Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Dec. 12 - Open House at the Manse - 3 - 5 PM
Janice and I would be glad to welcome you at the Manse on Sunday, December 12, between 3 and 5 PM, for our Christmas Open House. Please drop by at 607 Millwood Rd. (behind the church) for some refreshments and conversation!
--Jack Lohr, Interim Pastor
War News for Tuesday, November 29, 2010
NATO is reporting the death an ISAF soldier from an insurgent attack in an undisclosed location in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, November 30th.
Iraq foils plot to bomb French embassy in Baghdad
Pakistan drone victim to sue US for $500m
Leak: Iran offered Canada intelligence on Afghanistan
Cables Depict U.S. Haggling to Find Takers for Detainees
Reported security incidents
Baghdad:
#1: On Tuesday morning, a bomb attached to a civilian car in the al-Qadisiya neighborhood of western Baghdad exploded and killed the driver, Baghdad police said.
#2: In a separate incident Tuesday morning, a bomb attached to a civilian car exploded in al-Liqa Square in western Baghdad and wounded three civilians, Baghdad police said.
Baquba:
#1: And on Monday evening, four civilians were killed and 29 were wounded when a bomb in a parked car exploded Monday at an outdoor market in central Baquba, Iraq, about 35 miles (roughly 60 kilometers) north of Baghdad, police in Baquba said.
Samarra:
#1: The corpses of a man and a woman have been discovered in Samarra city in Salah al-Din Province on Tuesday, according to a Salah al-Din police source.
Balad:
#1: An Iraqi peasant has been killed and two others injured in an explosive charge blast west of Balad town in Salah al-Din Province on Tuesday, according to a security source. “An explosive charge blew up in Alb-Rindis area, 2 km to the west of Balad town in Salah al-Din Province, on Tuesday, killing a peasant and wounding two others,” the Salah al-Din’s security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
Baiji:
#1: Police forces found on Monday two bodies of a civilian and a Sahwa fighter in west of Beiji, according to a security source. “The two men had been kidnapped yesterday in al-Sukariya village, west of Beiji,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The bodies were found on Beiji-al-Sieniya road, west of Beiji,” he added, noting that the corpses bore signs of gunshot wounds to the head and chest.
Mosul:
#1: A bullet-riddled female body was found on Monday in eastern Mosul, according to a security source. “Policemen found on Monday (Nov. 29) a female body in al-Tahrir neighborhood, eastern Mosul,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The body show signs of gunshot wounds to the neck and stomach,” he added, pointing out that the corpse belongs to a 40-year-old woman.
Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Afghan gunmen attacked a construction company in Kabul province, wounding one security guard and kidnapping nine others, the Interior Ministry said Tuesday. Gunmen opened fire on 18 Afghan guards in the mountainous Sarobi district, about 27 miles (45 kilometers) east of the capital, Kabul on Monday. Nine guards were kidnapped and nine escaped, said Zemeri Bashary, a spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry. The gunmen also seized several rifles.
#2: Two children were killed and one was injured when a bomb went off in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province on Tuesday.
#3: A suicide bomber blew himself up near a police station in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday, killing at least six people, according to news reports.
#4: A French Air Force planes F3 Rafale fighter crashed today off Pakistan in the Arabian Sea but the pilot made a successful bail-out and was immediately rescued by the French helicopters. French Defense Ministry was quoted as saying on Sunday (November 28), that “in the beginning of an air support mission in Afghanistan, a Rafale pilot who operated from the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, had to eject from his plane in the Sea, off Pakistan.” Sources say that the pilot was immediately picked up by a helicopter deputed for emergency of air operations. The pilot was safe but injured and was receiving medical treatment.
#5: Four militants were killed in exchange of fire with security forces in Puran tehsil of Shangla district on Monday, officials said. They said that all the four persons were wanted in various cases of militancy. They said that security forces were patrolling Alooch area when they saw the militants. “Soldiers asked them to surrender, but they (militants) refused and opened fire on the patrolling party,” an official said. Security forces killed them in exchange of fire, he added. The killed militants were identified as Sher Rehman, Saeedullah and Iqbal, all residents of Shangla, and Rahimullah, who belonged to Battagram district.Militants burnt three trucks carrying goods from Afghanistan to tribal areas and kidnapped the drivers in Baizai tehsil of Mohmand Agency on Monday. The driver and helper of a truck were feared killed when they resisted torching of trucks, a tribesman and official sources said.
DoD: Pvt. Devon J. Harris
Iraq foils plot to bomb French embassy in Baghdad
Pakistan drone victim to sue US for $500m
Leak: Iran offered Canada intelligence on Afghanistan
Cables Depict U.S. Haggling to Find Takers for Detainees
Reported security incidents
Baghdad:
#1: On Tuesday morning, a bomb attached to a civilian car in the al-Qadisiya neighborhood of western Baghdad exploded and killed the driver, Baghdad police said.
#2: In a separate incident Tuesday morning, a bomb attached to a civilian car exploded in al-Liqa Square in western Baghdad and wounded three civilians, Baghdad police said.
Baquba:
#1: And on Monday evening, four civilians were killed and 29 were wounded when a bomb in a parked car exploded Monday at an outdoor market in central Baquba, Iraq, about 35 miles (roughly 60 kilometers) north of Baghdad, police in Baquba said.
Samarra:
#1: The corpses of a man and a woman have been discovered in Samarra city in Salah al-Din Province on Tuesday, according to a Salah al-Din police source.
Balad:
#1: An Iraqi peasant has been killed and two others injured in an explosive charge blast west of Balad town in Salah al-Din Province on Tuesday, according to a security source. “An explosive charge blew up in Alb-Rindis area, 2 km to the west of Balad town in Salah al-Din Province, on Tuesday, killing a peasant and wounding two others,” the Salah al-Din’s security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
Baiji:
#1: Police forces found on Monday two bodies of a civilian and a Sahwa fighter in west of Beiji, according to a security source. “The two men had been kidnapped yesterday in al-Sukariya village, west of Beiji,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The bodies were found on Beiji-al-Sieniya road, west of Beiji,” he added, noting that the corpses bore signs of gunshot wounds to the head and chest.
Mosul:
#1: A bullet-riddled female body was found on Monday in eastern Mosul, according to a security source. “Policemen found on Monday (Nov. 29) a female body in al-Tahrir neighborhood, eastern Mosul,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The body show signs of gunshot wounds to the neck and stomach,” he added, pointing out that the corpse belongs to a 40-year-old woman.
Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Afghan gunmen attacked a construction company in Kabul province, wounding one security guard and kidnapping nine others, the Interior Ministry said Tuesday. Gunmen opened fire on 18 Afghan guards in the mountainous Sarobi district, about 27 miles (45 kilometers) east of the capital, Kabul on Monday. Nine guards were kidnapped and nine escaped, said Zemeri Bashary, a spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry. The gunmen also seized several rifles.
#2: Two children were killed and one was injured when a bomb went off in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province on Tuesday.
#3: A suicide bomber blew himself up near a police station in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday, killing at least six people, according to news reports.
#4: A French Air Force planes F3 Rafale fighter crashed today off Pakistan in the Arabian Sea but the pilot made a successful bail-out and was immediately rescued by the French helicopters. French Defense Ministry was quoted as saying on Sunday (November 28), that “in the beginning of an air support mission in Afghanistan, a Rafale pilot who operated from the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, had to eject from his plane in the Sea, off Pakistan.” Sources say that the pilot was immediately picked up by a helicopter deputed for emergency of air operations. The pilot was safe but injured and was receiving medical treatment.
#5: Four militants were killed in exchange of fire with security forces in Puran tehsil of Shangla district on Monday, officials said. They said that all the four persons were wanted in various cases of militancy. They said that security forces were patrolling Alooch area when they saw the militants. “Soldiers asked them to surrender, but they (militants) refused and opened fire on the patrolling party,” an official said. Security forces killed them in exchange of fire, he added. The killed militants were identified as Sher Rehman, Saeedullah and Iqbal, all residents of Shangla, and Rahimullah, who belonged to Battagram district.Militants burnt three trucks carrying goods from Afghanistan to tribal areas and kidnapped the drivers in Baizai tehsil of Mohmand Agency on Monday. The driver and helper of a truck were feared killed when they resisted torching of trucks, a tribesman and official sources said.
DoD: Pvt. Devon J. Harris
Tennessee Supreme Court Halts Executions for 4 death row Inmates
The Tennessee Supreme Court today issued an order staying the execution of Stephen Michael West scheduled for Nov. 30 to allow the trial court to test the constitutionality of the state’s new lethal injection procedure.
Pending the resolution of this issue, the Court has also stayed the scheduled executions for Billy Ray Irick, Edmund Zagorski and Edward Jerome Harbison.
On Nov. 22, West and Irick filed motions requesting the Tennessee Supreme Court postpone their executions after a Davidson County Chancery Court ruled the state's lethal injection procedure to be unconstitutional. After a 2-day evidentiary hearing, the trial court ruled the state's current procedure did not offer a safeguard to ensure the prisoner was unconscious before the final 2 drugs are administered.
In the State's response, filed Nov. 24, they argued that a stay of execution should not be granted as it had changed its execution procedure to include a test to confirm that the inmate is unconscious before the administration of the final 2 drugs. After considering the motions filed by both parties, the Supreme Court denied West and Irick's motions to postpone their scheduled executions.
West filed a motion to reconsider on Friday arguing that he was not afforded the opportunity to respond to the State's new execution procedure. The Supreme Court has granted West's motion to reconsider to allow the constitutionality of the new procedure to be fully tested in trial court.
The Supreme Court has directed the trial court to allow the parties to submit argument or evidence on the revised protocol, and the trial Court must render its final judgment within 90 days. The executions of West, Irick, Zagorski and Harbison are stayed pending any appeal of the trial court's judgment and until the State files motions to reset the execution dates of each prisoner.
Source: WDEF News, November 29, 2010
Tennessee Supreme Court Delays Execution For West
The Tennessee Supreme Court has issued an order staying the execution of Stephen Michael West to allow the trial court to test the constitutionality of the state's new lethal injection procedure.
The Supreme Court issued the stay on Monday. West had been moved to death watch and was scheduled to die by lethal injection at 10 p.m. on Tuesday.
A 2-day evidentiary hearing in Davidson County Chancery Court found the state's lethal injection procedure to be unconstitutional because it did not ensure the prisoner was unconscious before the final 2 drugs are administered. The hearing was brought after West and another death row inmate, Billy Ray Irick, filed motions to stay their executions.
The state filed a response 2 days later that a stay of execution should not be granted as it had changed its execution procedure to include a test to confirm that the inmate is unconscious before the administration of the final 2 drugs. After considering the motions filed by both parties, the Supreme Court denied West and Irick's motions to postpone their scheduled executions.
On Friday, West filed a motion to reconsider arguing that he was not afforded the opportunity to respond to the State's new execution procedure. The Supreme Court has granted West's motion to reconsider to allow the constitutionality of the new procedure to be fully tested in trial court.
The Supreme Court has directed the trial court to allow the parties to submit argument or evidence on the revised protocol, and the trial Court must render its final judgment within 90 days.
The executions of West, Irick, Edmund Zagorski and Edward Jerome Harbison are stayed pending any appeal of the trial court's judgment and until the State files motions to reset the execution dates of each prisoner.
West was convicted in the 1986 stabbing deaths of Wanda Romines and her 15-year-old daughter, Sheila Romines, in Union County.
In 2001, he was hours away from death when a judge granted him a stay so he could pursue federal appeals, which he has since completed. Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen declined to intervene when West's attorneys asked for clemency.
Source: newschannel 5, November 29, 2010
Princess Fiona Title’s World's Largest Cruise Ship, Allure Of The Seas
In what's billed as a first for a cruise ship, a 3-D animated movie character -- Princess Fiona from DreamWorks Animation's Shrek series - served as the godmother throughout the naming ceremony for Royal Caribbean's record size Allure of the Seas.Princess Fiona appeared in 3-D on the screen in the 5,400-passenger ship's Amber Theater to preside over the festivities, interacting with Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.'s Chairman and CEO, Richard D. Fain.
"It's never simple choosing the right godmother, but we realized we had the perfect candidate right in front of us," Fain told several thousand invited guests in attendance. "Princess Fiona is not only a Royal (she) symbolizes the fun and entertainment that is so astonishing on Allure of the Seas."
The choice of Fiona as godmother, kept undisclosed until the ceremony took place, was no doubt intended to highlight Royal Caribbean's new partnership with DreamWorks. The partnership is bringing Shrek, Fiona and other characters to Allure, which is tied with one-year-old sister Oasis of the Seas as the world's largest cruise ship. It also gave the line a possibility to show off the new 3-D theater experience it has installed on Allure, a first for the line.The ceremony also incorporated a bagpipe-and-drums procession, the U.S. national anthem performed by Broadway star MiG Ayesa and a scene from Allure's Blue Planet aerial show. The event culminated with the customary breaking of a Champagne bottle featuring a label created by pop artist Romero Britto, who has a gallery on the ship. The bottle breaking was done by a karate chop by Princess Fiona.
The ship, at present in the midst of a series of preview cruises, sets sail on its first voyage with paying passengers on Dec. 1.
Australian Researchers Discover New Squat Lobsters
The small crustacean, which can fit in the palm of a hand, is one of ten lobster species collected off the western coast of Australia during research missions in 2005 and 2007. Six of the lobsters—including G. subspinosa—are new to Australia, researchers just announced. Two more are completely new to science.Hundreds of identified species of squat lobster are found in oceans worldwide at depths ranging from six feet (two meters) to three miles (five kilometers). Squat lobsters, also known as squatties, are distinguished by their large front claws and compressed bodies. The animals are more intimately related to hermit crabs than true lobsters.
As for G. subspinosa, "this genus is one of the most colorful of all squat lobsters," said marine scientist Joanne Taylor of Museum Victoria, who co-authored a paper relating the new lobsters published in the October 12 issue of the journal Zootaxa.
World's Tallest Residential Tower To Be Completed By 2011
Dubai-based developer Tameer has announced that the world’s tallest residential tower will be finished by Q4 of next year, though it will soon be overtaken by another tower.The Princess Tower, which is at present under construction and located in Dubai Marina, will reach 107 storeys and stand at 414m once completed in 2011, offering 763 residential units to buyers.
But it won’t hold the record for long if the 516m Pentominium Tower, also located in Dubai Marina and already under construction, meets its programmed completion date of 2013.
Covert Spraying Program
The following commentary was posted and then removed from the original site but I found it elsewhere:
Covert Spraying Pogram
From the Carlsbad Current-Argus
Original Post: 11/09/2010 09:05:34 PM MST
If anybody has taken the time out of their busy day to glance skyward recently, you may have noticed jet trails that linger on and do not dissipate as a normal contrail should.
These “chemtrails,” as they are often called, spread out and form large areas of artificial cloud cover. As these clouds dissipate they leave a white haze on the horizon. This is in fact a covert spraying program that has been in operation for the better part of a decade.
High altitude aircraft spray particulates into the upper atmosphere, containing dangerous amounts of aluminum and barium salts. Spray patterns in the form of grids or ‘x’ shapes are often observed. What purpose these spraying programs serve is unclear, although most signs point to geo-engineering programs to reduce global warming that have been discussed by the White House science czar as well as nonprofit groups such as the Carnegie Endowment.
The climate change fanatics have apparently taken it upon themselves to spray the earth with poisons with no concern for what the environmental impacts may be. Just as with a religious fanatic, the global warming zealot has no tolerance for differing opinions, and like a religious fanatic will justify murder and destruction in the name of their cause.
Spraying our beautiful blue skies with toxic vapors is a crime and should be prosecuted as any crime would. Unfortunately our elected representatives have been left completely in the dark about this covert program. I would implore our city, state, and national elected officials to begin inquiries into aerosol-spraying programs immediately.
I for one feel that we are being robbed of our right to clean and healthy air to breathe. It is no coincidence that as these spraying programs have been carried out over the years we have seen a meteoric rise in sinus and allergy conditions as well as childhood asthma.
There have also been alarming levels of aluminum and barium found in soil in areas where massive spraying has taken place. This is affecting our food supply as well as our health because these chemicals upset the ph balance of the soil and contaminate crops.
This is an imminent threat far greater than that of Al Qaeda or home grown terror. We must stand up and take action now!
CREDIT: Chuck Landreth
http://natedaily.com/?p=2047
Covert Spraying Pogram
From the Carlsbad Current-Argus
Original Post: 11/09/2010 09:05:34 PM MST
If anybody has taken the time out of their busy day to glance skyward recently, you may have noticed jet trails that linger on and do not dissipate as a normal contrail should.
These “chemtrails,” as they are often called, spread out and form large areas of artificial cloud cover. As these clouds dissipate they leave a white haze on the horizon. This is in fact a covert spraying program that has been in operation for the better part of a decade.
High altitude aircraft spray particulates into the upper atmosphere, containing dangerous amounts of aluminum and barium salts. Spray patterns in the form of grids or ‘x’ shapes are often observed. What purpose these spraying programs serve is unclear, although most signs point to geo-engineering programs to reduce global warming that have been discussed by the White House science czar as well as nonprofit groups such as the Carnegie Endowment.
The climate change fanatics have apparently taken it upon themselves to spray the earth with poisons with no concern for what the environmental impacts may be. Just as with a religious fanatic, the global warming zealot has no tolerance for differing opinions, and like a religious fanatic will justify murder and destruction in the name of their cause.
Spraying our beautiful blue skies with toxic vapors is a crime and should be prosecuted as any crime would. Unfortunately our elected representatives have been left completely in the dark about this covert program. I would implore our city, state, and national elected officials to begin inquiries into aerosol-spraying programs immediately.
I for one feel that we are being robbed of our right to clean and healthy air to breathe. It is no coincidence that as these spraying programs have been carried out over the years we have seen a meteoric rise in sinus and allergy conditions as well as childhood asthma.
There have also been alarming levels of aluminum and barium found in soil in areas where massive spraying has taken place. This is affecting our food supply as well as our health because these chemicals upset the ph balance of the soil and contaminate crops.
This is an imminent threat far greater than that of Al Qaeda or home grown terror. We must stand up and take action now!
CREDIT: Chuck Landreth
http://natedaily.com/?p=2047
Lessons and Carols -- Saturday, Dec. 18, 8 PM
Christmas caroling used to be at the heart of the Christmas experience. Groups of merry-makers would bundle up and stroll door-to-door through the neighborhoods singing classic Christmas songs to the delight of their friends and strangers alike. In our modern world of busy schedules and heightened terror alerts, door to door Christmas caroling has all but disappeared.
Saturday, December 18, at 8 PM we will gather to celebrate the "Lessons and Carols" of Christmas—the stories and songs of Jesus' birth as related in Gospels and other Christian writings.
The Congregational Choir, directed by Terence Flanagan, will offer special music. The Adult Bell Choir, led by Abi Gray, will also perform. The entire congregation will be invited to take part in the singing of carols!
For this year's service, we will use the following lessons:
1. The Birth of the Word “Incarnation” John 1:1-14, 16-18
2. Mary & Gabriel “Annunciation” Luke 1:26-38
3. Mary’s Song “Magnificat” Luke 1:46-55
4. The Birth of Jesus “Nativity” Luke 2:1-7
5. Shepherds & Angels “Gloria in Excelsis” Luke 2:8-20
6. Visit of the Magi "Gaudio Magno" Matthew 2:1-12
7. Birth of the Cosmic Christ "Peperit Filium" Revelation 12:1-6
8. Jesus Birthed The All "ἐγώ εἰμι " Gospel of Thomas 46, 70, 77
9. Born in Human Likeness "Humiliavit Semet Ipsum" Philippians 2:1-11
For a history and a sampling of the options available in traditional lessons-and-carols, click here. The familiar service at Cambridge is based on an Order drawn up by Edward White Benson, at that time Bishop of Truro, in Cornwall, for use on Christmas Eve (24 December) 1880. Tradition says that he organized a 10 pm service on Christmas Eve in a temporary wooden shed serving as his cathedral and that a key purpose of the service was to keep men out of pubs on Christmas Eve. A listing of the traditional lessons can be found at http://www.ctbi.org.uk/pdf_view.php?id=551
--Jack Lohr, Interim Pastor
Christmas Fair -- THIS FRIDAY, Dec. 3, 6-10 PM
Friday, December 3, 6 to 10 p.m. the Great Hall and adjoining spaces will be transformed by the Women’s Association into a beautiful holiday wonderland. There will be a gift table, beautifully decorated wreaths, baked goods and handmade crafts. There will also be several vendors with unique gifts for everyone on your list.
There is a $5 suggested donation at the door.
--Jack Lohr, Interim Pastor
Prepare for departure
In a comment piece for Die Welt, Jörg Eigendorf has some well chosen words for Chancellor Angela Merkel.
With regards to the “What happens now?” question being thrown around the Euro countries, Eigendorf deems both the idea of an enlarged rescue package and common Euro-bonds as “madness”. He argues that Germany would then be responsible for other European countries in the eyes of the law, “thus undermining both the Maastricht Treaty and the German Federal Constitutional Court”.
Eigendorf notes that possible moves would also “collectivise responsibility for wrongdoings, and probably only postpone the bitter end and worsen the final fiscal fiasco.” He adds that
With regards to the “What happens now?” question being thrown around the Euro countries, Eigendorf deems both the idea of an enlarged rescue package and common Euro-bonds as “madness”. He argues that Germany would then be responsible for other European countries in the eyes of the law, “thus undermining both the Maastricht Treaty and the German Federal Constitutional Court”.
Eigendorf notes that possible moves would also “collectivise responsibility for wrongdoings, and probably only postpone the bitter end and worsen the final fiscal fiasco.” He adds that
German politicians must be aware that the solvency of their own state is finite. At the latest, if Spain is rescued, the imbalances in Italy, and probably also France, will be calculated.These, he argues, are burdens already borne by the German taxpayer, and
the more the federal government gets involved in the collective liability, the larger and more transparent the costs to the general public are. From a political point of view, it won’t be endured for long.Finally, he comments:
The Merkel government can hope that the current crisis management works, that the markets calm down and countries see reason on fiscal policy. That is possible but it is not probable. Instead, there is the alternative of deeper political union, which doesn't look realistic, or an orderly unwinding of the euro zone to fewer, relatively economically solid countries. Even if a government leader should not speak loudly about it, that is exactly what Chancellor Merkel should now prepare for.Strong stuff...
Monday, November 29, 2010
Advent 1 Sermon Script
"Stay Awake" Isaiah 2:1-5 & Matthew 24:36-44
Stay awake, don't rest your head don't lie down upon your bed
while the moon drifts in the skies stay awake, don't close your eyes
though the world is fast asleep though your pillow's soft and deep
you're not sleepy as you seem stay awake, don't nod and dream
stay awake, don't nod and dream -- Mary Poppins (movie)
Advent Season has begun. We prepare again for the joyous miracle of Christmas. [I explained why we're singing Christmas carols during Advent.]I'm a perpetually optimistic type. Even if last Christmas didn't turn out the way I hoped, I'm ready to believe that this one that's coming this year will be different. Even if my team blew it horribly last week, I'll cheer them on in the hope that this time they'll pull it out. I guess I've got a lot in common with that famous football placekicker, Charlie Brown.
Advent is not just looking backward to Bethlehem. It's about daring to move forward into a world that God has envisioned for us.
A prophetic voice is calling, calling in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord.
We know the Way. Jesus gave us this vision:
Two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left.
Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left.
Jesus gave us these apocaplyptic visions, not to scare us but to wake us up. Jesus was asked about sudden tragedies (Luke 13:1-5). Some of the people present at that time told him about the demonstrators who were killed on their way to church. He replied to them, "Do you suppose that these…were any worse than all the rest just because they suffered this fate? No, I tell you, but unless you all re-shape your lives, every last one of you will suffer a similar fate. Or those eighteen on whom the [tower of Siloam]…fell and killed them, do you think this happened to them because they were worse sinners than all the other citizens…? No, I tell you, but unless you all re-shape your lives, every last one of you will suffer a similar fate." [Cottonpatch Version]
It's not that they died--we all must die. It's that they died unexpectedly. They weren't ready. They weren't awake.
Today’s lessons invite us to wake up and experience life before death. Don't be like the people before the flood who were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away.
This coming week marks the 30th anniversary of the Martyrs of El Salvador. Dec. 2, 1980, Catholic sisters Maura Clarke, Ita Ford, Dorothy Kazel, and laywoman Jean Donovan were killed by US-trained Salvadoran soldiers.[Luis
Antonio Colindres Alemán, the officer who ordered the murders, had attended a School of the Americas training in 1980.]
All four of the women went to El Salvador in response to the call of Archbishop Oscar Romero, fully aware of the great suffering of the people of El Salvador and the danger.
Sister Maura had written, “One cries out, ‘Lord, how long?’ And then too what creeps into my mind is the little fear or big, that when it touches me very personally, will I be faithful?”
Sister Ita wrote to her sixteen-year-old niece:
This is a terrible time in El Salvador for youth. A lot of idealism and commitment are getting snuffed out here now. The reasons why so many people are being killed are quite complicated, yet there are some clear, simple strands. One is that people have found a meaning to live, to sacrifice, struggle, and even die. And whether their life spans sixteen years, sixty, or ninety, for them their life has had a purpose. In many ways, they are fortunate people.
Brooklyn is not passing through the drama of El Salvador, but some things hold true wherever one is, and at whatever age. What I’m saying is that I hope you can come to find that which gives life a deep meaning for you, something that energizes you, enthuses you, enables you to keep moving ahead.
Jean Donovan grew up in Westport, CT, had a degree in business and a promising career. She was engaged to a young physician, and felt a strong call to motherhood as well as her call to do mission work: "...I sit there and talk to God and say 'Why are you doing this to me? Why can't I just be your little suburban housewife?' He hasn't answered yet." Two weeks before her death she wrote, “The Peace Corps left today and my heart sank low. The danger is extreme and they were right to leave... Now I must assess my own position, because I am not up for suicide. Several times I have decided to leave El Salvador. I almost could, except for the children, the poor, bruised victims of this insanity. Who would care for them? Whose heart could be so staunch as to favor the reasonable thing in a sea of their tears and loneliness? Not mine, dear friend, not mine.”
Despite the terror, the women were inspired and compelled by the hope of the Salvadoran people, and with them, they stubbornly clung to the prophets' promise of a day of peace, when "nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." (Isaiah 2:4).
Advent is usually described as a season of waiting. We are getting ready for something. But the Advent message is a hard sell in a culture of instant gratification. My generation and all who came after me have bought the idea that we can have it all, right now. Just put it on the credit card, or borrow it from the future. Whether you are a Republican or a Democrat, we’re all spending our grandchildren’s inheritance through Federal deficits, and we can't or won't stop ourselves.
Why wait? Because we’re not in charge. Because control is an illusion. And because life--real life--is what happens when we slow down and wake up, when we live within the bounds of humanity and reach out to the others with whom we share this journey.
Martin Luther King, Jr. preached on "Staying Awake through a Great Revolution." He used the story of Rip Van Winkle who fell asleep for 20 years, and slept through the American Revolution. While he was peacefully snoring up in the mountain a revolution was taking place that at points would change the course of history—and Rip knew nothing about it. He was asleep. Yes, he slept through a revolution. And one of the great liabilities of life is that all too many people find themselves living amid a great period of social change, and yet they fail to develop the new attitudes, the new mental responses, that the new situation demands. They end up sleeping through a revolution.
Isaiah prophesies there's a better world coming. Can we believe it? "O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!" (Isaiah 2:5).
We are called, whoever and wherever we are, to turn toward that new world.
We are called to turn from ways of destruction into ways of peace and justice.
We are called to stay awake and alert to what God is doing in our midst.
Let us prepare to be changed as God comes to us once again in a new way.
A voice is calling, calling in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord. Amen.
--Jack Lohr, Interim Pastor
PS: The recorded sermon, as delivered, can be heard at http://pcmk.org/sermons/2010-11-28.wma
Dr. Drew Joins HLN
Drew Pinsky Joins HLN Prime Time Lineup
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Dr. Drew Pinsky, the renowned doctor who has helped audiences across a spectrum of tv and radio programs for more than two decades, will be joining HLN’s prime time programming block. Announced today by Scot Safon, executive vice president in charge of HLN, the new program will launch in Spring 2011 and will be an opportunity for audiences to hear Dr. Drew’s insights on a broad range of subjects every night.
Dr. Drew, a practicing physician who is also board certified in internal and addiction medicine, specializes in topics that are core concerns for viewers throughout the United States -- creating healthy relationships, coping with addiction, and finding constructive ways to navigate common struggles facing parents and their children alike. The HLN program will give Dr. Drew a new, nightly platform to provide relevant observations and perspectives on the news stories and newsmakers HLN covers throughout the day.
“Dr. Drew informs and inspires audiences on subjects that matter most to them and their families, and he is an ideal fit for the HLN network,” said Safon. “Whether the topics are in the news or simply in the daily lives of our audience, Dr. Drew will shed light, provide crucial information and give viewers something to talk—and think--about.”
“I am thrilled to join HLN and I have no doubt that the natural fit I feel at the network will provide the opportunity to explore the stories behind the story and really explain the choices that people make,” said Pinsky.
Dr. Drew Pinsky is a practicing physician with a private practice and is on staff at Huntington Memorial Hospital. He is also Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Keck USC School of Medicine.
One of the most listened to doctors in America, Dr. Drew has been taking calls from listeners since 1984 as host of the radio show LOVELINE, which is nationally syndicated by Westwood One.
Dr. Drew and Vh1 teamed up for the first reality TV series to depict the process of overcoming addiction. Now in its fourth season, CELEBRITY REHAB with DR. DREW was critically acclaimed by the addiction community for pulling back the veil of secrecy about what goes on in rehabilitation programs. SOBER HOUSE chronicles the sober living process and SEX REHAB with DR. DREW looked at the struggles and treatment of those dealing with serious sex addictions.
Dr. Drew is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Mirror Effect: How Celebrity Narcissism is Seducing America (Harper-Collins) and Cracked: Putting Broken Lives Together Again (Harper-Collins). Dr. Drew co-authored with Dr. Mark Young the first academic study on celebrities and narcissism. The study was published in the Journal of Research in Personality (Elsevier) and received worldwide press coverage.
After receiving his undergraduate degree from Amherst College and his M.D. from the University of Southern California, School of Medicine, Dr. Drew continued with USC for his residency. He then became chief resident at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena. Dr. Drew is a member of the American College of Physicians, the American Medical Association, the American Society of Addiction Medicine, the California Medical Association and the American Society of Internal Medicine.
Dr. Drew lives with his wife and their teenage triplets in Pasadena.
“Dr. Drew informs and inspires audiences on subjects that matter most to them and their families, and he is an ideal fit for the HLN network,” said Safon. “Whether the topics are in the news or simply in the daily lives of our audience, Dr. Drew will shed light, provide crucial information and give viewers something to talk—and think--about.”
“I am thrilled to join HLN and I have no doubt that the natural fit I feel at the network will provide the opportunity to explore the stories behind the story and really explain the choices that people make,” said Pinsky.
Dr. Drew Pinsky is a practicing physician with a private practice and is on staff at Huntington Memorial Hospital. He is also Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Keck USC School of Medicine.
One of the most listened to doctors in America, Dr. Drew has been taking calls from listeners since 1984 as host of the radio show LOVELINE, which is nationally syndicated by Westwood One.
Dr. Drew and Vh1 teamed up for the first reality TV series to depict the process of overcoming addiction. Now in its fourth season, CELEBRITY REHAB with DR. DREW was critically acclaimed by the addiction community for pulling back the veil of secrecy about what goes on in rehabilitation programs. SOBER HOUSE chronicles the sober living process and SEX REHAB with DR. DREW looked at the struggles and treatment of those dealing with serious sex addictions.
Dr. Drew is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Mirror Effect: How Celebrity Narcissism is Seducing America (Harper-Collins) and Cracked: Putting Broken Lives Together Again (Harper-Collins). Dr. Drew co-authored with Dr. Mark Young the first academic study on celebrities and narcissism. The study was published in the Journal of Research in Personality (Elsevier) and received worldwide press coverage.
After receiving his undergraduate degree from Amherst College and his M.D. from the University of Southern California, School of Medicine, Dr. Drew continued with USC for his residency. He then became chief resident at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena. Dr. Drew is a member of the American College of Physicians, the American Medical Association, the American Society of Addiction Medicine, the California Medical Association and the American Society of Internal Medicine.
Dr. Drew lives with his wife and their teenage triplets in Pasadena.
Tariq Aziz sentenced on crimes against Iraqi Kurds
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| Tariq Aziz |
BAGHDAD (AP) — An Iraqi court on Monday convicted Tariq Aziz, Saddam Hussein's longtime foreign minister, of terrorizing Shiite Kurds during the Iran-Iraq war, sentencing him to 10 years in prison.
The jail term piles a new penalty on the 74-year-old Aziz, who already faces an execution sentence from another case.
Aziz was spared the death penalty in the Saddam-era crimes against humanity because he had a lesser involvement in the atrocities than some of his co-defendants, said Mohammed Abdul-Sahib, a spokesman for the Iraqi High Tribunal. The case involves crimes targeting Iraq's small sect of Shiite Kurds, known as Faili.
At least three former Saddam loyalists were sentenced to death in the same case, although two of the dictator's half brothers were found not guilty in the campaign against the Faili Kurds.
Saddam was a Sunni Muslim. In all, 15 defendants were charged in the case.
The small Faili minority comes mainly from an area in northeastern Iraq that straddles the Iraq-Iran border. Saddam killed, detained and deported tens of thousands of Faili Kurds early in his 1980-1988 war with Iran, denouncing them as alien Persians and spies for the Iranians.
Aziz was the highest-profile defendant to come before judges on Monday. He already faces execution in an earlier case linking him to Saddam's persecution of Shiite political parties.
His Italy-based lawyer, Giovanni di Stefano, called his return to court an example of "how seriously flawed is the Iraqi criminal justice system." He said all of the allegations against Aziz should have been rolled into one trial.
Di Stefano also said he plans to sue the U.S. government for reneging on what he called an agreement approved by former U.S. President George W. Bush to release Aziz after being questioned about the Saddam regime as a condition of his 2003 surrender to American forces in Iraq.
Aziz is still waiting to hear whether President Jalal Talabani, himself a Kurd, will grant him a presidential pardon or if he will be executed on order from the High Tribunal's appeals court — a decision that could come at any time. Talabani has said he will not sign off on Aziz's death warrant, given his old age and the fact that he was the only Christian in Saddam's inner circle.
But there are ways in Iraq's constitution to bypass the president in capital cases — such as an act of parliament or the approval of one of Talabani's two deputies. It's also not clear if Talabani has the constitutional authority to grant Aziz a pardon.
Source: AP, November 29, 2010
States ask Texas to supply ingredient for executions
As the supply of a key drug used in lethal injections dwindles, state officials are knocking on the door of the busiest execution chamber in the country for help.
Some states that have the death penalty have asked Texas for doses of sodium thiopental, the so-called knockout drug, used as part of the three-drug cocktail in executions by lethal injection, accordingto Michelle Lyons, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. She would not identify the states that requested assistance.
The state has declined to make its supply available even though all of its 39 available doses are set to expire in March and there are only three executions scheduled in the state before then, Lyons said.
States — including Arizona, Oklahoma, Ohio, Tennessee and Kentucky — have scrambled to acquire the drug.
Sodium thiopental renders the condemned inmate unconscious, so the prisoner does not feel pain. Hospira, the lone federally approved producer of the drug, has said new batches of the substance would not be available until next year.
Lyons said that despite the looming expiration of Texas' extra inventory, "we do not have plans to distribute the drug to other states."
"We have a responsibility to ensure we have an adequate supply of the drug on hand to carry out any executions scheduled in the state of Texas," Lyons said.
States with shortages are trying to find suppliers abroad or proposing radical changes in their execution protocols to deal with the lack of drugs.
•In Oklahoma last week, a federal judge approved the use of pentobarbital, a drug used in euthanizing animals, to replace sodium thiopental in lethal injections. Oklahoma Assistant Attorney General Stephen Krise said the state was "forced" to find an alternative when sodium thiopental became "unavailable."
•In Arizona last month, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the execution of convicted murderer Jeffrey Landrigan after his attorneys challenged the state's acquisition of sodium thiopental from an undisclosed supplier in Britain.
In Kentucky in August, Gov. Steve Beshear, a Democrat, postponed the signing of two death warrants because of the shortage of sodium thiopental. "The (state's) repeated attempts to obtain additional thiopental have so far been unsuccessful," Beshear said in written statement.
For Oklahoma, the approval of the sodium thiopental substitute represents a departure from a procedure adopted in 1977, when Oklahoma became the first state in the nation to authorize lethal injection as a means of execution, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. (The first lethal injection was actually carried out in 1982 in Texas.)
Krise said the state settled on a plan for an alternative drug — pentobarbital — after "an exhaustive search" to obtain another source of sodium thiopental.
The assistant attorney general said he did not know how many other sources or death penalty states were approached as potential suppliers for additional sodium thiopental. Last month, he said, Arkansas provided the needed dose to carry out the execution of Donald Ray Wackerly, convicted in the 1996 murder of a Laotian immigrant.
Krise said he did not know whether Texas was asked to share its supply.
"I'm sure some states feel uncomfortable giving it out," he said.
Source: CourierPostOnline.com, November 29, 2010
Britain restricts export of lethal injection drug to US
British controls on sodium thiopental export means some US executions could be halted.
Business Secretary Vince Cable has said he will control the export of the anaesthetic drug sodium thiopental for use in capital punishment after campaigners took him to court.
Although it is not the outright ban for which campaigners have called, the move will make it more difficult for executions by lethal injection in a number of US states to go ahead.
A statement from the Department of Business Innovation and Skills said: "In light of new information the Business Secretary has today announced that the British Government will be placing controls on the export of sodium thiopental.
"The order will be made as soon as practicable and once in force, any person exporting this drug will require a licence issued by the Export Control Organisation."
Earlier this month, Cable was accused of "irrationality" at the High Court for his refusal to ban the export of sodium thiopental, which is one of three drugs used during the process of lethal injection.
A lawyer who was arguing the case of two death row prisoners, Edmund Zagorski and Ralph Baze, said that capital punishment was a clear violation of human rights and the UK government was supposed to be seeking to abolish the death penalty worldwide. It was therefore irrational and unlawful for Cable not to ban the sale of sodium thiopental for use in executions.
It seems Cable hopes that imposing export controls on sodium thiopental will strengthen his case.
A control on UK exports of sodium thiopental is likely to result in the staying of executions in a number of US states as there is currently a national shortage of the drug.
The sodium thiopental shortage has affected executions in California, Oklahoma and Kentucky, while Missouri's supply of the drug will expire in January.
The United States' sole manufacturer of the drug, Hospira, is experiencing problems with sourcing the active pharmaceutical ingredient. The company, for the record, disapproves of its product being used as a lethal injection component.
Source: The First Post, November 29, 2010
European solidarity has a limit, even if your name is Adenauer
Adenauer is a name synonymous with the European project, owing to Konrad Adenauer, the German Chancellor from 1949 to 1963, one of the founding fathers of the European integration.
However, in a sign of the changing attitudes in Germany to the euro in particular, his grandson, Patrick, is sponsoring a lawsuit against the €85bn loan for Ireland agreed yesterday by EU finance ministers. He is one of the 50 supporters of a legal challenge to be submitted this week by Professor Markus Kerber - the renowned academic and constitutional expert who will also be speaking at our event in Brussels on 9 December.
European solidarity clearly has a limit in Germany, even if your name is Adenauer.
However, in a sign of the changing attitudes in Germany to the euro in particular, his grandson, Patrick, is sponsoring a lawsuit against the €85bn loan for Ireland agreed yesterday by EU finance ministers. He is one of the 50 supporters of a legal challenge to be submitted this week by Professor Markus Kerber - the renowned academic and constitutional expert who will also be speaking at our event in Brussels on 9 December.
European solidarity clearly has a limit in Germany, even if your name is Adenauer.
Kerala To Host International Film Festival On December 10
By GAUTAM Jha
INDIA NEWS - The 15th annual International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFk) will be held at 10 screening houses in Thiruvananthpuram on December 10. About 190 films focusing on Central Asian and Black American filmmakers will be screened during December10 to 17. The registration is open on www.iffk.in and November 30 is declared to be the last day.
Speaking to the media, Chairman of Kerala State Chalchitram Academy (KSCA) and Festival Director of 15th IFFK K. R. Mohanan revealed renowned German filmmaker Werner Herzog would be felicitated with lifetime achievement award.
A committee headed by renowned filmmaker Adoor Gopalkrishnan selected Herzog, who would receive the award at inaugral function of the IFFK at the Nishagandhi auditorium. Instituted last year, the award carries $10,000 and a trophy. The award will be bestowed by C. N. Karunakaram.
KSCA has increased the prize money in each category. The Suvarna Chakoram carries prize money of 15 lakh which will be shared by the director and producer of the best film. The Rajata chakoram will be given to the best director with a cash prize of Rs. 4 lakh. The best debut filmmaker will get a cash prize of Rs. 3 lakh along with Rajata Chakoram. Moreover, the Rajata Chakoram and a cash prize of Rs. 2 lakh will be conferred as “Audience Prize.”
An effort has been made to promote Malayalam Films, all selected films will get a cash of one lakh each and be shared between director and producer. Eight Malayalam films have been selected so far for Malayalam section.
As a part of centenary Celebrations of Rabindranath Tagore, a seminar on “ Explorations of the Epic and Cinematographic Form: Flowing Traditions” will be conducted. “Char Adhyaya” of Kumar Sahani's will be screened in conjunction and an Arvindan Memorial lecture will be delivered on “ the Journey of Bringing of Asian Cinema to the Centre State.”
Over 8,000 delegates and eminent filmmakers are expected to illuminate the mega event.
Japan Clears $61bn To Boost Fragile Economy
By MALILA Harris
JAPAN NEWS - Under the pressure of declining economy, Japan's parliament has passed a stimulus package worth about $61bn (£39bn) to accelerate the growth. The stimulus was aimed to create jobs and to help small businesses, impelling consumers to spend more.
To kick-start the fragile economy the Japanese government has already started many recovery packages. The economic figure shows that Japanese consumer prices fell for the 20th month in a row in October.
It was indeed a tough task to get stimulus package to pass through the parliament. The latest stimulus package also represents a victory of the government who is struggling with the economy and opposition criticism as well.
Unlike European government's policy that largely focus on cutting spending to secure growth, Japanese government planned a contrasting policy that gives more opportunity to consumers to spend and eventually growth in economy.
Presently, Japan has been suffering from weak economic growth with yen value rises and a steep deflation. The core consumer price index fell by 0.6% in October compared with a year earlier. However, in September it recovered a bit with 1.1% price falls.
Deflation is damaging the economic growth because of apprehension of consumers to spend or delay. The slight improvement in September, though not reflected on consumer demand.
"Even though the pace of the fall in prices slowed by 0.5 percentage points, this was not due to an improved demand-supply balance," said Asushi Matsumoto at the Mizuho Research Institute.
Figures released Thursday showed the rapid fall in export growth.
War News for Monday, November 29, 2010
The DND/CF is reporting the death of Captain Francis (Frank) Cecil Paul who died of natural causes in Canada while on leave from deployment on 10 February 2010.
NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an IED blast in an undisclosed location in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, November 27th.
NATO is reporting the deaths of six ISAF soldiers from an apparent small arms fire/shooting incident by an Afghan border policeman in an undisclosed location in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, November 29th.
Reported security incidents
Baghdad:
#1: An explosive charge blew up in central Baghdad on Monday, causing material damage to a number of civilian cars, a security source said. “An explosive charge blew up in a street close to Baghdad’s Police Academy in Central Baghdad, causing damage to a number of civilian cars,” the security source added, without giving further details.
Al Anbar Prv:
#1: An Iraqi Railways employee has been killed and another injured in a land-mine explosion in a railway passing through Karbala area in west Iraq’s Anbar Province on Monday, according to an Anbar police source. “A land-mine has blown up under a train passing through Karbala area in west Iraq’s Anbar Province on Monday, killing an employee and wounding another,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency, adding that the explosion had caused material damage to one of the train’s carriages.
#2: Three electric power towers have been completely blown up in west Iraq’s Akashat city on Monday, according to an Anbar security source. “A group of armed men have planted a number of explosive charges under three towers, carrying electric power in Akashat area, west of Anbar Province, fully destroying them, but causing no human losses,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Clash between Taliban militants and police in eastern Ghazni province left four militants dead and a police officer injured, Zerawar Zahid the police chief of Ghazni province said Monday. "Police raided Taliban rebels hideout in Godal village of Deyak district late Sunday night killing four insurgents," Zahid told Xinhua. He also admitted that the police chief of Deyak district Faiz Mohammad Toofan sustained injuries in fire exchange.
#2: A roadside bomb rocked Lashkar Gah the capital of the southern Helmand province on Monday wounding at least four persons, all civilians, spokesman for provincial administration Daud Ahmadi said. "The bomb planted on a road and was detonated by remote control at 10:45 a.m. local time leaving three teenagers and one adult injured,"Ahmadi told Xinhua.
DoD: Pvt. Devon J. Harris
DND/CF: Captain Francis Cecil Paul
NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an IED blast in an undisclosed location in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, November 27th.
NATO is reporting the deaths of six ISAF soldiers from an apparent small arms fire/shooting incident by an Afghan border policeman in an undisclosed location in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, November 29th.
Reported security incidents
Baghdad:
#1: An explosive charge blew up in central Baghdad on Monday, causing material damage to a number of civilian cars, a security source said. “An explosive charge blew up in a street close to Baghdad’s Police Academy in Central Baghdad, causing damage to a number of civilian cars,” the security source added, without giving further details.
Al Anbar Prv:
#1: An Iraqi Railways employee has been killed and another injured in a land-mine explosion in a railway passing through Karbala area in west Iraq’s Anbar Province on Monday, according to an Anbar police source. “A land-mine has blown up under a train passing through Karbala area in west Iraq’s Anbar Province on Monday, killing an employee and wounding another,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency, adding that the explosion had caused material damage to one of the train’s carriages.
#2: Three electric power towers have been completely blown up in west Iraq’s Akashat city on Monday, according to an Anbar security source. “A group of armed men have planted a number of explosive charges under three towers, carrying electric power in Akashat area, west of Anbar Province, fully destroying them, but causing no human losses,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Clash between Taliban militants and police in eastern Ghazni province left four militants dead and a police officer injured, Zerawar Zahid the police chief of Ghazni province said Monday. "Police raided Taliban rebels hideout in Godal village of Deyak district late Sunday night killing four insurgents," Zahid told Xinhua. He also admitted that the police chief of Deyak district Faiz Mohammad Toofan sustained injuries in fire exchange.
#2: A roadside bomb rocked Lashkar Gah the capital of the southern Helmand province on Monday wounding at least four persons, all civilians, spokesman for provincial administration Daud Ahmadi said. "The bomb planted on a road and was detonated by remote control at 10:45 a.m. local time leaving three teenagers and one adult injured,"Ahmadi told Xinhua.
DoD: Pvt. Devon J. Harris
DND/CF: Captain Francis Cecil Paul
China Urges Emergency Talks Amid Tension Between Koreans
By ETHAN Markoff
CHINA NEWS - In response to international demand and the murkier situation between two Koreans countries, China has urged key nations to intervene in the current crisis over tension in Korea over the North's deadly shelling of a Southern island.
China proposed that the six nations who are involved in talks on North Korean nuclear disarmament, should discuss the Korean crisis and find a solution. The six nations are North Korea, South Korea, the US, China, Japan and Russia.
It is reported that tension between two countries remains high and South Korea in response announced joint military operation against North Korea along with the United States. China has condemned the action of North Korea but apprehensive about the joint exercise.
The six-party North Korea talks have been stalled since April 2009, and South Korea and the US urged North to first halt its nuclear program. According to some analysts, North Korean attack is an attempt to strengthen its position and force a resumption of the talks.
Maternal Dog Gives Birth To Kitten Litters
For the past three years chihuahua-foxy-cross Shyla has been a foster mum – to litters of kittens.Owner Angela McFall, a vet, said Shyla had her first "false pregnancy" three years ago. Shyla has never been pregnant, but once a year at about the same time she produces milk.
The first time it happened Miss McFall, of Brydone, had rescued a kitten and Shyla took it upon herself to clean and feed it, and treated it like her own offspring.
The next year Shyla had another "false pregnancy", and mothered a litter of seven abandoned kittens that Miss McFall rescued while living in Christchurch.
"We drove to Ashburton as I had heard there were some kittens that were going to be put down. We stuck our feelers out because we knew she was producing milk," she said.
Shyla gets very protective of the kittens she mothers, and Miss McFall kept all seven of the previous litter.
Maria Pietilae-Holmner Wins Her First World Cup In Aspen
Sweden's Maria Pietilae-Holmner outclassed the rest of the field to succeed her first World Cup race in the Aspen slalom.The 24-year-old was fastest in both runs to clock a mutual time of one minute and 46.19 seconds.
Appropriately wearing a gold helmet and matching goggles, the very small Swede was nearly perfect in Sunday's World Cup slalom on Aspen Mountain. Pietilae-Holmner laid down a scorching first run on Lower Ruthie's Run, building a lead of 0.64 seconds over her nearest competitor. She closed out Winternational in style during an overcast afternoon, negotiating the 61-gate course with poise and accuracy to post a combined time of 1 minute, 46.19 seconds.
The attempt was good enough to propel her past Germany's Maria Riesch, who was 0.68 seconds off the pace. Finland's Tanja Poutiainen settled for third place and her eighth podium finish here.
The win is Pietilae-Holmner's first in 104 World Cup starts. She is the third skier in as many years to pick up her first triumph in Aspen, joining France's Tessa Worley and Germany's Kathrin Hoelzl.
Excavated Parts From The 1600s Ship Discovered
Remnants of a ship likely from the 1600s were discovered as workers renovated a hotel in central Stockholm, the Maritime Museum said."The discovery of the wreck is very appealing given the place where it was made," Maritime Museum Director Hans-Lennarth Ohlsson said in a statement from the Stockholm museum's website. "There was a naval shipyard on this spot until the start of the 17th century."
As workers were renovating part of Stockholm's Grand Hotel, not far from the royal palace, a worker found something gorgeous – the discovery turned out to be excavated parts of a ship.
So archaeologists from the Maritime Museum came in to ensure things out – and it turns out they had quite an interesting find.
That technique, according to The Local, was not the custom, which has made the discovery even more fascinating.
"We really know nothing about this method other than that it was used in the east," Marine archaeologist Jim Hansson, who was called to the site, told The Local.
Hansson speculated the boat originated from east of the Baltics or Russia, according to The Local.
"We were super-thrilled," he told The Local of the discovery. "It may sound a little strange when one finds little excavated pieces of parts of a ship, but I have never seen anything like it."
Chemmies Again Over Panama City Beach, FL
What began as a crystal blue-sky morning became a mucky white-sky afternoon...
Former Justice John Paul Stevens Criticizes Death Penalty
WASHINGTON — In 1976, just six months after he joined the Supreme Court, Justice John Paul Stevens voted to reinstate capital punishment after a four-year moratorium. With the right procedures, he wrote, it is possible to ensure “evenhanded, rational and consistent imposition of death sentences under law.”
In 2008, two years before he announced his retirement, Justice Stevens reversed course and in a concurrence said that he now believed the death penalty to be unconstitutional.
But the reason for that change of heart, after more than three decades on the court and some 1,100 executions, has in many ways remained a mystery, and now Justice Stevens has provided an explanation.
In a detailed, candid and critical essay to be published this week in The New York Review of Books, he wrote that personnel changes on the court, coupled with “regrettable judicial activism,” had created a system of capital punishment that is shot through with racism, skewed toward conviction, infected with politics and tinged with hysteria.
Source: The New York Times, November 28, 2010
Stevens' Powerful Anti-Death-Penalty Views
Former Justice John Paul Stevens (left), who retired from the Supreme Court in June after turning 90, has come out swinging in the past few days against the death penalty. In an appearance on 60 Minutes this past Sunday and a New York Review of Books essay that is now online, Justice Stevens makes the case that capital punishment as it is now administered in the U.S. is hopelessly flawed and unconstitutional.
In so doing, he is pushing the death-penalty debate just where it needs to go. Supporters and opponents generally argue over whether capital punishment is right in the abstract. The discussion often comes off as little more than late-night dorm-room philosophizing: "Killing is killing, even if the state does it," or "Are you saying that if the allies caught Hitler, they shouldn't have executed him?"
Yet as Justice Stevens frames the question, it isn't whether you believe in a death penalty, it's whether you believe in this death penalty, the one the U.S. is currently using. It is a more relevant issue for those who care if the justice system is doing the right thing, and he makes a compelling case that none of us should.
Justice Stevens, who was appointed by a Republican President, Gerald Ford, has not always opposed capital punishment. In 1976, shortly after he joined the court, he provided a key vote in Gregg v. Georgia, one of a group of cases that ended a de facto death-penalty moratorium that had been in place since 1972. He did not join the most liberal Justices at the time, William Brennan and Thurgood Marshall, who insisted that any executions violated the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
In 2008, Justice Stevens famously changed his mind. In a case challenging Kentucky's method of lethal injection, he said in a separate opinion that the court's decision in 1976 that capital punishment is constitutional was based on a belief that it would be applied in a way that would not be discriminatory, arbitrary, excessive or racially discriminatory. After three decades on the court, it had become clear to him that those conditions were not being met.
In his New York Review of Books essay, Justice Stevens gives a fuller explanation of what made him turn away from the death penalty. As he saw it, the 1976 ruling argued for a careful and narrow use of capital punishment, but since then, the Supreme Court has made its use increasingly less careful and less narrow.
One factor that has Justice Stevens and many other people questioning the death penalty is its unreliability. As Justice Stevens points out, more than 130 people have been exonerated and released from death row since 1973, a number of them based on DNA evidence.
Another chief concern is race. In 1987, a challenge was brought to the death penalty that showed it was being used in a highly disparate way: in Georgia, murderers who killed white people were 11 times more likely to get capital punishment than those with black victims. Justice Stevens, who dissented from that ruling, writes in his essay that the far greater punishment the system imposes for the killing of whites "provides a haunting reminder of once prevalent Southern lynchings."
Justice Stevens is also troubled by the way key procedural rules have been rewritten to make it easier to put people to death. One change involves so-called death-qualified juries -- that is, juries that don't include people who oppose the death penalty. In 1968, the Supreme Court ruled that opposition to the death penalty is not a valid reason to exclude someone from a jury. If you allow jurors to be excluded on this basis, you end up with juries that are much more pro-prosecution, and pro-death penalty, than society as a whole. But three years ago, a bitterly divided Supreme Court undid that ruling -- and cleared the way for death-qualified juries.
Another change is in the use of victim-impact statements. In 1987, the Supreme Court ruled that having a jury hear the often emotionally wrenching stories of victims could unfairly inflame jurors and was inconsistent with the "reasoned decisionmaking we require in capital cases." 4 years later, after turnover among the Justices, the court reversed itself - over Justice Stevens' dissent - and ruled that these statements can be used.
Justice Stevens' critique of death-penalty law is exactly right. It is also badly needed, as the current court is becoming ever more enthusiastic about capital punishment and ever more indifferent to important details -- like how certain we are that the person facing execution is even guilty.
Last year, Justice Antonin Scalia wrapped that indifference in constitutional theory, strongly suggesting in a dissent in a Georgia death-penalty case that there is nothing unconstitutional about executing someone who turns out to be actually innocent, so long as they had a proper trial and appeals process.
A great deal of death-penalty arguments, both pro and con, fall on deaf ears. If you oppose the death penalty as morally wrong, you are not likely to be impressed by reasoned (if flawed) arguments -- that it might deter crime, for example, or that it has long had a central place in western civilization. If you believe in capital punishment, you are unlikely to be moved by someone who simply says the state has no right to take a life.
Justice Stevens' arguments are powerful precisely because they come from someone in the middle of the debate -- a man who long believed capital punishment was constitutional provided it was properly applied. His sharp critique should reinforce the resolve of those who do not support the death penalty and raise unsettling questions for those who do.
Source: TIME Magazine; Adam Cohen, a lawyer, is a former TIME writer and a former member of the New York Times editorial board. Case Study, his legal column for TIME.com, appears every Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Sunday, November 28, 2010
News of the Day for Sunday, November 28, 2010
Reported Security Incidents
Baghdad
U.S. troops kill an Iraqi civilian on the airport road when, according to the U.S. account, his vehicle approached their convoy and did not respond to hand gestures. The slain man turned out to be an airport employee. Kind of reminds you of the old days, doesn't it? -- C KUNA says the man's name was Hassan Hilwas, and that the airport was closed for more than 2 hours following the incident.
Bomb attack on a police patrol near the Baghdad mayoralty garage injures 7 people, including 3 police.
Aswat al-Iraq reports 2 additional explosions in Baghdad, both planted in the victim's cars, injuring a total of 4 people. At least one of the targets was a government employee.
Hilla
Six mortar shells are launched at the U.S. military base, resulting in injuries to 3 Iraqis including a policeman. It is not known what damage may have occurred to the base, or whether any U.S. personnel were injured.
Other News of the Day
Iraqi security forces arrest 12 people who they say are associated with the Oct. 31 attack on a church that led to the deaths of 46 people. The government says they include the military commander of an al-Qaeda cell in Baghdad. As usual, they all instantly confessed. Strange how that happens . . . -- C
Iranian Foreign Ministry bickers with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit's remark that Iran should not interfere in the affairs of Iraq.
IRIN, the UN humanitarian news service, reports on the status of women in Iraq. Not so good. Excerpt:
Maliki says the agreement requiring U.S. troops to leave Iraq entirely by the end of 2011 is still in effect and he expects it to happen.
Mark Brunswick of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports that many female veterans feel dissed by the VA. Excerpt:
Here's a perspective on the political situation in Iraq from a partisan Shiite news service, which seems particularly sympathetic to the Sadrist movement. This is particularly interesting to me because they claim, with some evidence, that the U.S. attempted to prevent the re-appointment of Nuri al-Maliki and even pressured Jalal Talabani to resign the presidency as part of its effort. They claim the U.S. is very concerned about Sadrist influence in the new government. Although I'm not really sure why they should be -- what are the Sadrists supposed to do that is so bad for the U.S.? Yes, they were bitter opponents of the occupation, but isn't that about to end anyway? Why should we care whether the Sadrists are influential in Iraq after we're gone? -- C
Afghanistan Update
DPA rounds up political violence in Afghanistan today.
* Abdulah Ahmadzai, senior secretary for the provincial council of the eastern province of Logar, was killed in an ambush along with two others, a spokesman for the provincial governor said.
* An explosive-laden bicycle was remotely blown up in a busy market in Taleqan, the provincial capital of the northern province of Takhar on Sunday, killing one civilian and injuring the other, a spokesman for the provincial governor said.
*A suicide bomber on Sunday became the sole victim in an incident in the western province of Ghor when his bomb went off, a provincial official said.
The U.S. has now been in Afghanistan longer than the Soviet Union. Our mission, of course, has been to fight the Freedom Fighters we sponsored against the Soviets. If the Russians knew how to beat them, I'm sure they'd give us some tips.
And our freedom-loving Afghan allies don't disappoint either. "Two Afghans accused of converting to Christianity, including a Red Cross employee, could face the death penalty, a prosecuting lawyer said on Sunday. Musa Sayed, 45, and Ahmad Shah, 50, are being detained in the Afghan capital awaiting trial, the prosecutor in charge of western Kabul, Din Mohammad Quraishi, told AFP."
The International Crisis Group says NATO should fuggedaboudit. And I'll leave this as the Quote of the Day. Excerpt:
Baghdad
U.S. troops kill an Iraqi civilian on the airport road when, according to the U.S. account, his vehicle approached their convoy and did not respond to hand gestures. The slain man turned out to be an airport employee. Kind of reminds you of the old days, doesn't it? -- C KUNA says the man's name was Hassan Hilwas, and that the airport was closed for more than 2 hours following the incident.
Bomb attack on a police patrol near the Baghdad mayoralty garage injures 7 people, including 3 police.
Aswat al-Iraq reports 2 additional explosions in Baghdad, both planted in the victim's cars, injuring a total of 4 people. At least one of the targets was a government employee.
Hilla
Six mortar shells are launched at the U.S. military base, resulting in injuries to 3 Iraqis including a policeman. It is not known what damage may have occurred to the base, or whether any U.S. personnel were injured.
Other News of the Day
Iraqi security forces arrest 12 people who they say are associated with the Oct. 31 attack on a church that led to the deaths of 46 people. The government says they include the military commander of an al-Qaeda cell in Baghdad. As usual, they all instantly confessed. Strange how that happens . . . -- C
Iranian Foreign Ministry bickers with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit's remark that Iran should not interfere in the affairs of Iraq.
IRIN, the UN humanitarian news service, reports on the status of women in Iraq. Not so good. Excerpt:
Women may hold 25 percent of seats in the Iraqi parliament, but one in five in the 15-49 age group has suffered physical violence at the hands of her husband. Anecdotal evidence alleges that “many women are being kidnapped and sold into prostitution”, and female genital mutilation is still common in the north, the report notes.
“The situation many Iraqi women and girls face is beyond words,” journalist Eman Khammas told IRIN in a telephone interview. “Before, I was a journalist, a professional; now, I am nothing.”
Khammas noted an underlying social climate of intolerance that has become increasingly poisonous for women. She was forced to flee Iraq after receiving death threats that effectively stopped her - like thousands of other Iraqi women - from working. She now lives in Spain.
Maliki says the agreement requiring U.S. troops to leave Iraq entirely by the end of 2011 is still in effect and he expects it to happen.
Mark Brunswick of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports that many female veterans feel dissed by the VA. Excerpt:
Women who served in Iraq and Afghanistan tell similar stories: Home loan paperwork from the Department of Veterans Affairs made out in the names of their husbands. VA hospital care where women are such an afterthought that examination rooms face out toward crowded hallways. Insufficient job-training programs. Family-outreach programs blind to the idea that some of the spouses left struggling at home are husbands, not wives.">
Nearly 250,000female soldiers have served in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade. More and more of them are coming home. But the military is often struggling to serve their needs.
In Minnesota, home to more than 20,000female vets, women who were once in or near the thick of the fight say they feel that the military and the civilian worlds overlook or discount their service. Some feel so marginalized they are reluctant even to seek help for emotional and other problems that arise once they're back home.
Here's a perspective on the political situation in Iraq from a partisan Shiite news service, which seems particularly sympathetic to the Sadrist movement. This is particularly interesting to me because they claim, with some evidence, that the U.S. attempted to prevent the re-appointment of Nuri al-Maliki and even pressured Jalal Talabani to resign the presidency as part of its effort. They claim the U.S. is very concerned about Sadrist influence in the new government. Although I'm not really sure why they should be -- what are the Sadrists supposed to do that is so bad for the U.S.? Yes, they were bitter opponents of the occupation, but isn't that about to end anyway? Why should we care whether the Sadrists are influential in Iraq after we're gone? -- C
Afghanistan Update
DPA rounds up political violence in Afghanistan today.
* Abdulah Ahmadzai, senior secretary for the provincial council of the eastern province of Logar, was killed in an ambush along with two others, a spokesman for the provincial governor said.
* An explosive-laden bicycle was remotely blown up in a busy market in Taleqan, the provincial capital of the northern province of Takhar on Sunday, killing one civilian and injuring the other, a spokesman for the provincial governor said.
*A suicide bomber on Sunday became the sole victim in an incident in the western province of Ghor when his bomb went off, a provincial official said.
The U.S. has now been in Afghanistan longer than the Soviet Union. Our mission, of course, has been to fight the Freedom Fighters we sponsored against the Soviets. If the Russians knew how to beat them, I'm sure they'd give us some tips.
And our freedom-loving Afghan allies don't disappoint either. "Two Afghans accused of converting to Christianity, including a Red Cross employee, could face the death penalty, a prosecuting lawyer said on Sunday. Musa Sayed, 45, and Ahmad Shah, 50, are being detained in the Afghan capital awaiting trial, the prosecutor in charge of western Kabul, Din Mohammad Quraishi, told AFP."
The International Crisis Group says NATO should fuggedaboudit. And I'll leave this as the Quote of the Day. Excerpt:
As violence has increased, the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) have proven a poor match for the Taliban. Casualties among Afghan and ISAF forces have spiked, as have civilian casualties. Afghanistan still lacks a cohesive national security strategy and the Afghan military and police remain dangerously fragmented and highly politicised. On the other side, despite heavy losses in the field, insurgent groups are finding new recruits in Pakistan’s borderlands, stretching from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) to Balochistan, and using the region to regroup, reorganise and rearm, with the support and active involvement of al-Qaeda, Pakistani jihadi groups and the Pakistan military. This strategic advantage has allowed the insurgency to proliferate in nearly every corner of the country. Contrary to U.S. rhetoric of the momentum shifting, dozens of districts are now firmly under Taliban control.
Nearly a decade after the U.S. engagement began, Afghanistan operates as a complex system of multi-layered fiefdoms in which insurgents control parallel justice and security organs in many if not most rural areas, while Kabul’s kleptocratic elites control the engines of graft and international contracts countrywide. The inflow of billions in international funds has cemented the linkages between corrupt members of the Afghan government and violent local commanders – insurgent and criminal, alike. Economic growth has been tainted by the explosion of this black market, making it nearly impossible to separate signs of success and stability from harbingers of imminent collapse. The neglect of governance, an anaemic legal system and weak rule of law lie at the root of these problems. Too little effort has been made to develop political institutions, local government and a functioning judiciary. Insurgents and criminal elements within the political elite have as a result been allowed to fill the vacuum left by the weak Afghan state.
CNN Heroes: An All Star Celebration
"And each of us can change the world."~Anderson Cooper
From The Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, Anderson Cooper opened the evening with the introduction of some special guests.
First this video was played~
And then all 33 Chilean Miners took the stage.
Anderson took the stage to give an overview of what the evening held in store and explained a very strange "photo" of him rocking a white mullet!
VIDEO:
Gerard Butler introduced a background video on Magnus MacFarlane - Barrow, Feeding The Needy, Nourishing The Soul.
MAGNUS MACFARLANE - BARROW
Marissa Tomei introduced a background video on Susan Burton, A New Way Of Life Re-entry Project.
SUSAN BURTON
LOS ANGELES, CA: Susan Burton was once caught in a cycle of addiction and incarceration, but she now provides sober housing and support to formerly incarcerated women in California. To date, her non-profit, A New Way of Life Reentry Project, has helped more than 400 women get back on their feet.
Marisa presented Susan with her Top 10 Heroes Award and Susan gave a few brief remarks.
Aaron Eckhardt introduced Harmon Parker's background video, A Bridge To A Better World.
HARMON PARKER
LEXINGTON, KY: Harmon Parker is using his masonry skills to save lives. Since 1997, he’s built 45 footbridges over Kenya’s perilous rivers, protecting people from flash floods and predatory animals. The bridges built by his organization, Bridging the Gap, also connect isolated communities with valuable resources.
Aaron presented Harmon with his award and Harmon gave a few brief remarks.
Jessica Alba introduced a background video on Guadalupe Arizpe De La Vega, A Place To Heal In A Wounded City.
GUADALUPE ARIZPE DE LA VEGA
And after the program, Anderson sat down with the winner and interviewed Anuradha Koirala.
Here's the video of the interview ~
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From The Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, Anderson Cooper opened the evening with the introduction of some special guests.
First this video was played~And then all 33 Chilean Miners took the stage.
Anderson took the stage to give an overview of what the evening held in store and explained a very strange "photo" of him rocking a white mullet!
VIDEO:
Gerard Butler introduced a background video on Magnus MacFarlane - Barrow, Feeding The Needy, Nourishing The Soul.MAGNUS MACFARLANE - BARROW
ARGYLL, SCOTLAND: Since 1992, Magnus MacFarlane - Barrow has dedicated his life to helping people in need. Today, his program, Mary’s Meals - run from a tin shed in the Scottish highlands - provides free daily meals to more than 40,000 children around the world.
Magnus took the stage to accept his award and offer a few brief remarks.
Marissa Tomei introduced a background video on Susan Burton, A New Way Of Life Re-entry Project.SUSAN BURTON
LOS ANGELES, CA: Susan Burton was once caught in a cycle of addiction and incarceration, but she now provides sober housing and support to formerly incarcerated women in California. To date, her non-profit, A New Way of Life Reentry Project, has helped more than 400 women get back on their feet.
Marisa presented Susan with her Top 10 Heroes Award and Susan gave a few brief remarks.
Aaron Eckhardt introduced Harmon Parker's background video, A Bridge To A Better World.
HARMON PARKER
LEXINGTON, KY: Harmon Parker is using his masonry skills to save lives. Since 1997, he’s built 45 footbridges over Kenya’s perilous rivers, protecting people from flash floods and predatory animals. The bridges built by his organization, Bridging the Gap, also connect isolated communities with valuable resources.
Aaron presented Harmon with his award and Harmon gave a few brief remarks.
Jessica Alba introduced a background video on Guadalupe Arizpe De La Vega, A Place To Heal In A Wounded City.GUADALUPE ARIZPE DE LA VEGA
EL PASO, TX: Guadalupe Arizpe De La Vega founded a hospital in Juarez, Mexico that cares for about 900 people daily, regardless of their ability to pay. Despite the escalating violence in the city, the 74 year-old travels there several times a week to make sure residents get the care they need.
Guadalupe took the stage to accept her award and offer a few brief remarks.
Bon Jovi was the first musical act to take the stage and they preformed "What Do You Got"
Kiefer Sutherland introduced the background video on Narayanan Krishnan, A Companion To The Forgotten.
NARAYANAN KRISHNAN
MADURAI, INDIA: Narayanan Krishnan brings hot meals and dignity to India’s homeless and destitute – 365 days a year - through his nonprofit Akshaya Trust. Since 2002, he has served more than 1.2 million meals.
Narayanan took the stage to accept his award and give a few brief remarks.
Renee Zellweger introduced the background video on Aki Ra, Clearing The Pat To A Safer Land.
AKI RA
SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA: Aki Ra is helping to make his native Cambodia safer by clearing land mines, many of which he planted years ago as a child soldier. Since 1993, he and his Cambodian Self Help Demining organization have cleared about 50,000 mines and unexpected weapons.
Renee presented Aki Ra with his award and he gave a few brief remarks.
Anderson announced how individuals could donate to the Heroes' causes on Facebook.com and stated that after the program he would be changing his Facebook status later from "Hosting CNN Heroes to In my jammies, eating pudding, watching Glee."
LL Cool Jay was on hand to introduce the background video on Linda Fondren, A Moving Force For Better Health.
LINDA FONDREN
VICKSBURG, MS: With her weight-loss challenge, Shape Up Vicksburg, Linda Fondren is helping her Mississippi hometown banish the bulge. Through the group’s free fitness activities and nutrition classes, residents have lost nearly 15,000 pounds to date.
Linda took the stage to accept her award and give a few brief remarks.
The second musical act of the evening was John Legend, who was joined by Common and Melanie Fiona to preform, "Wake Up Everybody"
Anderson,in introducing the next Hero/presenter combination said "Most of us think of coming home as a pleasant end of the day, unless of course you're Bruce Jenner and you're coming home to the Kardashians. - It's said out of love, it's said out of love."
Kid Rock was on hand to introduce the background video on Dan Wallrath, Building Homes To Rebuild Lives.
DAN WALLRATH
HOUSTON, TX: Since 2005, Texas home builder Dan Wallrath has given injured Iraq and Afghanistan veterans homes of their own – mortgage free. He and his Operation Finally Home team have built nine new custom homes and currently have ten more planned or under construction.
Dan took the stage to accept his award and offer a few brief remarks.
Halle Barry introduced Evans Wadongo's background video, Lighting The Way To A Brighter Future.
EVANS WADONGO
NAIROBI, KENYA: Evans Wadongo invented a way for rural families in Kenya to replace smoky kerosene and fire light with solar power. Through his Use Solar, Save Lives program, he’s distributed an estimated 10,000 solar lanterns, for free.
Halle presented Evans with his award and he gave a few brief remarks.
Demi Moore introduced the background video on Anurahda Koirala, A Hand Out Of The Horror.
ANURADHA KOIRALA
KATHMANDU, NEPAL: Anuradha Koirala is fighting to prevent the trafficking and sexual exploitation of Nepal’s women and girls. Since 1993, she and her group, Maiti Nepal, have helped rescue and rehabilitate more than 12,000 victims.
Anuradha took the stage to accept her award and offer a few brief remarks.
The last musical act of the night was Sugarland who took the stage to perform "Stand Up"
Anderson Cooper took the stage to announce the CNN Hero of the Year 2010.
And the winner is ..... Anuradha Koirala.
VIDEO:
And after the program, Anderson sat down with the winner and interviewed Anuradha Koirala.
Here's the video of the interview ~
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