Robert Mugabe subdued in victory

Mugabe’s real face

A Harare journalist says he has seen militiamen loyal to President Robert Mugabe chopping off people's hands and breaking their fingers to prevent them from voting in Friday's runoff.

His story speaks to a larger violence that has wracked the African nation since April. The 23-year-old woman in Harare, Zimbabwe, said she could talk, but only briefly. It was 3:30 p.m. there and she had to be home before the 6 p.m. curfew, she said.

"I should be home in an hour, hour and a half. If I'm not home by then, it means trouble," she said Tuesday. Zimbabweans are accustomed to violence, but the beatings and bloodshed have been epidemic since early April, days after opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai pushed longtime President Robert Mugabe into a runoff election for the nation's top post.

Tsvangirai dropped out of the race this week, citing intimidation and vote-rigging. He is now in hiding at the Dutch Embassy, uncertain like most Zimbabweans whether the violence would continue. Zimbabweans and outside observers say militias loyal to Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) have engaged in intimidation tactics designed to deter Tsvangirai's supporters from casting ballots.

The real face of a monster called Mugabe!

Burma blocks emergency telecoms

Two teams of foreign aid workers dedicated to delivering emergency telecoms in disaster areas have been forced to leave cyclone-hit Burma.

The members of Telecoms Sans Frontieres (TSF) left the country after attempts to reach affected areas were blocked. The charity, which described the situation as "unprecedented", said it had no other choice but to leave. TSF finally reached Burma on 1 June after waiting nearly a month to be granted visas to enter the country.

The worst cyclone that has hit Burma is the dictatorship and the dead are countless!

Mugabe fights …traitors!

President Robert Mugabe has vowed that the main opposition party will never lead Zimbabwe and said he was prepared to "go to war" for his country.

He is due to face Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, in a 27 June run-off poll. Mr. Tsvangirai was released after being arrested for the fifth time this week. Meanwhile, deputy MDC leader Tendai Biti appeared in court in Harare, where a judge is to rule on the legality of his arrest on treason charges.

Mr. Tsvangirai has been detained several times on the campaign trail. On Saturday, he was stopped with 11 members of his party at a roadblock, the MDC said, and held at a police station for three hours. The MDC issued a statement saying that it was now clearly impossible to talk about free and fair elections.

The man who is responsible for treason against humanity talks about …traitors?

Burma’ junta policy costs lives

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has accused Burma of causing the loss of tens of thousands of lives by hindering international cyclone relief efforts.

Mr. Gates said the United States had had ships and aircraft ready to help after Cyclone Nargis hit a month ago. Unlike Indonesia and Bangladesh after major natural disasters, Burma had denied entry to the country, he said.

An estimated 2.4m people remain homeless and hungry following the cyclone, which struck on 2 May. "Many other countries besides the United States also have felt hindered in their efforts," said Mr. Gates, speaking at a security conference in Singapore. "Despite these obstructions, we continue to get help into Burma, and remain poised to provide more," he added.

Burma and Myanmar’s dictators have proved in practice that democracy ….saves lives!!!

Burma closures camp

A senior UN official has said that any coercion of Burmese cyclone victims to return home is completely unacceptable.

Terje Skavdal's remarks follow reports that Burma's military government had begun to evict homeless families from some government-run emergency camps. It has given them bamboo poles and tarpaulins and told them to go and rebuild their lives, say reports.

An estimated 2.4m people remain homeless and hungry following Cyclone Nargis, which struck on 2 May. Mr. Skavdal, head of the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said he could not confirm the camp closures but pointed out that the agency did not endorse premature return to areas with no services.

"People need to be assisted in the settlements and satisfactory conditions need to be created before they can return to their place of origins," said Mr. Skavdal. "Any forced or coerced movement of people is completely unacceptable."

After the cyclone the Myanmar gangsters on uniform kill the survivors themselves!

Burma neighbors in talks

The Association of South East Asian Nations is holding urgent talks to discuss ways of helping Burma's cyclone victims.

Foreign ministers meeting in Singapore hope Burma's military rulers - who have so far blocked most large-scale foreign aid offers - will accept Asean help. But correspondents say the grouping cannot force a solution on a member, as decisions are only made by consensus.

Burma says some 78,000 people have died since the cyclone hit on 2 May. But aid agencies say many more may die without urgent help - according to Save the Children, some 30,000 acutely malnourished children less than five years of age in Burma are threatened by death from starvation.

Let’s see, a bit more push and the dictators might go to a cyclone …hell for good and leave Burma free!

France angered by Burmese delays

France's ambassador to the UN has accused Burma's government of being on the verge of committing a crime against humanity by not accepting foreign aid.

Jean-Maurice Ripert made the comment during a General Assembly session, after Burma's UN ambassador accused France of sending a warship to region. France says the ship is carrying 1,500 tons of food and medicine for survivors of Cyclone Nargis. State TV has put the official death toll of the 2 May storm at 78,000.

For how long? How long these people are going to rule this poor country? How long the international community will let these criminals rule the lives of the Burma people?

Children facing death

Thousands of children in cyclone-hit Burma will starve to death within weeks unless food reaches them soon, UK charity Save the Children has warned.

The charity said 30,000 under-fives in the Irrawaddy Delta were malnourished before Cyclone Nargis hit on 2 May. It says energy-rich food now needs to reach them "before it is too late".

The warning comes as a UN envoy is due in Burma to join international efforts to try to persuade the ruling junta to grant more access to relief workers. Humanitarian envoy John Holmes will carry a letter from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to Burma's leader, Than Shwe, who has refused to answer Mr. Ban's calls.

Perhaps it is time for Mr. Ban to stop …calling and act, even though that will come as a surprise to what he has done till now!!!

27th of June, Mugabe’s end

The second-round run-off in Zimbabwe's disputed presidential election will be held on 27 June, the government says.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai won the first round, but not by enough to avoid a run-off. President Robert Mugabe said the poll was "disastrous". Mr. Tsvangirai says he will contest the second round, after originally threatening to boycott it.

He has accused Mr. Mugabe's party of vote-rigging and a campaign of violence against opposition activists. His Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) says ruling party militias and soldiers have beaten and tortured MDC supporters in an attempt to either keep them away from the polls or intimidate them into voting for the ruling party.

Just over a month till the end! Mugabe there is a cell with your name!

McCain adviser leaves over Myanmar

Doug Goodyear, McCain’s Convention chief executive officer, and Doug Davenport, one of his regional campaign managers, both resigned after a report that GOP firm DCI — where Goodyear had served as CEO and Davenport had headed the lobbying effort — had represented Myanmar’s ruling military junta.

“Today I offered my resignation so as not to become a distraction in this campaign,” Goodyear wrote in a statement released by the McCain campaign Sunday. “I continue to strongly support John McCain for president, and wish him the best of luck in this campaign.”

At least we know where we are standing, George W. Bush had a soft point for Pakistan’s Musharraf, McCain has it for Myanmar’s dictators

Burma votes amid cyclone

A constitutional referendum is being held in Burma despite calls from the outside world for a postponement after last week's devastating cyclone.

Voting is under way in most of the country - but has been delayed in the worst-hit areas, including Rangoon. The poll comes amid mounting international criticism of Burma's military rulers for their handling of the response to the crisis. They say they will welcome overseas aid but not foreign relief workers.

The UN fears the death toll from the cyclone could reach 100,000. The referendum has been postponed for two weeks in Rangoon, the country's main city, and the Irrawaddy delta, which took the full force of Cyclone Nargis. The country's ruling generals say the referendum will pave the way for democratic elections in 2010, while the opposition says it is intended to tighten the generals' rule.

Democracy might not feed people but definitely saves lives and Burma nowadays is the best prove why the dictators must go the soonest possible.

The dictators screw Burma disappointing even UN

The UN says it is extremely disappointed at the slow progress made in securing access to victims of last weekend's cyclone in Burma.

Humanitarian chief John Holmes told reporters that Burma's response was "nothing like as much as is needed". In addition to at least 23,000 people who died in the storm and tidal surge, 1.5 million are at risk, he said. Some supplies have been allowed into Burma but many more tones of aid, and dozens of foreign staff, have not.

To disappoint Ki-moon needs a lot of effect and proves how dangerous the dictators of Burma are!

Burma aid delays

Burma's dictators are facing growing international concern over their reluctance to accept foreign aid, days after the devastating cyclone.

The UN says its planes carrying vital food supplies cannot enter because they still do not have permission to land. The regional Asean group has urged the military regime to allow in aid flights "before it's too late".

A US diplomat said conditions were "horrendous" and warned the death toll could top 100,000 if they worsened. Teams reaching some of the worst-hit areas have described harrowing scenes. Some aid workers reported bodies rotting in the fields and desperate survivors fighting over food and water.

What the dictators’ fear? That with food the airplanes will bring democracy?

Turkey kills 150 Kurdish

Turkish air strikes in northern Iraq this week left more than 150 Kurdish rebels dead, the Turkish army says.

"According to initial estimates, this operation allowed us to neutralize more than 150 terrorists," the army said in a statement on its website. A PKK spokesman said that only six rebels were killed and they were from a different faction.

Turkey has staged several cross-border raids into northern Iraq over the past few months in pursuit of the rebels. The strikes, which began on Thursday and ended on Friday, were carried out against PKK guerrillas based in the Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq, the Turkish army says.

All targeted posts in Qandil area were destroyed during the operation, according to the Turkish army's statement. But a PKK spokesman, Ahmed Danees, told the Reuters news agency only six rebels died and they were from a faction fighting against Iran.

Turkey is building up more genocide! It was the Armenian now it is the Kurds!!! Who knows how many innocent have died from the Turkish bombs and shootings the last years from innocent Kurds who only ask for their freedom?

Turkey becomes …very slowly democracy

Turkey's parliament has approved the softening of a law criticized by the EU for limiting free speech.

Article 301 of the penal code has been used to prosecute Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk and other intellectuals. Since 2003, hundreds of people have been tried under the controversial law for "insulting Turkishness".

However, critics argue the amendments do not go far enough. Insulting the Turkish nation will still be a crime, punishable by two years in jail. Parliament voted 250-65 in favor of a government-backed proposal to make changes to the law late on Tuesday night.

Under the reformed law:

It will be a crime to insult the Turkish nation, rather than Turkishness.

The justice minister will be required to open each case.

The maximum sentence will be two years in jail, rather than three.

The EU has long called for changes to Article 301, arguing that the law places severe restrictions on free speech in Turkey. The issue has threatened to scupper Turkey's EU accession talks.

Amazing and inexcusable that any country in the civil world would ever have this kind of laws! I hope you noticed that the Turks ...soften the law!!! these are very ...slow steps towards democracy!

Kill at will, Mozambique

Police in Mozambique have been accused of killing and torturing people with near total impunity.

The human rights group Amnesty International has published a report saying the Mozambique police appear to think they have a license to kill. The group says officials have responded to rising crime rates with often lethal force but, but that they almost never face criminal proceedings.

Police in the southern African nation refused to comment on the report. Amnesty's report was published just a day after Mozambique's League for Human Rights said the country's human rights situation had deteriorated in 2008.

After Mugabe, Mozambique. It seems that the suffering of the humanity is never ending!

S Africa joins calls to Mugabe

South Africa has joined international calls for Zimbabwe's electoral commission to release the results of last month's presidential election.

A South African government spokesman said they should be published as soon as possible. South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki is mediating in Zimbabwe's crisis but has been accused of failing to put pressure on Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe. The opposition MDC says it won the election outright.

Government spokesman Themba Maseko said there was a fear that the situation in Zimbabwe could deteriorate because the results of the presidential poll had not been released. "It is our view that all the participants should come together, sort out all the causes of the delay, and then release the results as a matter of urgency," he said. When asked whether South Africa still adhered to a policy of "quiet diplomacy" in dealings with Zimbabwe, Mr. Maseko said that South Africa's position had not "been coming out as clearly as it should."

About time for South Africa and Mbeki to do something!

Mbeki on Zimbabwe

South African President Thabo Mbeki has defended his record on Zimbabwe, while playing down the crisis at a UN debate.

His governing ANC party, however, said it was concerned about the deepening crisis brewing in its neighbor. Gordon Brown told the UN Security Council no one believed Robert Mugabe won last month's presidential election in the country.

Meanwhile, the opposition in Zimbabwe said 50 supporters were arrested after a strike over delayed poll results. Mr. Mbeki had said there was "no crisis" in Zimbabwe after meeting Mr. Mugabe on Saturday. He defended those remarks in New York, saying dialogue was essential to bring about a resolution to the situation in Zimbabwe, where 18 days after presidential elections, electoral officials have yet to announce a result.

"The solution to the problem of Zimbabwe lies in the hands of the people of Zimbabwe," he said. "In our engagement with the situation, we needed to talk continuously at all times with both the ruling party and the opposition."

The truth Mr. Mbeki, Mr. UN General Secretary, African Union and the rest of you is that you failed and the people of Zimbabwe have to pay your failure, Mugabe the caricature African Hitler is still on power and there is no excuse for that!

North Korea nuclear negotiators

Progress has been made on what North Korea will receive from the US in exchange for disclosing its nuclear activities, negotiators have said.

Pyongyang's foreign ministry said consensus had been reached on US political compensation for the declaration by North Korea. A top US diplomat said progress had been made, but would not give a time-line for a possible breakthrough.

The issue has prevented a deal being clinched in disarmament talks. In February 2007 North Korea had agreed to give up its nuclear weapons in return for aid, in a six-nation deal with the US, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia. The US had accused Pyongyang of missing a year-end deadline to make a full nuclear declaration as promised.

When I hear …progress with North Korea I have a problem, I feel there is something they don’t tell me and usually this is either when they are going to bomb them or when North Korea is going to bomb …Tokyo!