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Israel, bound by an international refugees treaty it ardently promoted, doesn’t seem to have that option, and the gap between rhetoric and reality threatens to send simmering social antagonisms boiling over into open conflict.

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It has raised questions, relevant all over the developed world, about how much is owed to the impoverished migrants who manage to sneak in.

Over the past seven years, as many as 60,000 African migrants, most from Sudan and Eritrea, have slipped across Israel’s border with Egypt, exploiting the lack of a physical barrier and widespread lawlessness in the Sinai Peninsula that has been one result of the fall last year of longtime Egyptian ruler Hosni Mubarak.

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Israel is erecting a barrier along the roughly 200 kilometers (125 miles) of border. While this work drags on, the migrants continue to arrive at a rate of about 1,000 a month, ragged and penniless, with some reporting being raped, tortured and extorted by the Bedouins who smuggle them through.

Some migrants are fleeing repressive regimes. Others are simply looking for a better life in a richer country. How many fit into each of those categories is a matter of deep disagreement between officials and migrant advocates.

Some Israelis worry that their national identity as a Jewish state is being threatened by unauthorized African migrants, who now make up less than 1 percent of Israel’s population.

“It’s the crumbling of the Zionist dream,” Interior Minister Eli Yishai warned on Thursday.

Officials claim the overwhelming majority of the migrants are not bona fide refugees escaping persecution and war, but economic migrants looking for jobs. Israeli leaders use terms like “infiltrators,” “cancer” and “national scourge” to describe them, setting an inflammatory tone.

WATCH STORIES OF AFRICAN WOMEN WHO EXPERIENCE RAPE En Route TO ISRAEL 

After the first rape was reported earlier this month, Yishai declared nearly all migrants to be criminals and said they should all be jailed pending deportation.

Days later, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned, “60,000 infiltrators are liable to become 600,000, and lead to the eradication of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.”

The issue of how to deal with them has also caused introspection about whether Israel, after a century of conflict with Arabs, has become a racist society.

“What disturbs me most is the racist atmosphere,” social commentator Tom Segev said. “For several years now, Israel society has been moving in that direction, with all the anti-Arab motions in the parliament. … I think that this society is very sick now.”

Others deny that the pushback is racist, finding it unreasonable that their country of about 8 million should be expected to throw open its doors to unlimited numbers of migrants.

Israel cannot simply kick out the Africans, as some politicians would seem to suggest. As an enthusiastic backer of a 1951 U.N. treaty drafted to address the plight of World War II refugees, it has pledged not to expel asylum-seekers to any country where they would be in danger.

“We’re not going to pull back on our obligations under the refugee convention,” said Daniel Solomon, legal adviser to Israel’s population and immigration authority. “At the same time, other solutions will have to be looked for,” like finding a third country to take them in.

Because most migrants come from Sudan, an enemy state, and Eritrea, a country with an abysmal human rights record, the line between refugee and economic migrants is blurred. So Israel has quietly allowed most migrants from those two countries to stay, without processing their asylum applications.

The U.S. State Department criticized this practice in a report on global human rights released Thursday, noting that of 4,603 new asylum applications in 2011, Israel rejected 3,692 and approved one. According to the report, asylum seekers without refugee status are not allowed to work and have no access to public health care, and that the government negatively terms the migrants “infiltrators”.

Spokesmen for Israel’s prime minister and Foreign Ministry had no comment on the report Friday.

Because of their precarious status, the migrants scrounge for whatever underpaid and insecure employment and volunteer health care they can find.

“Our objective is to have Israel host these people under proper conditions until the option arises for them to go home,” said William Tall, the envoy of the U.N. refugee agency office in Israel.

The Africans began trickling into Israel after neighboring Egypt violently quashed a demonstration by a group of Sudanese refugees there in 2005, killing at least 20. The numbers surged as word spread of safety and jobs in Israel, a prosperous and liberal country reachable from Africa overland.

The swelling numbers have spawned slums. Fear and intolerance is mounting among locals, who accuse the migrants of stoking crime, including three recent rapes – even though police records show crime among the migrants is lower than among Israelis.

Firebombs were thrown recently at two buildings where migrants live, and a protest against them Wednesday in a poor southern Tel Aviv neighborhood where many Africans live turned violent. The crowd shattered windows of shops and cars belonging to Africans, police said, and a witness reported that protesters spat on migrants and cursed them. No one was hurt.

Bashir Abekker, 32, came to Israel four years ago to escape the war in Sudan’s Darfur region. He thought he’d find safety, “but recently, I’m not safe here. I am afraid for my safety,” he said. “After what happened (Wednesday), I was afraid to go out on the street to buy food.”

On Thursday, Netanyahu condemned the violence. “I want to make it very clear that there is no room for the kinds of expressions and actions we saw last night,” he said. “I say this both to public officials and to the residents of south Tel Aviv, whose pain I understand.”

The Hotline for Migrant Workers advocacy group said the refugees are endangered by the “incitement” of politicians.

On the other side of the divide, neighborhood activist Dror Kahalani said the government is neglecting his already poor community to provide services for migrants, whose rising numbers terrify residents.

“I don’t let my daughters go out unless I go with them,” Kahalani said.

Prominent author and social commentator A.B. Yehoshua came to the defense of the migrants’ Israeli neighbors. “We have to distinguish between economic migrants whom we don’t have to accept, and the bona fide refugees who are suffering and face death if returned,” he said.

For some, the violence against the migrants and calls for their expulsion are difficult to accept given the legacy of the Holocaust, when 6 million Jews were killed by German Nazis and their collaborators. They find it abhorrent that the Jewish state would expel people to face persecution elsewhere.

Others counter that following the mass murder of its own people as the world looked on, Israel has no more of an obligation to help others than the rest of the world does.

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Patrick Ndlovu, who was also accused in Terreblanche‘s murder, was acquitted. The slain Neo-Nazi leader’s 2010 killing evoked memories of South Africa’s racist past by the nation’s White minority.

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Ndlovu was “convicted of housebreaking with intent to steal.”

The BBC has more:

During the trial, a lawyer for Ndlovu, who has been named for the first time as he was a minor at the time, said he had been subject to “appalling conditions… not fit for human habitation [and] child exploitation” on the farm.

The lawyer said his client had not killed Terreblanche, but had found his body and called the police.

Much of the evidence against the teenager was dismissed because the police did not follow South Africa’s child protection law when handling the case.

The prosecution said they had found Terreblanche asleep and beaten him with a steel pipe.

WATCH Revealing Terreblanche Interview With The BBC

Terreblanche was the founder of the Afrikaner Resistance Movement – AWB, a neo nazi group that opposed the ending the apartheid. The BBC reports that members of his group,with their trademark red, white and black, swastika-style flags, stood outside of the court room in support of Terreblanche. They feel that their former leader’s killing is reflective of what they feel is anti-Afrikaner sentiment in South Africa.

Black farmers, not too far away, were singing protest songs that date back to the era where the White minority ruled with an iron fist. The police had to set up cordons to keep the two groups from fighting each other.

Both Ndlovu and Mahlangu will be sentenced next month. Go to the BCC to read more on this story.

As he evolved away from his past as Detroit Red, he transformed himself first, into a loyal protégé of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, then, into a world renowned human rights activist. He never hid behind his legend to avoid speaking of his time as a petty criminal, instead using his story to bolster the confidence of everyday men facing his same struggles. He let them know, in no uncertain terms, that they didn’t have to have a pristine past to make a difference in the present and the future.

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The seismic shift that occurred in our culture, politics and philosophy as Black Americans in the ’50′s and ’60′s will forever be linked to brother Malcolm and his strength in the face of adversity, his unwillingness to bow to the hypocrisy that he had grown to see within the Nation of Islam, and his refusal to dilute his power for a country that feared his influence.

When looking back at the often tumultuous days of Malcolm’s life, one can not help but wonder what was on his mind. As he began to separate from the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, the man he credited with saving his life, as he broke ranks with the Nation of Islam, the brothers he had molded into the image of Black manhood that was deemed necessary for the separation of Black and White Americans to be successful, as his philosophy began to shift away from merging race and religion, to his belief that matters of human rights can not be confined by such a flimsy institution, as he begin to realize that he was living a lie and all White Americans were no more our enemies than all Black Americans were our friends, what was on his mind?

Many of us forget that he was only 39-years-old when he was gunned down in the Audubon Ballroom just north of Harlem, New York on February 21, 1965. In his short life he went through three pivotal transformations that culminated with the founding of Organization of Afro-America Unity and Muslim Mosque, Inc. Though the two convergent movements never gained the traction and power of the NOI, it spoke to Malcolm’s influence that he was able to step out on purpose and take people with him that were ready to die for him.

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Where are those leaders today?

As we celebrate the birth of Malcolm, I’m reminded of the day that I had the honor of meeting his eldest daughter, Ambassador Attallah Shabazz in Los Angeles. I was able to look into her eyes and see her father’s spirit, intelligence, resilience and passion — and to also tell her that he shaped my philosophy on religion, politics and race. I shared with her that he gave me strength to stand on principal when it seemed that no one was standing by my side. She smiled when I told her that when I was first introduced to his focus on human rights, rather than civil rights — because how can we expect civility until we are first considered human? — it changed my life.

In a poem I penned last year on this date, I recount how I was also able to share my unyielding love and respect for the great El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz with my 7-year-old son:

Today, May 19, 2011, my son went to school like any other day
He took his shower, brushed his hair, ate his breakfast and
Kissed me goodbye
But not before I told him about a man
Not before I explained to him that, though this man’s time was brief
His impact on the world is one that shook the buildings in Washington
And the hoods from Detroit to Harlem
Not before I told him that here stood a Prince who stood for something
A brotha who struggled in the trenches each and every day
To shed light in darkness
To weld the power burning in our collective psyches
Into Weapons of Mass Instruction
Not before I told him that because of one Warrior
Freedom will forever be a word in his mother’s vocabulary

Because I’m ready to die for it

Not before I told him that there once was a man
Whose body was defiled by bullets and lies
His death certificate signed by traitors and bureaucrats
A man who could not contain brilliance so bright it lit minds
From the ghettos of this stolen nation to the deserts of Africa
Reminding us that the shackles of slavery have been broken
Yet we still have to escape the plantation
I told him about a Soldier who refused to withdraw from a battle with a country
That refused to define him as man and in that defiance of oppression
Taught an entire generation that equality  — on our terms — will be had

By Any Means Necessary

Before my son walked out of the door
I told him about his brother, his teacher, his elder, his ancestor
Who refused to live a lie even if it assured his death
Who refused to kowtow or step and fetch it
Or be a diluted version of the man he was destined to be
Just so he could later be deemed acceptable enough
To warrant a holiday on the day of his birth
Yes, my son went to school today…

But not before I told him about brother Malcolm.

Today, I hope we all take a moment to honor the life of a man who died for us all — and continue to walk in his legacy.

Happy Birthday, brother Malcolm.

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Obama announced $3 billion in private sector pledges to help boost agriculture and food production in Africa. He said the U.S. and other donor nations would continue to make “historic investments” in development, though he offered no new American financial pledges.

“Some have asked in a time of austerity, whether this new alliance is just a way for governments to shift the burden on to somebody else,” Obama said of the private sector commitments. “I want to be clear, the answer is no.”

Obama’s announcement in Washington kicked off four days of international summitry. World leaders are gathering at Camp David, the presidential retreat in the Maryland mountains, later in the day for a summit of the Group of Eight leading industrial nations. Obama heads to Chicago on Saturday evening for NATO meetings.

While much of the G-8 meetings will focus on Europe’s mounting economic troubles, leaders will also hold a session on food security in Africa. Obama invited the heads of four African nation – Benin, Ethiopia, Ghana and Tanzania – to attend the meeting.

Obama said that even as G-8 leaders dealt with Europe’s pressing fiscal challenges, he felt it was “also important, also critical, to focus on the urgent challenge that confronts some 1 billion men, women and children around the world: the injustice of chronic hunger.”

The White House said the private sector pledges, along with commitments from donor countries to work with African nations on food security programs, could raise 50 million people out of poverty over the next 10 years.

Obama also championed a food security initiative at the 2009 G-8 summit that resulted in $22 billion in government-backed pledges. The pledge period for L’Aquila Food Security Initiative ends later this year, and some humanitarian groups say much of the promised money has not been dispersed.

The president urged wealthy nations to make good on their pledges.

“We must do what we say. No empty promises,” Obama said.

The G-8 will release an accountability report this weekend detailing how much of the $22 billion is still on the sidelines. Administration officials say the U.S. is on track to fulfill its $3.5 billion pledge.

Obama, whose father was born in Kenya, sought to put the problem of food security in Africa in personal terms. Some of his relatives in Kenya live in villages where hunger is sometimes a reality, he said.

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Thabo Mbeki arrived in the Sudan’s capital city, disobeying orders by United Nation Security Council demands to meet on Wednesday. However, negotiations are said to be near to going underway.

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Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, seeks to meet in a two-day stretch with Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir and other officials, foreign ministry spokesman Al-Obeid Meruh said to AFP.

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“He is encouraging both sides to put proposals on the table on the key issues that have divided the countries,” said United States’ leading diplomat for Africa, Johnnie Carson. “While there has not been a full resumption of discussions between the two sides, things are being done,” Carson added.

“We want them to be done much faster, and with greater alacrity and commitment” he added.

The violence is said to have largely ended, although tensions are still high between military forces in the region.

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Dubbed, quite cruelly, as the “Elephant Boy” Vincent Oketch is bed-bound, unable to walk and is forced to wear dresses because his legs are too large to fit into trousers. Doctors in his tiny village of Peta say the boy may die soon if he is not treated. They are appealing to the international community for help.

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Tito Opoya, the boy’s father says that “It really upsets him because he has to wear pink and the other kids tease him,” according to the Daily Mail. “He is only small, but his legs are really heavy and weigh more than he does.”

When Vincent was 18-months-old, his parents notices that his legs were swelling but they lacked the funds to take him to a doctor. And even the doctors he does have access to do not know how to help him.

The Daily Mail has more:

Dr Osire, who runs an organisation called EDYAC, helps children from poor villages access medical treatment. He took Vincent in his car to a hospital in Kampala to see if surgeons there could operate.

Doctors carried out MRI scans and at first believed Vincent was suffering from a complicated mix of a faulty lymphatic system, elephantiasis and tissue deformity.

They also discovered the swelling had affected Vincent’s bones, leading to a dislocated hip and broken ankles.

However, they say biopsy results now suggest Vincent may also have necrotising fasciitis, a flesh-eating infection, which could be fatal if untreated.

Dr Osire said: ‘The hospital now says it is considering amputation of Vincent’s legs at the thigh. I’m very worried about this, because we keep hearing different diagnoses.

‘It’s difficult to know what is correct. We desperately need a British doctor, or foreign medical expert, who can offer advice about Vincent’s case.

‘The case is extremely complex and we’d like to find out if there is anything that can be done to save his legs.’ A British doctor currently visiting Uganda hopes to be able to see Vincent in the next few weeks to assess his condition.

Dr Osire said: ‘We’re extremely grateful for any help. We urgently need outside medical advice because the case may be too complicated to be treated locally.

Let’s hope that this poor child gets the help that he needs. Go to the Daily Mail for more.

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Helen Zille, who had been leading the march by her Democratic Alliance (DA) party on economic issues, said to the those who gathered to oppose the march: “You are not on the side of the poor. The DA is on the side of the poor.”

Her speech was drowned out by the union demonstrators. After they threw rocks at the truck from which she was speaking, she was bundled into a small car and driven away. Her supporters then started throwing rocks at the union protesters.

Watch footage of the protests here:

The DA said it was marching in support of a youth subsidy it believes will give more opportunities for jobless young South Africans. The DA believes the subsidy, proposed by the governing African National Congress, could create at least 423,000 jobs for young South Africans.

South Africa’s unemployment rate is high, with a quarter of the work force unemployed in the nation of 50-million people.
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The trade union coalition, COSATU, is an ANC ally, but differs with the ANC on youth subsidies. COSATU says subsidies will encourage companies to lower all wages.

Patrick Craven, the COSATU spokesman, condemned the violence, and said COSATU supporters also were injured.

He denied the counter-protest was organized to silence the DA, saying workers gathered only to show they reject DA policies.

“It was certainly an attempt to have a show of strength. There was absolutely no intention to have violence,” he said.

The protest was planned to end at COSATU’s headquarters, but the marchers turned away three blocks from their destination because of the violence. As the crowd made their way back into town, police sprayed the last of the DA crowd with water from a truck.

Vusi Sefuba, a 26-year-old wearing a DA T-shirt, limped after the marchers as they headed back into central Johannesburg. He said he’d been hit by a rock.

“I don’t see any progress in this country unless the DA takes over,” he said.

Sefuba, who said he was a former supporter of the governing African National Congress, said the DA had called the peaceful march in support of a youth subsidy proposed by the ANC as a way to encourage companies to hire young people.

Mpopi Maubane, a 24-year-old student at a secretarial school, was split between the two sides Tuesday. She stood outside COSATU’s headquarters with a white-on-red sign that read, “No to a 2-tier economy,” an anti-youth subsidy slogan. But she said she knows the subsidy might help her get a job when she finishes school.

COSATU and the ANC have her loyalty, Maubane said, because they led the fight against apartheid.

“But we’re also saying DA has a point,” Maubane said.

Tuesday’s march also appeared to be a bid by the DA, which has its roots in a white liberal party that opposed apartheid, to build credibility among South Africa’s impoverished Black majority.

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While nations such as Finland and Australia ranked in a top ten based on such factors as maternal mortality, healthcare and maternity leave, the United States finished at a dismal number 25 in a recently released report.

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Last week, Save the Children released its annual State of the World’s Mothers Report. The United States failed to break the top 10 list of the best places to be a mother, which included the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium, Australia, Belgium, Finland, Denmark, New Zealand, Sweden, Iceland and Norway in the top spot. The United States sits at number 25, nestled between the Czech Republic and Belarus, on a list of roughly 173 countries.

The Mother’s Index incorporates both the Women’s and Children’s indexes.The Women’s Index is compiled, based on factors such as risk of maternal death, percentage of women using modern contraception, female life expectancy, expected number of years of formal female schooling, maternity leave benefits, ratio of expected male-to-female earned income, and participation of women in national government. The Children’s Index reviews child mortality and pre-primary and secondary school enrollment. Based on the child-related factors alone, the United States falls to 31.

Losing on many fronts, from healthcare and the economy, to occupation and innovation, the United States may want to do a little less bragging and a lot more work solving the issues that jeopardizes its citizens — especially women and children.

Read more at Clutch Magazine.

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Readers responded to the “kiss heard ’round the world,” with scathing remarks, suggesting that Bolt was sell-out:

‘Another one of our men snatched.’

‘Out of all the girls on this island you pick a snowbunny.’

‘These superstars will always disappoint if we depend on them to raise our racial identity.’

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“[Usain] opted to focus his energies on creating new records on the track,” said sources close to the athlete. “[He] is competing at the 2012 Olympics in the United Kingdom this summer and cannot afford any distraction at this time.”

Speculation is rampant that the real reason is a renewed romance with first love, Mixicann Evans (pictured right), who was seen with Bolt’s parents at a National Meet in Kingston, Jamaica last Saturday, reports the Star.

“She remains a close friend of the family, and they (Usain and Mizicann) are in constant touch,” said a friend of Bolt.

Tell us what you think?

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“We heard gunshots and blasts. We had no option but to flee,” the 34-year-old Kabeja said after arriving in Rwanda. “We couldn’t sleep. Bullets were flying all over the place.”

Watch video of the Congolese fleeing to Rwanda here:

Violence in eastern Congo has surged after dozens of soldiers mutinied on Monday and created a new group in a largely lawless area of Africa where numerous rebel armies have taken root.

The new group created by the mutinous soldiers calls itself March 23, the date of the 2009 peace accord signed by rebel groups and the Congolese government. It is purportedly led by a colonel who was formerly under Bosco Ntaganda, a former warlord who was integrated into the Congolese army under the peace deal despite being wanted by the International Criminal Court.

Congolese army spokesman Col. Sylvain Ekenge called the new group a “farce” but clashes between it and Congo’s army continued for days in the Masisi region of North Kivu.

Kabeja, her youngest child strapped on her back, waited with thousands of others in a long, snaking line at Nkamira Transit Camp to receive food rations and other basic necessities. Rwanda normally uses the facility in Rwanda’s mountainous, rainy and cold Northern Province to temporarily welcome repatriated refugees from the jungles of Congo.

Straton Kamanzi, the manager of the U.N.-supported camp, said it’s designed to hold 4,000, but currently houses 7,000. Women, girls and infants sleep crammed together under the temporary shelters.

“For (the men) it is OK. We sleep outside and let women and children who are more vulnerable to sleep in the tents,” said Herve Munyentwari, a 22-year-old university student. “My worry is that my studies have been interrupted but hopefully we will return home.”

Richard Ndaula, who is with the U.N.’s refugee agency, said 250 to 300 people are showing up at the camp near the Congo border each day.

“We are not sure when the situation in Congo will calm down, but we anticipate more people will be coming in,” he said.

Other refugees were arriving in the nearby town of Rubavu. Officials tried to sort out who was Congolese and who was Rwandan. Many Rwandans fled into Congo after the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, and stayed there. Many of the refugees are Rwandan but Congolese are among them.

“We cannot identify who is Rwandese and who is not, but at the end of the day we have to let them all in,” said a Rwandese official.

Over the weekend, the governor of Congo’s North Kivu Province, Julien Kahongya Paluku, visited the camp inside Rwanda, giving assurances that peace would return.

Ekenge called on the mutinous soldiers to reintegrate into the Congolese army and for military leaders to create favorable conditions for those wanting to return.

Ntaganda is accused of using child soldiers for fighting in northeastern Congo from 2002 to 2003. He was first indicted on war crimes charges in 2006 by the Netherlands-based International Criminal Court. Congo President Joseph Kabila said last month that Ntaganda should be arrested and face a military tribunal in Congo.

In the past, Kabila had refused calls to hand over Ntaganda, arguing his cooperation was essential to keeping the peace in the troubled east of the country.

Ntaganda was integrated into the Congolese army along with unknown hundreds of troops under a peace deal ending a 2009 rebellion that was negotiated as the rebels were about to take the provincial capital of Goma.

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The plot involved an upgrade of the underwear bomb that failed to detonate aboard a jetliner over Detroit on Christmas 2009. This new bomb was also designed to be used in a passenger’s underwear, but this time al-Qaida developed a more refined detonation system, U.S. officials said.
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The FBI is examining the latest bomb to see whether it could have passed through airport security and brought down an airplane, officials said. They said the device did not contain metal, meaning it probably could have passed through an airport metal detector. But it was not clear whether new body scanners used in many airports would have detected it.

The would-be suicide bomber, based in Yemen, had not yet picked a target or bought his plane tickets when the CIA stepped in and seized the bomb, officials said. It’s not immediately clear what happened to the alleged bomber.

The operation unfolded even as the White House and Department of Homeland Security assured the American public that they knew of no al-Qaida plots against the U.S. around the anniversary of bin Laden’s death. The AP learned about the thwarted plot last week but agreed to White House and CIA requests not to publish it immediately because the sensitive intelligence operation was still under way. Once those concerns were allayed, the AP decided to disclose the plot Monday despite requests from the Obama administration to wait for an official announcement Tuesday.

U.S. officials, who were briefed on the operation, insisted on anonymity to discuss the case.

It’s not clear who built the bomb, but, because of its sophistication and its similarity to the Christmas bomb, authorities suspected it was the work of master bomb maker Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri. Al-Asiri constructed the first underwear bomb and two others that al-Qaida built into printer cartridges and shipped to the U.S. on cargo planes in 2010.

Both of those bombs used a powerful industrial explosive. Both were nearly successful.

The operation is an intelligence victory for the United States and a reminder of al-Qaida’s ambitions, despite the death of bin Laden and other senior leaders. Because of instability in the Yemeni government, the terrorist group’s branch there has gained territory and strength. It has set up terrorist camps and, in some areas, even operates as a de facto government.

But along with the gains there also have been losses. The group has suffered significant setbacks as the CIA and the U.S. military focus more on Yemen. On Sunday, Fahd al-Quso (pictured), a senior al-Qaida leader, was hit by a missile as he stepped out of his vehicle along with another operative in the southern Shabwa province of Yemen.

Al-Quso, 37, was on the FBI’s most wanted list, with a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture. He was indicted in the U.S. for his role in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in the harbor of Aden, Yemen, in which 17 American sailors were killed and 39 injured.

Al-Quso was believed to have replaced Anwar al-Awlaki as the group’s head of external operations.

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“My life is in your hands, Mr. President,” Weinstein said in the video. “If you accept the demands, I live; if you don’t accept the demands, then I die.”

Watch the video here:

Weinstein was abducted last August in Lahore, Pakistan, after gunmen tricked his guards and broke into his home. The 70-year-old from Rockville, Md., is the country director in Pakistan for J.E. Austin Associates, a Virginia-based firm that advises a range of Pakistani business and government sectors.

In a video message posted on militant websites in December, al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri said Weinstein would be released if the United States stopped airstrikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. He also demanded the release of all al-Qaida and Taliban suspects around the world.

The White House had no comment Monday on al-Qaida’s demands or Weinstein’s plea.

The SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors militant messages, said Al-Sahab, al-Qaida’s media arm, posted the Weinstein video on jihadist forums Sunday.

“It’s important you accept the demands and act quickly and don’t delay,” Weinstein said in the video, addressing Obama. “There’ll be no benefit in delaying, it will just make things more difficult for me.”

He also appealed to Obama as a father. If the president responds to the militants’ demands, Weinstein said, “then I will live and hopefully rejoin my family and also enjoy my children, my two daughters, like you enjoy your two daughters.”

After his kidnapping, Weinstein’s company said he was in poor health and provided a detailed list of medications, many of them for heart problems, that it implored the kidnappers to give him.

In the video released Sunday, Weinstein said he would like his wife, Elaine, to know “I’m fine, I’m well, I’m getting all my medications, I’m being taken care of.”

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Thus far, 1,000 women have tried to meet mates and some 2,000 men have applied for the program, which covers wedding expenses and provides a way around negotiating with future in-laws.

The first 100 women are to be wed in coming weeks.

Kano is a Muslim city in northern Nigeria.  The matchmaking program, which is spearheaded by the Islamic Sharia police, aims to match widows and divorcees with eligible men and has a two-fold agenda: First, the idea was conjured up to help curb unrest in northern Nigeria. Due to issues, such as unemployment, frustration among the nation’s youth have fueled violent eruptions. This region has also recently been under attack from Boko Haram, a Sunni Muslim militant group.

With Boko Haram meaning “no to western education,” this group is threatened by the West and mostly Christian population in southern Nigeria. Boko Haram members call for the establishment of Islamic Sharia law in Nigeria to change the approximately half-Christian and half-Muslim religious structure. The group, which is not that far off from the Taliban, has targeted police, the government, Christians, and non-extremist Muslims. Many believe that Boko Haram has ties to al-Qaeda.

By providing a home for the children of these single parents that is stable, financially secure, and loving, program organizers hope to reduce some of these social problems.  The program’s officials believe that children without proper parental guidance and structure are easy targets for political extremists and are likely to be easily influenced and led down a wrong path.

Nabahani Usman, deputy head of the Hisbah, the Sharia police, told the Digital Journal,  “It is very important they are saved from these destructive elements through this program, where they can have stable family life with their mothers and step-fathers looking after them.”

What do you think?

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In an interview with CNN, Rebombo recalled the circumstances behind why he raped the innocent teen and how he is devoting his life fighting the same kind of behavior that he once thought was a normal part of boyhood in South Africa.

Here is some of what he told CNN:

The boys in his village of Blinkwater taunted (Rebombo) because he didn’t herd cattle and instead went home to help his sisters. He didn’t have a girlfriend.

“Sissy,” the village boys jeered, and challenged him to prove his manhood.

The way to do that was by having sex. Forced sex.

Rebombo had refused until that day, when he gave in to peer pressure. He recounts what happened in a quiet, steady tone.

Two of his friends picked out a girl. They said she thought she was smarter than the boys; she didn’t date anyone.

Rebombo and his friends would set her straight.

“I was afraid because I’d never had sex before,” Rebombo says.

At 5 o’clock in the evening, he met his friends, drank beer, smoked marijuana.

Then it started. The first boy raped her; then the second. She was screaming. It was Rebombo’s turn.

After it was over, he felt terrible, wracked with guilt and scared that his parents would find out. He says he never gave a thought about how the victim was feeling.

A woman is raped every 26 seconds in South Africa, according to CNN. The issue of rape in this developing nation was brought to the international forefront last month when video of a girl with special needs was ganged raped and shared online. To hear the rest of Rebombo’s story, look at the video below. And, for additional video stories on rape in South Africa, go to CNN.

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They knelt in prayer, ignored the judge, wouldn’t listen to Arabic translations over their head sets and one even insisted on having the more than 20 pages detailing the charges against them read aloud, rather than deferred for later in their case as the judge wanted, which added more than two hours to the proceedings.

“They’re engaging in jihad in a courtroom,” said Debra Burlingame, whose brother, Charles, was the pilot of the plane that flew into the Pentagon. She watched the proceeding from Brooklyn.

Mohammed, the admitted 9/11 architect, and the four men accused of aiding the 9/11 conspiracy put off their pleas until a later date. They face 2,976 counts of murder and terrorism in the 2001 attacks that sent hijacked jetliners into New York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The charges carry the death penalty.

Earlier Saturday, Mohammed cast off his earphones providing Arabic translations of the proceeding and refused to answer Army Col. James Pohl’s questions or acknowledge he understood them. All five men refused to participate in the hearing; two passed around a copy of The Economist magazine and leafed through the articles.

Walid bin Attash was confined to a restraint chair when he came into court, released only after he promised to behave.

Ramzi Binalshibh began praying alongside his defense table, followed by Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, in the middle of the hearing; Binalshibh then launched into a tirade in which he compared a prison official to the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and declared that he was in danger.

“Maybe they will kill me and say I committed suicide,” he said in a mix of Arabic and broken English.

The detainees’ lawyers spent hours questioning the judge about his qualifications to hear the case and suggested their clients were being mistreated at the hearing, in a strategy that could pave the way for future appeals. Mohammed was subjected to a strip search and “inflammatory and unnecessary” treatment before court, said his attorney, David Nevin.

The defendants’ behavior outraged 9/11 family members watching on closed-circuit video feeds around the United States at East Coast military bases. One viewer shouted, “C’mon, are you kidding me?” at the Fort Hamilton base in Brooklyn.

A handful of people who lost family members in the attacks and were selected by a lottery to attend the proceedings watched in the courtroom.

It was the defendants’ first appearance in more than three years after stalled efforts to try them for the terror attacks, in which hijackers steered four commercial jets into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a western Pennsylvania field.

The Obama administration renewed plans to try the men at the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay after a bid to try the men in New York City blocks from the trade center site faced political opposition. It adopted new rules with Congress that forbade testimony obtained through torture or cruel treatment, and officials now say that defendants could be tried as fairly here as in a civilian court.

Human rights groups and defense lawyers say the secrecy of Guantanamo and the military commissions, or tribunals, will make it impossible to defend them. They argued the U.S. kept the case out of civilian court to prevent disclosure of the treatment of prisoners like Mohammed, who was waterboarded 183 times.

Nevin said he believed Mohammed was not responding because he believes the tribunal is unfair. Jim Harrington, representing Binalshibh, said his client would not respond to questions “without addressing the issues of confinement.”

Cheryl Bormann, a civilian attorney for bin Attash, appeared in a conservative Islamic outfit that left only her face uncovered and she asked the court to order other women present to wear “appropriate” clothing so that defendants do not have to avert their eyes “for fear of committing a sin under their faith.”

Pohl warned he would not permit defendants to block the hearing and would continue without his participation.

“One cannot choose not to participate and frustrate the normal course of business,” Pohl said.

Pohl brought translators into the courtroom to interpret the proceedings live once the men refused to use earpieces attempted to stick to the standard script for tribunals, asking the defendants if they understood their rights to counsel and would accept the attorneys appointed for them.

The men were silent.

In the past, during the failed first effort to prosecute them at the U.S. base in Cuba, Mohammed has mocked the tribunal and said he and his co-defendants would plead guilty and welcome execution. But there were signs that at least some of the defense teams were preparing for a lengthy fight, planning challenges of the military tribunals and the secrecy that shrouds the case.

Defendants typically do not enter a plea during their arraignment but are offered the chance to do so.

Attorney General Eric Holder announced in 2009 that Mohammed and his co-defendants would be tried blocks from the site of the destroyed trade center in downtown Manhattan, but the plan was shelved after New York officials cited huge costs to secure the neighborhood and family opposition to trying the suspects in the U.S.

Congress then blocked the transfer of any prisoners from Guantanamo to the U.S., forcing the Obama administration to refile the charges under a reformed military commission system.

Mohammed, a Pakistani citizen who grew up in Kuwait and attended college in Greensboro, North Carolina, has admitted to military authorities that he was responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks “from A to Z,” as well as about 30 other plots, and that he personally killed Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Mohammed was captured in 2003 in Pakistan.

Binalshibh was allegedly chosen to be a hijacker but couldn’t get a U.S. visa and ended up providing assistance such as finding flight schools. Bin Attash, also from Yemen, allegedly ran an al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan and researched flight simulators and timetables. Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi is a Saudi accused of helping the hijackers with money, Western clothing, traveler’s checks and credit cards. Al-Aziz Ali, a Pakistani national and nephew of Mohammed, allegedly provided money to the hijackers.

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The mortifying ordeal began at the Kragga Kamma Game Reserve, when 60-year-old Violet began petting one of the cheetahs, who reportedly began licking his lips. In what was said to last about three minutes, cheetah brothers Monty and Mark sprung in to action, mauling Violet. When a guide tried to pull the cheetah off of Violet, the other 4-year-old cheetah reportedly pinned the British woman to the ground.

The result: Violet nearly lost her eye with the injuries she sustained to her head, stomach, and legs.

An 8-year-old, Camryn Malan, also sustained injuries to her leg from one of the cheetahs biting her leg as she tried to flee.

And what was Archie reportedly doing while his wife almost got eaten alive?

He was taking the displayed pictures and reportedly didn’t try to help even once.

RadarOnline reports:

The startling images…show blood pouring from the woman’s head, arms and legs. The cheetahs are also seen staring at the woman like she was a piece of meat that they were going to devour until there was just a carcass left.

Of the incident, Violet said, “It really came from nowhere and I was totally helpless. The doctor at the hospital said cheetahs usually aim for the stomach area and disembowel their victims, so I was lucky to be alive.”

While everyone present agrees that the incident has left them “traumatized,” Park manager Mike Cantor still insists that the cheetahs were playing:

“I have grown up with these cheetahs and they are not aggressive animals,” Cantor said. “It is almost like they wanted to play with the woman. What happened was that a young girl got a bit uptight and then ran away and the cheetah grabbed her by the leg.”

Right.

Not surprisingly, the petting part of the reserve is under investigation and has been shut down until further notice.

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One

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Saturday’s statement from police says that one of the men had more than $60,000 in an account believed to belong to the victims. Police also seized computers, information on the lottery scam and lists of U.S. victims, with their addresses and other personal information.

Watch Jamaican footage of the lottery scam here:

The arrests came after police contacted a U.S. victim they say lost $120,000 through the scam.

Jamaica has long operated as a center for international telemarketing frauds that target elderly Americans and take in roughly $300 million a year.
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The circumstances of Capt. Bruce Kevin Clark‘s death were not immediately available. The Pentagon said it was under investigation, and his brother-in-law said he didn’t have details.

“We are entrusting the military with investigating and with finding out what happened to Capt. Clark,” Bradley Taber-Thomas told The Associated Press.

Clark, a 43-year-old Army chief nurse, grew up in Michigan and lived previously in Spencerport, N.Y., a suburb of Rochester and his wife’s hometown. He joined the Army in 2006 and was stationed in Hawaii before he was assigned to the William Beaumont Army Medical Center in El Paso. He deployed to Afghanistan in March.

A statement from the family released by Taber-Thomas said Clark died Monday while talking to his wife during one of their regular Skype sessions.

“At the time of the incident, the family was hoping for a rescue and miracle, but later learned that it was not to be,” the statement said. “Although the circumstances were unimaginable, Bruce’s wife and extended family will be forever thankful that he and his wife were together in his last moments.”

Clark’s body was returned Thursday to Dover Air Force Base.

A funeral is planned in Spencerport, but details were not immediately available. Clark and his wife, Susan Orellana-Clark, moved there in 2000. While living there, he worked for about four years at Highland Hospital in Rochester, N.Y., first as an operating room assistant then operating room technician.

“He was a friendly guy, always joking, always picking on me because of my (British) accent,” said Ellie Villanueva, a nurse who worked with Clark at the hospital and kept in touch with him after he left. They spoke a few days before his death, and he talked about coming for a visit. “After work, we would all go out. It was like a family. He was my son.”

Clark was an EMT before he worked at the hospital. He went on to earn his nursing degree and planned to become a certified registered nurse anesthetist, Villanueva said.

“He was always willing and always wanting to better himself,” she said.

Military records show Clark finished his nursing degree before joining the military in 2006.

He received a number of awards and decorations for his service.

“When you were in Bruce’s presence it was apparent he served a higher purpose,” the family’s statement said. “He was deeply honored to serve his country, and he paid the ultimate sacrifice to serve people, his children, family, community, and church.”

A memorial service also was planned in Addison, Mich., where Clark graduated from high school.

Villanueva said the delay in releasing the cause of Clark’s death was difficult on those who knew him.

“Why is it taking so long? It’s odd,” she said. “It’s a real shame.”

Clark is survived by his wife and two daughters, age 3 and 9, he said.

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But the Daily Mail reports that a new study reveals the people of the Solomon Islands have their own gene that makes their hair blonde and it is not connected to Europe in any way. According to a science interviewed by the Daily Mail, between five and ten percent of Solomon Islanders are born with blond hair. Initially, it was assumed that their blond hair was passed on from European traders who were in the region centuries before. But that is not the case.

Here is a breakdown of how two scientists, Nicholas Timpson and Myles, gathered their date and discovered the unique genetic traits that these brown-skinned inhabitants blond :

They asked the villagers to spit into small tubes to provide saliva to be used for DNA extraction. In the span of a month they collected more than 1,000 samples.

Soon after, Kenny joined the lab and started the analysis, selecting 43 blond- and 42 dark-haired Solomon Islanders from the opposite 10 percent extremes of the hair pigmentation range.

She used these in a genome-wide association study, a method to reveal differences in the frequency of genetic variants between two groups, that usually requires thousands of samples.

Because the vast majority of human physical characteristics analyzed to date have many genetic and environmental factors, Kenny expected an inconclusive result that would require much further study. Instead, she immediately saw a single strong signal on chromosome 9, which accounted for 50 percent of the variance in the Solomon Islanders’ hair color.

Globally, it is rare for anyone to be born with blond hair. Northern Europe and Oceania, which includes the Solomon Islands, is home to the highest concentration of blonds. Who would have ever though dark-skinned folks could be blond without a European ancestor? Just shows you have unique and diverse we as people truly are.

Go to the Daily News to learn more about the fascinating story!

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President Obama met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai — who has been extremely vocal when expressing his anger that the United States armed forces have been operating as threats, not champions, for his people — at the presidential palace to hash out the terms of the continued, long-term involvement of U.S. military in Afghanistan:

The Pentagon reports:

The agreement charts the long-term relationship between the United States and Afghanistan after 2014. The agreement is meant to reassure Afghans that the United States will continue to support the nation in the decade ahead…

Defense Department officials have said a number of American service members will remain in Afghanistan beyond 2014 to advise and train Afghan soldiers and police.

According to a recent CNN poll taken in late March, 72% oppose of Americans oppose the war.

As previously reported by Newsone, the relationship between Karzai and Washington D.C. was already on rocky ground after U.S. soldiers “mistakenly” burned Qurans on a military base. President Obama was quick to offer his sincere apologies for the disrespectful act that sparked anti-US sentiment to dangerous levels and reciprocal violence that left at least 30 dead, including 2 U.S. soldiers.

Following that violent incident, U.S. staff sergeant, Robert Bales randomly opened fire on innocent Afghani civilians asleep in their homes. He has now been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder,  including 9 children and 3 women. At the time if the incident, an enraged Karzai said that he had “repeatedly asked U.S. soldiers to stop slaying innocent people” and demanded that NATO forces leave Afghan villages, stop carrying out night raids and withdraw to major bases.

“The Afghan government didn’t receive cooperation from the USA regarding the surrender of the US soldiers to the Afghan government, Karzai said. “This (civilian casualties) has been going on too long. This is by all means the end of the rope here.”

Concerning the actual murders, he made his position even more clear:

“This is an assassination, an intentional killing of innocent civilians and cannot be forgiven.”

He also called for a swift exit of western troops after seeing the images of U.S. troops posing with dead suicide bombers and calling it “disgusting.”

President Obama has agreed that the breakdown of trust has ruined any chance of the Taliban coming to the table for negotiations in the region and has said “now [is] the time to transition out of Afghanistan.”

Obama’s secret visit coincides with the one-year anniversary of the risky mission that killed al-Qaida notorious leader’s in Pakistan.

To watch the live feed, visit WhiteHouse.gov.

*******************************************************************************************

Read below for a full transcript of President Obama’s address:

Good evening from Bagram Air Base. This outpost is more than seven thousand miles from home, but for over a decade it has been close to our hearts. Because here, in Afghanistan, more than half a million of our sons and daughters have sacrificed to protect our country.

Today, I signed an historic agreement between the United States and Afghanistan that defines a new kind of relationship between our countries — a future in which Afghans are responsible for the security of their nation, and we build an equal partnership between two sovereign states; a future in which the war ends, and a new chapter begins.

Tonight, I’d like to speak to you about this transition. But first, let us remember why we came here. It was here, in Afghanistan, where Osama bin Laden established a safe-haven for his terrorist organization. It was here, in Afghanistan, where al Qaeda brought new recruits, trained them, and plotted acts of terror. It was here, from within these borders, that al Qaeda launched the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 innocent men, women and children.

And so, ten years ago, the United States and our allies went to war to make sure that al Qaeda could never again use this country to launch attacks against us. Despite initial success, for a number of reasons, this war has taken longer than most anticipated. In 2002, bin Laden and his lieutenants escaped across the border and established safe-havens in Pakistan. America spent nearly eight years fighting a different war in Iraq. And al Qaeda’s extremist allies within the Taliban have waged a brutal insurgency.

But over the last three years, the tide has turned. We broke the Taliban’s momentum. We’ve built strong Afghan Security Forces. We devastated al Qaeda’s leadership, taking out over 20 of their top 30 leaders. And one year ago, from a base here in Afghanistan, our troops launched the operation that killed Osama bin Laden. The goal that I set — to defeat al Qaeda, and deny it a chance to rebuild — is within reach.

Still, there will be difficult days ahead. The enormous sacrifices of our men and women are not over. But tonight, I’d like to tell you how we will complete our mission and end the war in Afghanistan.

First, we have begun a transition to Afghan responsibility for security. Already, nearly half the Afghan people live in places where Afghan Security Forces are moving into the lead. This month, at a NATO Summit in Chicago, our coalition will set a goal for Afghan forces to be in the lead for combat operations across the country next year. International troops will continue to train, advise and assist the Afghans, and fight alongside them when needed. But we will shift into a support role as Afghans step forward.

As we do, our troops will be coming home. Last year, we removed 10,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan. Another 23,000 will leave by the end of the summer. After that, reductions will continue at a steady pace, with more of our troops coming home. And as our coalition agreed, by the end of 2014 the Afghans will be fully responsible for the security of their country.

Second, we are training Afghan Security Forces to get the job done. Those forces have surged, and will peak at 352,000 this year. The Afghans will sustain that level for three years, and then reduce the size of their military. And in Chicago, we will endorse a proposal to support a strong and sustainable long-term Afghan force.

Third, we are building an enduring partnership. The agreement we signed today sends a clear message to the Afghan people: as you stand up, you will not stand alone. It establishes the basis of our cooperation over the next decade, including shared commitments to combat terrorism and strengthen democratic institutions. It supports Afghan efforts to advance development and dignity for their people. And it includes Afghan commitments to transparency and accountability, and to protect the human rights of all Afghans – men and women, boys and girls.

Within this framework, we will work with the Afghans to determine what support they need to accomplish two narrow security missions beyond 2014: counter-terrorism and continued training. But we will not build permanent bases in this country, nor will we be patrolling its cities and mountains. That will be the job of the Afghan people.

Fourth, we are pursuing a negotiated peace. In coordination with the Afghan government, my Administration has been in direct discussions with the Taliban. We have made it clear that they can be a part of this future if they break with al Qaeda, renounce violence, and abide by Afghan laws. Many members of the Taliban – from foot soldiers to leaders – have indicated an interest in reconciliation. A path to peace is now set before them. Those who refuse to walk it will face strong Afghan Security Forces, backed by the United States and our allies.

Fifth, we are building a global consensus to support peace and stability in South Asia. In Chicago, the international community will express support for this plan, and for Afghanistan’s future. I have made it clear to Afghanistan’s neighbor – Pakistan – that it can and should be an equal partner in this process in a way that respects Pakistan’s sovereignty, interests, and democratic institutions. In pursuit of a durable peace, America has no designs beyond an end to al Qaeda safe-havens, and respect for Afghan sovereignty.

As we move forward, some people will ask why we need a firm timeline. The answer is clear: our goal is not to build a country in America’s image, or to eradicate every vestige of the Taliban. These objectives would require many more years, many more dollars, and many more American lives. Our goal is to destroy al Qaeda, and we are on a path to do exactly that. Afghans want to fully assert their sovereignty and build a lasting peace. That requires a clear timeline to wind down the war.

Others will ask why we don’t leave immediately. That answer is also clear: we must give Afghanistan the opportunity to stabilize. Otherwise, our gains could be lost, and al Qaeda could establish itself once more. And as Commander-in-Chief, I refuse to let that happen.

I recognize that many Americans are tired of war. As President, nothing is more wrenching than signing a letter to a family of the fallen, or looking in the eyes of a child who will grow up without a mother or father. I will not keep Americans in harm’s way a single day longer than is absolutely required for our national security. But we must finish the job we started in Afghanistan, and end this war responsibly.

My fellow Americans, we have traveled through more than a decade under the dark cloud of war. Yet here, in the pre-dawn darkness of Afghanistan, we can see the light of a new day on the horizon. The Iraq War is over. The number of our troops in harm’s way has been cut in half, and more will be coming home soon. We have a clear path to fulfill our mission in Afghanistan, while delivering justice to al Qaeda.

This future is only within reach because of our men and women in uniform. Time and again, they have answered the call to serve in distant and dangerous places. In an age when so many institutions have come up short, these Americans stood tall. They met their responsibilities to one another, and the flag they serve under. I just met with some of them, and told them that as Commander-in-Chief, I could not be prouder. In their faces, we see what is best in ourselves and our country.

Our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, coast guardsmen and civilians in Afghanistan have done their duty. Now, we must summon that same sense of common purpose. We must give our veterans and military families the support they deserve, and the opportunities they have earned. And we must redouble our efforts to build a nation worthy of their sacrifice.

As we emerge from a decade of conflict abroad and economic crisis at home, it is time to renew America. An America where our children live free from fear, and have the skills to claim their dreams. A united America of grit and resilience, where sunlight glistens off soaring new towers in downtown Manhattan, and we build our future as one people, as one nation.

Here, in Afghanistan, Americans answered the call to defend their fellow citizens and uphold human dignity. Today, we recall the fallen, and those who suffer wounds seen and unseen. But through dark days we have drawn strength from their example, and the ideals that have guided our nation and lit the world: a belief that all people are created equal, and deserve the freedom to determine their destiny.

That is the light that guides us still. This time of war began in Afghanistan, and this is where it will end. With faith in each other and our eyes fixed on the future, let us finish the work at hand, and forge a just and lasting peace. May God bless our troops. And may God bless the United States of America.”

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Taking the baton from Asia, where unions demanded wage increases as they transformed the day from one celebrating workers rights to one of international protest, workers turned out in droves in Greece, France and Spain – the latest focus of a debt nightmare that has already forced three eurozone countries to seek financial bailouts.
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In the United States, demonstrations, strikes and acts of civil disobedience were planned, including what could be the country’s most high-profile Occupy rallies since the anti-Wall Street encampments came down in the fall.

Under a gray, threatening Madrid sky that reflected the dark national mood, 25-year Adriana Jaime confided she turned out because she speaks three foreign languages and has a masters degree as a translator, but works for what she derided as peanuts in a university research project that was to last three three years but has been cut to three months for lack of money. Jaime sees her future as grim at best.

Watch protests in France here:

“I am here because there is no future for the young people of this country,” she said as marchers walked up the city’s main north-south boulevard, protesting health care and education spending cuts and other austerity measures taken by the new conservative government. Many carried black and white placards, with the word NO and a pair of red scissors pictured inside the O.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is trying desperately to cut a bloated deficit, restore investor confidence in Spain’s public finances, lower the 24.4 jobless rate, and fend off fears it will join Greece, Ireland and Portugal in needing a bailout.

Ana Lopez, a 44-year-old civil servant, said May Day is sacred for her but this year in particular, arguing the government is doing nothing to help workers and that the economic crisis is benefiting banks.

“Money does not just disappear. It does not fly away. It just changes hands, and now it is with the banks,” Lopez said. “And the politicians are puppets of the banks.”

In France, tens of thousands of workers, leftists and union leaders were marking May Day with marches and rallies ahead of presidential elections Sunday that a Socialist is expected to win for the first time since 1988.

Anger has emerged during the campaign at austerity measures pushed by European Union leaders and conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy. Many voters fear Sarkozy will erode France’s welfare and worker protections, and see him as too friendly with the rich. Challenger and poll favorite Francois Hollande has promised high taxes on the rich.

In debt-crippled Greece, more than 2,000 people marched through central Athens in subdued May Day protests centered on the country’s harsh austerity. Minor scuffles broke out in Athens when young men targeted political party stands, destroying two and partially burning another. There were no injuries.

In Germany, where the economy is churning and unemployment is at a record low, unions held May Day rallies anyway. The DGB umbrella union group sharply criticized Europe’s treaty enshrining fiscal discipline and the resulting austerity measures across the continent. The group called instead for a stimulus program to revive the depressed economies of crisis-hit eurozone nations.

DGB chief Michael Sommer told thousands of workers gathered at the union’s main rally in Stuttgart Tuesday that a “Marshall Plan” worth billions of euros was needed to stimulate Europe’s economy, German news agency dapd reported.

Around 100,000 people in Moscow – including President Dmitry Medvedev and President-elect Vladimir Putin – took part in the main May Day march through the city center – though not to protest the government.

Television images showed the two leaders happily chatting with participants on the clear-and-cool spring day. Many banners and placards criticized the Russian opposition movement that has become more prominent in Moscow over the past half-year.

One read “spring has come, the swamp has dried up,” referring to Bolotnaya (Swampy) Square, the site of some of the largest opposition demonstrations in recent months.

Communists and leftists held a separate May Day rally in Moscow that attracted a crowd of about 3,000. Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov decried international economic troubles and said that “without socialism, without respect for the working people who create all the main value in this land, it is not possible to get out of this crisis.”

Police arrested 22 people at the rally who were wearing masks and refused to remove them during document checks. Police said those arrested were self-styled anarchists believed to be preparing provocations.

Earlier, thousands of workers protested in the Philippines, Indonesia, Taiwan and other Asian nations, with demands for wage hikes amid soaring oil prices a common theme. They said their take-home pay could not keep up with rising consumer prices, while also calling for lower school fees and expressing a variety of other complaints.

An unemployed father of six set himself on fire in southern Pakistan in an apparent attempt to kill himself because he was mired in poverty, said police officer Nek Mohammed. Abdul Razzaq Ansari, 45, suffered burns on 40 percent of his body but survived.

In the Philippine capital, Manila, more than 8,000 members of a huge labor alliance, many clad in red shirts and waving red streamers, marched under a brutal sun for 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) to a heavily barricaded bridge near the Malacanang presidential palace, which teemed with thousands of riot police, Manila police chief Alex Gutierrez said.

Another group of left-wing workers later burned a huge effigy of President Benigno Aquino III, depicting him as a lackey of the United States and big business. A few hundred workers marched to the U.S. Embassy, but were stopped by riot police about a block away. The protesters burned a mock U.S. flag and went away.

Aquino rejected their calls for a $3 daily pay hike, which he warned could worsen inflation, spark layoffs and turn away foreign investors.

In Indonesia, thousands of protesters demanding higher wages paraded through traffic-clogged streets in the capital, Jakarta, where 16,000 police and soldiers were deployed at locations including the presidential palace and airports.

There were also protests in Taiwan, Malaysia and Hong Kong.

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Coining the sponges “Disco,” “Beehive,”  “Punk,” and “Diva,” a spokesperson for Paladone says, “Our range of four washing up sponges are designed to make an everyday chore like washing up more fun.” Each of the sponges has a brillo pad Afro and even caricatures soul icon Diana Ross.

To Unite Against Fascism (UAF), an organization that sees itself as a counter to the growing levels of racism and fascism throughout the U.K., the sponges harken back to what we would call Stateside “Jim Crow memorabilia.” UAF General Secretary Weyman Bennet says:

What are we going to have next, toilet brushes like that? This is not appropriate for the 21st century to show images like that. It reinforces negative stereotypes and ideas. Although it’s aimed at being humorous, sometimes it’s not funny. We’ve spent 40 years removing racist imagery out of general politics, removing golly wogs, removing Black and Qhite minstrels, and it would be a shame if it crept back in.”

Not surprisingly, Paladone is reportedly gaining quite a profit from the new line and have no plans of pulling it, “The Disco, Beehive, Punk and Diva have sold hundreds of thousands of pieces. They have been a phenomenal success,” said the company spokesman.

Still Bennett believes — success or not — that the products should be pulled off of the shelves.

“They need to think again. Is there no way they can come up with positive views of people without just using negative views of Black people.

“Trying to compare Black people’s to brillo pads is not a really positive image – it’s not appropriate.”

What do you think?

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The deal was made public after South Sudan President Salva Kiir returned from his diplomatic trip to Beijing. South Sudan and Sudan recently engaged in an intense battle over the oil-rich border town of Heglig. China imports much of its oil from both nations and wants to enjoy good relations between both capitals, Juba in the south and Khartoum in the north.

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South Sudan, at least officially, views China’s role as that of an ally committed to seeing its young nation prosper.

Watch A Report On China’s Role In The South Sudan-Sudan Conflict

The BBC has more:

South Sudan Information Minister Barnaba Mariel Benjamin told the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme that the Chinese wanted to help develop the country.

“There are no strings attached to it,” he said.

“You know we are beginning from zero but we have enormous resources. At least [if] the resources are developed, I’m sure it will be for the benefit of the people of South Sudan, and the region and internationally.”

The Chinese funding would be provided over the coming two years, and projects would be conducted by Chinese firms.

In January, South Sudan shut down oil production, which provides 98% of its revenue, after Khartoum impounded South Sudanese oil shipments amid a dispute over transit fees.

It currently relies on pipelines to seaports in Sudan to export the oil. It is proposing a new pipeline that would take oil to an Indian Ocean port rather than north to Sudan.

This move comes as critics are growing weary of China’s role on the continent. One report claims that China is becoming a major arms supplier to African states. Though another view suggests that China may be a more vital trading partner to the continent than the United States.

While many see China as a mere post-colonial actor from the East lurking to suck Africa dry of its resources, it may not be as cut and dry as it seems on the surface.

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Although Whites in South Africa were the ruling class, they were also the minority in the country. Black organizations and groups, such as African National Congress (ANC), fought for years to end the centuries-old ruling of Whites. With the help of more than 22.7 million eligible voters — some waiting as long as 12 hours to cast their ballots — the election was more than just a symbolic gesture.

Watch South Africa’s 1994 election season here:

The next month, Nelson Mandela would become President of the ANC, standing in tandem with Bishop Desmond Tutu as he addressed the throng of supporters at his May inauguration of that year.

Watch the inauguration here:

To this day, the ANC remains in power, even as the now-dissolved National Party (NP), which enforced apartheid throughout the country, tried desperately to undermine the will of the people by reorganizing their political structure. The NP, dealing with conflict among its members and unpopularity with voters, would end in 2005.

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Taylor is the first head of state convicted by an international court since the post-World War II Nuremberg military tribunal.

“Today is for the people of Sierra Leone who suffered horribly at the hands of Charles Taylor and his proxy forces,” said prosecutor Brenda Hollis. “This judgment brings some measure of justice to the many thousands of victims who paid a terrible price for Mr. Taylor’s crimes.”

Watch the conviction here:

Prosecutors and defense lawyers both said they would study the lengthy judgment to see if there were grounds for appeal.

Taylor’s attorney, Courtenay Griffiths, slammed the conviction as based on “tainted and corrupt evidence.” He claimed prosecutors paid for some of the evidence.

Griffiths said Taylor took the verdicts in his stride. “Mr. Taylor has always been a stoic individual and he continued to display that stoicism,” Griffiths told reporters.

Presiding Judge Richard Lussick said the 64-year-old warlord-turned-president provided arms, ammunition, communications equipment and planning to rebels responsible for countless atrocities in the 1991-2002 Sierra Leone civil war and was repaid by the guerrillas in so-called “blood diamonds” mined by slave laborers. Lussick called the support “sustained and significant.”

“Mr. Taylor, the trial chamber unanimously finds you guilty” of 11 charges, including terror, murder, rape and conscripting child soldiers, Lussick told Taylor.

Taylor stood and showed no emotion as Lussick delivered the guilty verdicts at the Special Court for Sierra Leone. Lussick scheduled a sentencing hearing for May 16, and said sentence would be announced two weeks later. Taylor will serve his sentence in Britain.

The court does not have maximum sentences or the death penalty. In the past, convicted Sierra Leone rebel leaders have received sentences of up to 52 years.

Human rights activists hailed the convictions as a watershed moment in the fight against impunity for national leaders responsible for atrocities.

“Taylor’s conviction sends a powerful message that even those in the highest level positions can be held to account for grave crimes,” said Elise Keppler of Human Rights Watch. “Not since Nuremberg has an international or hybrid war crimes court issued a judgment against a current or former head of state. This is a victory for Sierra Leonean victims, and all those seeking justice when the worst abuses are committed.”

Thousands of survivors of Sierra Leone’s brutal civil war celebrated after learning of the conviction.

Jusu Jarka, who lost both of his arms during the fighting in 1999, was among those closely watching the verdict. “I am happy that the truth has come out … that Charles Taylor is fully and solely responsible for the crimes committed against the people of Sierra Leone,” he said.

Crowds who had gathered in Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital, sighed with relief when the conviction was announced. While the reaction was subdued, anger was on display on a series of posters. One read: “Shame on you Charles Taylor. Give us your diamonds before going to prison.”

Taylor had pleaded not guilty to all counts, claiming in seven months of testimony in his own defense that he was a statesman and peacemaker in West Africa.

While judges convicted him of aiding and abetting atrocities by rebels, they cleared him of direct command responsibility, saying he had no direct control over the rebels he supported.

His lawyer pounced on that finding, saying the judges “rejected large areas of the prosecution theory.”

He portrayed Taylor as the leader of a small and impoverished African nation struggling to protect its borders and compared his intervention in Sierra Leone to U.S. support for rebels in El Salvador, Nicaragua and Afghanistan.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland welcomed the verdict without commenting on Griffiths’ claims.

Nuland called the judgment, “an important step toward delivering justice and accountability for victims, restoring peace and stability in the country and the region.”

Griffiths also dismissed evidence given by the most famous prosecution witness – supermodel Naomi Campbell, who told judges she had received diamonds at a function in South Africa, but did not link them to Taylor. Her testimony was “a large, fat, zero,” the lawyer said.

The only other head of state convicted by an international court was a Nazi naval commander, Karl Doenitz, who briefly led Germany after Adolf Hitler’s suicide and was convicted by a military tribunal at Nuremberg after World War II.

Others have been indicted but not convicted – yet.

Former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo is jailed in The Hague awaiting trial at the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed as he attempted to cling to power last year after losing a presidential election.

The ICC last year indicted Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi with crimes against humanity as he resorted to murdering and persecuting civilians to put down protests against his regime, but he was captured and killed by rebel fighters before he could face a court of law.

The same court also has indicted Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir on charges including genocide for his regime’s brutal crackdown on rebels in Darfur. Al-Bashir remains at large in his country, which does not recognize the International Criminal Court.

Former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic died of a heart attack in his cell in 2006 before his four-year genocide trial at the U.N. Yugoslav tribunal could reach a verdict.

But survivors of rebel atrocities in Sierra Leone were only concerned that the leader who fueled a war that tore apart their country had been judged.

“The whole world will know today what Charles Taylor did, and we are happy,” said Samuel Komba, who survived an attack by rebels who attempted to burn him alive and cut off his hand.

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News broke today that three marines and an embassy official hired prostitutes they met in a night club in the Brazilian capital of Brasilia back in November, the Daily Mail reports.

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What is worse is that one of the marines tossed one of the prostitutes, Romilda Ferreira, out of the moving U.S. government-owned van they were driving that night.

The Daily Mail has more:

According to a Brazilian police investigation, the four U.S. Embassy officials had visited a nightclub in the centre of Brasilia where they had hired a group of prostitutes.

One of the Americans and at least one woman left the club by taxi, but Ms Ferreira and another women got into an official U.S. Embassy van with the other three men.

As they pulled away there was a discussion about how much the women were to be paid, and one of the marines pushed Ms Ferreira out of the car, where she ended up being run over by the vehicle.

Speaking to the Jornal Nacional news programme, Romilda said she tried to hold on to the door but was dragged under the wheels.

She said: ‘I tried to get up and grabbed the doorknob. That was when they told the driver to go. Then I felt my leg burning. I let go and fell underneath the van. I hit my head and passed out.’

The marines and embassy official reportedly left the scene without offering the woman assistance. The U.S. Embassy in Brazil reportedly paid Ms Ferreira’s medical expenses.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said all of the parties involved were punished when asked about the incident by a Brazilian reporter during a recent press conference. “Those who have been involved are no longer in this country and were severely punished,” Fox News quotes Panetta saying to reporters in Brazil. “That kind of behavior is not acceptable.”

Go to the Daily Mail for more on this story.

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EAST TIMOR

East Timor was a Portuguese colony for more than four centuries before Indonesian troops invaded in 1975. When it voted for independence in 1999, withdrawing Indonesian soldiers and militia went on a rampage, killing up to 1,500 people and destroying East Timor’s limited infrastructure. The U.N. poured billions of dollars into the new nation and deployed thousands of troops but after scaling back – too early, critics say – gang violence and splits in the army and police turned deadly. It led six years ago to the collapse of the government and the return of international peacekeepers. Today, East Timor remains desperately poor and its institutions weak. But a successful presidential election earlier this month – the third since the nation of 1 million was born – is widely seen as a sign of growing political maturity.
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SLOVENIA

In 1991, Slovenia fought a brief war for independence from the Serb-led Yugoslavia when former Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic decided to let it go. It was the first ex-Yugoslav state to become an European Union member in 2004, and still is the most prosperous of the former six Yugoslav republics.

BOSNIA

Bosnia was the scene of the bloodiest carnage as Yugoslavia fractured, and the worst in Europe since World War II. More than 100,000 people were killed and millions left homeless during the 1991-95 civil war in Bosnia. The war ended with a U.S.-brokered peace agreement between Bosnian Muslims, Serbs and Croats. The country remains deeply split between the three ethnic groups, preventing Bosnia from getting closer to the EU, NATO and other international organizations.

CROATIA

It took a four-year war with the Yugoslav Peoples Army and local Serbs who refused to live in an independent Croatia before Croatia became a nation. Some 10,000 people were killed and hundreds of thousands left homeless. It liberated the territory in 1995 by chasing ethnic Serbs out of a pocket in western Croatia in an offensive. Two Croatian generals were convicted by a U.N. war crimes tribunal for their role. Croatia is slated to become the 28th EU member in 2013.

MACEDONIA

Macedonia was the only ex-Yugoslav republic that split peacefully in 1991, but its name has been a sticking point with Greece that has created a roadblock to its joining the EU. Athens argues that the name Macedonia implies territorial claims against the northern Greek province of the same name, and has also blocked the country’s efforts to join NATO. Macedonia has a restive Albanian minority that adds to ethnic tensions and occasional flare ups.

KOSOVO

Independence-seeking Kosovo Albanians fought a 1998-99 war for independence from Serbia. The clashes stopped only after NATO warplanes bombarded Serbia for 78 days in 1999. The former Serbian province unilaterally declared independence in 2008. Serbia, Russia, China and the Serb minority in Kosovo do not recognize Kosovo’s statehood, which was supported by the United States and most EU countries. Since it is not recognized by a majority of world states, it is not a U.N. member. Some 5,500 NATO-led troops are still deployed in Kosovo to prevent clashes between majority Kosovo Albanians and the Serbs who control a tense northern area on the border with Serbia.

THE BALTICS

Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, which had been Soviet republics for a half-century, regained their independence in 1991 after considerable agitation but little violence. Strong independence movements arose in the late 1980s and conducted large demonstrations and acts of resistance. Soviet troops killed 14 people when they tried to take control of the broadcasting tower in the capital of Lithuania in January 1991, and at least seven people died in confrontations with troops in Riga, Latvia, the same month. The coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev weakened Soviet control and by the end of August the Kremlin let the Baltics go their own way.

THE CAUCASUS

Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia suffered bloodshed both before and after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union gave them independence. Soviet troops killed about 20 pro-independence demonstrators in the capital Tbilisi in April 1989. Just days before the Soviet Union’s formal disintegration, Georgia’s president was deposed in a bloody coup and the country plunged into both a civil war and conflicts with the separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia lasting until 1995. In Azerbaijan, some 130 nationalists were killed in clashes with Soviet troops that had been sent into the capital Baku in January 1990 after anti-Armenian pogroms that killed at least 90. The republics’ militias and troops were meanwhile fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnically Armenian region in Azerbaijan. That escalated into a full-scale war after independence.

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President Salva Kiir‘s comments, made during a trip to China, signal a rise in rhetoric between the rival nations who had spent decades at war with each other. Neither side has officially declared war.

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Sudan and South Sudan have been drawing closer to a full-scale war in recent weeks over the unresolved issues of oil revenues and their disputed border. The violence has drawn alarm and condemnation from the international community, including from U.S. President Barack Obama.

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South Sudan seceded from Sudan last year as a result of a 2005 peace treaty that ended decades of war that killed 2 million people.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir gave a fiery speech last week in which he said there will be no negotiations with the “poisonous insects” who are challenging Sudan’s claim to disputed territory near the nations’ shared border.

Kiir, the southern president, arrived in China late Monday for a five-day visit to lobby for economic and diplomatic support. China’s energy needs make it deeply vested in the future of the two Sudans, and Beijing is uniquely positioned to exert influence in the conflict given its deep trade ties to the resource-rich south and decades-long diplomatic ties with Sudan’s government in the north.

Kiir told Chinese President Hu Jintao the visit comes at a “a very critical moment for the Republic of South Sudan because our neighbor in Khartoum has declared war on the Republic of South Sudan.”

South Sudan’s military spokesman Col. Philip Aguer said that Sudanese Antonovs dropped eight bombs overnight Monday between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. in Panakuac, where he said there had been ground fighting on Monday. Aguer said he could not offer a death toll from the attack because of a poor communication link with the remote area.

On Monday, Sudanese warplanes bombed a market and an oil field in South Sudan, killing at least two people after Sudanese ground forces reportedly crossed into South Sudan with tanks and artillery.

Talks over oil revenue and the border broke down this month after attacks started between the two countries, with South Sudan invading the oil-rich border town of Heglig, which Sudan claims it controls.

Following international pressure, South Sudan announced that it has withdrawn all its troops from Heglig but Sudan claimed its troops forced them out.

Al-Bashir, the Sudanese president, has vowed to press ahead with his military campaign until all southern troops or affiliated forces are chased out of the north.

He also said he would never allow South Sudanese oil to pass through Sudan “even if they give us half the proceeds.”

Landlocked South Sudan stopped pumping oil through Sudan in January, accusing the government in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, of stealing hundred millions of dollars of oil revenue. Sudan responded by bombing the South’s oil fields.

South Sudan government spokesman Barnaba Marial Benjamin said earlier this month that Chinese and American investors want to build oil refineries in the South in the next six to seven months.

Benjamin said the refineries will help South Sudan process fuel for local consumption. South Sudan will also build a pipeline to the Kenyan coast and another to Djibouti through Ethiopia to be able to export its oil, he said. He said both projects were meant to make South Sudan independent of Sudan’s fuel infrastructure and processing plants.

Kiir on Tuesday told Hu that he came to China because of the “great relationship” South Sudan has with China, calling it one of his country’s “economic and strategic partners.”

Both sides have tried to win Beijing’s favor, but China has been careful to cultivate ties with each nation. Like others in the international community, China has repeatedly urged the two sides to return to negotiations.

The White House repeated its earlier condemnation of the Sudanese incursion and called for both sides to stop fighting and hold peace talks.

“Sudan must immediately halt the aerial and artillery bombardment against South Sudan by the Sudan armed forces,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said Tuesday to reporters traveling with Obama to North Carolina. “Both governments must agree to an immediate unconditional cessation of hostilities and recommit to negotiations,”

He repeated Obama’s warning to both sides that “there is no military solution” to their differences.

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Cameroon-born designer Mason Ewing seems to have taken those words seriously. The 30-year-old fashion sensation was brutally attacked by relatives at age 15, living him blind according to the Daily Mail.

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But he was determined to realize his dream of becoming a top fashion designer. Able to see “vague shapes and colors,” Ewing has been able to design clothing by describing his ideas to a team of artists. Ewing says his sense of touch allows him to “feel his creations” and allows him to distinguish between fabrics.

The budding fashion sensation says his childhood memories of his time in Cameroon are of his mother working on her sewing machine. When both of his parents died, Ewing was sent to Paris to stay with relatives. It was in this world famous city where his love for fashion was born.

He now wants to star in his own television show. If Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles could reach the highest levels of the music game, why can’t Ewing do the same in the fashion world?

Watch the YouTube video story of this ambitious brotha below.

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