Egypt orders retrial of Al Jazeera staff

Egypt's top court has accepted the appeal of three Al Jazeera journalists who have been in prison for more than a year, and ordered a retrial, the defence lawyer has said. "They will not be released until they appear before the new chamber, which will decide whether to release them or not," said Mostafa Nagy, a defence attorney, on Thursday. Peter Greste, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed were denied bail at the appeal hearing as the court said the case had to go back to the criminal court. "The Court of Cassation has accepted their appeal and ordered a retrial," Greste's defence lawyer Amr Al-Deeb said after a hearing lasting just 30 minutes. After the conviction was overruled by the court of cassation today, an Al Jazeera spokesman said: "Baher, Peter and Mohammed have been unjustly in jail for over a year now. The Egyptian authorities have a simple choice – free these men quickly, or continue to string this out, all the while continuing this injustice and harming the image of their own country in the eyes of the world. They should choose the former." Defence lawyer Negad Al-Borai told journalists after the hearing that he hoped for a "happy end" to the case. "The court has the right to release them today," he said. Defence lawyers said they believed a retrial for the three men would be held within a month. Greste's brothers Mike and Andrew said they were disappointed with the court's decision. "We have learned in the past that this is not over until he is out and it looks like we have a long road ahead of us." Adel Fahmy, Mohammed Fahmy's brother, said he had hoped his brother would have been freed on Thursday. He said each lawyer received three minutes to argue their stance on the case. "I hoped for more today," he said. Jehan Rashed, Baher Mohammed's wife, said she also expected her husband would be set free today, but thought the development was still a possitive step. "I was nervously waiting for the court's decision from the morning, thank God they accepted the appeal, and this is a small but positive step towards my husband being freed," said Rashed. Egyptian authorities offered no immediate comment on the ruling. Mohamed Fadel Fahmy @MFFahmy11 Follow A retrial is a milestone toward victory in our free press battle!Our spirits are bullet-proof! Back to white garb! 3:06 AM - 1 Jan 2015 Amnesty International said the retrial acknowledged major flaws in the original convictions. "These men should never have been jailed in the first place and should not have to spend one more day in prison. Instead of prolonging their unjust detention pending a retrial, they must be freed immediately," said Hassiba Hadjsahraoui, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director. Falsely accused  The three journalists did not attend the brief hearing that began around 9am local time (0700 GMT) in Cairo. Reporters gathered to report on the hearing were not allowed in for those arguments, but later entered the court. The trio have been imprisoned in Egypt for 369 days, after being falsely accused and then found guilty of aiding the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. Greste and Fahmy were sentenced to seven years in prison, while Mohamed received an additional three years for having a spent bullet in his possession, which he had picked up at a protest site. The journalists have repeatedly said that they were being punished for just doing their jobs. The judge who sentenced the journalists released his reasoning in July, saying they were brought together "by the devil" to destabilise the country. Al Jazeera has called the accusations against its three journalists absurd and has demanded their release.

Palestinians join war crimes court, angering Israel, U.S

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas attends a Christmas Midnight Mass at the Church of the Nativity in the West Bank town of Bethlehem 

December 25, 2014.

BY NOAH BROWNING-Thu Jan 1, 2015

(Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas signed on to 20 international agreements on Wednesday, including the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), a day after a bid for independence by 2017 failed at the United Nations Security Council.

The move, which angered Israel and the United States, paves the way for the court to take jurisdiction over crimes committed in Palestinian lands and investigate the conduct of Israeli and Palestinian leaders over more than a decade of bloody conflict.

"They attack us and our land every day, to whom are we to complain? The Security Council let us down -- where are we to go?" Abbas told a gathering of Palestinian leaders in remarks broadcast on official television.

Under the ICC rules, Palestinian membership would allow the Hague-based court to exercise jurisdiction over war crimes committed by anyone on Palestinian territory, without a referral from the U.N. Security Council. Israel is not a party to the Rome statute but its citizens could be tried for actions taken on Palestinian land.

The Palestinian U.N. observer mission initially announced it would deliver on Wednesday to the United Nations the signed documents to accede to the Rome Statute. It later said the delivery had been delayed and would likely take place on Friday.

According to the Rome Statute, the Palestinians would become a party to the court on the first day of the month that follows a 60-day waiting period after depositing signed and ratified documents of accession with the United Nations in New York.

In the months leading up to Tuesday's failed U.N. bid, Sweden recognised Palestinian statehood and the parliaments of France, Britain and Ireland passed non-binding motions urging their governments to do the same.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Abbas's action would expose the Palestinians to prosecution over support for what he called the terrorist Hamas Islamist group, and vowed to take steps to rebuff any potential moves against Israel.

Israel and Hamas fought a July-August war in which more than 2,100 Palestinians, 67 Israeli soldiers and six civilians in Israel were killed.

"We will take steps in response and defend Israel's soldiers," Netanyahu said in a statement.

The United States said the move was of deep concern and unhelpful to peace efforts in the region.

"It is an escalatory step that will not achieve any of the outcomes most Palestinians have long hoped to see for their people," State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said in a statement. "Actions like this are not the answer."

Palestinians seek a state in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem - lands Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East War.

Momentum to recognise a Palestine has built up since Abbas succeeded in a bid for de facto recognition of Palestinian statehood at the U.N. General Assembly in 2012, which made Palestinians eligible to join the ICC.

U.S. OBJECTIONS

Palestinian officials said on Tuesday American opposition made inevitable the defeat of a Security Council resolution calling for the establishment of a Palestinian state by late 2017 after no more than a year of peace negotiations.

The United States and Australia voted against the bid, while eight countries voted yes and five abstained. The Palestinians were unable to achieve a hoped-for nine votes which would have forced the U.S. to exercise its veto as one of the council's five permanent members.

Peace talks mediated by the United States collapsed in April in a dispute over Israeli settlement-building and a prisoner release deal, as well as Abbas's decision to sign on to over a dozen previous international texts Israel saw as a unilateral move the contravened the negotiations.

"We've been playing Mr. Nice Guy with negotiations since 1991, meanwhile the possibility of a two-state solution erodes," Hanan Ashrawi, a senior Palestinian diplomat, told Reuters.

She added that there were no immediate plans to lodge a formal complaint at the ICC, but that Abbas's move is "a clear signal to Israel and the international community that Israel must cease and desist its war crimes, especially settlements."

Other agreements approved by Abbas included several articles on the court's jurisdiction, commitments against banned weapons and cluster munitions along with less controversial pledges on the political rights of women, navigation and the environment.

(Additional reporting by Dan Williams and Allyn Fisher-Ilan in Jerusalem and Louis Charbonneau in New York; Editing by Peter Graff)

Afghan police investigate fatal rocket attack on wedding party

At least 28 killed in apparent army strike day before Afghanistan takes full control of security at end of Nato combat operations

An injured woman and child wait in an ambulance to be admitted to hospital after the rocket strike on an Afghan wedding party. Photograph: Abdul Malik/Reuters

Associated Press in Lashkar Ga- Thursday 1 January 2015

Afghan police are investigating an apparent army rocket strike on a wedding party that killed at least 28 people, many of them women and children.

Police in southern Helmand province were looking into how soldiers came to fire a rocket at a house where a wedding was being celebrated late on Wednesday, the deputy provincial police chief, Bacha Gull, said.

The rocket appeared to have been fired from an army checkpoint near the house in Sangin district as guests waited for the bride to arrive, he said.

Police were “keeping an eye” on two army checkpoints to determine whether the soldiers manning them were engaged in a firefight with Taliban insurgents at the time or whether they fired the rockets arbitrarily. The strike wounded 51 people.

Gull said the funerals, usually held within 24 hours of a death, had been delayed to enable investigators to determine the cause of the rocket strike.

Sangin, in the poppy-producing Helmand river valley, has been the scene of fighting between government forces and Taliban in the last six months since US forces left.

The international mission to rid Afghanistan of insurgents under the leadership of the US and Nato officially ended on 31 December. Afghanistan takes full responsibility for its own security from Thursday.

In a televised address, President Ashraf Ghani marked the transition by calling on Afghans to support their security forces in the interests of building a strong and peaceful country.

“If, a year ago today, you had listened to regional and international analysts, they would never have thought that today would happen,” he said. “They were thinking: ‘How can a country with the problems that Afghanistan has successfully complete a security and political transition?’”

Killing 40 civilians in one go is “reasonable,” says Israel army ethicist

Palestinians mourn for eight members of the Bayoumi family, killed in an Israeli air strike on their building, during their funeral in Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, 1 August 2014.

 (Ashraf Amra / APA images)

 by Rania Khalek on Wed, 12/31/2014

Since the Israeli army killed more than 2,200 Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip last summer, including more than 500 children, a dedicated army of official and unofficial whitewashers has been mobilized on a mission to rescue Israel’s bloodstained public image.
Killing 40 Civilians in One Go is “Reasonable,” Says Israel Army Ethicist by Thavam Ratna

China New Year stampede kills 36 in Shanghai

 
1 January 2015 
A New Year's stampede on Shanghai's historic waterfront killed at least 36 revellers and injured dozens more, mostly women, as one police officer said fewer personnel than previously were securing the area.

China New Year Stampede Kills 36 in Shanghai by Thavam Ratna

Kabul was eerie and dangerous under the Taliban. It feels that way again.

Afghan residents walk in the old city section of Kabul on Dec. 12. Afghanistan's economy has improved significantly since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001 largely because of the infusion of international assistance. (WAKIL KOHSAR/AFP/Getty Images)

By Pamela Constable December 31, 2014

KABUL — Many winters ago, I stood in a vast, empty intersection of central Kabul. The only sounds were the jingle of passing horse carts and the ticking spokes of old bicycles. There were no other Westerners on the streets, and all eyes were upon me. Despite being wrapped in many layers of modest clothing, I felt naked.

The U.S. led coalition that invaded Afghanistan in 2001 to oust the Taliban put in place legal safeguards for women, some of which have already been rolled back. (Reuters)

Kabul Was Eerie and Dangerous Under the Taliban. It Feels That Way Again. by Thavam Ratna

What Air Crash Investigations Didn’t Tell You About QF32 (Airbus A380)

Tony J. Hughes-Keynote Speaker, Author and Sales Leadership Mentor

This is an unlikely but true story about iconic brands being protected by an amazing airline captain, the power of social media, and how to create customer-centric culture. Every enterprise can learn much from this story as it exemplifies the incredible benefits of empowering and trusting employees to not only do their job but also represent the brand – in this case, also save lives. The QF32 incident occurred in November 4th, 2010. The ATSB (Australian Transport Safety Bureau) published their final report in June 2013, and Air Crash Investigations released their documentary in February 2014.

What Air Crash Investigations Didn't Tell You About QF32 (Airbus A380) by Thavam Ratna

Lydia-Molly Tayara, Inuk woman, says cancer went untreated due to discrimination

Complaint about acute stomach pain was met with questions about drinking at Nunavik clinic

Lydia-Molly Tayara is undergoing chemotherapy at Montreal's Jewish General Hospital after doctors discovered she had advanced cancer of the colon and liver. (CBC)

 Dec 30, 2014

Lydia-Molly Tayara for years complained of stomach pain.

The social worker from Salluit, Nunavik — a small community in the northernmost part of Quebec — said she was routinely asked by doctors at the medical clinic in a neighbouring community whether she drank alcohol.

Each time, the Inuk woman told them she didn't.

She told them of pain so bad at times she had to lie down on the floor at work. She told the doctor her insides hurt so badly she sometimes couldn’t stand.

"I’m not a medical person. I didn’t know what my insides were," she said.

Tayara said she was given a diagnosis and some basic instructions.

"The first diagnosis was very good. It was about my intestines contracting, and I believed that," she said. For years, whenever her stomach hurt, she’d ask for a glass of cold water to help with her "contracting intestines."

But years of unrelenting stomach pain led her back to the clinic again and again.

"It was unbearable," Tayara said.

ER visit unveils advanced cancer

When the doctors' questioning changed from whether she drank, to how much she drank, she understood it to mean she was being profiled as yet another aboriginal person in Canada being accused of drinking herself sick.

"I have so many assumptions. My first assumption was that they thought I was drinking and that I was probably spoiling my stomach, because that was the last diagnosis I got," Tayara said.

In recent months, Tayara said she nearly had a stroke. She booked a followup with a neurologist in Montreal to get checked out.

'My first assumption was that they thought I was drinking and that I was probably spoiling my stomach.'- Lydia-Molly Tayara, cancer patient

She arrived in Montreal on Oct. 4. The next day she doubled over with stomach pain and headed to the ER at the Jewish General Hospital.

There she was told she had colon cancer that had spread to her liver, and was starting to spread to other organs. She said the doctor told her she had had cancer for years.

"That was the first time somebody mentioned cancer. I couldn't believe it," Tayara said.

She said the Montreal doctors told her she is one of the lucky ones — after removing over half of her liver, Tayara’s prognosis is quite good.

But, she said, doctors informed her it could have been treated 15 or 20 years ago.

Despite that, she said she still plans to return to Salluit after her chemotherapy is through, and she still travels back home between treatments. She told CBC News reporter Kate McKenna she simply couldn’t live with the trees in Montreal.

Staff at the clinic Tayara frequented in Nunavik were unavailable to comment over the holiday season.

திடீரென உடல் எடை குறைவதற்கான காரணம் என்ன ?

February 17, 2014

நம்மில் பலருக்கு நம் உடல் எடைகுறைவதை அறியமுடியாத நிலை உள்ளது. உடல் எடை கொஞ்சம் கொஞ்சமாகக் குறைந்து பலவீனம் நமக்கு ஏதோ ஒரு விதத்தில் தெரியவரும்போதுதான் மருத்துவரை அணுகுகிறோம். குறிப்பாக பெண்கள் உடல் எடை குறைவதை ஒரு பாக்கியமாகவே கருதுகின்றனர். இது தவறான போக்காகும்.

உடல் எடைகுறையக் காரணங்கள்:

1.பட்டினி, பசியின்மை, சத்துணவு இல்லாமை, வலி, கவலை, உறக்கமின்மை, அசதி என்கிற உணவு சார்ந்த காரணங்கள்.

2. விழுங்குவதில் ஏற்படும் சிரமங்கள், நாக்கு பாதிப்படைவது, தொண்டைக் கோளாறு, ஹிஸ்டீரியா, டெட்டணி, அழற்சி மற்றும் கட்டிகள்.

3. உணவுகளை கிரகிக்க முடியாத தன்மை, தொடர்ந்து வரும் வாந்தி, பேதி, குடல் அடைப்புகள்.

4. வயிற்றில் புற்றுக் கட்டிகள் இருந்தாலும் உடல் இளைத்துவிடும்.

5. குடல் காரணமான, அமிபியாசிஸ், அல்சர் குடல் அழற்சி, பூச்சிகள், குடல் காச நோய்.

6. கணையம், கல்லீரல், சார்ந்த கட்டிகள் கணைய அழற்சி, கல்லீரல் சுருங்கி விடுவது.

7. இதய உள்தசை அழற்சி, இதயச் செயல்பாட்டில் குறைபாடு.

8. பார்க்கின்சன் வியாதி, முற்றிய டேபஸ் வியாதி, சதை அழிவு நோய்கள்.

9. மணம் சார்ந்த உணவு வெறுப்பு நோயான அனோரெக்சியா, நெர்வோசா.

10. நீரிழிவு, தைராய்டு நச்சுத் தன்மை, அடிஷன் வியாதி, சிமெண்ட் வியாதி போன்ற நாளமில்லா சுரப்பி சார்ந்த வியாதிகள்.

11. ஊன்ம ஆக்கச் சிதைவு சார்ந்த பல்வேறு கட்டிகள் நாள்பட்ட சிறுநீரக செயலிழப்பு.

12. வைட்டமின் குறிப்பாக பி வைட்டமின்

13. அடிபடுவது அல்லது அறுவை சிகிச்சைக்கு பின் ஏற்படும் நைட்ரஜன் சீர் குறைவு.

14. காச நோய், நாள்பட்ட மலேரியா போன்ற தொற்று நோய்கள்.

15. ரத்தம் சார்ந்த வியாதிகளான் லூக்கிமியா, ஏபிளாஸ்டிக் சோகை.

16. குடிப் பழக்கம், மருந்தடிமைத்தனம், அதிகமாக புகைப்பிடிப்பது.

San Francisco Schools Transformed

 by the Power of Meditation

December 30, 2014 
Silence isn't something people usually associate with middle school, but twice a day the halls of Visitacion Valley School in San Francisco fall quiet as the sixth, seventh and eighth grade students meditate for fifteen minutes.

And school administrators tell NBC News that the violence outside of the school, which is situated in one of San Francisco's poorest neighborhoods, was spilling into the school and affecting the students' demeanor.

"The kids see guns on a daily basis," the school's athletic director, Barry O'Driscoll said, adding, "there would be fights here three-to-five times a week."

With a typical schools days filled with mayhem, O'Driscoll was skeptical when the San Francisco Public School District introduced a meditation program, called "quiet time," to four of its schools, including Visitacion Valley.

"I thought this is hippy stuff that didn't work in the '70s, so how's it gonna work now," O'Driscoll said. But he changed his tune, when over a four-year period, suspensions decreased by 79 percent and attendance and academic performance noticeably increased.

Blocks away at Burton High School, which was once dubbed "Fight School," the results have been similar. Principal Bill Kappenhagen was skeptical at first, as well, and had to wrangle with the problem of when in the school day to grab a half hour for quiet reflection.

"I was like, 'There's no way I'm going to steal time from English instruction or math instruction in order to do that," said Kappenhagen.

Instead, he decided to extend the school day by 30 minutes for meditation time, which resulted in better academic performance and a 75 percent decrease in suspensions. And students say they're more conscious of their actions, calmer and less angry.

While Kappenhagen recognizes that "there is no magic wand in education, just like in life," meditation has been found to increase focus and stimulate a sense of calm, not just during the quiet time, but also for the rest of the day, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Kappenhagen says he know's he can't change the environment the students live in when they're not at school, but he's glad he's discovered a way to "help our students find ways to deal with violence and the trauma and the stress of everyday life."

NBC NEWS

Students at Visitacion Valley School in San Francisco meditate, as part of a program in which students meditate for fifteen minutes twice a day.