Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/169127287?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Sunday, December 4, 2011
2 giant pandas on way from China to Scotland (AP)
BEIJING ? Two giant pandas are flying from China to Scotland, where they will become the first pandas to live in Britain in nearly two decades.
The pandas named Tian Tian and Yang Guang ? or Sweetie and Sunshine ? munched on bamboo at Chengdu airport ahead of their trip Sunday.
The pandas are to stay for 10 years at Edinburgh Zoo, where officials hope they will breed during their stay.
The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland will pay more than 600,000 pounds ($935,000) a year to China for the loan of Sweetie and Sunshine, not including the expense of imported bamboo.
Britain's last giant panda lived in London Zoo until 1994, when it was returned to China.
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Saturday, December 3, 2011
Dan Williams: "Eye-Hunting" in Cairo: The Military's Assault on Reporters
(Cairo) -- Dozens of eye injuries from rubber bullets have marked the crackdown on protesters in Tahrir Square. "Eye-hunters," Egyptians are calling the armed police who aim at head-level.
Besides the physical damage, there's a sinister symbolism about it. Egypt's military rulers have been on a persistent campaign of trying to blind the public through clampdowns on the media.
The toll on reporters during the Tahrir unrest has been notable. The Committee to Protect Journalists, the New York-based press freedom advocate, reported that 17 journalists were beaten or wounded by rubber bullets between November 19 and 21, the first three days of the latest Tahrir demonstrations.
In Cairo, Ahmed Abdel Fattah, who makes videos for the website of Al Masry Al Youm, an independent newspaper, was hit in the right eye by a rubber bullet, possibly disastrous given his line of work.
"I saw the officer who shot me," Abdel Fattah said. "He was aiming right for me. I think it was because I was carrying my camera." Five Masry Al Youm journalists have been injured in and around Tahrir. Abdel Fattah faces repair surgery on his eye.
There was shock at the way police and their plain-clothes allies beat and sexually abused two women journalists -- the French television reporter Caroline Sinz and an Egyptian-American journalist, Mona Eltahawy -- who were covering the protests at Tahrir Square on November 24.
It shouldn't come as a surprise, really. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which has ruled since the February 11 ouster of Hosni Mubarak, has increasingly targeted the media.
On April 11, a military court sentenced a blogger, Mikael Nabil, to three years in prison for "insulting the military establishment" and "spreading false information." In the ensuing months, military prosecutors questioned at least nine activists and journalists on charges of criminal defamation after they publicly criticized the SCAF or alleged abuses by the army.
On June 19, military prosecutors called in Rasha Azab, a reporter, and Adel Hammouda, an editor, for questioning about an article by Azab concerning alleged military abuses. In September, plain-clothes agents stormed the offices of Jazeera Live Egypt and shut them down; Live Egypt now broadcasts from Qatar, headquarters of the mother company Al Jazeera.
Media suppression intensified on October 9, when security forces violently broke up a march of mostly Coptic Christians on the Maspero state television building, killing 25 protesters and onlookers. As part of the operation, soldiers and police raided 25TV, an independent satellite channel, and shut it for three days because it was broadcasting live footage of the violence. Security forces also raided the US-funded al-Hurra channel while it was broadcasting the Maspero events live.
Reporting on protests carries the same grave risks as demonstrating itself. Wael Mikhael, a cameraman for the Coptic television broadcaster Al-Tareeq, died of a bullet to the head as he filmed the army and police assaulting the October 9 protesters.
Military prosecutors accused a blogger, Alaa Abdel Fattah, of inciting violence at the Maspero confrontation and stealing a military weapon.
He was one of a group of activists who helped organize autopsies by forensic medical doctors on the Maspero victims. Three days later, he blogged about it. He said the dead were, "Fighting the entire Mubarak regime," effectively linking the army to typical Mubarak-era abuses. Summoned on October 31, he remains in jail under a third renewable 15-day detention order.
The idea that some critical commentary, especially about military abuses, is off limits as Egypt enters its long parliamentary election season is inconsistent with the SCAF's repeated pledges to shepherd the country to democracy.
There are other worrying signs of creeping restrictions on the media. The Ministry of Information, a Mubarak-era holdover that directs state-run television and radio, announced on September 12 that it would stop approving new licenses for private satellite TV stations. During Maspero, government -owned media called on "honorable citizens" to "defend the military against attack," basically inciting vigilante attacks against the Coptic protesters.
In September, authorities expanded the emergency law to include "intentionally spreading false information." This allows detention without charge of activists, election monitors or journalists who publish information the authorities consider to be "false," including criticism of their management of the elections.
Then there's the tried-and-true means of stifling the press: whack the reporters. Jail them. Beat them. And what better opportunity than during protests that demanded the ultimate taboo -- that the generals should immediately transfer authority, including control of the military, to a civilian government?
Most of the 17 journalists injured between November 19 and 21 were among the protesters. But some were physically among the security forces. In Alexandria, I spoke to Mohammed Said Shehata, a photographer for two Muslim Brotherhood news outlets. The Brotherhood opposed the demonstrations in Tahrir and elsewhere. Police gave him permission to operate behind their lines during protests at Alexandria's Police Directorate headquarters.
He told me that he was cautious anyway. "I thought too much picture-taking of police brutality might get me in trouble," he recalled. But when he saw a plain-clothes mob attack a young boy, he started snapping photos, rapid fire.
"They noticed the flash and turned on me," he said. "They hit me with sticks. They punched me, took my camera. They took my wallet." When they dragged him into the police station, an officer kicked him in the groin and police took turns hitting him with rubber batons. They broke his arm, bruised his head and legs. His left eye is bloodshot.
"Since they took my wallet, I can't even vote," he said. "This is some democracy."
"Eye-hunting" seems a specialty of the Central Security Forces carrying out the SCAF-ordered crackdown. According to the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, an independent rights monitor, Cairo's Kasr el-Aini Hospital treated 60 cases of eye injuries between November 19 and 27. Doctors told Human Rights Watch that all the injured treated there on Nov. 19, the first day of anti-SCAF demonstrations, were shot in the chest, neck, or face with rubber bullets. A video from the early days of these latest demonstrations shows a police officer firing at a crowd down a side street and then being congratulated by a colleague: "You got him in the eye, well done."
Abdel Fattah, the Al Masry Al Youm videographer, says he's determined to keep working: "We are eyes for all of Egypt. We can't let them blind the whole country."
?
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-williams/egypt-elections-reporters_b_1125374.html
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College band death casts shadow on rich tradition
Members of the Florida A&M University band lead a horse drawn carriage carrying the casket of fellow band member Robert Champion following his funeral service Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011 in Decatur, Ga. The 26-year-old was found dead on Nov. 19 on a bus parked outside an Orlando, Fla. hotel after the school's football team lost to a rival. Authorities suspect hazing but have not released any further details. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Members of the Florida A&M University band lead a horse drawn carriage carrying the casket of fellow band member Robert Champion following his funeral service Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011 in Decatur, Ga. The 26-year-old was found dead on Nov. 19 on a bus parked outside an Orlando, Fla. hotel after the school's football team lost to a rival. Authorities suspect hazing but have not released any further details. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
A horse drawn carriage carrying the casket of Florida A&M University band member Robert Champion is lead by his fellow band members following his funeral service Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011 in Decatur, Ga. The 26-year-old was found dead on Nov. 19 on a bus parked outside an Orlando, Fla. hotel after the school's football team lost to a rival. Authorities suspect hazing but have not released any further details. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Robert Champion Sr., left, and his wife, Pam lead a procession into the funeral service for their son, Florida A&M University band member Robert Champion, Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011 in Decatur, Ga. The 26-year-old was found dead on Nov.19 on a bus parked outside an Orlando, Fla. hotel after the school's football team lost to a rival. Authorities suspect hazing but have not released any further details. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
A marching band leads a horse-drawn carriage carrying the casket of Florida A&M University band member Robert Champion following his funeral service Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011 in Decatur, Ga. The 26-year-old was found dead on Nov. 19 on a bus parked outside an Orlando, Fla. hotel after the school's football team lost to a rival. Authorities suspect hazing but have not released any further details. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
ATLANTA (AP) ? Four Florida A&M University students have been expelled for their role in what is believed to be a hazing death of a marching band member, the latest blemish for a rich and cherished institution at historically black colleges.
Hazing is part of the price band members pay at HBCUs to be part of a vaunted campus tradition that eclipses the prestige and popularity of the football team. Band members can endure anything from punching to paddling to being forced to drink copious amounts of water, all for a chance to perform in front of thousands of people at football games, parades and other high-profile events.
On HBCU campuses, band members are often given perks and treated like celebrities.
"If you were in the band, it was like you were a superstar," said Fontreia James, a piccolo player for three years in the marching band at Jackson State University in Mississippi. "People don't come to the games to see the football team. People come to see the band."
In the fall, halftime is game time for the band and fans at HBCUs, which are mostly in the South. Few people leave to get refreshments or take a bathroom break. The crowd cheers and applauds as the band high-steps out onto the field, dancing and marching in sync in elaborate formations, playing songs ranging from traditional marching band numbers to Motown hits to today's chart-toppers.
They do it week after week in heavy uniforms, holding instruments in the blazing heat. Band nicknames are almost as well-known as the school mascot: The Human Jukebox, The Sonic Boom of the South, and in Florida A&M's case, The Marching 100.
Started in 1892 with fewer than 20 instruments, The Marching 100 has grown to over 400 members and is regarded as a pioneer, performing at Super Bowls, the Grammys and presidential inaugurations. The band even represented the U.S. in Paris at the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution.
The most revered members are the drum majors, described as the generals. They are as popular on campus as a star quarterback would be at other colleges. Florida A&M has several drum majors, including Robert Champion, who died Nov. 19 after he collapsed on a charter bus just a few hours after a football game with a rival.
Authorities have still not said how the junior died, only that hazing played a role. University President James Ammons referred to the student dismissals in a memo he sent earlier this week to the school's board of trustees, but didn't specify what they did, according to a document obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday.
According to 911 tapes, Champion had vomit in his mouth the moments before he died and he couldn't breathe.
"We need an ambulance ASAP," an unidentified caller says in a recording obtained by AP. "His eyes are open but he's not responding."
Champion's death was puzzling because of his high position within the band, and because he was an upperclassman.
"Drum majors are always in the front, always in the limelight," said Jermaine Culbreath, who was head drum major at Bethune-Cookman University last year. "Walking around campus, you have a lot of people speaking to you, saying they saw you on the field. Half the people, you don't even know who they are. You have alumni coming up to you, you have all these people who really appreciate what you do."
The hierarchy within the band can get complex. Some members join a fraternity, Kappa Kappa Psi, founded on the campus of Oklahoma State University in 1919 to serve college band programs. Instrument section leaders also wield power in "mini-fraternities" within the band, according to Richard Sigal, a retired sociology professor at County College of Morris in Randolph, N.J.
For example, former FAMU clarinet player Ivery Luckey said he was paddled around 300 times and hospitalized in 1998 in order to join his section, called "The Clones."
To perform on the field or at events, Luckey had to do whatever the older students told him to, said Sigal, who holds anti-hazing workshops at schools and was hired by Luckey's attorneys in a lawsuit against the school.
One of the worst hazing cases occurred in 2001 and involved former FAMU band member Marcus Parker, who suffered kidney damage because of a beating with a paddle. In 2008, two first-year French horn players in Southern University's marching band were beaten so bad they had to be hospitalized. A year later, 20 members of Jackson State University's band were suspended after being accused of hazing.
Former state Sen. Al Lawson is a Florida A&M alumnus who was named to a university task force to look into Champion's death, one of several investigations announced in the aftermath. Lawson said hazing was difficult for the school to deal with.
"They're students, but they really kind of take over. The staff is too small," Lawson said. "You've got to have some people to depend on to take care of 400, 500 people. As they get to senior status, they have a lot of power. These students really don't think they're doing anything wrong."
Hazing has long been a problem at college fraternities, as well as among athletic teams and other groups. But the Greek culture gets amplified at HBCUs and the bands over time have replicated that, according to Ricky Jones, author of "Black Haze: Violence, Sacrifice, and Manhood in Black Greek-Letter Fraternities."
"These cases are really paralleling what's going on in the black Greek organizations across the country," Jones said. "Over the years, the bands have mimicked the fraternities."
Unlike hazing at some colleges, alcohol plays a lesser role at HBCUs and in the band, Jones said.
"They see going through this struggle, that has nothing to do with music obviously, but they see it as reaffirming of their dedication to the band, their dedication to their section, and a rite of passage," Jones said. "It's all about this very intense desire at that age to belong and be accepted. And it's getting people killed and injured."
There are perks for the band as a whole, too. Charter buses with TVs, private cafeteria breakfasts before away games and a weekly allowance for entertainment.
The commitment begins long before classes start. During the summer, practices start before sunrise. Grueling outdoor workouts build strength and stamina and last more than an hour. Days and nights are spent together, forming a bond that lasts long after graduation. The band becomes a second family.
"You looked out for your classmates," said James, the Jackson State alumna. "I went to homecoming last month. The people I came in the band with still can reminisce, talk about how things were when we were in the band."
That bond creates a loyalty and protective culture that is hard to penetrate. Several current and former band members were reluctant to discuss hazing at their schools. While most acknowledged its existence, none said they considered themselves victims.
"When I look at some of these instances where people have been hurt, it really bothers me," James said. "Most of the people that do that tend to be these rogue people. This had nothing to do with the band. You're just a thug. You're bringing yourself into the band, which removes the whole unity element."
___
Armario reported from Miami. Associated Press writers Mike Schneider in Orlando, and Gary Fineout and Brent Kallestad in Tallahassee, contributed to this report.
___
Follow Haines on Twitter at ?www.twitter.com/emarvelous.
Follow Armario at ?www.twitter.com/cearmario.
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Friday, December 2, 2011
Well-known Romanian theater director dies (AP)
BUCHAREST, Romania ? Alexandru Tocilescu, a respected Romanian theater director equally at home with Shakespeare and his country's national playwright, died on Wednesday. He was 65.
Tocilescu died of a heart attack at Bucharest's Floreasca Hospital, doctors said. He had been dogged by ill health for decades, including kidney problems that required dialysis.
"He was someone who believed in theater as a daily vocation, as a privileged form of dialogue with life and the challenges of history," said President Traian Basescu in a condolence message to the director's family.
Art journalist Victoria Anghelescu said, "He was a flame that burned for the theater."
"His shows were staged with verve, humor and a director's skill which characterized the whole creation of this remarkably talented director," she said online.
In a career spanning almost 40 years, Tocilescu directed dozens of productions at the famed Bulandra theater in Bucharest, the Romanian Opera, and other theaters.
UNITER theater union awarded him three major prizes for his work.
In addition to works by Romanian playwright I. L. Caragiale, Tocilescu was known for his production of "Hamlet" in London and Dublin in 1990, a year after Romania's anti-communist revolution.
His last production was Samuel Beckett's "Endgame" in 2009.
He is survived by a son, writer Alex Tocilescu.
There was no immediate word about funeral arrangements.
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For Herman Cain, the campaign all but over (AP)
ATLANTA ? Herman Cain is still campaigning for president. But by most measures, his White House bid is all but over.
His standing in polls is cratering. Supporters are wavering if not fleeing. Fundraising is suffering.
And, these days, the former pizza company executive is less a serious candidate than the butt of late-night comedy jokes after a string of accusations of sexually inappropriate behavior and, now, an allegation of a 13-yearlong extramarital affair.
"His chance at winning the presidency are effectively zero," said Dave Welch, a Republican strategist who worked on both of John McCain's presidential bids.
And Republican strategist Kellyanne Conway said: "It's the daily dose of the wince-and-cringe factor that leaves people wondering what could be coming next,"
As it has since Ginger White stepped forward Monday, the allegation of an affair overshadowed Cain's campaign for another day Thursday, when he told the New Hampshire Union Leader that his wife, Gloria, did not know he was providing the 46-year-old Atlanta-area businesswoman with money for "month-to-month bills and expenses."
And, Cain said, his wife also didn't know of what he called a friendship with White until she said publicly that she had a casual 13-year affair with Cain that ended about eight months ago.
White returned to television herself, telling MSNBC in an interview Thursday night that she was "deeply sorry" for causing Cain's wife or other members of his family any pain.
"My heart bleeds for this woman because I am a woman and being in a situation like this cannot be fun. And I am deeply, deeply sorry if I have caused any hurt to her and to his kids, to his family," she said.
White said the affair was never about love and that Cain never said he loved her.
"Nor did I tell him that I loved him," she said. "It wasn't a love affair. It was a sexual affair, as hard as that is for me to say and as hard as it is for people to hear it. You know, it pretty much is what it is. And that's what it was."
On Fox News Thursday night, Cain said he will make a decision on the future of his campaign before Monday. One option would be to continue his bid "full steam ahead" and another would be to suspend the effort. Viability will be a key consideration.
"This whole series of accusations is going to leave a little cloud of doubt in a lot of people's minds for a long, long time," he said.
It is the latest chapter in a saga that has played out in recent weeks as his campaign has been rocked first with allegations of sexual harassment and, now, White's affair claim.
Even before all that surfaced, Cain faced steep hurdles to the nomination. He didn't have much of a campaign organization. He was spending more time on a book tour than in early primary and caucus states. And he was facing doubts about whether he was ready for the presidency, given a series of fumbles on policy questions.
Over the past month, Cain has watched his standing in polls sink. He acknowledged his fundraising took a hit after White came forward, and political experts predict that his ability to take in campaign cash will evaporate now that he is re-evaluating whether to remain in the race. If he decides to continue running, Cain would face another big hurdle: the loss of grassroots support, which has provided the core of his base for his anti-establishment campaign.
Atlanta Tea Party Patriots co-founder Debbie Dooley typifies the falloff of support. She had been vigorously defending Cain as the sexual harassment allegations trickled out. But White's accusation proved too much. On Thursday, White's attorney released more cell phone billing records showing that Cain and White had dialed each other 10 times from June 18 to Nov. 18.
The pair also exchanged 226 text messages, including 58 that Cain sent to White. Cain's attorney, Lin Wood, said some of the messages are White asking for help paying for her rent, gasoline and car tags.
"I don't know what to believe," Dooley said. "I just think he needs to get out now and focus on his family."
Charlie Gruchow, one of Cain's earliest and most devout supporters in Iowa, has said he has moved his support to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, because he doesn't think Cain can survive politically.
"I still don't believe all the allegations," he said. "But it's really damaged him."
Even Cain's supporters acknowledge his odds have grown even steeper with a cloud planted over his campaign and just weeks before voting gets under way in Iowa.
"I'm still backing him, but I definitely think it's a bigger and bigger mountain to climb," Florida state Rep. Carlos Trujillo said Tuesday, the day after White emerged. "It's going to be difficult to make up that ground in so short an amount of time."
Cain has said he is reassessing and re-evaluating whether to remain in the race and will only make that decision after speaking face-to-face with his wife of 42 years.
The candidate is expected back in his home state of Georgia after campaign stop in South Carolina Friday afternoon and will presumably talk with his wife then. His campaign wouldn't provide details.
He has canceled a Friday night event at the Atlanta Athletic Club.
"We've postponed it while he revaluates," organizer Gil Bell said.
But Georgia state Sen. Josh McKoon, a supporter, said the planned opening of a campaign headquarters in Atlanta was still on.
"Without a doubt," McKoon said.
Cain was keeping up a busy schedule. After visiting New Hampshire, Cain spoke Thursday night at the business school of Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, focusing his remarks on his business career and making no mention of White's accusation or the fate of his candidacy. He was set to headline a campaign event Friday afternoon in Rock Hill, S.C.
Hecklers interrupted Cain at Middle Tennessee State. One man shouted, "Sexual abuse is unacceptable" while others chanted, "We are the 99 percent," the slogan of the Occupy Wall Street protests.
"We have freedom of speech. Some people simply abuse it," Cain said after the protesters left. "That's why I didn't get rattled."
____
Associated Press writers Ray Henry in Atlanta, Tom Beaumont in Iowa, and Erik Schelzig in Murfreesboro, Tenn., contributed to this report.
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