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Canadian Killed In Iraq Violence

2013-05-22T02:08:23Z

OTTAWA - Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird says a Canadian is among those killed in a spate of recent sectarian violence in Iraq.

A string of attacks in the middle eastern country has killed more than 270 people in just the past week.

Baird says consular officials are in touch with the Canadian's family and are offering assistance.

He says he's grown "increasingly concerned" about the violence that has rocked Iraqi cities and towns in recent days.

Baird says while the security situation in Iraq has been fragile for years, the most recent violence is "particularly troubling" and risks plunging the country into a civil war.

He says Canada will be monitoring the situation carefully and is urging Iraqi authorities to do all they can to increase security.

Rising tensions between Sunnis and the Shiite-led government in Iraq have burst into a new round of bloodshed recently with scenes reminiscent of some of the worst carnage during the days when the two Islamic sects battled each other as well as U.S.-led forces in the chaotic years after Saddam Hussein's ouster.

The violence has raised fears the country is sliding back to the brink of civil war amid rising Sunni anger over perceived mistreatment at the hands of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government and dangerous spillover from Syria's civil war next door, where the two factions are also pitted against each other.

A series of blitz attacks on Monday, stretching from north of Baghdad to the southern city of Basra and targeting bus stops, open-air markets and rush-hour crowds, killed 113 people.

Meanwhile, 20 were killed after a car bomb exploded as Sunni worshippers were leaving a mosque after evening prayers Tuesday in Baghdad. Several smaller attacks struck areas elsewhere in the country earlier Tuesday.

— with files from the Associated Press.

Critics Of Guantanamo Force-Feeding Dismissed As 'Political'

2013-05-22T01:06:58Z

WASHINGTON -- A military physician who oversees the nurses who force-feed Guantanamo’s hunger-striking detainees told reporters visiting the remote naval base last week that the opposition to the force-feeding process by human rights and medical groups is "political."

"It's very easy for folks outside of this place to make policies and decisions they think they would implement," the unnamed official said in an interview with Al Jazeera.

"This is kind of a tough mission and this is kind of an ugly place sometimes, all right?" the official continued. "The reality is when faced with people who are hunger-striking, potentially to the point of needing medical intervention to protect their life and to keep them from harming themselves, suddenly it's not a very abstract decision. Hunger strikes are tough and a big use of time. I realize there's a lot of controversy. But it's a political thing."

Human rights groups have criticized the practice of force-feeding, as has the American Medical Association. But the military physician said there were "lots of politics involved" in the AMA’s opposition to force-feeding as unethical.

Under Guantanamo's protocol, first published by Al Jazeera last week and sent to The Huffington Post by a military spokesman in Guantanamo, detainees being force-fed are fitted with masks and sit in restraint chairs for up to two hours twice a day as they undergo the procedure. The protocol compares procedures for handling a hunger strike to "battlefield tactics" and states that "isolating hunger striking patients from each other is vital to prevent them from achieving solidarity." In April, officials had emphasized that detainees were being kept in single cells for their own health rather than to break the strike.

As of Tuesday morning, according to a Gitmo spokesman, 103 of Guantanamo's 166 detainees were recognized as hunger strikers, with 30 being force-fed, or "receiving enteral feeds" in the language of the military.

President Barack Obama has said he will renew his effort to close the Guantanamo prison. His speech at the National Defense University on Thursday is set to address Guantanamo as well as the administration's counterterrorism policy more broadly.

Obama "will review the state of the threats we face, particularly as al Qaeda core has weakened but new dangers have emerged; he will discuss the policy and legal framework under which we take action against terrorist threats, including the use of drones; he will review our detention policy and efforts to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay; and he will frame the future of our efforts against Al Qaeda, its affiliates and adherents," a White House official told The Huffington Post of the speech.

Read the military document laying out the "standard operating procedure" for handling a hunger strike below.

Guantanamo Hunger Strike SOP

La Carmina: Steampunk in Japan: Tokyo Subculture Style (PHOTOS)

2013-05-22T00:31:57Z

The concept of Steampunk is only beginning to gain recognition in Japan, even though there have been multiple works that incorporate the brass-Victorian aesthetic, such as anime film Steamboy. Tokyo-based friends Kenny Creation and Luke Chaos have been passionate about this subculture for some time, and last year, they founded the regular event Steam Garden.

On March 10, I went to their fourth party, themed "Celtic Fantasy." Luke and Kenny rented out the entire Christon Café Shinjuku (a theme restaurant filled with European relics), and filled it with tribal fire dancers, artistic performances, medieval food, and live music on period instruments.

Each event has a different theme, revolving around a past era. Previously, Steam Garden did a Meiji-themed party -- a tribute to the time when Japan was opening its doors to the West, and fusing Victorian fashion with traditional kimonos and obis.

This time, the code word was Celtic Fantasy: "a blend of industry, fantasy, and epic adventure set to a soundtrack of exciting tribal and Celtic music." Braveheart roamed the room, challenging party-=goers to duels in a Scottish accent. If you tired of dancing to bagpipe music, you could order food -- a plate of meat on skewers, to fit the medieval vibe.

One section of the space contained tables that sold pocket-watches, Steampunk accessories and other brass and clockwork instruments. Some were from Harajuku's A Story, a store reminiscent of an eccentric Victorian gentleman's dressing room.

Photo of La Carmina in Japanese Steampunk fashion, by Tokyo-based freelance photographer Said Karlsson who runs street-style blog Tokyo Faces.

The party attracts a very fashionable crowd. It's interesting to see how Tokyo's alternative fashionistas have adopted Steampunk style, making it into something distinctively Japanese. There's often an element of cute, such as Gothic Lolita dresses with goggles.

Steam Garden occurs every few months, and people from all over Japan travel here to attend, as it's the only regular, organized Steampunk event in the country. If "Celtic Fantasy" was any indication, this underground scene will continue to grow. As Luke put it, "Here's hoping the airship will keep on soaring higher!"

Did you know Steampunk culture existed in Japan? What do you think of the fashion in the slideshow?

Images are courtesy of Said Karlsson, and used with permission.

For more Japanese underground fashion and club night reports, visit La Carmina blog.

Military Rape Survivor Collects 113,000 Signatures Demanding Action

2013-05-21T23:14:19Z

Navy veteran Trina McDonald, a survivor of rape during her service, is calling on Congress to amend the Uniform Code of Military Justice by moving the decision to prosecute military sexual assault out of the chain of command.

In a MoveOn.org petition titled "Raped In The U.S. Navy: Protect Survivors Of Military Sexual Assault," McDonald states that rape should never be an "occupational hazard." The petition calls on the U.S. Senate to address the recent increase in military sexual assaults by making revisions to the military justice system. She will deliver more than 113,000 petition signatures to members of Congress on Wednesday.

McDonald recently recounted her nightmarish experience in the military, telling Texas-based KCEN that she'd been repeatedly assaulted by "higher-ranking officers."

While in the Navy, Trina says she was repeatedly drugged, raped and ultimately dumped into the Bering Sea by superior officers.
She says she kept silent for 20 years, because both police and her superiors were the perpetrators, and she had nowhere to turn.

The issue of sexual assault in the military gained newfound attention this month after Jeffrey Krusinski, an official in charge of a program to prevent such crimes, was himself charged with sexual assault. Later in May, the sexual assault program manager in Fort Campbell, Ky., was arrested in a domestic dispute and relieved of his post. The coordinator of the sexual harassment and assault prevention division in Fort Hood, Texas, was also placed under investigation after being accused of sexual assault and maltreatment of subordinates.

According to a Pentagon report released earlier this month, military sexual assaults rose to 26,000 in 2012, averaging about 70 per day. Most military sexual assaults still go unreported.

President Barack Obama has called military sexual assault a "betrayal" and has pledged to take action to combat them.

Lottie Ntim: Coming to Terms With a Global Digital Divide

2013-05-21T22:47:29Z

"You can visit the library and read any book in the whole wide world, without ever having to leave the house." This was my first introduction to the concept of a World Wide Web and a watered-down version of the Internet's capabilities at best, but for 10-year-old it was like Magic. Years later, I am still in awe of what the Internet has done and has the potential to do for the world, but somewhat jaded at the prospect of a Web-based utopia.

The problem is mainly definitional: The Internet is often thought of in holistic terms as one network, connecting anyone in the world who chooses to be a part of it, when it is in fact a connection of networks, each with different capabilities, speeds and prices, that together dictate who participates in the World Wide Web and for what purpose. The resultant effect of this model of skewed accessibility in an increasingly digital landscape, is a world where network access, capability and technologies have great influence on the businesses that arise, survive and succeed, within and beyond regional borders.

Recently, social media has been abuzz with talk of so-called body-con technologies; wearable devices like Apple's iWatch and Google Glass that promise to be as fashionable as they are pervasive. While Credit Suisse predicts the market for such technologies will be worth $50 Billion by 2018, reviews have ranged from a humorously debasing SNL skit to a don't-knock-it-till-you've-tried-it appeal from Google CEO Eric Schmidt during a recent book tour. That being said, there is no denying the excitement as we scratch the surface on what appears to be the final frontier of digital assimilation: The human body. But is everyone ready for this?

The same level of connectivity is not mirrored in all parts of the world, neither is it necessarily aspired to. While Web growth in North America can be said to have been largely driven by technologies that cater to personal needs (PCs, smartphones, smartphone apps), Internet usage in other regions such as Africa, has developed through more social channels, such as mobile banking. While internet penetration in Africa hovered around 16 percent last year, mobile telephony soared to one of the highest in the world. Currently, 90 percent of the continent has access to a mobile phone -- a phenomenon that has helped topple dictatorships and connects rural communities to otherwise difficult to reach services such as healthcare, in addition to the now common money transfers via text.

Nevertheless, there is certainly no shortage of demand for technologies developed for personal use in this region. However their cost and the likelihood of limited access to Wi-Fi networks has meant a different kind of growth for Africa when it comes to Web usage. The iWatch and Google Glass will undoubtedly find a market in Africa, but it will be one that is comparatively restricted and largely driven by conspicuous consumption. It's not so much that the African market is not developed for these technologies, but rather an often siloed approach to the technologies' development and marketing, restricts their potential for wider market access.

The question then arises: How can digital or tech-based businesses effectively translate into markets and networks beyond their immediate regions? By being conscious of inherent differences in network capability and re-evaluating access to a perceived target through in-depth, locally-sourced knowledge of which technologies would be the best ways to reach them. There is likelihood of some convergence in the future: A burgeoning industry now exists in this sphere, with a few companies offering digital optimization services and "borderless" e-commerce solutions. But the majority are still focused on more 'cosmetic' approaches aimed at creating the same experience for all consumers globally, rather than a tailor-made approach that considers specific needs of each region on its own.

Ultimately, the answer lies not so much in fighting a global digital divide, as embracing it. The Internet has done much to level the playing field for people looking to launch businesses and even more so those looking to grow them, but there is still some ways to go in terms of removing the blinds of a perceived Web-based utopia, by accepting differences and tackling each region and industry through local eyes.

French Far Right Reacts To Essayist's Suicide At Notre Dame

2013-05-21T22:32:04Z

Dominique Venner committed suicide on Tuesday in front of the altar of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. The death of the 78-year-old essayist and historian sparked numerous reactions from French nationalists.

Several executives and members of the country's far-right National Front party took to Twitter to praise Venner. Directly referencing Venner's last blog post, National Front party leader Marine Le Pen called the writer's act an "eminently political" gesture destined to "awaken the people of France."

"All our respect to Dominique Venner whose last gesture, an eminently political one, attempted to awaken the people of France. MLP"

Tout notre respect à Dominique Venner dont le dernier geste, éminemment politique, aura été de tenter de réveiller le peuple de France. MLP
-- Marine Le Pen (@MLP_officiel) 21 mai 2013

In a blog post published on the same day as his suicide, Venner talked about "new gestures, spectacular and symbolic ones, to rattle lethargies, to shake anaesthetised consciences and awaken the memory of our origins."

Louis Aliot, vice-president of the National Front and Marine Le Pen's partner, also paid his respects, calling Venner an "intransigent and courageous defender of our civilisation's values."

"My emotional thoughts go out to the tragic disappearance of D.Venner, intransigent and courageous defender of our civilisation's values."

Pensée émue pour la disparition tragique de D.Venner, défenseur intransigeant et courageux des valeurs de notre civilisation.
-- Louis Aliot (@louis_aliot) 21 mai 2013

Bruno Gollnisch, another figure of the National Front, saw Venner's suicide as a "protest against the decadence of our society." Gollnisch argued that Venner "experienced" the approval of the law on gay marriage "as it should have been experienced, as a promotion of decadence and a defacement of marriage."

Gollnisch added that "it wasn't his only fight, he also protested against the programmed disappearance of the French people, the progressive substitution with other populations."

Julien Rochedy, the president of the National Front youth group tweeted:

"It's with immense sadness that I hear about Dominique Venner's suicide. He will be reunited with the heroes from the Iliad he loved so much."

C'est avec une immense tristesse que j'apprends le suicide de Dominique Venner. Il va rejoindre les héros de l'Iliade qu'il aimait tant.
-- Julien Rochedy (@JLRochedy) 21 mai 2013

According to some members of the National Front, Venner was considered as a potential candidate to head the party when it was founded in 1972.

Honorary president Jean-Marie Le Pen commented on the suicide to the AFP by comparing it to the death of Pierre Drieu La Rochelle, a writer who collaborated with the Nazis during WWII and who committed suicide in 1945. "An intellectual suicide, which testifies with death," declared the founder of the National Front.

On Tuesday night, thousands of far-right militants gathered in front of Notre Dame Cathedral, carrying torches and national flags. According to Le HuffPost, an unidentified speaker said: "We ignored the deep causes of his gesture. We are here to pay tribute to his last fight (...) He always defended France, beautiful, strong and proud of itself."

This piece has been translated from French and originally appeared on HuffPost France.

Will She Get Life Or Death?

2013-05-21T22:27:12Z

Jodi Ann Arias, who once boldly said a jury would never convict her, waited on Tuesday for jurors to complete deliberations that could end in sentencing her to death.

The same jury of eight men and four women who last week convicted Arias of first-degree murder in the death of her 30-year-old ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander are debating whether she should be sentenced to death.

In the hearing preceding the jury's deliberations, defense attorney Jennifer Willmott asked the jury to save Arias' life. "Jodi took Travis away. She took him away from his family and she took him away from this world, but two wrongs do not make a right ... You have a choice ... We are asking you to find that Jodi's life is worth saving," Willmott said.

But prosecutor Juan Martinez demanded death.

"Mr. Alexander was only 30 and will forever be 30," Martinez said. "Mr. Alexander is no longer going to have any more yesterdays ... You have a duty ... the difficult thing under these circumstances -- the only thing you can do -- is return a verdict of death," Martinez said.

Jodi Arias Crime Scene Photos (GRAPHIC)

Who's Who In The Jodi Arias Case (PHOTOS)

Jodi Arias Personal Photos

Jodi Arias Timeline: Key Dates In The Case

More Jodi Arias Coverage

Arias, 32, was convicted in the 2008 slaying of Alexander, who she stabbed nearly 30 times and shot in the head. The verdict, reached after more than 15 hours of deliberations, was a clear rejection of defense psychologist Richard Samuels' contention that she suffered from PTSD and acute stress disorder.

The 32-year-old defendant, dressed in black on Tuesday, pleaded with the jury to spare her life. "I loved Travis and I looked up to him. At one point he meant the world to me," Arias said. "To this day I can hardly believe I was capable of such violence."

Arias maintained she was a victim of domestic violence, whether anyone believed it or not, and said she had a lot to offer other inmates if she received a life sentence. She said she could teach people to read and write, and could help raise awareness about domestic violence.

During her 19-week trial, Arias' attorneys were unable to produce a shred of evidence to support her contention that she had been physically abused by Alexander. And, as the prosecution pointed out, there are no police reports or other supporting documents indicating abuse.

On Tuesday, Arias referenced a statement she made to the media on May 8, that she would prefer the death penalty.

"I've made many statements I would prefer the death penalty over life in prison ... To me, life in prison was the most unappealing outcome ... but as I stand here now, I can't in good conscious ask you to give me death," Arias said.

The jury began deliberating Arias' fate around 6 p.m. ET. Members will ultimately decide if she receives the death penalty or life in prison.

TUESDAY'S LIVE BLOG:

Government Hands Terrorism Statistics Job To Academic Group

2013-05-21T22:09:31Z

WASHINGTON -- The federal government has given the job of compiling statistics used by the State Department to analyze trends in global terrorism to an academic group, a move that may complicate accurate unclassified assessments of patterns of terrorist activity for years to come.

As President Barack Obama prepares to deliver a major speech on counterterrorism this week and the State Department readies its annual terrorism report for release at the end of the month, officials said Tuesday that the switch also removes federal accountability for the numbers, something that could make them less reliable in the eyes of some.

News of the change comes as Republican lawmakers are accusing the Obama administration of misleading Congress and the public about the nature of the deadly Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya, to bolster a presidential reelection campaign that highlighted counterterrorism successes. The administration adamantly denies those allegations.

State Department officials say the outsourcing of the data collection to the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, or START, at the University of Maryland in College Park has been in the works for more than a year, and is unrelated to that controversy.

But because of the switch, the statistics are likely to be dramatically different this year compared with previous years. Several officials said that when the next edition of the State Department survey is released, they expect the number of terrorist incidents for 2012, including figures on the number of people kidnapped, wounded or killed by terrorists, to be significantly lower than what was reported in previous years. But that decrease may not reflect an actual downward trend in attacks on the ground.

That's because the new group compiling the statistics relies on different criteria than what has been used by the National Counterterrorism Center, they said. Those officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly preview the data, called "Country Reports on Terrorism," that is due to be released on May 30.

As an example, the number of terrorist events reported through the NCTC database from 2004-2007 was more than 46,000, while the START consortium's Global Terrorism Database reported about 7,400 terrorism events for that same time period.

Since 2006, the NCTC has compiled the data that is included as a key annex to the State Department's annual report. But last year, the center informed the department that as of April 30, 2012, it was abandoning its "Worldwide Incidents Tracking System" that collected the statistics due to funding issues.

"Given the constrained fiscal environment, NCTC completed an in-depth review of its missions and functions, and concluded that it could no longer afford to sustain" the tracking system, State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said. He added that the NCTC gave ample notice of the move and helped in outsourcing the job to the consortium.

The NCTC determined that compiling the publicly available data for the State Department was not critical to the center's mission, said an intelligence official, who requested anonymity because of a lack of clearance to speak publicly about the decision. The NCTC's decision to not do the report will not affect terrorism data that is available to U.S. intelligence agencies, the official said.,

But although the START consortium is well-respected, its handling of the statistics means that the U.S. government will no longer vouch for the data, Ventrell said.

And because START uses a different methodology than NCTC to compile the statistics, comparisons between the data for 2012 and previous years will be invalid. Further muddying the situation, START itself changed its methodology from what it had used in previous years, invalidating comparisons between its 2012 numbers and those it had compiled in the past.

That means that until START has at least several years of data compiled with consistent criteria, analyzing terrorism trends based on its findings will be statistically impossible, officials said.

According to a 2010 study by START, the key difference in the statistics between the NCTC and START was that the counterterrorism center had greater resources to collect information about terrorist events from publicly available sources, such as media. Over time, the study suggested, the START database could improve as it expands its coverage of more sources around the world.

There also are some technical differences in how the two groups categorize terrorist incidents, and the criteria used to determine if something is a terror act.

The statistics in the State Department report have sparked controversy before.

In 2004, the Bush administration trumpeted statistics showing a significant reduction in terrorist attacks the previous year as evidence that the global war on terrorism begun after Sept. 11, 2001, was succeeding. But after congressional queries, the State Department was forced to concede major errors in the collection of the data and had to redo the analysis. The revised numbers showed a net increase in attacks between 2002 and 2003.

The report released for 2004, did not contain a statistical analysis of terrorist incidents and the following year the job was given to the National Counter Terrorism Center in part to standardize the process and remove lingering questions about the accuracy of the data.

Marco Cáceres: Xiomara Zelaya Leads in Honduras Presidential Polling

2013-05-21T22:06:31Z

The fourth set of presidential polls in Honduras is out, and for the fourth time Xiomara Castro de Zelaya is in the lead by a comfortable margin. In January, a CID-Gallup poll had Mrs. Zelaya ahead with 25 percent, followed by Congressman Juan Orlando Hernández with 23 percent, TV personality and sports commentator Salvador Nasralla with 18 percent, and attorney Mauricio Villeda with 16 percent.

In April, an opinion polling and market research firm in Honduras called Le Vote conducted a poll which showed Mrs. Zelaya ahead with 30 percent, followed by Mr. Nasralla with 28 percent, Mr. Hernández with 26 percent, and Mr. Villeda with 16 percent. Later in April, a poll taken by another Honduran polling firm, Encuestadora Paradigma, had Mrs. Zelaya again on top with 19.7 percent, followed by Mr. Hernández with 13.3 percent, Mr. Villeda with 10.2 percent, and Mr. Nasralla with 9.9 percent.

The latest poll, conducted by CD-Gallup during May 2-8, shows Mrs. Zelaya at 28 percent, Mr. Nasralla at 21 percent, Mr. Hernández at 18 percent, and Mr. Villeda at 14 percent. The remaining 19 percent of the people polled either said they did not know or did not respond. If you take the averages of the four polls, Mrs. Zelaya comes out with 25.7 percent, Mr. Hernández with 20.1 percent, Mr. Nasralla with 19.2 percent, and Mr. Villeda with 14.1 percent.

Mr. Hernández is downplaying the latest CID-Gallup poll and says it is he who is in the lead. His rationale against the accuracy of the poll is that CID-Gallup had him down by more than 10 points going into the primary election against his main opponent, Ricardo Álvarez, last November, and in the end he won by at least seven percentage points. Naturally, Mr. Hernández neglects to mention that the results were aggressively disputed by Mr. Álvarez, who asked for but was denied a recount by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE). The final results were not confirmed for many weeks, and even then there remained a veil of suspicion among many within the Nationalist Party that the election may have been stolen from Mr. Álvarez.

Benjamín Bográn, who is the coordinator for Mr. Villeda's campaign, is also downplaying the CID-Gallup poll, noting that they have consulted two other polling firms that have Mr. Villeda in the lead. The Villeda campaign has also apparently done its own internal polling, which has Mr. Villeda ahead. But, as we learned from the US presidential election last year, internal polling should always be suspect, because they inevitably turn out to be ridiculously over-biased in favor of their candidate. Mitt Romney dismissed polls conducted by reputable companies if the polls didn't suit him, at the same favorably citing polls that showed him in the lead. We see what happened to him.

You can't have it both ways if what you're interested in is truthfully gauging your chances. The reasons Mr. Romney and Republicans, in general, were so thoroughly surprised and disappointed is because they had been purposely deluding themselves for months -- actually taking seriously agenda-driven political hacks like Karl Rove and Dick Morris, who confidently predicted an electoral college landslide win for Mr. Romney.

Both Mr. Hernández and Mr. Villeda would be well-advised to take the new CID-Gallup poll to heart, particularly given that it is relatively consistent with the Le Vote and Encuestadora Paradigma polls. Think trends, patterns. They should take it as a wake-up call that they're in for one hell of a fight against two newcomers who offer something different from the failed policies and endless bickering of both the Nationalist and Liberal parties.

One Of These Men Will Be Iran's Next Prez

2013-05-21T22:05:35Z

The eight candidates approved Tuesday for Iran's June 14 presidential election to replace Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who cannot run again because of term limits.

Captions by the Associated Press

Conjoined Twins Separated in Groundbreaking Surgery

2013-05-21T22:03:03Z

Shadya and Shandell were born in Peru in February of this year. They were conjoined twin girls, joined at the abdomen, who shared a liver. Thanks to surgical intervention, which is being hailed by many as a milestone in Peruvian medicine, they have been separated and can now live independent lives. Following an operation that took thirty doctors and nurses over eight hours, the twins had their liver split in two. Since they didn't share any other vital organs the girls should be able to safely live independent of each other.

"The good news is that even though the twins were joined at the liver they didn't share biliary tracts, which means that they had their own bio systems, that was already a plus. The next step was to prepare the time of separation, so that they could each have enough liver for their metabolic needs"- a medical representative told ITN.

Both of the girls are expected to be released from the hospital to the lucky parents in coming days, but both will have to remain under occasional medical monitoring as they grow.

Kitty Pilgrim: Dan Brown's Inferno, The Council on Foreign Relations and Bird Flu

2013-05-21T22:01:36Z

I love a good thriller. I write them myself, filled with colorful bad guys with evil plots to conquer the world. But the new Dan Brown book, Inferno, caught my attention on several levels -- his understanding of a current global threat, and his misrepresentation of an organization that has been active in trying to prevent it.

Now, Dan can spin a good story. Without giving anything away, his evil mastermind is intent on unleashing a viral plague on the world for the purpose of population control. In Dan Brown's plot, this man is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

The journalist in me objected strongly to that scenario. I feel that plotline does a singular disservice to an organization that has been in the forefront of looking for policy solutions to global pandemic.

A few years ago I personally attended a two-day symposium sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations to deal with the threat of avian flu. As a member of the organization, I moderated a panel of experts who described in no uncertain terms a situation that would make Dan Brown's scenario look like a fairy tale.

During that symposium, medical experts, policy leaders and concerned members of the Council spent hours discussing the prospect of a SARS of influenza "superbug," and how global governmental and health policy should reflect this new reality. These diseases are a real and present danger.

Yesterday the head of the World Health Organization, Dr. Margaret Chan stated that it is virtually impossible to predict the outcome of the current H7N9 avian flu outbreak in China. Dr. Chan said "the source of the human infection with the virus is not yet fully understood."
In addition, she stated that the SARS type coronavirus, rediscovered in the Middle East last year, has climbed to 41 cases with 20 fatalities.

My point is this: for many years I covered Avian Flu outbreaks in my work as a reporter for CNN. I am very aware of the dangers of global pandemic. I see a service in bringing information about this subject to the thriller-reading public. We can learn about new discoveries and science in our thriller plots. After all, Michael Crichton's treatment of DNA in Jurassic Park brought better understanding of that scientific breakthrough to the general public. I even had the 1918 pandemic as a subplot in my first book The Explorer's Code. But in this case of Dan Brown's scenario, why pin a global pandemic on a legitimate organization? Reality is scary enough.

Dr. Chan said yesterday:

These two new diseases remind us that the threat from emerging and epidemic-prone diseases is ever present. Constant mutation and adaptation are the survival mechanism of the microbial world.

That is the fear that keeps me up at night. Why should Dan Brown embellish it a way that besmirches an organization that has tried to be part of the solution.

Now I realize that Inferno is only a novel. And plenty of people spend too much time complaining about Dan Brown. I don't. I applaud his success as an author, and enjoy his books. I think he is a very talented man. But as a journalist and fellow author, I would love to see credit given to the Council on Foreign Relations for trying to be part of the solution.

Army Commander Suspended On Adultery, Physical Altercation Charges

2013-05-21T21:58:08Z

WASHINGTON -- The Army says the commanding general of Fort Jackson, S.C., has been suspended in connection with charges of adultery and involvement in a physical altercation.

The Army says Brig. Gen. Bryan Roberts reportedly was in an altercation with another woman, not his wife. Roberts was suspended from his job by Gen. Robert W. Cone, commander of Army Training and Doctrine Command, while the investigation continues.

Roberts took command of Fort Jackson in April 2012.

He has been in the Army for about 29 years and served as the director of Iraq training and advisory teams before taking the Fort Jackson post.

The suspension is the latest in a series of scandals involving senior military officers in recent months.

Brig. Gen. Peggy Combs will serve as interim commander during the investigation.

PHOTO: Russian Officer 'Posed At Putin's Desk To Impress Girls'

2013-05-21T21:44:58Z

Russia's federal guard service launched an investigation after photos appeared in the media of a disgraced former employee posing behind Vladimir Putin's desk in the Kremlin, an official said Tuesday.

Pictures of the man, named Alexei Ustimchuk, sitting diminutively behind the giant desk in Putin's Kremlin office, spread through the internet as people ridiculed the lack of security that permitted a simple employee such access.

Published first by tabloid Moskovsky Komsomolets, the photos show the young man in a wood-paneled room with two armchairs and a Russian flag, looking identical to one where Putin works in the Kremlin and where he held a meeting with Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin early this month.

"We are checking whether these pictures are authentic or not," a spokesman for the federal guard service (FSO) Sergei Devyatov told AFP Tuesday.

The FSO, Moscow's version of the American secret service, is responsible for ensuring the personal security of Putin and Russia's other top leaders.

Moskovsky Komsomolets did not explain where it obtained the pictures, but said that Ustimchuk, who was an officer in the FSO's communications department between 2004 and 2011, posted the pictures on dating sites to "impress the ladies".

"What girl wouldn't want a captain with direct access to the president's study?" Moskovsky Komsomolets said.

"Turns out that any scoundrel can march into the office of the head of state and have a photo session," the paper said, though it was not clear what year the photo was snapped.

Ustimchuk is currently behind bars after being convicted over the high-profile kidnapping of the son of Russian businessman Yevgeny Kaspersky last year.

A military tribunal sentenced him to 4.5 years in a prison colony on charges of kidnapping and extortion. His associates are still on trial in Moscow.

World Nutella Day Has Been Saved!!!

2013-05-21T21:39:27Z

Rejoice, one and all! After facing an immediate shut-down, World Nutella Day has been saved.

The chocolate hazelnut spread's producer, Ferrero, has dropped a cease-and-desist letter it sent to the holiday's founder, Sara Rosso, asking that she stop using the Nutella name.

Rosso spoke to The Huffington Post on Tuesday afternoon about the good news. "They reached out to me yesterday," she said. "They appreciate me as a fan, and the site will continue to live on moving forward."

Rosso pointed to the Italian news site Corriere della Sera, which published a statement from Ferrero confirming the move, and HuffPost translated:

“A positive contact between Ferrero and Sara Rosso, owner of the non-official fan page called World Nutella Day, closed the case. Ferrero wishes to express its sincere gratitude to Sara Rosso for her passion for Nutella, a gratitude it extends to all the fans of the Nutella World Day.”
The problem originally emerged from a “routine procedure in defense of trademarks, activated following improper use of the Nutella trademark within the fan page,” explains the company. But once the solution was found, “we immediately interrupted any time of action. Ferrero considers itself lucky to have such a devoted and loyal fan as Sara Rosso.”

Rosso said she was still unclear what a "routine procedure in defense of trademarks" means, but that the company chalked up the cease-and-desist letter to a misunderstanding. A Ferrero representative declined to explain further.

Rosso will continue to run the holiday's website and social media pages, but per an agreement with Ferrero, will make clearer that World Nutella Day is not officially run by the company. Her website already features a short disclaimer that reads, "www.nutelladay.com does not represent official views or opinions of Ferrero, S.p.A."

Rosso said that she never profited from World Nutella Day, nor will she in the future.

Although she acknowledged that the incident had the best possible conclusion -- and that she still loves Nutella -- Rosso seemed short of exuberant. "I just kind of wished it hadn't happened to begin with," she said. "But I'm pleased with how they spoke to me, and they seemed gracious and respectful."