Egypt imports 21 tons of tear gas from the US, port staff refuses to sign for it

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29 November 2011
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The arrival of 7 and half tons of tear gas to Egypt’s Suez port created conflict after the responsible officials at the port refused to sign and accept it for fear it would be used to crackdown on Egyptian protesters.

The shipment has been moved by the ministry of interior to its Cairo storage facility, amidst strict and secretive security measures. Local reports say the staff, initially under investigation, have been spared investigation after having a discussion over the matter with their superiors.

Local news sites published documents regarding the shipment shows that the cargo that arrived in 479 barrels from the United States was scheduled to be delivered to the ministry of interior.

The reports also mentioned in the documents that a second shipment of 14 tons of tear gas was expected, making the total 21 tons, in one week.

The importing of tear gas comes after thousands of tear gas canisters were fired at Egyptian protesters last week as clashes raged in downtown Cairo, just off from the iconic Tahrir Square, where thousands of protesters had gathered

Immunise or lose benefits, parents told

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28 November 2011
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Parents who do not have their children fully immunised will be stripped of family tax benefits under a scheme announced by the Federal Government.

The Government says 11 per cent of five-year-olds are not immunised and has announced a shake-up of the system which will take effect from July 1 next year.

Under the changes, families who refuse vaccinations face losing up to $2,100 per child in benefits — via redwolf.newsvine.com

BNP threatens protest at headteacher’s home over sex education proposals

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25 November 2011
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British National party activists have warned a primary school’s headteacher and chair of governors that they will face demonstrations outside their homes if they do not drop plans to extend sex education lessons to children aged four.

A delegation from the far-right party picketed Grenoside Community primary school in Sheffield over proposals that would see children aged between four and six being taught about reproduction in mammals. Older children would be taught about the human body, including naming the sex organs, as well as receiving guidance on good and bad touching.

BNP activists, who arrived as the school was preparing to close on Tuesday, demonstrated outside and handed in a letter warning the head: We believe that your evil plans to introduce these children to sex at such a young age borders on paedophilia and that it is not acceptable — via redwolf.newsvine.com

North Korean prison camp survivor speaks out

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24 November 2011
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A North Korean prison camp survivor has given a rare testimony exposing public executions and starvation at the detention centre where she was held for 28 years.

Kim Hye Sook was aged 13 when she was sent to join her parents at the Gwalliso No 18 political prisoners camp where detainees were treated worse than dogs while carrying out enforced labour and being abused by guards.

Ms Kim, who was released in 2001 and now lives in South Korea, sobbed as she told a conference in Geneva how she was forced to watch public shootings and went without food to feed her brothers and sisters, who remain in detention — via redwolf.newsvine.com

South Africa’s assembly passes ‘secrecy bill,’ stirring journalists’ fears

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23 November 2011
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South Africa’s National Assembly passed a bill on Tuesday that would protect state information and potentially impose 25-year criminal sentences on journalists who publish or possess state documents that the South African government deems to be secret.

The ruling African National Congress hailed the bill as a necessary measure to protect South Africa’s national security information from foreign spies. But news organizations and civil society groups saw the bill’s passage as a dangerous weakening of the hard-fought freedoms South Africans gained after the fall of the apartheid government.

During legislative debate, opposition Democratic Alliance parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko said, If passed, this bill will unstitch the very fabric of our constitution. It will criminalize the freedoms that so many of our people fought for — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Twitter, Facebook to be in government phone book?

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21 November 2011
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The Federal Government’s phone book of all Australian telephone numbers could include users’ social networking details in the future, depending on the outcome of a review of the Integrated Public Number Database (IPND).

The IPND covers all Australian telephone numbers and subscriber information. Its basic functions include determining callers’ locations when they dial triple-zero and assisting law enforcement agencies in their investigations. It also is used to publish telephone books and provide directory assistance, although access to certain information in these instances is reduced.

The Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy has recognised that the IPND is in need of a review due to developments in the telecommunication industry since the database was first established in 1998. Consequently, it has released a discussion paper (PDF) inviting community comment on how the IPND should be improved.

One of the topics for discussion is the prevalence of social media and other internet-based services, and whether it should be included as part of the IPND — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Médecins sans Frontières book reveals aid agencies’ ugly compromises

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21 November 2011
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A controversial new book produced by one of the world’s best-known aid agencies, Médecins sans Frontières, lifts the lid on the often deeply uncomfortable compromises aid organisations are forced to make while working in conflicts.

How humanitarian aid organisations work — and the sometimes unintended consequences of their actions — has been brutally cross-examined in recent years, not least by the critical Dutch author Linda Polman.

MSF’s collection of essays, Humanitarian Negotiations Revealed, has provided the most detailed and self-critical inside account of the deals aid agencies are forced to negotiate, often with groups and regimes which abuse human rights, to continue their work — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Copyright isn’t working, says European Commission

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21 November 2011
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People have come to see copyright as a tool of punishment, Europe’s technology chief has said in her strongest-yet attack on the current copyright system.

Digital agenda commissioner Neelie Kroes said on Saturday that the creative industries had to embrace rather than resist new technological ways of distributing artistic works. She added that the existing copyright system was not rewarding the vast majority of artists.

Is the current copyright system the right and only tool to achieve our objectives? Not really, Kroes said in a speech to the Forum D’Avignon thinktank. Citizens increasingly hear the word copyright and hate what is behind it.

Sadly, many see the current system as a tool to punish and withhold, not a tool to recognise and reward, Kroes added — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Pakistan telecoms authority to block ‘obscene’ texts

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18 November 2011
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The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) has told mobile phone companies to begin blocking text messages containing obscene words.

Mobile phone companies Telenor Pakistan and Ufone confirmed to the BBC that the PTA has sent them a dictionary of banned words and expressions.

The PTA has reportedly ordered operators to begin screening text messages by 21 November.

Ufone say they are now working on how to block the offending words — via redwolf.newsvine.com

SOPA condemned by web giants as ‘internet blacklist bill’

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17 November 2011
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Internet giants went on the attack on Wednesday, claiming legislation aimed at tackling online piracy would create an internet blacklist bill that would encourage censorship, kill jobs and give US authorities unrivalled powers over the world’s websites.

Internet firms including Wikipedia owner Wikimedia, eBay, Google, Twitter and others protested as Congress discussed the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) now passing through Washington.

The act aims to tackle online piracy by giving the US Justice Department new powers to go after websites, both domestically and abroad, that host disputed copyright material. The act would allow the US to effectively pull the plug on websites and go after companies that support them technically or through payment systems. A vote on the bill could come as early as next month — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Seattle City Council passes resolution in support of Occupy movement

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16 November 2011
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Seattle City Council today adopted Resolution 31337in support of the Occupy movement.

The resolution recognises and supports the peaceful and lawful exercise of the First Amendment as a cherished and fundamental right in the effort to seek solutions for economically distressed Americans at the federal and local levels.

The Council also committed to a number of actions in response to the Occupy movement dealing with fair lending and taxation.

The resolution was introduced by Councilmember Nick Licata and co-sponsored by Mike O’Brien. It passed unanimously — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Email spam ‘Block 25’ crackdown readied in South Korea

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15 November 2011
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South Korea is lobbying its internet service providers to sign up to a national plan to tackle spam.

The plan requires ISPs to restrict email to official computer gateways by blocking another common route that messages travel over.

It is hoped this will thwart spammers who hijack home PCs and use them to send junk mail.

Critics say the block could do more harm than good to businesses and hit home workers — via redwolf.newsvine.com

The Internet Revolts Against Anti-Piracy Censorship

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13 November 2011
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In response to the pending SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act), leading civil liberties and tech policy organisations are calling for a Internet-wide day of protest against censorship.

The event is dubbed American Censorship Day, because it will take place on the day of House hearings on the legislation that will introduce web censorship in the US.

The groups say that under the new legislation, America’s Internet could no longer be free and open as it is now, but controlled by large entertainment industry companies and their fear of piracy. As a result thousands of perfectly legitimate Internet services have to fear for their existence.

Sites are encouraged to participate. All the have to do is put a code snippet on their site so all US visitors will be alerted.

Visitors to these sites will then see a splash-page with a seizure notice that allows them to contact Congress to vote against the pending anti-piracy bills (they can click it away and it will only be shown once) — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Fix the economy, destroy the polity: Australia since 1983

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12 November 2011
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Many significant economic changes were effected in Australia after the election of the Hawke-Keating government in 1983. Both Labor and the Coalition thereafter supported a wide ranging program of economic reform. In this short paper I will argue that, without deliberate intent, this shared project has marched in step with a profound corruption of political life. Moreover, unchecked this is a development that threatens to destroy Australia’s hitherto robust democracy.

Since 1983, political conflict has increasingly come to focus on the short term. Opportunism and manufactured difference now dominate the argument between the rival parties. Public trust in politics and public disaffection from politics has grown. Without systemic change, this undermining of effective political and policy capacity can embed destructive cynicism and untrusting disengagement. It will cauterise citizen affiliation to the formal political system and our collective ability to respond to pressing longer term issues — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Camels ‘left to rot’ after mass cull

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9 November 2011
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The owner of a Central Australian cattle station is angry that camel carcasses have been left to rot after recent culls.

Ian Conway runs Kings Creek Station near where 5,000 camels have been shot from helicopters in the past fortnight.

Mr Conway has acknowledged that camel numbers need to be cut because of the significant ecological and pastoral damage the animals cause.

But he says previous culls have shown it is cruel to shoot them and leave them to rot — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Our Contract With Serco

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9 November 2011
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New Matilda has gained exclusive access to the first publicly available version of the 2009 Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) contract with British multinational Serco.

The contract was obtained through a Freedom of Information request and reveals the most comprehensive information yet about the running of Australian detention centres — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Michigan Senate Legalises Anti-Gay Bullying

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4 November 2011
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In their infinite desire to protect the rights of their hate-filled children to spew anti-gay nonsense, bully other children, and drive gay kids to suicide (or at least a childhood of self-loathing), Republicans added language to the bill that allows religious people to continue bullying.

The bill now says that the anti-bullying requirements don’t prohibit a statement of a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction of a school employee, school volunteer, pupil, or a pupil’s parent or guardian

Rob Ford denies calling 911 dispatcher names

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28 October 2011
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Ford’s comments concern 911 calls he made Monday after Mary Walsh, part of the CBC-TV comedy show This Hour Has 22 Minutes, ambushed him in his driveway as the character Marg Delahunty, with cameras rolling.

First they said they weren’t on my property. They were at my car, they were holding me. My daughter was just inside the door. You know, put yourself in my shoes, Ford said.

The mayor was responding to a CBC News report that quoted multiple sources who claimed Ford turned on the dispatcher who took one of the calls and said: You … bitches! Don’t you fucking know? I’m Rob fucking Ford, the mayor of this city! — via redwolf.newsvine.com

US wants to give pharma more power over our medicines policy

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27 October 2011
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In Business, Health, Politics
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Leaked documents from the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement negotiations currently underway in Peru show the US is seeking to use the agreement to increase the monopoly rights of pharmaceutical companies and undermine the effectiveness of pharmaceutical reimbursement programs like Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

The TPP is a proposed regional trade agreement involving Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam.

The texts, leaked over the weekend, include an annex on ‘transparency and procedural fairness for healthcare technologies’ and extra provisions for an intellectual property rights chapter that was leaked in February this year — via redwolf.newsvine.com

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