautiful that God has given us — the capacity to create, to work, to have dignity. How many brothers and sisters find themselves in this situation!” he said.

“Not paying fairly, not giving a job because you are only looking at balance sheets, only looking at how to make a profit. That goes against God!” he was quoted as saying.

Get your feet off the table Mr President! Obama’s laid-back style revealed in photos

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o1A series of official White House photographs brought together by Vanity Fair show the ‘lean-back’ nature of Barack Obama’s presidency.

The pictures reveal that Mr Obama often exhibits relaxed body language in stressful situations, with legs crossed and a knee raised.

Most noticeable of all, the president often has his feet up on his desk. But this is not just any desk – the Resolute desk was given to President Rutherford B. Hayes by Queen Victoria in 1880.

In the pictures President Obama can be seen discussing affairs of the state with his advisers and counselors.

Yet whether they are debating tragic events or vital economic policy, the president is often more reclined than those around him.

When talking about the Newtown shootings, foreign policy in Egypt or Libya, or in deficit-reduction talks Obama can be seen with his legs crossed or his head in his hands.

But most frequently the president has his feet on the famous Resolute desk in the Oval Office.

Classic car driven by Sir Winston Churchill during World War Two sells in Germany for £400,000 after online auction

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ch4This incredible classic car was used by Sir Winston Churchill during World War Two.

So it is no surprise that it has just fetched almost half-a-million pounds following an online auction.

However, what perhaps is a surprise is that the former favourite of Britain’s celebrated war-time leader was sold from Germany.

The beautifully restored, silver and black 1939 Daimler DB18 Drophead Coupi sparked a bidding frenzy on eBay.

Bidding began at just one euro but soared up to 470,050 euros (£397,000) after 114 offers in all during the ten-day auction.

The final price was around 16 times what most DB18 Dropheads cost.

While today’s MPs rely on private jets and coaches for electioneering, Churchill used his Daimler to hit the campaign trail from 1944 to 1949.

Daimler had intended to build 23 of the cars but only eight were completed before war ended production at its Coventry plant.

The historic motor boasts a 2.5-litre engine, does 0-60mph in 17.9 seconds and has a top speed of 76mph.

The car was sold on eBay by German dealer Fahrwerk Classics after a £170,000 restoration.
The Daimler DB18 Drophead Coupi was one of the most advanced cars of its day.

It was sold by the German dealer after its owner, who intended selling it at an Historics auction at Brooklands Museum in Surrey, died unexpectedly.

 

jasminum

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Pink-Jasminum-FlowersJasminum  commonly known as jasmines, is a genus of shrubs and vines in the olive family (Oleaceae). It contains around 200 species native to tropical and warm temperate regions of the Old World. Jasmines are widely cultivated for the characteristic fragrance of their flowers.

Jasminum polyanthumDescription

Jasmines can be either deciduous (leaves falling in autumn) or evergreen (green all year round), and can be erect, spreading, or climbing shrubs and vines. Their leaves are borne opposite or alternate. They can be simple, trifoliate, or pinnate. The flowers are typically around 2.5 cm (0.98 in) in diameter. They are white or yellow in color, although in rare instances they can be slightly reddish. The flowers are borne in cymose clusters with a minimum of three flowers, though they can also be solitary on the ends of branchlets. Each flower has about four to nine petals, two locules, and one to four ovules. They have two stamens with very short filaments. The bracts are linear or ovate. The calyx is bell-shaped. They are usually very fragrant. The fruits of jasmines are berries that turn black when ripe.

The basic chromosome number of the genus is 13, and most species are diploid However, natural polyploidy exists, particularly in Jasminum sambac, Jasminum flexile , Jasminum primulinum , and Jasminum angustifolium

Distribution and habitat

Jasmines are native to tropical and subtropical regions of Asia, Africa, and Australasia.Of the 200 species, only one is native to Europe. Their center of diversityis in South Asia and Southeast Asia.

Although not native to Europe, a number of jasmine species have become naturalized in Mediterranean Europe. For example, the so-called Spanish jasmine or Catalonian jasmine (Jasminum grandiflorum) was originally from Iran and western South Asia, and is now naturalized in the Iberian peninsula.[6]

Jasminum fluminense (which is sometimes known by the inaccurate name “Brazilian Jasmine”) and Jasminum dichotomum (Gold Coast Jasmine) are invasive species in Hawaii and Florida.[10][11] Jasminum polyanthum, also known as White Jasmine, is an invasive weed in Australia.[12]

Taxonomy

Species belonging to genus Jasminum are classified under the tribe Jasmineae of the olive family (Oleaceae). Jasminum is divided into five sections—Alternifolia,Jasminum, Primulina, Trifoliolata, and Unifoliolata.

The genus name is derived from the Persian Yasameen (“gift from God”) through Arabic and Latin.

The police does not allow to commemorate the victims of the terrorist attack at the Oil Academy(video)

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ադրբեջանReinforced police prevented the youth activists to commemorate the victims of the massacre in the Oil Academy on the occasion of the 4th anniversary of the tragedy.

Police cordoned off the building of the Oil Academy, where the bloody drama was played out, and no one was  allowed there.   The police forced out young people with flowers in their hands, and detained Abulfaz Gurbanly, the head of the Youth Committee of Popular Front.

Later, a member of the  NIDA Movement, Turgut Gambar, was detained near the Library named after Akhundov.  It happened when the police began to disperse approximately  50 young people who  gathered  to make a rally.

Another group of young people  managed to lay flowers on the boulevard, where the concert will take place today. In this way, young people protested against the  concert on the day of the victims of terror.

Neither the government nor the leadership of the Oil Academy conduct activities commemorating the victims of the tragedy.

* On April 30, 2009 a native of Georgia, Farda Gadirov, entered the building of the Oil Academy, opened fire with a pistol, killing 12 and wounding 13 people. Four fellows of  Gadirova were convicted on the case  – three to life imprisonment, and one – to 11 years in prison. –16C06-

US religious freedom commission sharply criticizes Azerbaijan

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043000034586The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has released its annual report on abuses to religious freedom worldwide on Tuesday, April 30.

The 364-page report takes a new two-tier approach at the worst religious freedom offenders, detailing the plight of persecuted religious peoples around the globe.

Azerbaijan has been placed on Tier 2 for the first time in 2013, TURAN’s Washington DC correspondent reports.

The report criticized Baku on a number of issues, including accepting repressive religion law adopted in 2009 that curtails a range of religious activities.

Despite official claims of tolerance, religious freedom conditions in Azerbaijan “have deteriorated over the past few years,” reads the reports. “Religious organizations were closed and people’s non-violent religious activity has been punished with detentions, fines and other penalties.”

Muslims are subject to additional restrictions: all Muslim religious leaders are appointed by the state – backed Caucasus Muslim Board and must be Azeri citizens educated in Azerbaijan; all mosques must belong to the Caucasus Muslim Board; and only Azeri citizens can establish Islamic religious communities.

Under a 2008 government order, prayer is not allowed outside of mosques, and police have enforced this ban. The Ministry of Education introduced a school uniform in 2010, resulting in a campaign against the Islamic headscarf ban; there were 72 arrests in October 2012. After the reporting period, the headscarf ban was extended to Azeri university students.

The Tier 2 category replaces the Watch List designation the USCIRF previously used. Besides Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Cuba, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Laos and Russia are also in this category.

Last week the USCIRF chair Katrina Lantos Swett sent a letter to the Secretary of State Kerry to urge the administration to raise questions about violations of religious freedom and related human rights in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Russia, Azerbaijan, and Bangladesh in front of the UN.

Among the recommendations for US Policy in order to promote freedom of religion or belief in Azerbaijan, are pressuring Baku to allow religious groups to operate freely without registration;

— Encourage public scrutiny of Azerbaijan’s record on religious freedom and related human rights in appropriate international fora, such as the UN, OSCE and other multilateral venues, and highlight cases of prosecution of Azeri citizens that violate these international norms in comments at such fora;

— Urge the Azeri government to agree to visits by UN Special Rapporteurs on Freedom of Religion or Belief, the Independence of the Judiciary, and Torture, set specific visit dates, and provide the full and necessary conditions for such a visit;

— Ensure that the US Embassy in Baku maintains active contacts with Azeri human rights activists and press the Azeri government to ensure that every prisoner has greater access to his or her family, human rights monitors, adequate medical care, and a lawyer, as specified in international human rights instruments;

— Specify freedom of religion as a grants category and area of activity in the Democracy and Conflict Mitigation program of the USAID and other programs;

— and Increase radio, Internet, and other broadcasting, particularly in the Azeri language, of objective news and information on relevant issues, including specific religious freedom concerns in the country and explaining why religious freedom is an important element of US foreign policy.

Alakbar Raufoglu
Washington, DC

Moles, Informants and Double Agents In BostonMarathon Bombings

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845By Harut Sassounian

Publisher, The California Courier

 

The bizarre circumstances and dubious names in the Boston Marathon bombings have raised many questions that have yet to be answered by government officials and journalists.

 

The most mysterious character is ‘Misha’ whom Ruslan Tsarni, uncle of the Boston bombers, described as an Armenian convert to Islam who had supposedly brainwashed and radicalized Tamerlan, the elder of the suspected Tsarnaev brothers. Ruslan described ‘Misha’ as a heavy-set bald exorcist with a long reddish beard!

 

Initially, no one could find ‘Misha.’ While his alleged affiliation with Tamerlan and Armenian origin was prominently and repeatedly mentioned in the media, it took the authorities 10 days to announce that they knew who ‘Misha’ was and that he had no connection to the terrorist acts!

 

Last Sunday, Christian Caryl of the New York Review of Books, was finally able to locate and interview the elusive ‘Misha’ in his Rhode Island home. Even though Caryl disclosed that ‘Misha,’ a native of Baku, Azerbaijan, is the son of an Armenian father and a Ukrainian mother, and that his last name is Allakhverdov, the media continues to refer to him as an ‘Armenian.’ Notably, neither Caryl nor anyone else mentions the fact that ‘Misha’ or ‘Mikayel’ — a common Christian name — cannot be the name of a Muslim! Moreover, after the break up of the Soviet Union, many Muslim Azerbaijanis applied for asylum in Europe and the United States, under the pretext that they were persecuted Christian Armenians! It is odd that ‘Misha,’ supposedly a Christian, would flee from Islamic persecution in Baku, only to convert to Islam in America!

 

Interestingly, Caryl reports that ‘Misha’ had nothing to do with the Boston bombings, which is exactly what government investigators had earlier announced. Could it be that US officials had put Caryl in contact with ‘Misha’ in order to confirm their declaration of his innocence, leading some analysts to speculate that ‘Misha’ may have been an FBI informant whose cover is now being meticulously protected!

 

The next suspicious character is Uncle Ruslan who has accused ‘Misha the Armenian’ of having a powerful influence over Tamerlan. Ruslan himself has had a checkered past, having worked for USAID and several Caspian Sea energy companies, while married to Samantha Ankara Fuller, daughter of Graham Fuller, a retired top CIA official. Because of Ruslan’s close relationship to the bombers’ family, his employment with Central Asian oil companies including Halliburton, and marriage to the daughter of a high-ranking CIA official, some analysts have suggested that the enigmatic uncle warrants a closer look.

 

Last week, prominent Armenian-American attorney Mark Geragos blasted Ruslan Tsarni on CNN, suggesting that “somebody needs to give this uncle a field sobriety test, because I think this guy is under the influence of something.” Geragos was furious that Ruslan had linked the Boston bombers to the ‘Armenian Misha,’ while Armenians worldwide were commemorating the 98th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide! Ruslan then tried to reach Geragos by telephone, seeking “to clarify” his earlier statement. Geragos refused to take his call.

 

Some analysts suggest that Tamerlan may have been recruited by the Russian secret services (FSB) to spy on Chechen extremists during his six-month stay in Chechnya and Dagestan last year. Having informed the FBI and CIA of Tamerlan’s links to radical Islamist groups, and not receiving a satisfactory response from US officials, it could be that the FSB took matters into its own hands and recruited the unemployed and penniless young Chechen during his lengthy stay in Russia.

 

Other analysts speculate that Tamerlan may have been an informant for the US government. Such a supposition is much more credible than assuming that the FBI and CIA were too incompetent or too busy to conduct a thorough investigation of Tamerlan’s background after the Russian FSB brought his name to their attention. It could be that US authorities knew Tamerlan only too well and may have even encouraged him to travel to Russia as their mole in Jihadist circles.

 

Finally, there are those who believe that Tamerlan ended up betraying both the Russian and American intelligence services, deciding instead to support radical Islamic groups, “out of anger over US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,” according to his younger brother Dzhokhar’s jailhouse confession.

 

Of course, these speculations are advanced by various analysts based on preliminary information, pending a thorough Congressional investigation to uncover the true facts. Americans killed and maimed in the Boston bombings deserve an honest answer!

Chilling video captures the moment a plane dropped out of the sky before crashing in horrific fireball – killing seven Americans

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p2Seven crew members of a U.S.-run cargo plane were killed yesterday when the plane crashed shortly after takeoff from Bagram air base near the Afghan capital of Kabul.

The jet, filmed by what appears to be a vehicle’s dashcam, appeared to take off normally as it gained altitude in the beginning of the video.

But suddenly, the plane, described as a Boeing 747 cargo flight, appears to stall, twisting and dropping rapidly before crashing to the ground in a fireball.

In a statement, the Taliban claimed responsibility for the crash, but NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said there were no reports of insurgent activity in or around the base, which is one of the largest in the country and located about 25 miles north of Kabul.

National Airlines President Glen Joerger said in a statement: ‘Safety is always our top priority at National Airlines. This is a devastating loss for our family and we’ll work diligently with authorities to find the cause.

‘Most importantly, our thoughts and prayers are with our crewmembers and their families.’

The identities of the crew members were not immediately clear, but CNN reported that all seven were American.

Coalition forces said that the official cause of the crash is under investigation.

 

Is this the world’s worst parallel park? Woman takes THIRTY MINUTES to reverse her car into a space

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c2A side-splitting video of a woman who spent 30 minutes trying to parallel park her vehicle on a road in the Holyland area of Belfast, Northern Ireland, has gone viral on YouTube.

The clip, which was filmed on a mobile phone from a house window nearby and has now been viewed 1.1million times, was captured by a group of students who watched the drama unfold.

Hilarious commentary was provided by Ciaran Doherty and Ciaran Shannon along with some of their friends, and the video was uploaded until the title of ‘World’s Worst Attempt at Parallel Parking’.
Ciaran Doherty told BBC News: ‘One of the boys in the house was looking out the window having a wee bit of fresh air and saw it. The next thing we were all at the window and looking out.

‘We were looking at it for a good 15 minutes before we started videoing it. I offered to park the car for her. I can’t believe she couldn’t get it in. It could easily have fitted a big people carrier.’

Mr Shannon said his friends thought the parallel park was funny and he decided to share it with them on Facebook as a joke – before there were 30,000 views by the next day.

Mr Doherty added that the students would love to meet the woman and ‘see her view of the story’.

 

Michael Jackson ‘drank six bottles of wine a day in weeks leading to death’ claims friend and godfather to his children, Mark Lester

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m2The godfather of Michael Jackson’s children has come forward to say that the King Of Pop drank six bottles of wine a day in the weeks leading up to his death.

His friend Mark Lester has claimed that the troubled star, who died of acute Propofol intoxication in 2009, used to get him to smuggle the alcohol into hotels past his strict security team in a desperate attempt to beat his insomnia.

Mark, who is godfather to the star’s three children, Prince, 16, Paris,15, and 10-year-old Blanket, told The Sun newspaper: ‘Michael passed out on the hotel bed. His doctor said he’d drunk two-thirds of a bottle of whisky and was paralytic.

Mark, 54, who was a close friend of Michael’s right up until this death, gave an interview to the News of the World in August 2009 claiming that he could be the biological father of Paris Katherine Jackson, the late singer’s daughter.

Lester claimed to have been a sperm donor for Jackson in 1996, and announced that he was willing to take a paternity test to determine whether he was the father.

In the same interview he claimed he had not been allowed contact with them since Jackson’s death: ‘It’s very, very upsetting not being able to see all those children; they’re my godchildren, and I love them dearly.’