Category: World News & Politics

English Al-Jazeera in 2006

One more year to wait…

Al Jazeera has announced it will launch an English-language channel at the start of 2006, as it named a senior management team.

British national Nigel Parsons will head operations at the company’s Doha headquarters, while Trish Carter, formerly of New Zealand television, will head a new Asia desk in Kuala Lumpur.

Sue Philips, formerly employed by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp, will take charge of European coverage in London, while Will Stebbins, formerly with Associated Press Television News, will head a North American desk in Washington.

[Source: Al Jazeera]

Since Al Jazeera started, I thought the best thing they could do is start an English language channel. So when they started talking about the possibility, I thought it was great, and I couldn’t wait for it to launch.

What excites me about it is the fact that it will present news from another point of view for the whole world.

I thought it was supposed to launch this year, and they’ve had recruiting ads up on their Arab site for some time now.
Anyway, I hope it’s worth the wait.

Pro-Israel Bias in US TV News

A two-year study by If Americans Knew of US network television coverage of the Israel/Palestine conflict revealed troubling patterns of omissions and disparities in emphasis that profoundly hamper the ability of US viewers to understand the conflict.

ABC, CBS and NBC gave 3.0 to 4.4 times more coverage to Israeli deaths than they gave to Palestinian deaths in 2000-2001, at the beginning of the intifada or popular uprising against Israeli occupation, and again in 2004.

The difference is even greater when the networks cover children, giving 9.0 to 12.8 times more coverage in 2004 to deaths of Israeli children than to deaths of Palestinian children.

Why the bias?
Israeli public-relations campaigns; journalists who are based in Israel; US news media bending to pro-Israel pressures; or pro-Israel leanings of reporters, editors or media owners.

[More: If Americans Knew Report]
[Source: Al Jazeera]

Ski Dubai

Dubai desert gives way to ski resort…

Ski Dubai is a formidable engineering feat, an incongruous 25-storey structure rising from the Gulf emirate’s sands as some 1000 labourers work round the clock building the Middle East’s only indoor ski resort and the world’s third largest.

The brainchild of Majid al-Futtaim, the mountain-themed resort is being built within his group’s billion-dollar Mall of the Emirates, partly to lure people to what will be the third largest shopping centre in the world, and to make it different.

[Source: Al Jazeera]

Man!! Dubai is becoming more and more like a wonderland / amazement park. Unbelievable projects are popping up there everyday, and although they’re all really exciting and wonderful, I wonder why they’re being done?
What is behind this obsession to always build bigger, higher, cooler stuff?
I guess it’s the urge to go the extra step and do things that have never been done before and the beautiful feelings that are felt when they are done.

But how far will this go?
What’s next I wonder?!

Bahraini Websites Must Register

Register or face legal action…

Webmasters face prosecution if they defy new rules announced by Bahraini authorities. All Bahraini websites set up here or abroad must register with the Information Ministry or face legal action, it was declared yesterday.

A six-month campaign is being launched next Monday to register all Bahraini websites, under orders from Information Minister and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Dr Mohammed Abdul Ghaffar.

…websites would face similar laws to newspapers, related to libel, public decency and ethics.

Just as a newspaper editor-in-chief is held responsible for what he publishes, so will the webmasters be…

[Source: Gulf Daily News]

Well even though this could have been great news if the goal behind it was to empower bloggers and give them more rights, it’s actually really bad news.

The purpose behind this move is an obvious attempt by the Bahraini government to keep a leash on Bahraini bloggers, track everyone and hold them accountable for their opinions.
We’ve already seen the kind of rights the people who were found out got.

It’s really a shame to see something like this happening. And what’s even worse is that we could see moves like this propagating across the Arab world.

Mahmood is proposing a plan of action against these rules.
I totally support the Bahraini bloggers’ cause and wish them the best of luck in putting an end to this madness. It’s a common cause for us all.

[Via: Mahmood’s Den, Savior Machine]

Why No One Trusts The US Anymore…

“No sane leader of any nation in the world can trust America anymore. We have demonstrated that if we desire to attack a nation, we will fabricate the excuse and attack it, despite international law and international opinion. We have demonstrated that a nation need not provoke us or threaten us to become a victim of our aggression. We have said to the world that the only law we respect is the law of the jungle, and that might makes right. That’s why so many people consider us to be a rogue nation and a threat to world peace…”

— Charley Reese, Journalist for 49 years, reporting on everything from sports to politics.

[Via: Je Blog]

US To Block Anti-Poverty Campaign

US will block Brown campaign to beat poverty with gold sale…

Gordon Brown’s year-long anti-poverty crusade is in jeopardy this week, as the US prepares to block his plans for a sale of International Monetary Fund gold reserves to raise cash for debt relief.

Striking a deal to sell or revalue some of the IMF’s $9 billion of gold reserves in Washington, at the spring gathering of the IMF and World Bank, was meant to be the first victory in Brown’s campaign to increase spending on aid, and offer debt relief to the poorest countries.

An IMF feasibility study, commissioned by G7 finance ministers, has given the thumbs-up to gold sales. But the US Treasury has been urged to oppose the idea by gold-mining firms who fear that a sell-off could depress global prices for the metal.

[Source: The Guardian]
[Via: AquaCool]

So let me get this straight, the US government is ready to protect the interests of filthy rich gold mining firms, without even thinking about the millions of poor people in countries that are head over heels in debt.

Of course. After all it’s the rich who donate millions for these greedy people’s election campaigns. The poor can give them nothing but prayers and smiles.

Spammer Sentenced to Nine Years in Prison

Yes, yes, yes!!!

A man convicted in the US’s first felony case against illegal spamming was sentenced to nine years in prison Friday for bombarding Internet users with millions of junk e-mails.

A jury had recommended the nine-year term for the Raleigh, N.C., man.

Jeremy Jaynes, 30, who was considered among the top 10 spammers in the world at the time of his arrest, used the Internet to peddle pornography and sham products and services such as a “FedEx refund processor,” prosecutors said.

Jaynes was convicted in November for using false Internet addresses and aliases to send mass e-mail ads through an AOL server in Loudoun County.

[Source: My Way News]

Spammers truly deserve to be thrown into jail for what they do. In fact, if it were up to me, they deserve to rot in hell too.

Anyway, I hope other spammers learn from this and stop sending us their shitty emails about Viagra, organ enlargement and getting out of debt.

Oh and one last thought, I wish this guy gets stuck with one huge horny cellmate, who especially hates spammers. Ouch! 😛

In Florida: Shoot First, Think Later

Weird law in Jeb Bush’s state…

Florida’s legislature has approved a bill that would give residents the right to open fire against anyone they perceive as a threat in public, instead of having to try to avoid a conflict as under prevailing law.

Outraged opponents say the law will encourage Floridians to open fire first and ask questions later, fostering a sort of statewide Wild West shootout mentality.

Republican Governor Jeb Bush, who has said he plans to sign the bill, says it is “a good, commonsense, anti-crime issue.”

The bill is supported by the influential National Rifle Association.

[Source: Yahoo! News]

I think this law is absurd.
This basically gives people the right to go on and shoot whoever they feel like, under the pretext that they thought he/she was a threat.

I don’t see what’s so common-sense and anti-crime in it!
It seems the Bush family has an obsession with the wild west and stupid decisions.