/oct

US girl put in care after police arrest parents over alleged sandwich theft | World news | The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/31/us-girl-care-parents-sandwiches

The girl’s mother, Nicole Leczcyzynski, who is 30 weeks pregnant, was feeling faint and ate a chicken salad sandwich while shopping at a Safeway store on Wednesday, she told the local television station KHON.

She paid for roughly $50 worth of groceries but forgot about the two sandwiches, valued at $5 each, according to Safeway.

The family was stopped by security staff while leaving the store. Leczcyzynski offered to pay for the sandwiches, she said, but the security guard called the police, the couple were arrested, and their daughter was taken into custody by child protective services, a state welfare group.

Egyptian anger grows after latest case of death by torture | World news | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/28/egypt-anger-grows-death-torture

Egyptian officials have tortured a 24-year-old prisoner to death, provoking accusations that the increasingly unpopular junta is failing to dismantle Hosni Mubarak’s brutal security apparatus.

Essam Ali Atta, a civilian serving a two-year jail term in Cairo’s high-security Tora prison following his conviction in a military tribunal earlier this year for an apparently “common crime”, was reportedly attacked by prison guards after trying to smuggle a mobile phone sim card into his cell.

According to statements from other prisoners who witnessed the assault, Atta had large water hoses repeatedly forced into his mouth and anus on more than one occasion, causing severe internal bleeding. An officer then transferred Atta to a central Cairo hospital, but he died within an hour.

Chinese abortion death due to birth quota enforcement, family claims | World news | The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/21/chinese-abortion-death-birth-quota-claims

When Ma Jihong became pregnant for a third time, she looked forward to expanding her family. So many neighbours had broken China’s strict birth quotas she thought she could too. But six months later she died in panic on an operating table after officials in Lijin, Shandong province, forced her into a late-term abortion, relatives have said.

Beijing has sought to move away from coercive enforcement of its one-child policy. Forced abortions and sterilisations are illegal, but experts say abuses continue as local officials strive to meet birth targets.

“Although the policies are less extreme than in previous decades, it is a mistake to think these issues have disappeared,” said Nicholas Bequelin, the senior Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Sanctions, fines and forced abortions continue to be imposed on rural women.”

#Chine #enfant_unique #avortement_forcé

Belarus central bank sells off its office furniture | World news | The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/19/belarus-central-bank-sells-office-furniture

As an exercise in monetary policy, it’s probably not the sort of thing that would be advocated by John Maynard Keynes or Milton Friedman. Amid a disastrous economic crisis, the Belarus central bank has attempted to raise capital by selling off used office equipment and furniture.

Five hundred items, including 30 paper bags, 10 safes, two suitcases, a sugar bowl and a used Japanese Dictaphone, were put up for sale in an auction that it was hoped would raise around £10,000.

nan mais attends

This has no relation to the economic situation in Belarus," said Aleksander Timoshenko, the bank’s spokesman. “These are not sums that can affect anything. This is about the effective use of property. If property isn’t used, we’re not going to throw it in a rubbish dump,” he said.

#Bielorussie #Banqueroute

Les anglais sony sales // One in six mobile phones contain E coli | World news | The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/13/mobile-phones-uk-e-coli

One in six UK mobile phones are contaminated with faecal bacteria due to poor personal hygiene, scientists have found.

Researchers said that 16% of the devices were contaminated with E coli, which can cause food poisoning, most probably because people fail to properly wash their hands after going to the toilet. The study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Queen Mary, University of London, also found that Britons tend to lie about their personal hygiene.

Nato success against Taliban in Afghanistan ’may be exaggerated’
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/12/nato-taliban-afghanistan-exaggerated

The success of one of Nato’s principal tactics against the Taliban – targeted night raids aimed at killing or capturing leaders of the insurgency – may have been exaggerated to make the military campaign in Afghanistan look more effective, according to a report published on Wednesday.

Alabama parents prepare for the worst: separation from their kids (The Guardian)
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/11/alabama-immigration-children-power-of-attorney

Hispanic families fearing arrest under draconian new immigration law start to draw up legal documents for care of children Source: The Guardian

Sweet home Alabama no more | Maribel Hastings | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/oct/07/sweet-home-alabama-no-more?intcmp=239

With a minority population terrorised by this racist HB56 law, Alabama is revisiting its darkest pre-civil rights traditions

Alabama parents prepare for the worst: separation from their kids
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/11/alabama-immigration-children-power-of-attorney

Hispanic families fearing arrest under draconian new immigration law start to draw up legal documents for care of children

#immigration #Etats-Unis

Afghanistan officials ’systematically tortured’ detainees, says UN report | The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/10/afghanistan-torture?CMP=twt_gu

Prisoners have been systematically tortured while in the custody of Afghan security officials, according to a UN report which described abuse including ripping detainees’ toenails out and twisting their genitals.

Nearly half of prisoners interviewed by Afghanistan’s intelligence agency said they had been tortured while a third of those arrested by Afghan police reported abuse.

Greeks pay for economic crisis with their health | World news | The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/10/greece-economic-crisis-health

Many, like the unemployed diabetic man he has just examined, have gone without treatment for several days. “When you see a diabetic unable to afford his insulin you know he is going to die,” says Samarkos. “There is no infrastructure to help these people. On every front the system has failed the people it was meant to serve.”

Greeks are paying for their economic disaster with their health, according to a new study.

The impact of cuts on drugs services appears particularly troubling. HIV infections rose significantly in 2010, with injecting drug users accounting for half of the rise. The numbers are on course to rise by 52% this year. Many new infections are also linked to rises in prostitution and unsafe sex. Heroin use reportedly rose by 20% in 2009, according to estimates from the Greek Documentation and Monitoring Centre for Drugs. Budget cuts in 2009 and 2010 have meant the loss of a third of the country’s outreach programmes.

#Grèce #crise #santé

New Zealand oil spill reaches shore as weather holds up response | World news | The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/10/new-zealand-oil-slick

Oil has begun washing up on a popular beach on New Zealand’s east coast, five days after the container ship Rena struck a reef in the Bay of Plenty. Officials urged people to avoid the area, warning that the water off Tauranga city had become “highly toxic”.

Efforts to remove oil from the ship, which ran aground on Astrolabe Reef in the early hours of Wednesday, have been suspended in the face of deteriorating weather conditions.

On Sunday about 10 tonnes of fuel oil had been pumped into safe storage from the 236-metre-long ship but that represented a fraction of the 1,700 tonnes on board.

#pollution #pétrole

Celui-là, il me plait bien : pizzaiolo dans une usine à mal-bouffe, moi je dis que ça ferait vraiment un excellent Président de le monde.

Herman Cain : Pizza boss, radio host, ballistics expert, minister. President ? | World news | The Observer
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/08/herman-cain-pizza-boss-whitehouse

He is the latest Tea Party favourite to burst through in the increasingly heated race for the Republican presidential nomination and see their poll numbers rocket them to frontrunner status.

However, unlike previous rightwing darlings such as Texas governor Rick Perry and Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann, wealthy businessman Herman Cain, 65, can claim to be cut from a very different sort of cloth from the average Republican candidate.

First, he is not actually a politician. Cain, whose CV includes being a radio show host, a navy ballistics expert, a Baptist minister and a Federal Reserve official, has never held elected office in his life. His most famous job was as chief executive of the fast-food firm Godfather’s Pizza.

Libyan dissident tortured by Gaddafi to sue Britain over rendition (The Guardian)
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/06/libyan-dissident-tortured-sues-britain?CMP=EMCGT_071011&

A Libyan dissident is launching legal action against the British government after a cache of secret documents discovered in Tripoli exposed the pivotal role played by MI6 in his rendition to one of Muammar Gaddafi’s jails. In a case that threatens to cause acute discomfort to some former ministers in the last Labour government as well as senior intelligence officers, Sami al-Saadi is claiming damages from the UK for the years of torture he subsequently suffered. (...) Source: The Guardian

Libyan dissident tortured by Gaddafi to sue Britain over rendition | World news | The Guardian
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/06/libyan-dissident-tortured-sues-britain?CMP=EMCGT_071011&

A Libyan dissident is launching legal action against the British government after a cache of secret documents discovered in Tripoli exposed the pivotal role played by MI6 in his rendition to one of Muammar Gaddafi’s jails.

In a case that threatens to cause acute discomfort to some former ministers in the last Labour government as well as senior intelligence officers, Sami al-Saadi is claiming damages from the UK for the years of torture he subsequently suffered.

McChrystal : after 10 years, Afghan war only half done
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/07/stanley-mcchrystal-afghanistan-us?CMP=EMCGT_071011&

The US began the war in Afghanistan with a “frighteningly simplistic” view of the country and even 10 years later lacks the knowledge that could help bring the conflict to a successful end, a former top commander has said.

Retired US army general Stanley McChrystal said in remarks at the Council on Foreign Relations that the US and its Nato allies were only “a little better than” 50% of the way to reaching their war goals.

Rappel du principe de 1984 : la guerre, c’est la paix. Et on ne sait toujours pas ce que sont ces « buts de guerre ».

Shell accused of fuelling violence in Nigeria by paying rival militant gangs (The Guardian)
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/03/shell-accused-of-fuelling-nigeria-conflict

Shell has fuelled armed conflict in Nigeria by paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to feuding militant groups, according to an investigation by the oil industry watchdog Platform, and a coalition of non-government organisations. The oil giant is implicated in a decade of human rights abuses in the Niger delta, the study says, claiming that its routine payments exacerbated local violence, in one case leading to the deaths of 60 people and the destruction of an entire town. (...) Source: The Guardian

Shell accused of fuelling violence in Nigeria by paying rival militant gangs | World news | The Guardian
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/03/shell-accused-of-fuelling-nigeria-conflict

Shell has fuelled armed conflict in Nigeria by paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to feuding militant groups, according to an investigation by the oil industry watchdog Platform, and a coalition of non-government organisations.

The oil giant is implicated in a decade of human rights abuses in the Niger delta, the study says, claiming that its routine payments exacerbated local violence, in one case leading to the deaths of 60 people and the destruction of an entire town.

Platform’s investigation, which includes testimony from Shell’s own managers, also alleges that government forces hired by Shell perpetrated atrocities against local civilians, including unlawful killings and systematic torture.

#pétrole #Nigeria

Shell oil paid Nigerian military to put down protests, court documents show | World news | The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/03/shell-oil-paid-nigerian-military

Court documents now reveal that in the 1990s Shell routinely worked with Nigeria’s military and mobile police to suppress resistance to its oil activities, often from activists in Ogoniland, in the delta region.

Confidential memos, faxes, witness statements and other documents, released in 2009, show the company regularly paid the military to stop the peaceful protest movement against the pollution, even helping to plan raids on villages suspected of opposing the company.

#pétrole #Nigeria

Shell accused of fuelling violence in Nigeria by paying rival militant gangs
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/03/shell-accused-of-fuelling-nigeria-conflict

Shell has fuelled armed conflict in Nigeria by paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to feuding militant groups, according to an investigation by the oil industry watchdog Platform, and a coalition of non-government organisations.