EOTM World News

Delivering breaking news from all over the world

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By: Tawanda Cawthon – April 19, 2011

Victims’ Families Observe OKC Bombing Anniversary – One of the Worse Days in US History

The bombing at the federal building in Oklahoma City 16 years ago was a tragic event that people have not forgotten. Three hundred survivors, victims’ relatives and others gathered at the Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum in downtown Oklahoma City today marking the 16th anniversary of the bombing. Governer Mary Fallin spoke this morning on behalf of the memorial.

“The memorial is a testament to the sacrifices of those killed and injured in the bombing, as well as the rescue workers who worked tirelessly to pull survivors from the rubble,” Fallin said. “The memorial is a reminder of so many people who stepped forward to help 16 years ago.” Quote reported from News OK.

The ceremony also included the reading of the victims’ names and 168 seconds of silence to honor the number of people killed in the April 19, 1995 blast at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. It remains one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in U.S. history.

Oklahoma City, April 1995. Rescue crews work to save those trapped beneath the debris after the bombing. Courtesy of Wikimedia

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Recap of March 2011 World News

By: Tawanda Cawthon

March 2011 Current Events: World News

Here are the key events in world news for the month of March 2011.

• Egyptian Protestors Demand Faster Change and Accountability (March 6): Newly appointed Prime Minister Essam Sharaf addresses tens of thousands of protestors in Tahrir Square, where demonstrators press for faster and more substantive changes. The former interior minister, Habib el-Adly, pleads not guilty to corruption charges. A series of fires break out in government security and financial investigation offices angering protestors who suspect that senior officials are trying to destroy evidence that will implicate more of them in corruption and human rights abuses.
• Upheaval Continues in Libya (March 7): Government warplanes repeatedly bomb rebel positions near an oil refinery in the coastal city of Ras Lanuf, seeking to drive them back farther to the east, as the country’s slide into civil war continues. In Tripoli, government supporters celebrate after state television falsely reports that Colonel Qaddafi’s forces had regained the entire country.
• Yemen President Rejects Proposal to Step Down (March 7): President Ali Abdullah Saleh rejects the political opposition’s proposal that he step down by the end of the year, calling it undemocratic and unconstitutional, the official Saba news agency reported. Saleh calls for a national conference to be held, which is rejected by the opposition who dismiss the president’s proposal as an attempt to quell the escalating protests.
• Thousands Protest in Bahrain (March 8): Thousands of Shiite protestors form a human chain around the Manama, the capital of Bahrain while hundreds demonstrate outside the United States Embassy appealing for American support. Opposition leaders vow that they will not be mollified by offers of money and jobs.
• Interim Government Dissolves State Security Department in Tunisia (March 8): The State Security Department, which had been accused of human rights abuses under the ousted president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, is disbanded by the interim government in Tunisia. The prime minister also named a new cabinet, selecting new leaders for six ministries while retaining ministers in significant agencies like defense, interior, and justice.
• Bahrain Cracks Down on Demonstrators (March 18): Bahrain brings in troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to crack down against peaceful protestors clamoring for reform. Bahrain also tears down the monument in Pearl Square, the site of many protests. The 300-foot sculpture, a stone pearl held by six sweeping arches, is seen by protestors as the defining monument of the protest movement. The official Bahrain News Agency reports the change as a “face-lift” to “boost the flow of traffic.”
• No-Fly Zone is Imposed in Libya (March 19): American and European forces unleash warplanes and missiles, striking against the government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi in a mission to impose a United Nations-sanctioned no-fly zone. The goals of the no-fly zone are to keep Colonel Qaddafi from using air power against rebel forces and to prevent a massacre in Libya. French warplanes begin the campaign. U.S. forces knock out air defense systems as well as missile, radar, and communication centers around Tripoli, Misurata, and Surt. NATO plans to take over the operation and enforce the no-fly zone.
• Military Kill Protestors in Syria (March 25): Troops open fire in the southern part of Syria after tens of thousands take to the streets in peaceful protests around the nation. At least twenty demonstrators are killed.
• Cabinet Resigns in Syria (March 29): President Bashar al-Assad accepts the resignation of his cabinet. The cabinet resignation marks a rare responsiveness to public pressure by the Syrian government. Meanwhile, in the capital, government supporters take to the streets in an effort to counter the ongoing pro-democracy protests in several cities.

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Ariz. Gunman Poses in a Red G String Holding a Glock 9 mm

By: EOTM Staff

Before he slaughtered six people in an Arizona bloodbath, accused killer Jared Lee Loughner posed for lurid photos with the alleged murder weapon wearing only a bright-red G-string.

In bizarre, candid snaps obtained by investigators, Loughner holds his Glock 9 mm handgun next to his naked backside and places it near his G-string-covered crotch.

Loughner Mug shot

Loughner, 22, dropped off an undeveloped roll of 35 mm film at a Walgreens in Tucson, a day before the Jan. 8 shooting that critically injured US Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

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Oldest Organisms Found Buried Alive!

By: EOTM Staff

Like sci-fi? You will love this!! Scientists bring back ancient salt crystals, dug up from deep below Death Valley for climate research. The sparkling crystals are carefully packed away until, years later, a young, unknown researcher takes a second look at the 34,000-year-old crystals and discovers, trapped inside, something strange. Something … alive.

Thankfully this story doesn’t end with the destruction of the human race, but with a satisfied scientist finishing his Ph.D.

“It was actually a very big surprise to me,” said Brian Schubert, who discovered ancient bacteria living within tiny, fluid-filled chambers inside the salt crystals.

Salt crystals grow very quickly, imprisoning whatever happens to be floating – or living – nearby inside tiny bubbles just a few microns across, akin to naturally made, miniature snow-globes.

“It’s permanently sealed inside the salt, like little time capsules,” said Tim Lowenstein, a professor in the geology department at Binghamton University and Schubert’s advisor at the time.

Lowenstein said new research indicates this process occurs in modern saline lakes, further backing up Schubert’s astounding discovery, which was first revealed about a year ago. The new findings, along with details of Schubert’s work, are published in the January 2011 edition of GSA Today, the publication of the Geological Society of America.

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Genocide in Darfur..Never ending…?

About the size of Texas, the Darfur region of Sudan is home to racially mixed tribes of settled peasants, who identify as African, and nomadic herders, who identify as Arab. The majority of people in both groups are Muslim.

In the ongoing genocide, African farmers and others in Darfur are being systematically displaced and murdered at the hands of the Janjaweed, a government-supported militia recruited from local Arab tribes.

Janjaweed

The genocide in Darfur has claimed 400,000 lives and displaced over 2,500,000 people. More than one hundred people continue to die each day; five thousand die every month.

Government neglect has left people throughout Sudan poor and voiceless and has caused conflict throughout the country. In February 2003, frustrated by poverty and neglect, two Darfurian rebel groups launched an uprising against the Khartoum government.

The government responded with a scorched-earth campaign, enlisting the help of a militia of Arab nomadic tribes in the region against the innocent civilians of Darfur.

Since February 2003, the Sudanese government in Khartoum and the government-sponsored Janjaweed militia have used rape, displacement, organized starvation, threats against aid workers and mass murder. Violence, disease, and displacement continue to kill thousands of innocent Darfurians every month.

Americans have a particularly important role to play in supporting peace in Darfur. The US government has been proactive in speaking out in support of the people of Darfur, but there is still much work that needs to be done. The United States and international governments have yet to take the actions needed to end this genocide.

Long-term peace in Darfur requires that the government of Sudan, the Janjaweed militia forces and the rebel groups of Darfur find a way to resolve their political and economic disputes. The international community managed to broker a peace deal in May 2006, but violence in Darfur actually increased in the wake of this deal.

Thousands of innocent civilians continue to die from murder, disease and starvation every month. Today, millions of displaced civilians living in refugee camps are in dire need of international support as the violence continues.

At this time, human security is the highest priority for the people of Darfur. The world has left the responsibility of providing security to the African Union Peacekeeping Mission in Darfur. As Sally Chin of Refugees International has noted, the world has given the African Union “the responsibility to protect, but not the power to protect.”

We must now work to ensure that the world fulfills its responsibility to protect the civilians of Darfur. Will you join us? Visit http://www.savedarfur.org

Short Film on Darfur

The film was produced by the Genocide Intervention Network. We encourage you to share it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dchqJ7bhCBA&feature=player_embedded

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South Africa asked to join emerging powers bloc

Johannesburg, South Africa — Established already as a key player in Africa, South Africa boosted its image Friday after it was formally invited to join a federation of soaring global economies.

China, South Africa’s largest trading partner, extended the formal invitation, said Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, South Africa’s minister of international relations and cooperation.

She expressed appreciation at the invitation to join the so-called BRIC — Brazil, Russia, India and China.

Nkoana-Mashabane had written to her BRIC counterparts last year to push for South African membership.

“The rationale for South Africa’s approach was in consideration of a matter of crucial importance to BRIC’s Member States, namely the role of emerging economies in advancing the restructuring of the global political, economic and financial architecture into one that is more equitable, balanced and rests on the important pillar of multilateralism,” she said.

“Our approach to intensifying our relations with emerging powers and other countries of the South is, of course, through active and strong bilateral engagement.”

The BRIC countries account for about half of global growth and represent 40 percent of the world’s population.

“In the coming decade, we expect this trend to continue and become even more pronounced,” a Goldman Sachs report on BRIC said.

Though South Africa is considered an economic powerhouse on the continent, it has been suffering from a recession and high unemployment.

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South Sudan and Freedom

Sudan’s President Bashir, through an aide, has acknowledged that South Sudan is expected to vote to secede from the country in a referendum scheduled for January 9, and says that he is prepared to accept this peacefully.

To the people of South Sudan (2 million of whom were killed in a rebellion against Khartoum’s forcible imposition of Islamic law, and another 4 million of whom were driven from their homes), this is comparable to hearing the announcement of the end to World War II.

If this is indeed true, we should all take time to savor and celebrate this victory for freedom and human rights before we start worrying about the day after — when tribal warfare, which has been habitually stoked in recent years by Bashir’s goverment, may break out, and the reality that the severely underdeveloped and war-devastated south must stand on its own sets in.

That South Sudan is the site of 80 percent of the nation’s oil reserves makes the possibility of a peaceful secession all the more astonishing. It was the Bush administration that adopted the strategy of ending the North-South conflict through the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005, and it is the Obama administration that seems now to have successfully brought it to culmination. While still holding my breath, I’m daring to think that foreign-policy miracles may still happen.

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