Reuters AlertNet - Global court said ready to indict Uganda rebels

Reuters AlertNet - Global court said ready to indict Uganda rebels: "UNITED NATIONS, Sept 29 (Reuters) - The International Criminal Court is expected to issue arrest warrants shortly against leaders of a notorious Ugandan rebel force accused of raping and maiming children over two decades, a U.N. official said on Thursday.

Remnants of the Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army recently took refuge in the Congo, and would be disarmed and evicted by force, if necessary, according to William Lacy Swing, head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

'We understand that the International Criminal Court will be issuing international arrest warrants imminently for a number of key LRA leaders and sending these directly to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ugandan governments,' Swing told the U.N. Security Council, according to his written notes, obtained by Reuters.

The LRA, led by a Christian mystic, Joseph Kony, is not on the Security Council's agenda but news that his deputy, Vincent Otti had moved fighters to the Congo, has brought it to the council's attention.

Some diplomats say the warrants could be issued as early as this week or next, and follow sealed indictments to a three-judge pre-trial chamber of the International Criminal Court, based in The Hague, Netherlands. The indictments and warrants would be the first by the new global court. "

MSN Money - Financial Times Business News: US rejects UN calls for more troops in Congo

U.S. rejects U.N. call for more troops for Democratic Republic of Congo (from the Financial Times)...
MSN Money - Financial Times Business News: US rejects UN calls for more troops in Congo: "The US has rejected United Nations calls for an additional brigade of peacekeepers for its overstretched mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as the central African country gears up for its first multiparty elections in more than 40 years."...

Kofi Annan, UN secretary-general, has asked the Security Council for an extra 2,580 troops to quell unrest by Mayi-Mayi militia in the north and centre of the largely lawless, but strategically important, southern province of Katanga. A referendum on a new constitution is due in late November, and already delayed elections are scheduled for next year...

But the US says the UN should instead use troops from neighbouring countries if needed. "We must prioritise," said a US official. "We cannot do everything. We have advocated sharing troops for the election."

The Security Council is expected today to extend the Congo mission for a month, amid hopes for a compromise. That could include raising 500 more troops under the mission's current limit.

It is the second time Mr Annan had appealed for peacekeepers for Katanga, a huge, mineral-rich region where there is little effective state control and growing concerns about ethnic and political tensions, as well as the presence of tribal fighters and undisciplined government troops.

ibaby iron on 

ipodmybaby 

Ipod My Baby

Ipod My Baby: "High quality 100% cotton onesies. Each is equipped with a touch sensitive scroll wheel; responsive to your every nudge, tickle and squeeze. Only $15.95. Available in 3 sizes: 6, 12, and 18 months."

Honeybees attacking wasp 

Balls of Fire: Bees carefully cook invaders to death: Science News Online, Sept. 24, 2005

Balls of Fire: Bees carefully cook invaders to death: Science News Online, Sept. 24, 2005: "Honeybees that defend their colonies by killing wasps with body heat come within 5°C of cooking themselves in the process, according to a study in China."...

"I've seen a single wasp overwhelm a colony of 6,000 bees" of a species that doesn't make heat balls, says Seeley. The invader wasp stands at the nest's entrance as one guard bee after another comes out to defend its home. "The wasp cuts the guard into pieces ... and waits for the next one," says Seeley. When all the defenders are dead, "the wasps strip-mine out the larvae," he reports.

However, a few honeybee species can defend themselves by surrounding an invader. Researchers used to think that the few-dozen bees were trying to sting the wasp, says Seeley. Thermal cameras, however, revealed the balls' soaring heat.

Evangelline Lilly  

RollingStone.com: Little Girl Lost : News

The star of "Lost"-- that strangest of phenomena: a cult show with blockbuster ratings...

RollingStone.com: Little Girl Lost : News: "J.J. Abrams, executive producer and co-creator of Lost, rejected actress after actress for the role of Kate, insisting that they would find the alluring unknown they were looking for. Just two weeks before shooting was set to begin on the pilot, he saw Lilly's audition tape and proclaimed her to be both beautiful and goofy -- exactly the girl he wanted. But could she handle it? Before Lilly took the part, Abrams looked her in the eye and said, 'You have no idea what's about to happen. If you don't really want this, run.' Lilly avoided his stare and muttered that she was ready, thinking that if she didn't like making the pilot, she'd just go back to college and finish her international-relations degree. Turns out she may never get that degree after all.

'She's amazing,' Fox says. 'Stepping into the lead of a show with no experience? Her poise and confidence are remarkable.'

According to Lilly, Fox tells her something different. Between takes on location, she'll shinny up a vine or maybe eat a slug on a dare, at which point she will receive a steely Fox gaze: 'He's constantly looking at me and saying, 'Evie, do you realize you're really weird?' And then he'll just walk away.'"...

"Over and over again," Lilly says, "I've been called a walking oxymoron. I do things that you wouldn't associate with a good little Christian girl. People say I'm half-boy, half-girl." Before I can object that the visual evidence suggests otherwise, she continues, "I love style and dressing up, but I've also got competitive testosterone and I'm incredibly stubborn. When I'm going for a jog and I come up behind a guy on his bike, I try to beat him, even if it kills me."

Lilly is now earning far more than she ever did as a stewardess or an oil-change grease monkey (another early job), but her lifestyle hasn't changed all that much. She lives with two roommates (both of whom worked as her stand-ins on Lost). She relishes the idea of being an actress for five to ten years, then walking away and having babies.

She knows that in many ways her job is a dream, but despite Abrams' warnings she wasn't prepared for how overwhelming it would all become. She managed to put off the Big Meltdown until near the end of Season One. Worn down by her workload, she called her parents in full hysterics. They told her, "Screw Hollywood -- you come home and we'll feed you some chicken-noodle soup."

Instead, Lilly went to Rwanda, where a friend was doing missionary work. "I holed up and read and wrote and prayed," she says. "I just disappeared off the face of the earth." Ironically, the consequence of playing the character of a forgotten person stranded on one of the most remote corners of the planet is that she has to travel great distances to end up someplace where nobody will recognize her.

ReliefWeb » Document Preview » 4,000 children still unccounted for in Uganda, rights group says

ReliefWeb » Document Preview » 4,000 children still unccounted for in Uganda, rights group says: "Kampala (dpa) - At least 4,000 children who were among some of the tens of thousands abducted by the Ugandan rebels from the north of the country cannot be traced, a Ugandan human rights group said in a report obtained Wednesday.

The report by Uganda Human Rights Commmission (UHRC) also accuses government forces of torturing civilians in the war-ravaged region, using methods that included suspending weights on genitals for extracting information or instilling discipline.

The war is waged by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) guerillas who have displaced over 1.5 million people and abducted nearly 30,000 children and youth whom they have forced into their army. The LRA has also forced abducted girls into sex slavery.

Many of the children had come back home after escaping from the LRA or being rescued by government forces but according to UHRC, 'by the end of 2004, out of the 26,000 children abducted by the LRA, 4,000 were still unaccounted for in northern Uganda.''

UHRC says the military establishment tortured suspected civilians and soldiers in the northern region and other parts of Uganda to extract information or force a confession from them.

'In one complaint, a wife of a soldier who was around 7 months pregnant was subjected to corporal punishment because she had a quarrel in the barracks with a wife of another soldier. Five army men held the woman down while another enforced corporal punishment,'' the report said."

Reuters AlertNet - Dependency myth stops aid reaching people in need - report

Reuters AlertNet - Dependency myth stops aid reaching people in need - report: "LONDON (AlertNet) – Aid agencies sometimes cite concerns about creating a culture of dependency on aid in disaster-hit countries as justification for withholding relief, according to a new report that says this was a key reason why the humanitarian community was slow to respond to Niger’s food crisis

In fact, the report’s authors say, there is scant evidence that relief undermines local initiatives in responding to crises. Rather than fretting about issues of dependency, they say, the aid world should strive to make aid less unpredictable and more dependable.

“If you did depend on relief, you’d often be dead,” said Paul Harvey, co-author of a new report by the Humanitarian Policy Group (HPG) of London-based think tank Overseas Development Institute.

“If people in Niger had sat on their arses, they’d be dead.”"

Gateway Pundit: More Hurricane Katrina: Folklore vs. Fact

Interesting compilation from the Gateway Pundit...
Gateway Pundit: More Hurricane Katrina: Folklore vs. Fact: "More Hurricane Katrina: Folklore vs. Fact"

BBC NEWS | Africa | Violence threat to Darfur relief

BBC NEWS | Africa | Violence threat to Darfur relief: "Escalating violence in Sudan's Darfur region could lead to the United Nations halting relief efforts there, says their chief aid coordinator.

Jan Egeland said violence in Darfur had become so bad that the UN operation could 'all end tomorrow - it's as serious as that'."

Wired News: You Can't Hide Your Lyin' Brain

Wired News: You Can't Hide Your Lyin' Brain: "CHARLESTON, South Carolina -- A scientist at the Medical University of South Carolina has found that magnetic resonance imaging machines also can serve as lie detectors.

That compares with polygraphs that range from 80 percent to "no better than chance" at finding the truth, George said.

The study found MRI machines, which are used to take images of the brain, are more than 90 percent accurate at detecting deception, said Dr. Mark George, a distinguished professor of psychiatry, radiology and neurosciences."

Protect the people - Editorials/Op-Ed - The Washington Times, America's Newspaper

I agree with the editorialist's conclusions that the international "responsibility to protect" doctrine is a good thing, but am not sure how closely it will be followed...

Protect the people - Editorials/Op-Ed - The Washington Times, America's Newspaper: "No, the U.N. General Assembly summit this month didn't produce nearly as much agreement on reform as the world body needs. On the other hand, the World Summit Outcome document does have one big item in its favor.
That's the completion of no less than a revolution in consciousness in international affairs by the adoption of what's known as the 'responsibility to protect.'"...

Under such circumstances, the U.N. summit concluded, "The international community, through the United Nations, also has the responsibility to use appropriate diplomatic, humanitarian and other peaceful means, in accordance with Chapters VI and VIII of the Charter, to help protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. In this context, we are prepared to take collective action, in a timely and decisivemanner, through the Security Council, in accordance with the Charter, including Chapter VII, on a case-by-case basis and in cooperation with relevant regional organizations as appropriate,should peaceful means be inadequate and national authorities manifestly fail to protect their populationsfrom genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity."
The language is not elegant, but the moral principle applied to all governments is: No mass killing and other atrocities on your territory; it is your job as sovereign power to prevent it or stop it. If you can't do it on your own, the international community pledges to help you, and you had better be willing to accept whatever help is necessary to get the job done. If, however, you are the problem, then the international community is prepared to intervene as needed, by whatever means, including military means, to stop the atrocities. The standard is not the effort a government expends (or pretends to be expending), but actual effective protection of people at risk.
The need for such a principle in international affairs is perfectly clear, summed up by reference to such killing fields asSrebrenica,Rwanda, Kosovo and Darfur. The doctrine of non-interference in the internal affairs of other states, a classical principle of international law, can serve as a double-sided excuse for inaction in the face of unspeakable crimes: First, as asserted by a state responsible for the perpetration of mass killings, to keep others out on the grounds that what's going on is none of their business; second, as a convenient principle according to which outsiders may avert their eyes, excusing their inaction on the grounds that there is nothing they can legitimately do. ...

I say the responsibility to protect is a revolution in consciousness in international affairs for two reasons. The first is that the concept de-centers the state as the actor par excellence in international relations in favor of people, actual human beings, who are not after all subject beyond question to the whims of their rulers. With the privileges of statehood, such as the principle of non-interference, come responsibilities, protection first among them. Any government attempting to assert the former while ignoring the latter, at the expense of its own people, is in danger of losing its privileges.
The second and related revolutionary element of responsibility to protect is that it de-territorializes the enforcement and protection of the rights of man, or human rights. It is not only your government, that which asserts its sovereign power over you who live within its jurisdiction, that will either act to protect or fail to protect your rights, starting with the most basic right, your right to live. Others are called upon to act to protect you when your government does not. Where formerly there was no recourse for you but to try to flee, now you have a claim on the international community at large.
I know that we are not yet in a world in which we can make good on all such claims. But with the adoption of the responsibility to protect, we are a step closer.

All in the Mind: 24 September 2005 - Do You See What I See? Delusions

Here is a description of various delusions. I remember, as a med student, being amazed at the various sorts of illusions/delusions that the human mind could harbor and how powerful they could be...
All in the Mind: 24 September 2005 - Do You See What I See? Delusions: "Cotard’s syndrome is the belief that you have died, and for sufferers it is a terrifying state. Delusions can take many forms, from widespread paranoia to a specific and singular delusion – you might think an impostor has replaced your spouse. These misbeliefs are commonly associated with schizophrenia, but they can also occur in people with brain injuries, Huntington’s and Parkinson’s disease and dementia. The Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science is seeking to explain delusions by developing a model of how we all come to accept or reject beliefs. We see how this research is progressing. "

Salon.com - War Room

What really caused Katrina?
Salon.com - War Room: "When Hurricane Katrina struck land in Louisiana, an antiabortion group called the Columbia Christians for Life declared that the storm was God's way of punishing New Orleans residents for allowing 'child-murder-by-abortion centers' to operate among them. Al-Qaida apparently believes that Katrina was God's way of punishing the United States -- and New Orleans in particular -- for its tolerance of homosexuality. But right-to-lifers and terrorist groups aren't the only ones with interesting Katrina theories to share: Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan is suggesting Katrina is God's way of punishing the United States for the war in Iraq -- and that the federal government may have intentionally destroyed levees in New Orleans during the storm to rid the city of its African-American residents.

During a speech in Philadelphia earlier this month, Farrakhan said New Orleans would be only the first of many U.S. cities to fall unless America changes its course of 'wickedness.' During a press conference in Memphis, Tenn., last week marking the 10th anniversary of the Million Man March, he said that divers have found 'explosives ... from the government side' in the floodwaters of New Orleans. He called for an investigation either to disprove the allegation or to show that 'it is a fact and [that] somebody is guilty ... not only of mass destruction of property, but of mass murder.'"

Saudi Women Have Message for U.S. Envoy - New York Times

Another example of a lack of understanding and finesse in U.S.-Saudi relations... Had Ms. Hughes spent any appreciable amount of time in the Middle East prior to making her presumptuous comments?

Saudi Women Have Message for U.S. Envoy - New York Times: "But the response on Tuesday was not what she and her aides expected. When Ms. Hughes expressed the hope here that Saudi women would be able to drive and 'fully participate in society' much as they do in her country, many challenged her.

'The general image of the Arab woman is that she isn't happy,' one audience member said. 'Well, we're all pretty happy.' The room, full of students, faculty members and some professionals, resounded with applause."...

Ms. Hughes, the under secretary of state for public diplomacy, is on her first trip to the Middle East. She seemed clearly taken aback as the women told her that just because they were not allowed to vote or drive that did not mean they were treated unfairly or imprisoned in their own homes...

But it was the meeting with the women that was the most unpredictable, as Ms. Hughes found herself on the defensive simply by saying that she hoped women would be able to vote in future elections.

In June, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice talked of democracy and freedom in the Middle East but declined to address the question of driving. By contrast, Ms. Hughes spoke personally, saying that driving a car was "an important part of my freedom."

A woman in the audience then charged that under President Bush the United States had become "a right-wing country" and that criticism by the press was "not allowed."

"I have to say I sometimes wish that were the case, but it's not," Ms. Hughes said with a laugh.

Aid Effectiveness - Privatization, Infrastructure & Business Environment - The World Bank Group

..

a href="http://rru.worldbank.org/Themes/AidEffectiveness/">Aid Effectiveness - Privatization, Infrastructure & Business Environment - The World Bank Group: "Aid Effectiveness
The ever-shifting debate over the aid industry and the right way to help the world's poor has acquired new focus. There is a new, overdue, and welcome focus on measuring results. No longer is it enough to point, whether with pride or with criticism, at the raw volume of money transferred.

New debates have surfaced. Some of these debates center on how aid is delivered. Which is more important: better monitoring of aid projects or reducing the transaction costs of lending? Which kinds of recipients make the best use of aid: governments, non-governmental organizations, companies, or individuals? What organizations give the most effective aid? And what form should aid take: grants, loans or something else?

The new focus on results adds spice to a third trend: the continuing emergence of competition in the aid industry. Competition forces organizations to demonstrate that they can produce results."

Moving Toward Smarter Aid? by Lex Rieffel - The Globalist > > Global Development

Moving Toward Smarter Aid? by Lex Rieffel - The Globalist > > Global Development: "Moving Toward Smarter Aid?

By Lex Rieffel | Friday, August 19, 2005

The Bush Administration’s new agency for tackling global poverty — the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) — has gotten off to a rocky start. Lex Rieffel and James W. Fox, authors of a new Brookings Institution study, have examined the MCC’s accomplishments and failures to date. They recommend several reforms, as well as a good dose of patience, to make the endeavor work."