Sri Lanka's banana republic gets away with war crimes at UN

Unbelievable. Until you realise who backed it - all the countries with piss-poor human rights records. There should be a minimum-level of human rights enshrined in a countries constitution before they are allowed to be members.

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China, India, Egypt and Cuba were among the 29 developing countries that backed a Sri Lankan-proposed resolution describing the conflict as a “domestic matter that doesn’t warrant outside interference”. The resolution also supported Colombo’s insistence on allowing aid group access to 270,000 civilians detained in camps only “as may be appropriate”.

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Western diplomats and human rights officials were shocked by the outcome at the end of an acrimonious two-day special session to examine the humanitarian and human rights situation in Sri Lanka after the blitzkrieg of the final military offensive that wiped out the Tiger force.

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“The vote is extremely disappointing and is a low point for the Human Rights Council. It abandons hundreds of thousands of people in Sri Lanka to cynical political considerations,” Amnesty International said.

...The UN in Sri Lanka says that at least 7,000 civilians were killed in the first four months of the year alone, with the casualty rate sharply rising as the endgame approached. Many of those deaths are believed to have been caused by Sri Lankan army shelling. The Government denies that it caused a single civilian death, blaming all of them on the rebels.(emphasis added by NT)


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Western diplomats said that the result called into question the entire purpose of the Human Rights Council — where the 47 members sit as equals with no right of veto for any country. The United States only recently agreed to join it in the belief that the council had been reformed.

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Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, had called on Tuesday for an international war crimes inquiry, saying she believed that both sides might be guilty of war crimes. The Tigers are accused of using civilians as human shields and those who fled the war have testified that rebel commanders fired on them to stop them escaping, killing many.

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Aid agencies have been given only limited access to the sprawling camps and have been barred from bringing in vehicles for fear that Tiger cadres could use them to escape.

Sri Lanka has said that it will allow access to the camps in a month, after screening for former fighters is complete. On a military-led visit to the camps this week, though, officials admitted that no such screening was taking place and that captured fighters were taken to “rehabilitation camps” before they were registered there.

via Sri Lanka forces West to retreat over ‘war crimes’ with victory at UN - Times Online.

New bra boosts women's cleavage when they are aroused.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="238" caption="Not sure if this is the bra, or just a very nice portrait."][/caption]

Slovenia-based Lisca lingerie's Smart Memory Bra alters its shape pushing a woman's breasts closer together when she gets flushed after seeing someone attractive.

More details on this important news announcement:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/lifestyle/2420021/Bra-boosts-cleavage-when-aroused

Use of WP by Taliban on Western Forces reprehensible

After using WP themselves, and supplying it to Israel to drop on Palestinians, now the US military are complaining about it being used against them.

Right-wing news sources usually say stuff like: "White phosphorus is not banned by any treaty that the United States has signed."


That's because the US doesn't like to sign any international treaties that might get them in trouble. Like the International Criminal Court.

clipped from www.timesonline.co.uk Taleban fighters have been using deadly white phosphorus munitions, some of them manufactured in Britain, to attack Western forces in Afghanistan, according to previously classified United States documents released yesterday. Last night the US military in Kabul condemned the use of white phosphorus by the insurgents as “reprehensible”. White phosphorus is banned as an offensive weapon under international rules of armed conflict. Major Willis confirmed that the US and Nato’s International Security Assistance Force used white phosphorus in Afghanistan but never as an anti-personnel weapon. “That’s not allowed under the terms of international law,” she said.

US forces accused of using phosphorous bombs on civilians

How can we attack Israelis for wrongful use of WP on civilians when their supplier does the same?

clipped from www.smh.com.au US forces accused of using phosphorous bombs on civilians AFGHANISTAN'S leading human rights organisation is investigating claims that white phosphorus was used during a deadly battle between US forces and the Taliban last week in which scores of civilians may have died. Dr Mohammad Aref Jalali, the head of an internationally funded burns hospital in Herat, said villagers taken to hospital after the incident had "highly unusual burns" on their hands and feet that he had not seen before. "We cannot be 100 per cent sure what type of chemical it was and we do not have the equipment here to find out. One of the women who came here told us that 22 members of her family were totally burned. She said a bomb distributed white powder that caught fire and then set people's clothes alight."

Cat Stuffed Into Bong To Chill Out, Owner Faces Charges

A man who tried to cool out his hyper cat by stuffing her into a boxlike homemade bong faces cruelty charges. The owner told cops 6-month-old Shadow was hyper and he was trying to calm her down.

Shadow was timid but in good condition Monday at the Capital Humane Society. "What the human mind doesn't invent, huh?" executive director Bob Downey said.

The homemade bong, consisting of a piece of garden hose attached to a duct-taped plexiglas box

No word if the cat has the munchies.

via Cat Stuffed Into Bong To Chill Out, Owner Faces Charges.

More here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/03/cat-stuffed-into-bong-to-_n_171423.html

Obama is really Spock

According to Salon, Obabma is a closet Spock, confirmed by Leonard Nimoy.

Leonard Nimoy recalled a recent encounter with a fan.

"About a year and a half ago, I was at a political event. One of our current campaigners for the office of president of the United States saw me -- and as he approached, he gave me the Vulcan hand signal." You can practically hear Nimoy's eyebrow raise. "It was not John McCain."



http://www.salon.com/ent/feature/2009/05/07/obama_spock/index1.html

Dont Panic! Don't Panic! U.S. seasonal flu has killed 13,000 since Jan

There have been no U.S swine flu fatalities so far, but since January more than 13,000 people have died of complications from seasonal flu.
http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2009/04/28/US-seasonal-flu-kills-13000-since-Jan/UPI-64801240974841/

People dying of Swine Flu? Noe so far in the U.S, Australia, or NZ.