Skeleton sacks baffle India police

The bags containing skeletons were found in a police campus building

30 January 2015 

Dozens of skeletons and decayed body parts have been discovered in a disused room of an Indian police building.

Sacks containing the human remains were reportedly uncovered by workers at the building, in Unnao in Uttar Pradesh.

Police said they could not explain where the bodies came from, but said they believed the room had been used as a mortuary until 2008.

Regional authorities have promised to conduct DNA testing and investigate why the bodies were not disposed of.

Unnao police chief Mahendra Pal Singh told the Times of India that records showed there were roughly 100 bodies kept at the police building for investigation.

He said a "proper probe and DNA testing would be done to corroborate the facts".

"We will also look into the case thoroughly to ascertain as to why the human remains were not disposed of," he said.

Analysts said the case appeared to breach procedures laid down for the disposal of bodies after post-mortem examinations.

Separately, the authorities in Unnao district are still investigating the recent discovery of more than 100 bodies in the Ganges river.

They are thought to have been dumped by families who were too poor to pay for a proper cremation.

Delusional America — Paul Craig Roberts

Institute for Political Economy

Paul Craig Roberts
January 31, 2015
Robert Parry is one of my favorite columnists. He is truthful, has a sense of justice, and delivers a firm punch. He used to be a “mainstream journalist,” like me, but we were too truthful for them. They kicked us out.

Delusional America — Paul Craig Roberts by Thavam Ratna

Boko Haram launch new assault on Nigerian city

Fighters from the Islamist group Boko Haram launch a second attack on the Borno state capital of Maiduguri.

Picture: Soldiers and people machetes ride a vehicle in Gombe, nearby the city of Maiduguri

SUNDAY 01 FEBRUARY 2015

Residents of the city reported gunfire in the outskirts of the city on Sunday.

At least eight people were killed in battles between the insurgents and government soldiers, Reuters reported.

Last week the Nigerian government said that it had repelled an attack on the strategically important city.

Boko Haram reportedly want to make Maiduguri the capital of a breakaway Islamist state. Capturing the city, where insurgencies sprang from five years ago, would mark a major victory for the extremist group.

The group currently controls mostly rural areas along the Cameroon and Chad borders that make up a territory the size of Belgium.

Picture: People flee the violence in northeast Nigeria

Boko Haram are blamed for killing thousands of people, mostly in north-eastern Nigeria. The 200 Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped by the group last year made headlines around the world, and are still missing.

Last month Boko Haram attacked the towns of Baga and Doron Baga. Satellite pictures released by Amnesty International showed the extent of destruction.

The government said 150 people had been killed in those attacks but local officials say the figure is far higher and some have put it as high as 2,000.

The US has urged Nigeria not to postpone its presidential elections - due to take place of 14 February - because of the violence.

President Jonathan Goodluck faces a battle to be re-elected against a backdrop of increasing violence and unrest in Nigeria.

Security forces handling of the insurgency has often been criticised by international observers.

Islamic State says beheads second Japanese hostage

 A pedestrian walks past television screens displaying a news program about Japanese journalist Kenji Goto, who was held hostage by Islamic State militants, on a street in Tokyo February 1, 2015. 

 Junko Ishido, mother of Kenji Goto, a Japanese journalist who was held captive by Islamic State militants, speaks to reporters at her house in Tokyo February 1, 2015. 

BY KIYOSHI TAKENAKA AND NOBUHIRO KUBO-Sun Feb 1, 2015

(Reuters) - Islamic State militants said they had beheaded a second Japanese hostage, journalist Kenji Goto, prompting Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to vow to step up humanitarian aid to the group's opponents in the Middle East and help bring his killers to justice.
Islamic State Says Beheads Second Japanese Hostage by Thavam Ratna

Al-Jazeera journalist Peter Greste released

TV reporter imprisoned by Egypt for ‘aiding terrorisim and making false news’ to be deported to Australia, say officials

Peter Greste awaiting sentence in Cairo in June last year. Photograph: Khaled Elfiqi/EPAOne of the three al-Jazeera Patrick Kingsley in Cairo-Sunday 1 February 2015

English journalists jailed in Egypt, Peter Greste, has been deported to Australia after 400 days in an Egyptian jail, the interior ministry has told the Guardian.

An interior ministry spokesman told the Guardian: “A presidential decree has been issued to deport him to continue his punishment period in Australia. The foreign ministry co-ordinated with the Australian embassy and his plan took off at 4pm or 410pm [local time].”

As an Australian national, Greste is likely to have been deported under the terms of a recently enacted presidential decree that allows foreign detainees to continue their detention in their home countries, and which is thought to have been enacted with the journalist’s case in mind.

Greste’s family did not respond to requests for confirmation but the Egyptian interior ministry told the Guardian that the reporter had already left the country.

The family of Mohamed Fahmy, Greste’s Canadian co-defendant, said on Sunday that there was no news about Fahmy’s fate, though he also applied for deportation earlier this month. The pair’scolleague, Baher Mohamed, is ineligible for deportation as he only holds an Egyptian passport.

The three al-Jazeera journalists have been in jail for over a year, after being arrested in late December 2013. In that time, Fahmy has developed a chronic shoulder condition after failing to receive adequate treatment for an injury sustained shortly before his arrest. His lawyers, who he now employs independently of al-Jazeera, say he urgently needs treatment for both his shoulder, and hepatitis C.

Greste and his co-defendants were subsequently convicted in June 2014 on charges of aiding terrorists, belonging to the banned Muslim Brotherhood opposition group, and making false news, after a trial that human rights groups and journalists denounced as comically flawed.

Evidence presented by the prosecution included a song by the musician Gotye,footage of trotting horses, and a press conference in Kenya.

Earlier this month, an appeals judge appeared to recognise those flaws, sending the case to retrial. But he refused to release the trio on bail – prompting Fahmy and Greste to announce plans to seek deportation.

In the international arena, where the trio’s fate has become a cause celebre, observers view the case as a politicised attack on the freedom of expression, and part of a rampant crackdown on all forms of Egyptian opposition.

The trio are among at least 16 journalists and – according to the police’s own figures – at least 16,000 political prisoners currently detained in Egypt. Independent estimates put the figure at nearly 40,000.

But inside Egypt, many government supporters see the journalists as a legitimate target, since the coverage of al-Jazeera’s Arabic sister channels has strongly favoured Brotherhood viewpoints, while the channels’ owner, the state of Qatar, has given financial and logistical support to the group itself.

Through his family, Fahmy has also portrayed himself as a pawn in a cold war between the two countries. But relations are gradually improving between them, culminating in Qatar’s closure of the Egyptian wing of al-Jazeera last month, a move which raised hopes that the trio might be released in a reciprocal gesture by Egypt.

The Hack That Warmed the World

Europe’s carbon-trading market was supposed to be capitalism’s solution to global warming. Instead, it became a playground for gangsters, international crime syndicates, and even two-bit crooks -- who stole hundreds of millions of dollars in pollution credits. 

BY MCKENZIE FUNK-JANUARY 30, 2015

The client wanted carbon credits: tradable serial numbers that confer the right to pollute the Earth with invisible, odorless gas. Jugga, as the client called himself, planned to steal the credits, quickly resell them, and become rich overnight—but he needed the Black Dragon to hack into a computer system to help him do it. The Dragon, who in online forums advertised his services as a corporate spy, was sure he could hack anything. But when Jugga contacted him in June 2011, the hacker had no idea what carbon credits even were. “I didn’t think anyone would be stupid enough to come up with that,” the Dragon says of the concept.

The Hack That Warmed the World by Thavam Ratna

The Scourge of Caste

King's Review

Arundhati Roy, Jan 17th

“The Doctor and the Saint” is the name of the introduction that I wrote to one of modern India’s most classic texts, Annihilation of Caste, written by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. Ambedkar was one of the most fascinating modern thinkers in India’s national movement, yet he is a person who has somehow either been written out of the popular account, or has been written in but not for the passions that guided him. He has been written in as the leader of the untouchables, or the person who drove the writing of the Indian constitution.Annihilation of Caste has this dubious distinction of being an underground classic, in that you can’t walk into a bookshop in India and ask for the writings of Ambedkar in the way you can ask for the writings of Gandhi or Nehru. Ambedkar’s people, the people who were once known as untouchables and who today call themselves Dalits, Gandhi rechristened very patronizingly as harijan, which means “the children of god”. While Annihilation of Castewas loved and passed around in the Dalit community, the privileged castes for whom it was written remain quite blissfully ignorant.
The Scourge of Caste by Thavam Ratna

Opinion: The search for truth in ideology

• Date 30.01.2015

China wants to ban textbooks containing Western values from its universities, except for ideas of Western-imported Marxism. China's ideological control continues to gain ground, writes DW's Matthias von Hein.

"Seek truth from facts" - that was one of the main Marxist ideas from Deng Xiaoping, the architect of the Chinese reform and opening-up policy. Under this motto China has come very far in improving its image. But Deng's successors seem to want to deviate from this path. For them, the truth lies in ideology rather than facts.

The campaign for ideological control, which was initiated by state and party leader, Xi Jinping, is intensifying. Having already established stricter control over the media and Internet, academic freedom, which was already limited, is now next on the chopping block. Textbooks with "Western values" will henceforth be banned in China's universities as decreed by education minister, Yang Guiren, at a conference on Thursday, January 29.

DW's Matthias von Hein

The fight against 'Western values'

Last weekend, a party newspaper attacked two alleged representatives of "Western values:" a professor and a painter. Shortly thereafter, universities were urged to increase the circulation of party propaganda and strengthen the teachings of Marxism as well as the ideals of Chinese socialism in the classroom.

This all fits into the puzzle: already at the beginning of the Xi era, an internal party document warned against "Western values." Specifically the document raised awareness of the "Western ideals" of government checks and balances, judicial review, media and press freedom, as well as the idea of civil society.

As a result, the government has been exerting increasing pressure on dissidents ever since. Those opposing the ruling party were thrown into prison along with their lawyers. Ilham Tohti, an economics professor in Beijing and a moderate critic of the government's "nationality policies" was sentenced to life imprisonment last September on separatism charges after he championed the rights of the country's Muslim Uighur minority. Moreover, a host of restrictions have been set in place to keep journalists in line.

Since late January, China's censors have been disrupting so-called Virtual Private Network connections (VPN), used by many in the country to bypass the so-called "Great Firewall" and access blocked websites. "The country needs new methods to tackle new problems," said Wen Ku, director of telecoms development at the Ministry of Industry and Information (MIIT). It seems a minor matter now that Internet users in China have to register online using their own names since the beginning of the year.

All this points to both a massive degree of distrust towards the ruled and also an unconditional will to wield and retain power. In a US diplomatic cable disclosed by Wikileaks we can get an idea of how Xi Jinping was viewed by a former close friend. In 2009 the friend is cited as saying that Xi wasn't corrupt or driven by money, but "could be corrupted by power."

Since becoming president in 2013, Xi has amassed more power than any of his predecessors since Deng Xiaoping. For this to continue, actions have been taken against anyone or anything that may cast a slur at the party or its members, including "Western values." In this sense it seems ironic that Marxism is also an import from the West and that incumbent Premier Li Keqiang excelled in translating Western legal texts when he was younger.

10 Reasons Why AFSPA Must Go 

By Waliullah Ahmed Lashkar,

1. A draconian law: The AFSPA is a piece of colonial legislation that gives the armed forces of India unfettered power: (i) to use lethal force on civilians even to the extent of causing death on mere suspicion that they may cause breach of any law or order, (ii) to search any dwelling places by breaking them on mere suspicion without warrant and (ii) to arrest people without warrant and to keep them in custody for unspecified time and more importantly the Act also bars the judiciary to question any acts of the armed forces operating under the Act in areas declared disturbed under the Act.

2. Its continuance is based on lies: The Government of India took the plea that it is a temporary measure for meeting an extra-ordinary situation and it would be withdrawn as soon as possible. This plea was taken in parliament when the Act was being passed, in the Supreme Court in the Naga People s Human Rights Movement case in 1997 and in international forums including the United Nations Human Rights Committee. It is now 53 years in North East and 21 years in J & K. If a measure for this length of time is temporary than what is permanent?

3. The provisions of the Act militate against the purpose of the enactment: The non-state armed groups (insurgents, extremists or terrorists, whatever you may call them) need to be dealt with and contained because they violate rights of the people to live peacefully, they try to impose their will on the people and the state unlawfully and violently trampling the constitutionalism and the rule of law that are sine qua non for civilised human existence. It is the mandate of the state to maintain the reign of law and constitution and the writ of the government established by law along with ensuring security and safety of the person and property of the citizens. But when the state through its security forces and law enforcement agencies commits more atrocious acts than the acts which it professes it is fighting the difference between the non-state terrorists and the state gets blurred.The armed forces of India when operate under the AFSPA do not act for enforcement of the constitution and the law of the land or for protection of the life and property of the citizens. Because, they operate outside the constitutional and legal system of the land. The AFSPA places them above the constitution, law and human rights obligations. The AFSPA gives them the power to commit atrocities and wreak terror on the citizens which they are supposed to combat and prevent and protect the citizens from, with additional guarantee of immunity from any accountability. The mischief that is addressed in the statute is doubled by its provisions. To purportedly prevent the people from the terror of certain armed groups the sate itself has unleashed its unmatched terror upon the very people under the AFSPA. And it is not only in law but very much in practice.

4. Problematic political premises: The political premise of the Act appears to be very problematic in the sense that it seeks in essence to impose “Indian-ness” through violence on some of the people of the country who are deemed not to be adequately “Indian”. This is apparent from the facts that despite naxalism being claimed as the biggest threat to the national security the Act is not extended to the naxal affected central India. Rather, it is stated that the responsibility to deal with such problems rests with the state governments, which is very true. This discriminatory attitude can not be explained in any way other than the racial reading of the situations and believe in fascist violence. The “Indian-ness” as it was understood by our freedom fighters and for which they embraced martyrdom is not one which would needed to be or which could be imposed through violence. However, it should be more than clear that we are not seeking extension of the AFSPA to any other part of the country since we want total repeal of the Act. There are many draconian pieces of legislation in force in naxal affected areas, though not of the nature of AFSPA, such the Chhattishgarh Public Security Act etc. which are also needed to be repealed. The phenomenon called naxalism has arisen largely due to the deprivation, discrimination and exploitation of the tribal people of the area. These problems need to be addressed politically and through peaceful means.

5. A fraud on the constitution: The Act provides more than emergency powers to the armed forces fraudulently bypassing the provisions of the constitution of parliamentary oversight over the exercise of such powers. The constitution also imposes duties upon the Union Government to perform its obligations under the international treatises. India is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1966 (ICCPR) which provides for derogations of some the rights in times of emergency declared legally, which are nonetheless derogated by the Act without such declaration. It is to be noted that the Supreme Court did not examine the compatibility of the Act with the international human rights laws in the Naga People s Movement for Human Rights.

6. The law lacks legality: Both the procedural and substantial requirements of legality are conspicuous by their absence in this Act of the parliament. On the procedural level it is to be noted that the Act came not only as a product of a “decision” by the political executive (i.e., as an ordinance on 22nd May, 1958) but also subsequently escaped more or less unscathed from the “legislative oversight function” of a democratically constituted Parliament on 18 August, 1958. And finally, rather than returning the legislation to the Parliament again for reconsideration, the President readily gave his assent on the legislation, thus making it into a law on 11 September, 1958. On the substantial level the Act does not pass the test of precise definition as its terms are too vague and it also provides powers/measures disproportionate to the mischief it is intended to address.

7. Arbitrary application: Not only the framing of the Act and its provisions are arbitrary but also the application of the Act by declaring certain areas as disturbed is also arbitrary inasmuch as the declaration of areas which are not disturbed in the sense in which the term is contemplated in the Act. For example, the southern part of Assam comprising of the districts of Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi that is known as Barak valley is declared as disturbed area under the Act which can not be said disturbed in any meaning of the word. There has never been any insurgency in the area. And the former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi proudly declared it as Valley of Peace admitting the fact.

8. Recommendations of the government committees: Every government committee which examined the Act opined against its continuity in the present form including the Administrative Reforms Committee headed by Mr. Birappa Moily. Most importantly, the Committee to Review the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 chaired by Justice Jeevan Reddy unambiguously recommended total repeal of the Act.

9. Militarisation of democracy: The ethos and practices inaugurated, nurtured and sustained by the Act has led to critical erosion of normative (norms) and institutional mechanisms of a civilized democratic life which are critically manifest as (a) the near collapse of Criminal Justice System and (b) culture of impunity of unbridled violence in peoples life. The mockery of democracy is such that it can be termed as democracy at gun point.

10. Traumatised Society: Actions taken under the Act caused hundreds of extra-judicial killings, rapes, torture, enforced disappearances forcing the people to live an uncertain terror-striken life bereft of human dignity. It has made the whole society mentally sick and traumatized.And on many other reasons.

The author is an advocate at Gauhati High Court and human rights defender with Barak Human Rights Protection Committee.

How To Whiten Your Teeth in Just 3 Minutes (VIDEO)

Posted by HealthyFood on January 20, 2015
There are many people that are struggling with the problem of yellowish teeth, and feel uncomfortable every time they smile. Are you one of them?

Regular cleaning and brushing is not enough to avoid the problem of stains on the teeth, and even though the whitening strips can be effective, they also cause painful sensitivity of the gums and teeth.

Therefore here we are going to recommend you a simple and natural way to whiten your teeth in several shades, without damaging them with harsh chemicals such as those usually found in products for teeth whitening.

For this mixture you will need a little baking soda and lemon. In a small bowl put a little baking soda and mix it with fresh squeezed lemon juice, until the mixture becomes slightly foamy.

With a cotton wool, used for removing makeup, wipe and clean all your teeth before you thoroughly brush them with this amazing mixture. After applying it on your teeth leave it for a minute. Then wash your teeth normally with a toothbrush.

Note: You must not leave the mixture applied on your teeth for more than one minute, because the acid will damage the teeth enamel!

- See more at: http://www.healthyfoodteam.com/how-to-whiten-your-teeth-in-just-3-minutes-video/#sthash.CR3OdqEL.dpuf