Ipperwash Inquiry: The Verdict is In

Who killed Dudley George? The Ipperwash report, just released, found that although Mr. "I want the fucking Indians out of the park" did not directly order the police to Ipperwash, his government, along with the federal government, still shares some of the blame.

In his findings, Commissioner Sydney Linden faults the feds for expropriating disputed First Nations land, then failing to give it back as promised.

He faults the government of then-premier Mike Harris — and the premier himself — for impatience, uttering a racial slur and misleading the legislature.

But Judge Linden also concludes Mr. Harris did not direct police to enter the park on that fateful night against protesters he concludes were not armed.

G&M:

Ipperwash report released

More coverage

Update June 1 More details have come out. Here's some recommended reading:

• Ipperwash;First Nations Claims and Concerns Finally Validated on Engaged Spectator
  
• "Bomber" Harris said it from Shmohawk's Shmorg
  
• "I want the fucking Indians out of the park" on Dawg's Blawg
  
• Red Coat Friday… Little Lord Mike Harris on Harper Valley
  
• Action must follow Dudley George inquiry from Amnesty International
  
• Mike Harris and State Terrorism at Le Revue Gauche
  

May 31, 2007 - Seeing the Surgeon

Today I visit the surgeon, Dr. Gornish, in his office, to consult about my upcoming biopsy. I've brought a huge pile of scan results with me, in their oversize envelopes (checked out from the radiology file room at Ocean Medical Center). I asked them to give me everything. It's sort of a data dump, but I didn't want to risk leaving anything behind that the doctor may need.

It turns out Dr. Gornish looks at none of them – the only thing he's interested in is the radiologist's narrative report that Dr. Lerner's office faxed over, describing the results of my recent CT scans of the neck:

"New enlarged right level IB lymph node anterior to the right submandibular gland measuring 21 x 13 mm.

New enlarged right supraclavicular lymph node measuring 19 x 17 mm.

New enlarged aorticopulmonary window lymph node measuring 16 x 15 mm."

That's radiologist- speak. In ordinary parlance, those are lymph nodes near the jaw, near the collarbone and somewhere deep in the chest.

Which one to remove? Dr. Gornish has a clear preference: "I don't do jaws, if I can avoid it." (Maybe because I'd be left with a highly visible scar?) Since the one in the chest is pretty inaccessible, that leaves the one behind my right collarbone as the most likely target. He says he'll plan to remove most or all of it.

He palpates the area by the collarbone, and locates the swollen lymph node. He moves my finger over to it, and I think I can feel it – though, if he hadn't pointed it out, I don't think I'd ever have known the difference between it and the surrounding tissue. Its size – 19 x 17 mm – is about the diameter of a nickel. It's down pretty deep. Because I'm overweight, the surgeon explains, he'll have to cut down through a large area of fat just below the skin, just to reach it. That will make the surgery more difficult – something I remember him saying about my port-implantation surgery a year and a half ago, which was in roughly the same area.

Then, I raise my biggest concern with him: anesthesia. I have sleep apnea, and use a BiPap breathing machine every night to keep my airway open. During my last two surgical experiences – the core-needle biopsy and the port-implantation surgery – I woke up on the table, feeling pain. I understand why this happens: under the relatively light sedation used in these quick operations, if I go into an apneic episode, the anesthesiologist scales back the anesthetic, until I start breathing again. Unfortunately, that also means I start waking up. It's not fun, believe me.

I explain to him that I've discussed the situation with my pulmonologist, Dr. De La Luz, who's offered to consult with the anesthesiologist about getting a BiPap machine, calibrated to my prescription, into the operating room.

Dr. Gornish explains that this is the anesthesiologist's department, not his. He suggests I get the phone number of the anesthesiology group, and talk with that doctor several days ahead of time – not just on the morning of the surgery, which is the usual practice.

I make a mental note to do so – but, to me, it's a tragic illustration of the fragmentation of modern medicine. There are many advantages to the hyper-specialization of medicine, but sometimes there are things that fall through the cracks. My experience has been that the specialists I don't see, or choose for myself – the anesthesiologists, the pathologists, the radiologists – are the ones most likely to cause problems. Most of them perform their narrow specialty duties extraordinarily well, but they don't know us, the patients. They only know a small piece of us. They have no opportunity to consider us holistically. Last time, I mentioned my sleep apnea to Dr. Gornish, and I also mentioned it to the surgical-masked anesthesiologist, as he came in to introduce himself to me, just before they wheeled me into the operating room. By then, it was surely too late to get a BiPap into the operating room, and have it calibrated according to my prescription. Even if I'd been aware of that possibility – and I wasn't, back then – I couldn't have done much about it, other than ask that my port-implantation surgery be postponed (and, with my first chemo treatment planned for the next day, I wasn't about to do that). The result was some really nasty – but entirely preventable – pain.

After speaking with the surgeon, I go into the surgical group's scheduling office. The date they offer me is Monday, June 25th, nearly a month away. (Mental note: call Dr. Lerner's office, and make sure this biopsy truly isn't so urgent.)

June 25th is just two days before Claire and I are due to fly to Utah, for a national retreat for Presbyterian ministers. I ask if I can travel so soon after the surgery. The booking clerk says she doesn't know, but calls Dr. Gornish in, and asks him. He says there's no reason why I can't fly – though I'll be wearing a bulky bandage, and I'll want to bring a lot of extra gauze with me.

No thanks, I think to myself. The retreat would hardly be the relaxing, restorative experience it's meant to be, if I were worrying about caring for a surgical incision. And, if I were to have a post-operative infection, thousands of miles from home – I don't even want to think about that. Better to sacrifice my enrollment deposit than be a nervous wreck for days. (It's a good thing I haven't bought plane tickets yet.)

That timing also means I'll find it difficult to get any quality time in our Adirondacks place this summer. During the month of July, when I'd planned to be up there, I'll need to be running back and forth between Dr. Lerner's and Dr. Portlock's offices, getting their opinions on what the biopsy results mean, for good or for ill.

Bottom line: whether or not this is actually a relapse, cancer is still causing havoc in my life. I'll do what I have to do. But I won't be very happy about it.

Roadside bomb targets Ethiopian forces in Somalia

Check back with ETP for more news throughout the day

Also in the news:
[Unicef: Malnutrition Still Prevalent in Tigray, Other Regions] - [Ethiopia places 103rd on Global Peace Index] - [MAHMOUD AHMED of Ethiopia winner of World Music Award 2007] - [ACLU sues Boeing subsidiary on behalf of Binyam Mohamed of Ethiopia and others]

International:
[U.N. Resists U.S. on New Sudan Sanctions] - [UN Security Council Approves Hariri Assassination Tribunal] - [Putin says test missile is signal to U.S.] - [U.S TB patient's name released] and more of today's top stories!

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Kinijit Chairman Hailu shawel’s eye surgery a success
(The US embassy in Addis was instrumental in making this medical procedure possible)

Kinijit International Australia tour
(June 16 - 24)

Destruction Begins
(More than 205 residents in the Bole district have seen their dwellings destroyed as the city attempts to shape the Capital according to the Master Plan. FORTUNE chronicles the plight of those left in the wake of the operation)
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Roadside bomb targets Ethiopian forces in Somalia

MOGADISHU -- A roadside bomb blast tore through a convoy carrying Ethiopian troops in a central Somali town on Wednesday, but it was not immediately clear if anyone was killed, witnesses said.

Baladwayne resident Osman Adan said he could see thick black smoke billowing from the scene of the explosion, which a security source said was caused by a remote-controlled landmine.


"An Ethiopian truck was blown up ... The Ethiopian troops immediately opened fire indiscriminately with heavy machine-guns ... I do not know if any soldiers were wounded or killed," Adan said, adding that two civilians were hurt in the shooting.(More...)

Also see:
-Five Ethiopians wounded in Somali attack: government
-Ethiopian troops kill 5 Somali civilians
-Five die in Somalia convoy attack
-Ethiopian troops killed dozens after blast-rebels

ACLU sues Boeing subsidiary on behalf of Binyam Mohamed of Ethiopia and others
____________________________________

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against Jeppesen DataPlan Inc. on behalf of Binyam Mohamed of Ethiopia, Italian citizen Abou Elkassim Britel and Ahmed Agiza of Egypt
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The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against Jeppesen DataPlan Inc. of San Jose, Calif., on behalf of alleged victims of U.S. government torture.

Jeppesen DataPlan is part of aviation-data provider Jeppesen Sanderson Inc. of Colorado. Based in Englewood, Jeppesen Sanderson is a subsidiary of aircraft manufacturer Boeing Co.

The ACLU alleges in its suit, filed in Northern California federal court, that Jeppesen knowingly provided flight services to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which enabled the secret transport of three terrorism suspects to overseas locations for interrogation and torture.

The terrorism suspects are Binyam Mohamed of Ethiopia, Italian citizen Abou Elkassim Britel and Ahmed Agiza of Egypt.(More...)

Also see:
-ACLU: Boeing offshoot helped CIA
-ACLU files suit against Boeing subsidiary
-Firm sued over secret CIA flights

Ethiopia places 103rd on Global Peace Index

In the first study of its kind, Ethiopia has placed 103rd on the Global Peace Index. The Index is a ranking of 121 countries - from Algeria to Zimbabwe - listed according to their peacefulness. It was compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit and is comprised of a broad range of 24 indicators measuring both the internal and external peacefulness of nations.

The publication of the Global Peace Index comes just a week before the leaders of the world’s richest countries gather for the G8 summit in Germany.

The Index has won the backing of an influential and distinguished group of supporters including the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Queen Noor of Jordan, former United States President Jimmy Carter, and former Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank Professor Joseph Stiglitz, who are today calling for an increased focus on peace.

African media on Blair's legacy

(BBC) ...Meanwhile, African interest in Mr Blair's Commission for Africa seems to declining three years after its launch.

Critics seem vindicated that one of the panel's leading commissioners, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, has come under international criticism over the deaths of dozens of opposition supporters during the disputed parliamentary elections in May 2005 as well as Ethiopia's invasion of Somalia in December 2006.(More...)

Unicef: Malnutrition, Stunted Growth Still Prevalent in Tigray, Other Regions
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More than 41 percent of children under five experience stunted growth in Tigray and an estimated 11.6 percent suffer from acute malnutrition, according to UNICEF-Ethiopia.
____________________________________

(Picture - Ethiopian child suffering from severe malnutrition. VOAnews)

In a press release sent to The Daily Monitor, the UN agency said the deplorable situation in the region was revealed during a visit by the Head of European Commission and Tim Clarke, Head of European Commission in Ethiopia to UNICEF - supported child nutrition sites in Tigray- Mekele on May 29, 2007.

UNICEF says the problem of malnutrition was the case with other regions of the country where it said a large scale intervention was needed to save millions of vulnerable children.

"We have just seen a child here who is 18 months old. Her normal weight should be 13 Kilos; but she is only five kilos-highly at risk and we can give her therapeutic feeding in order to give her a chance to survive," Tim Clark said during the visit.(More...)

Ethiopian elephants, lions face extinction

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - A thousand rare black-mane lions -- an Ethiopian national symbol -- and some 300 elephants are in danger after a swathe of forest that was part of their sanctuary was cut down, a wildlife expert said on Thursday.

(Picture - Black mane Ethiopian lion (Barbary), from a distinct but very rare sub-species thought to be extinct, but recently discovered in the region. Fortean Times magazine)

The land was cleared from a designated conservation area at Midiga Tola, adjacent to the Babile Elephant Sanctuary located 557 km (346 miles) east of Addis Ababa, Ethiopian Wildlife Association President Yirmed Demeke said.

Flora EcoPower Holding AG, a German biodiesel producer, cleared the forest after it was granted 10,000 hectares of land, Yirmed said.(More...)

Also see:
-Ethiopian wildlife at risk as forest cut

MAHMOUD AHMED of Ethiopia winner of Radio 3's Award for World Music 2007
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(Video) Watch Mahmoud accepting Award
____________________________________

When Mahmoud Ahmed took the stage at Womad 2005 many looked at this grey bearded (yet regal) figure and wondered if he could still touch the heights of those immaculate recordings he cut from 1971-1975.

(Mahmoud Ahmed)
No worries: as his band locked into one of those rolling, eerie Horn Of Africa-grooves Ahmed opened his mouth and that great, mysterious horn of a voice sailed forth just as it had done all those years ago.

Mahmoud Ahmed is both a living legend and something of a mystery in the West. Undeniably Ethiopia’s most famous singer of its “golden era”, the three albums reissued of his recordings by French label Buda Musique as part of their Ethiopiques series have captured Western listeners in the same way that, say, the reissues of Robert Johnson’s Delta blues did a previous generation. Yet where Johnson was long dead Ahmed is alive and in fine voice.(More...)

UN Security Council Approves Hariri Assassination Tribunal

NEW YORK -- A sharply divided UN Security Council voted Wednesday to establish an international criminal tribunal to prosecute the masterminds of the February 2005 suicide-bomb assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 22 others.

The vote will lead to the creation of the first United Nations-backed criminal tribunal in the Middle East, raising expectations that Hariri's killers will be held accountable.


But that has stoked fears among Lebanese authorities and some council members that supporters of Syria -- which has been linked to the assassination -- will plunge Lebanon's fledgling democracy into a bloody new round of strife.

Fearing unrest, authorities imposed a partial curfew in Beirut, leaving the streets deserted. Lebanese placed lit candles on boulevards and balconies to celebrate the outcome and sent congratulatory text messages countrywide.(More...)

Also see:
-Un Tribunal Condemned By Syria, Others
-Supporters Cheer UN Approval of Tribunal for Hariri Assassination
-Hariri son hails UN court move

_________________________

*(Update)* When Bill Gates met Steve Jobs... (The hugely anticipated meeting was seen as a long overdue opportunity for two of the greatest pioneers in the industry to go head to head. But, The question and answer session turned out to be more of a love-in between old pals)
_________________________


Bush names Robert Zoellick as next World Bank chief

US President George W Bush on Wednesday nominated former Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick as the next World Bank head, replacing Paul Paul Wolfowitz, who was forced to resign over a favouritism scandal.


The formal announcement was made at the White House by the President who praised the former United States Trade Representative as a "committed internationalist" and a person "deeply committed" to the cause of defeating poverty.

"He is deeply devoted to the mission of the World Bank. He wants to help struggling nations defeat poverty, to grow their economies and offer their people the hope of a better life. Bob Zoellick is deeply committed to this cause" Bush said.(More...)

Also see:
-Zoellick has new agenda for World Bank
-A Diplomat for the World Bank
-Stiglitz calls new World Bank boss "protectionist"

Today's Top International Stories

-U.N. Resists U.S. on New Sudan Sanctions
-Blair urges G8 to keep African promises
-'Law & Order' star Thompson inches closer to Prez bid
-U.S TB patient's name released
-Putin says test missile is signal to U.S.
-Alexander Litvinenko was British spy, claims alleged killer




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Blogging: We're Going to Need More Monkeys

From this collection of motivational posters. Via Popped Culture. Heh. Ouch. Eep.

Global Peace Index Ranks Canada 8th Most Peaceful Country

The first study to rank countries around the world according to their peacefulness and the drivers that create and sustain their peace was launched today. The Global Peace Index studied 121 countries [...] based on wide range of indicators - 24 in all - including ease of access to "weapons of minor destruction" (guns, small explosives), military expenditure, local corruption, and the level of respect for human rights.

According to the rankings, the 5 most peaceful countries are Norway, New Zealand, Denmark, Ireland, and Japan. The 5 least peaceful are Nigeria, Russia, Israel, Sudan, and Iraq. The US didn't do so well. At #96 it is right in between Yemen and Iran.

After compiling the Index, the researchers examined it for patterns in order to identify the "drivers" that make for peaceful societies. They found that peaceful countries often shared high levels of democracy and transparency of government, education and material well-being. While the U.S. possesses many of these characteristics, its ranking was brought down by its engagement in warfare and external conflict, as well as high levels of incarceration and homicide. The U.S.'s rank also suffered due to the large share of military expenditure from its GDP, attributed to its status as one of the world's military-diplomatic powers.

Canada is ranked at #8, with a peacefulness score of 1.481 (on a 5 point scale, with 1 being most peaceful). I'm curious whether this study took into account what Canada have been doing to Haiti, Afghanistan, and our indigenous peoples, not to mention what some Canadian corporations are doing. In any case, I think the relative peacefulness of our country is something to be proud of, and to guard, and to improve upon. In fact, I think we need a war on war. Our goal is to get to #1. Most peaceful country, yo. You're goin down, Norway!

Quotes from the Press Release. Full details on the study and rankings at www.visionofhumanity.com

May 29, 2007 - Peace Comes Dropping Slow

Where do you find peace, when you’re living with cancer?

That’s a question Leroy Sievers posed, in one of his recent blog entries. It generated a vigorous discussion, from many of his readers.

I was led to post a reply myself, quoting a favorite poem, William Butler Yeats’"The Lake Isle of Innisfree":

"I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,

I hear it in the deep heart's core."

What is it I like about that poem? It celebrates contentment, and gently teaches that contentment is wherever we can find it. For those of us dealing with cancer, that means amidst doctor's appointments, and test results, and side-effects and worries about how we're ever going to pay the medical bills. When else will we ever find peace? The world’s not going to pause for us, while we engage in a quixotic quest for self-fulfillment.

So, where is this idyllic lake isle? It's not a place in terms of geography, at all. It has, rather, to do with the geography of the heart.

The thing the poet teaches me is that peace is found in the dailyness of it all. It's not found in ceaselessly striving for the bigger and the better (as our consumerist culture would have us believe). It's not found in having perfect health (as if there were such a thing). It's found in accepting the good around us as good enough.

I won't deny that the news of my upcoming biopsy has stirred me up a bit, but I’ve been fortunate to discover islands of peace in the midst of it all. Like yesterday evening, for example, as I sat with the family on the front porch, after we’d enjoyed a simple Memorial Day cookout. We sipped coffee, as the warmth of the day turned to cool breezes, and we enjoyed a cake Ania had baked for no particular reason. Her simple joy in baking and decorating it grounded me, and peace came dropping slow.

It truly doesn't get much better than that. In such minor epiphanies can be discerned the gift of peace.

Population Control: Two Paths

You could take China's path: Forced abortions, sterilization, and other punishments for women who have more than one child. This policy has resulted in:

Average Population Growth Rate: 0.70% (2005-2000)
Total fertility rate: 1.75 children born/woman (2007 est.)

Or you could take Sweden's path: increased gender equality and economic justice.

Average Population Growth Rate: 0.10% (2000-2005)
Total fertility rate: 1.66 children born/woman (2007 est.)

Horror stories of torture hound Ethiopia as it proclaims commitment to reform

Check back with ETP for more news throughout the day

Also in the news:
[ION: Top officers meet in conclave] - [Ethiopian foreign minister says troops will stay in Somalia] - [Blast wounds Ethiopia regional leader; 11 dead] - [Roche agrees free AIDS drug technology transfer to Pharmaceutical Factory in Ethiopia]

International:
[Bush announces new sanctions against Sudan] - [Bill Gates, Steve Jobs set for historic conversation] - [BP to announce a return to Libya] - [Contestants to vie for kidney on reality show] and more of today's top stories!

________________

Democracy in Ethiopia, Unplugged:
Reflections on a Dream Deferred
Professor Alemayehu G. Mariam’s speech at the Oakland Kinijit Support chapter town hall meeting, on the occasion of the second anniversary of the May 2005 elections
________________

Horror stories of torture hound Ethiopia as it proclaims commitment to reform

Evidence suggests nation jails its citizens without reason or trial, tortures many of them and habitually violates its own laws

During the six months that 25-year-old Aman was detained in an Addis Ababa prison, he alleges, police kicked and punched him and kept him for weeks on end in a tiny cell with his hands bound as if always in prayer.

Then there was the day that Aman, a second-year law student at the time, went before a judge and found himself correcting her on the Ethiopian criminal code. She had granted prosecutors' request to detain him for three weeks of investigation, a week longer than the law allows.

“I could not have words to express the situation, it is so difficult,” said Aman, who was never charged with a crime and eventually released. “They appoint judges who have no legal knowledge of law, who learn about the law for six months and sit at the court.”(More...)

__________________________________

TOP STORIES FROM THE PAST WEEK

• Professor Lyons: He would just laugh at us
• New York Times Journalists detained, beaten and threatened By Ethiopian Military Personnel
• EPRDF Passes Bill Amending Electoral Law
• Ethiopia: Amnesty International Annual Report 2007
• Swedes 'were tortured' in Ethiopia
• Somalia: The Dynamics of Post-Intervention Political Failure
• Was the Ogaden Handed Over to Ethiopia by Britain in 1896?

__________________________________


Top officers meet in conclave
Indian Ocean Newsletter N° 1214 25/05/2007

A group of top-ranking Ethiopian military officers have been meeting in a closed session at the ministry of defence in Addis Ababa for the past week. They were asked to check in their cell-phones at the cloakroom before being allowed into the meeting room. The subject of their meeting was not disclosed to the public.

However, according to information pieced together from a variety of sources by The Indian Ocean Newsletter, there was a considerable divergence of opinion during the meeting over the situation in Somalia and the continuing defections of Ethiopian servicemen who flee to Eritrea. The fourth army division is already showing signs of internal tension.

Furthermore, official banners have begun to appear in Addis Ababa displaying the words "betigil memot hiwot" which means to die struggling is to be alive. This is an odd hark back to an old revolutionary slogan of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party (EPRP, opposition) dating from the 1970s.

In fact, the Ethiopian government wants to honour the victims of the red terror (under the reign of Haile Mariam Mengistu) on May 27 and the national radio station has started playing EPRP songs. The reasoning behind this government strategy of taking over symbols associated with this opposition party still remains somewhat obscure.

Blast wounds Ethiopia regional leader; 11 dead

ADDIS ABABA 05/29 - A grenade attack in Ethiopia`s volatile Somali region on Monday wounded the local president, killed five people at a packed ceremony and sparked a stampede that left a further six dead, witnesses said.

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi`s government blamed the attack on the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), a separatist movement in the remote eastern area which last month attacked a Chinese-run oil exploration field, killing 74. But the ONLF denied involvement in the attack.(More...)

Also see:
-Ethiopia blames rebel Ogaden for killer blast
-Suspects held for Ethiopia attack
-Ethiopian Grenade Attack, Five Suspects Held

Roche agrees free AIDS drug technology transfer to Pharmaceutical Factory in Ethiopia

BASLE, Switzerland (Thomson Financial) - Roche Holding AG said it has agreed free technology transfers with two African laboratories concerning AIDS medication. The Swiss pharmaceuticals group said it has signed agreements with Addis Pharmaceutical Factory in Ethiopia and Varichem Pharmaceuticals in Zimbabwe.

Under the terms of the deals, the two African laboratories will receive free technical know-how enabling them to produce a generic anti-HIV treatment, based on the process for manufacturing Saquinavir, Roche's drug for the treatment of the AIDS.

Under Roche's technology transfer programme, which was initiated in January 2006, the company has so far signed deals with five African laboratories.(More...)

Ethiopian foreign minister says troops will stay in Somalia

Ethiopian foreign minister, Seum Mesfin, revealed that the thousands of Ethiopian military forces backing the tenuous Somali transitional government would not be withdrawn immediately, saying they rescued the Somali population from Islamic hardliners.

He made the remarks following his arrival in Mogadishu in early this week while he witnessed the resetting up of Ethiopian embassy in the war-torn country.

“Many Somali officials, civil society members and tribal elders asked that we should not leave Somalia while it is still vulnerable and we are determined to make sure that Islamists do not come back and traumatize the population,” he said.(More...)

Also see:
-Somalia Slipping Away
-Gunman kills judge in Mogadishu attack

Ethiopia begins 10-day population count

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — Africa's second most populous country, Ethiopia, began a 10-day population count Tuesday, an exercise aimed at helping the government plan economic and social programs and help donors target their aid better.

Over 100,000 census officials fanned out across Ethiopia on Tuesday. The last census was in 1994 when officials found out there were 54 million Ethiopians in the country. Preliminary results of the population count will be released in five months, and final results in 1½ years.(More...)

Bush announces new sanctions against Sudan

WASHINGTON — President Bush ordered new U.S. economic sanctions today to pressure Sudan's government to halt the bloodshed in Darfur that the administration has condemned as genocide.

(Picture - Relatives mourn over the body of a one-year-old child who died of malnutrition in a refugee camp near a town in the Darfur region of Sudan)


"I promise this to the people of Darfur: the United States will not avert our eyes from a crisis that challenges the conscience of the world," the president said.

The sanctions target government-run companies involved in Sudan's oil industry, and three individuals, including a rebel leader suspected of being involved in the violence in Darfur.

"For too long the people of Darfur have suffered at the hands of a government that is complicit in the bombing, murder and rape of innocent civilians," the president said. "My administration has called these actions by their rightful name: genocide. "The world has a responsibility to put an end to it," Bush said.(More...)

Also see:
-China Rejects US Sanctions Against Sudan For Darfur Conflict

Bill Gates, Steve Jobs set for historic conversation

SAN FRANCISCO - For more than two decades, Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Microsoft chairperson Bill Gates have sparred over the issues that were crucial to the development of the technology industry.

Issues such as whether it's wiser for a company to partner or build everything itself. Or the primacy of software versus hardware in personal computers. Or which is more important: how easy it is to use a product or what it can do once you figure out how?

sometimes friendly but often not, has always been from a distance.

Until now.

Although Gates made a famous phone call to Jobs in 1997 and the two shared a stage briefly at a 1983 Apple promotional event, the two industry icons have never had a public conversation.

So when they sit down next Wednesday for a 75-minute joint interview in front of a gathering of tech executives, their long history and competing philosophies should make for an interesting - if not history-making - discussion.

The conversation at the fifth annual "D - All Things Digital" conference in Carlsbad, California, comes as Gates and Jobs are head in very different directions, and as the companies they co-founded both face big challenges.(More...)

Also see:
-Jobs & Gates, the Biggest Reunion Since Simon & Garfunkel
-Bill Gates and Steve Jobs on stage, unscripted

Miss Japan wins Miss Universe

MISS Japan, Riyo Mori, has been chosen as Miss Universe 2007. Australian entrant Kimberley Busteed was eliminated in the first cut.

Mori, 20, was overwhelmed when the Miss Universe crown valued at $305,604 was placed on her head by last year's winner Zuleyka Rivera Mendoza of Puerto Rico. First runner-up was Natalia Guimaraes of Brazil, second runner-up was Ly Jonaitis of Venezuela and third, Honey Lee of Korea.(More...)

Today's Top International Stories

-Nigeria's New President Calls For Reconciliation
-BP to announce a return to Libya (Oil giant BP is set to announce that it has struck a deal to return to Libya after an absence of more than 30 years)
-Obama offers universal health care plan
-Five Britons 'seized in Baghdad'(Five Britons are reported to have been kidnapped from Iraq's finance ministry in Baghdad)
-Iran Charges 3 Americans With Spying
-Thousands Flee Violence in Lebanon
-Contestants to vie for kidney on reality show




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Edmonton's Army of Homeless

The skyrocketing rents in Edmonton have increased pressures on limited social housing and shelter spaces. This has made Edmonton's homeless problem worse. A lack of a home often means a lack of safety, and so it isn't uncommon for homeless people to sleep close together. This gives rise to tent cities and squats, such as what had sprung up behind the Bissell Centre (a centre servicing low income people in the inner city).

Tue, May 22, 2007
Squatters Say They're Staying:

Officers told more than a dozen people camping in at least six tents in a field behind the Bissell Centre yesterday morning that they're going to have to move.

But most of the tent dwellers are refusing to budge, claiming they have nowhere else to go.

Sat, May 26, 2007
The poor need a tent city

Almost every night, dozens of homeless people - some of whom have day jobs - gather to sleep on the grass there in Edmonton's inner city. Some put up tents to keep the night chill at bay.

Yet, most nights, city police evict the hapless homeless, forcing them to go someplace else.

Bissell Centre spokesman Ele Gibson is ticked off. "Where are they supposed to go?" asks Gibson, who's the resource development director for the inner-city charity that provides everything from a drop-in centre to family services for the poor.
[...]
There's lots of talk from our politicians about affordable housing and homelessness. But the problem persists.

If these people can't stay on this particular patch of land, surely to God someone could find a small slab of public land somewhere where the homeless can have a simple tent over their heads. Other cities have set up safe tent cities. Is that too much to ask, given there's no affordable housing for them?

Mon, May 28, 2007
Homeless gathering an army of supporters for rally

Homeless Edmontonians are taking their plight to the steps of the legislature.

Those recently evicted from provincial land behind the Bissell Centre and others who will be evicted from winter shelters at the end of the month plan to rally on June 27.

These people were sleeping on public land, and it is immoral to force people into dangerous situations just so you don't have to see them. Not to mention: being too poor to have a home isn't illegal. So, I say good for them. We need some proper squatter's rights. The bullies in the provincial government will never do anything for the people unless they are forced.

May 28, 2007 - A Humbling Experience

Cancer is a humbling experience.

I'm not talking about the sort of humility that's associated with standing before a crowd at an awards ceremony and saying, "Aw, shucks, lots of other people deserve this coveted award more than me." That sort of humility is usually considered a virtue – although one that, for obvious reasons, is impossible to brag about.

No, I'm talking about the word "humble," used as a verb. To humble others is to force them to their knees, even against their will. Sometimes we can be said to humble ourselves, but the verb ordinarily refers to forcing someone else's compliance.

It's a pretty good word to describe what cancer does. Cancer doesn't necessarily make you humble, in the virtuous sense. A person with cancer is no more likely than anyone else to give the spotlight over to a competitor. Some cancer survivors may count that sort of humility as one of life's learnings, but it hasn't been that way for me, at least not yet.

"Humble" has its roots in the Latin humus, which means soil or earth. What cancer does is place two firm, gauntleted hands on your shoulders and press you down to the ground. Then, it rubs your face in the dirt. It matters not whether this journey from independence to subservience is undertaken willingly. It's going to happen, regardless. Cancer doesn't care. It's one of life's brute forces.

I'm thinking that way as I imagine my calendar for the next few months. I've got many things to do, some of which I've been planning for quite some time: weddings to perform, a trip with Claire to a national Presbyterian pastors' conference, a family trek to North Carolina to celebrate my mother's 80th birthday, my vacation. I've been looking to spend as much of my summer vacation as I can at our little house in the Adirondacks, six and a half hours' drive from home, and – incidentally – my doctors. In a couple of weeks, though, I'll be going under the knife, and that biopsy could change everything – or then again, it may not. In this awkward, in-between time, there's no way of knowing what the next months are going to look like. And that's humbling.

I suppose this is an experience more familiar to people much older than me. Age fifty is not supposed to be the time of life when you have to think twice about writing something on your calendar for two or three months hence, because you're not sure whether you'll feel up to it. I know some eighty- and ninety-something people who have elevated "one day at a time" to a fine art, living from doctor's appointment to doctor's appointment with graceful abandon, but I'm not there yet. A voice in my head screams, this is wrong, wrong, wrong.

This morning, on one of the websites I often visit as part of my ongoing sermon-preparation process, I come across these lines from a poem by John Bunyan, called, "The Shepherd Boy Sings In The Valley Of Humiliation":

He that is down needs fear no fall,
He that is low, no pride;
He that is humble ever shall
Have God to be his guide.

I am content with what I have,
Little be it or much:
And, Lord, contentment still I crave,
Because Thou savest such.

It's true, when you're on the bottom rung of the ladder, you can't fall very far. But, you can't look around and see all that much, either. All of us crave contentment. The trick is, finding it at ground level, with our faces in the humus.

The Week in review plus weekend news

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Weekend Top Stories:
[ETHIOPIA’S MISSED CHANCES] - [Ethiopia opens embassy in chaotic Somali capital] - [NJ Man Held in Ethiopia Finally Back in U.S.] and more of the weekend's top stories!
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The Week in Review

TOP STORIES FROM THE PAST WEEK

• Professor Lyons: He would just laugh at us
• New York Times Journalists detained, beaten and threatened By Ethiopian Military Personnel
• EPRDF Passes Bill Amending Electoral Law
• Ethiopia: Amnesty International Annual Report 2007
• Swedes 'were tortured' in Ethiopia
• Somalia: The Dynamics of Post-Intervention Political Failure
• Was the Ogaden Handed Over to Ethiopia by Britain in 1896?

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Kinijit International Australia tour
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(Memorial Day - Celebrated on the fourth Monday of May, this holiday honors the dead. Although it originated in the aftermath of the Civil War, it has become a day on which the dead of all wars, and the dead generally, are remembered in special programs held in cemeteries, churches, and other public meeting places)

Bush pays tribute to fallen troops: WASHINGTON — President Bush urged Americans to use Memorial Day to rededicate themselves to fighting for freedom across the world and pray for the safety of U.S. troops serving overseas.(More...)

ETHIOPIA’S MISSED CHANCES—1960, 1974, 1991, 2005—AND NOW: I

Donald N. Levine
Speech at Ras Makonnen Hall A.A

It is a great pleasure for me to be back in this special land--ye’egziabher agar aybalem?--and a privilege to be speaking to you in this special Hall. I give thanks to the Department of Sociology and Anthropology for organizing this occasion, and to Dr. Yaqob Arsano, Dean of the College of Social Sciences, for his truly gracious introduction.

The last time I spoke in Ras Makonnen Hall I had the pleasure of being introduced by a grand colleague and a great Ethiopian--Dr. Eshetu Chole. I’d like to dedicate my comments today to the memory of Dr. Eshetu, and to his inspiring model of unflinching engagement with the problem of Ethiopia’s missed opportunities in a spirit that combined unshakeable hope with enormous intellectual integrity.(More...)

Ethiopia opens embassy in chaotic Somali capital

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Ethiopia opened an embassy in the chaotic Somali capital next to the presidential palace on Sunday, the latest sign of the Horn of Africa military power's close ties with a Somali government it wants to sustain.

Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin, a key player in Addis Ababa's efforts to bolster the government of Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf, opened the embassy on the third day of his latest visit to Mogadishu.(More...)

NJ Man Held in Ethiopia Finally Back in U.S.

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - May 26, 2007 - The family of a New Jersey man who had been held in Ethiopia for alleged ties to Islamic militants is celebrating his return tonight.

And although it's not clear why 24-year-old Amir Mohamed Meshal was finally released, his relatives say they're thrilled to have him back home in Tinton Falls.(More...)

Ethiopia honors victims of Marxist junta during ceremony in Meskel Square

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia: Three decades ago, Ethiopian police brought Ahmed Hussein's younger brother home from jail and asked the family to gather outside.

"They shot him in front of us," Ahmed said Sunday, his eyes welling with tears. "We were not allowed to cry."

Ahmed and thousands of others gathered in the capital, Addis Ababa, on Sunday to remember victims of the Dergue, a brutal Marxist junta that ruled from 1974 to 1991. The service marked the anniversary of the downfall of the junta's leader, Mengistu Haile Mariam — known as "the butcher of Addis Ababa" — who is living in exile in Zimbabwe.(More...)

Zimbabwe holds opposition members

(CNN) -- Police in Zimbabwe rounded up more than 200 members of the political opposition Saturday, according to a spokesman for the southern African nation's main opposition movement.

Nelson Chamisa, spokesman for the Movement for Democratic Change, said the people were gathered in the capital, Harare, to "just discuss political issues." Then, police broke down doors and seized the people, now detained at the Central Police Station.(More...)

Radiation Eating Fungus found in Chernobyl

[Listen to NPR's report]

Researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (AEC) have found evidence that certain fungi possess another talent beyond their ability to decompose matter: the capacity to use radioactivity as an energy source for making food and spurring their growth.

Detailing the research in Public Library of Science ONE, AEC's Arturo Casadevall said his interest was piqued five years ago when he read about how a robot sent into the still-highly-radioactive Chernobyl reactor had returned with samples of black, melanin-rich fungi that were growing on the ruined reactor's walls.

"I found that very interesting and began discussing with colleagues whether these fungi might be using the radiation emissions as an energy source," explained Casadevall.(More...)





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May 25, 2007 - Here We Go Again

Today, I learn that some swollen lymph nodes in the vicinity of my neck will have to be biopsied. I haven't written about this unfolding develop- ment until now, because there's been an element of uncertainty to it. Now that I've got an appointment to consult with a surgeon, though, I suppose I'd better fill in the details.

The roots of this particular chapter of my story go back to March 9, when I met with Dr. Lerner after having a routine PET/CT fusion scan (I did write about that in the blog). A lymph node just below my right jawbone was lit up on the scan, indicating it was swollen. I'd had a cold several days before – which, in itself, could account for the swelling – so, Dr. Lerner thought it best to just watch and wait for a couple of months. When I saw him again on May 11, he spent an unusually long time palpating (feeling with his fingers) two areas: a spot under my right jaw and one behind my right collarbone. He told me he felt something that could be a swollen lymph node, beside the collarbone. It could be nothing, he said – or, it could be a recurrence of the cancer. He ordered an immediate follow-up CT scan of the neck – explaining that, if the area looked problematic, he'd send me to a surgeon for a biopsy.

That's exactly what happened. I went for the CT scan last Friday, May 18, and – with the intervening weekend – it wasn't until yesterday that I heard any more news. Claire was at a hospice team meeting with Dr. Lerner (he's the medical director of the hospice program). She got a few moments with him privately, to ask when he thought my scan results might come in. He said the results had just come in that morning, but he'd only had time to glance at the radiologist's narrative report, and hadn't been able to examine the pictures at all. Based on what the radiologist had written, though, he thought a biopsy was in my future. He told Claire I should call him back today, after he'd had a closer look.

This morning, as instructed, I left a phone message for Dr. Lerner. Around noon, I got a call back from Paula, a physician's assistant who works in his office. Dr. Lerner had asked her to call me, to explain that my CT scan highlighted three different lymph nodes: one by my right collarbone, another under my right jaw, and a third in my chest area. When I asked how that last one had shown up on a CT scan of the neck, she explained that it was in an area at the very edge of the scan – well beyond the neck region, but still visible.

Dr. Gornish, the surgeon - Paula explained - will have to decide which of these lymph nodes is most accessible. She thinks it will probably be the one under the jaw. He'll probably only need to remove one of them, because this surgery is for diagnostic purposes only. (Unlike some other cancers, lymphoma is not generally treated by surgically removing all problematic lymph nodes; one cancerous node indicates that the whole lymphatic system is already compromised, so surgical treatment is futile.) I'll see Dr. Gornish this Thursday, for a consultation.

Yesterday, I also phoned Dr. Portlock's office at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, to get the ball rolling for a second opinion, once the biopsy results come back. I asked Ernestine, the wonderfully helpful receptionist, if Dr. Portlock thought I should have the biopsy done in New York. After speaking with the doctor, she called me back and said that, while they could certainly do the biopsy at MSKCC, I could just as well have it done here, close to home, and bring the tissue samples and scan results into the city when I come to see Dr. Portlock. This is the same thing I did last time, with the core-needle biopsy results. I'm especially eager to have a second opinion, after my experience last time – when the MSKCC pathologist overruled the local pathologist, and changed the grading of my cancer to a more aggressive type.

It's just as well that I'll be having an excisional biopsy. The core-needle biopsy, a year and a half ago, came up with mostly scar tissue. Evidently, the pathologists barely had a big-enough tissue sample to put under the microscope. If there are any lingering doubts about what type of NHL I have, the larger sample, cut from an entire lymph node, ought to put those questions to rest.

So, now it's a waiting game, for the next several weeks. It's excruciating, of course – but, at least I've been there before. I know in advance how agonizing it will be, to have the thought of cancer surface in my mind, at unexpected moments. After a year of relative normality, it looks like everything could go topsy-turvy again.

But, then again, maybe there's some other explanation for the swollen lymph nodes. I'll know soon enough, I suppose...

"You let people live like abandoned animals on the street?"

Los Angeles has one of the biggest homeless populations in the US. We know this because it had the first accurate homeless census done in 2005 (82,291 homeless people in 2005)

(Photo from Wikipedia)

LA's financial district is merely a few blocks away from the urine-soaked, tent-strewn streets of Skid Row, shown in these photos.



(Photos from Down and Out in Downtown LA: The Story of a Homeless Couple)

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(Photo by Stephen Shames)

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(Film stills from TIES ON A FENCE - Women in Downtown Los Angeles Speak Out )

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(Photos by mattlogelin)

Notice any pattern to the faces seen here? African Americans make up 38.7% of LA's homeless population (they are only 9.5% of the general population of LA)

Listen to Jennifer Westaway's award-winning portrait of Skid Row (highly recommended), or check out this LA Times article

Save Money on Gas by Driving Less

Or you could just establish your global hegemony to secure foreign sources of petroleum.



Or you could vigorously oppose better fuel-efficiency requirements. (Via desmogblog)

It's always easier to blame the gas tax than to blame those who are really profiting, anyways. Good thing we are supporting North American Energy Security by guaranteeing our oil to a foreign country.

EPRDF Passes Bill Amending Electoral Law

Check back with ETP for more news throughout the day

Also in the news:
[Africa Commemorates 'Africa Day'] - [United We Stand Divided We Fall] - [30,000 Runners to Hit the Road at Ethiopian 'Millennium Great Run'] - [Somali government rebuffs Amnesty's report on Somalia]

International:
[Gunmen seize Nigeria oil workers] - [Al-Sadr Reappears In Iraq At Rally] - [Myanmar Extends Suu Kyi's House Arrest] - [The Surprising Realities of Mythical Creatures] and more of today's top stories!

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EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT HEARING ON ETHIOPIA

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Africa Commemorates 'Africa Day'

Africa Day is the annual commemoration on May 25 of the 1963 founding of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was in July 2002 succeeded by the present African Union, while amalgamating with the African Economic Community (AEC), but kept the date and name of Africa Day. (Wiki)

African Heads of State at the inaugural summit of the Organization of African Unity. Africa Hall, Addis Abeba - May, 1963 (Click to Enlarge)


Inspiring letter, written to Emperor Haile Selassie by Oliver Tambo, Vice President of the African National Congress (ANC, South Africa), explaining why he was unable to attend the summit and on the wellbeing of Nelson Mandela (Click on picture to read the letter in its entirety)
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In July 1964, Malcolm X attended the second meeting of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), in Cairo, to distribute a press release on behalf of twenty-two million Afro-Americans in the United States. [See Video]
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For more history and interesting insider facts on Ethiopia’s involvement in the creation of the OAU (Now AU), visit [http://www.oau-creation.com]

Also see:
-Africa Commemorates 'Africa Day'
-Celebrating Africa Day in style
-Millions unite to celebrate Africa Day
-Rastas to commemorate Africa Day

United We Stand Divided We Fall
Kinijit Support Group in Sacramento
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...Non-violent struggle may be gradual, un-dramatic, and mostly be carried out by individuals whose names will never make the news headlines or be associated with any organization. Hence, its victory is a product of collective action of all citizens, not a heroic action of a single group. Above all, the results from non-violent struggles are long lasting; it is a definitive means of installing and preserving democracy.
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After EPRDF lost election in May 15, 2005, it violently disrupted the peaceful transition of Ethiopia from despotic to democratic country. Since then, thousands of innocent citizens, renowned political leaders and human right defenders, independent journalists and students have been killed, suffered in prison and torture.

Uncountable numbers of innocent citizens are dislocated from where they have been living for generation and became fugitives in their own country and refugee elsewhere with little hope of returning to their home. This is the result of complete lack of political will of the incumbent EPRDF government to accept the people’s decision, abide by the results of the election and its strong desire to stay in power.

The election process and the May 15, 2005 election sparked the light of hope, the desire for peace and much eagerly awaited economic development for all Ethiopians. Unprecedented number of Ethiopians caste their ballot hoping that they would put government of their choice to power and in anticipation that they would eradicate conflict, starvation and poverty from Ethiopia. Kinijit and other opposition parties did run successful election campaigns.(More...)

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Jonathan Dimbleby Interviews - PM Meles Zenawi (Do you think the interview was professionally conducted? Does it adhere to journalistic standards? Or was it one-sided and biased? Contact the producers at “info@teachers.tv” and let them know what you think)

Also see:
BBC: Meles Zenawi on HardTalk (Stephen Sackur went to Ethiopia (2005), to ask Prime Minister Meles Zenawi the questions Ethiopian journalists could not)
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EPRDF Passes Bill Amending Electoral Law

“the law is a threat to the fundamental principle of election and democracy which is the power of the people. The new law paves way for partiality in the election processes of the country,” Temesgen Gebru

"the law is made in a way to benefit the government" Bulcha Demeksa
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ADDIS ABABA,Ethiopia- The Ethiopian parliament adopted a new election law with a majority vote on Thursday that will create a new structure for the national election board and add new practices in the nation’s future elections.

The new law which was presented to the house last March has been discussed by the ruling party and opposition parties in parliament for weeks. It is different from the privious law that it will give place for the opposition parties to participatre in the process of nominating the election board officials.

Three of the four major opposition voices in the Ethiopian parliament rejected the ratification of the law and asked for further discussions and amendment while EUDP MEDHIN said that the law has some contentious points but will accept the overall document.(More...)

Also see:
-Foreign media and observers to be banned from Ethiopia’s future elections

30,000 Runners to Hit the Road at Ethiopian 'Millennium Great Run'

(hint, hint)...Haile indicated that the race will be aired live on BBC, Supersport and other international media as well as TV stations
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Some 30,000 runners will participate at the 2007 Ethiopian Millennium Run, the biggest mass ever run in Africa, to be staged for the seventh time in Ethiopia.

"This will be the first big mass run in Africa where 30000 thousand runners including world elite athletes are expected to take part," Founder and Coordinator of Ethiopian Great Run, World class Athlete Major Haile Gebresilassie told a press conference on Thursday.

Haile said this year's great run to be held on Sunday 9 September 2007 and dedicated for the Ethiopian Millennium, will be the biggest in Africa The 2007 TOYOTA Great Ethiopian Run is the 7th edition of Ethiopia's annual international 10km road race.

Haile indicated that the race will be aired live on BBC, Supersport and other international media's as well as other TV stations.(More...)

Somali government rebuffs Amnesty's report on Somalia

Mogadishu 25, May.07 - The Somali transitional government rebuffed Amnesty International report on human rights violations by several countries in the Horn and Eastern Africa.

Somali government spokesman, Abdi Haji Goobdoon, said Friday that the international human rights agency was exaggerating its report on human rights abuses in Somalia. He said Somali interim government has only recently been able to seize control of the country.

“Local human rights agencies are yet novices in their work because the whole country is recovering from the civil war and hardships that have not yet entirely evaded, so I believe Amnesty was quick to criticize Somalia on rights violations,” he said.(More...)

Myanmar Extends Suu Kyi's House Arrest

(AP) - Defying an outpouring of international appeals, Myanmar's military government Friday extended the house arrest of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi by another year, a government official said.

Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has spent 11 of the past 17 years in detention and the order will keep her confined to her residence for a fifth straight year.

Her current one-year detention order was due to expire on Sunday and the extension had been widely expected, although many international groups and world leaders had called for Suu Kyi's freedom. The government normally makes no official announcement of such actions.

Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, the U.N.'s human rights expert for Myanmar, said the decision was ``counterproductive in terms of making a transition to democracy. They say they are moving ahead, but they continue to hold 1,200 political prisoners, including the main members of the opposition,'' he told The Associated Press by telephone from Cape Town, South Africa(More...)

Also see:
-US demands release of Myanmar's Suu Kyi
-UN rights envoy condemns Suu Kyi detention decision
-China will stay out of Myanmar's affairs

Explaining the Lebanese Crisis

Are you having trouble understanding what's going on in Lebanon? Last summer there was war with Israel, all winter and spring the country has been in a political crisis between the government and Hizballah, and now all of a sudden there is some mystery jihadi group staging an uprising in a Palestinian camp. What gives? What does it mean?

(Picture - Lebanese army soldiers patrol the outskirts of the besieged camp of Nahr al-Bared in north Lebanon)

Lebanon has some 400,000 Palestinian refugees that originally came in two waves -- 1948 and 1967. That was a long time ago though, and the younger generations have never seen their home country, and still don't have citizenship in this one. Most of the residents of Nahr al-Bared hail from Nazareth in the Galilee.

The Palestinians brought a lot of trouble with them to Lebanon. Since most of them are Sunni Muslim, their arrival upset this country's fragile sectarian balance, pushing Lebanon towards the civil war that raged from 1975 to 1990. Nor did it help that the PLO turned Lebanon into a base for terror operations against Israel, which led Israel to invade in 1982 (they finally left Southern Lebanon in 2000).(More...)

Today's Top International Stories

-Gunmen seize Nigeria oil workers
-Women's rights key to Africa AIDS crisis: study
-Divided Congress approves Iraq war funds
-Al-Sadr Reappears In Iraq At Rally
-Ukraine: Yushchenko signs decree to take control over interior troops
-North Korea Fires Off Series of Missiles
-The Surprising Realities of Mythical Creatures
-Bob Marley - Africa Unite




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