World Human Rights Day, Mandela; Ukraine; UK not OK; China Air Pollution; Politics; Whistleblowers, Journalism and Transparency; NSA Spying, Surveillance and Privacy

World Human Rights Day

• Guantanamo detainees' hunger strikes will no longer be disclosed by U.S. military WaPo
• Jailed Bin Laden doctor Shakil Afridi refuses to stay silent—"The Pakistani doctor who is accused of helping the American Central Intelligence Agency track down former al-Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden, says he is being denied his right to a fair trial."
• The US killed my brother with a drone. I want to know why

Mandela

• World leaders join singing crowds for Mandela memorial
• Meet The Mandela RINOs: Republicans Who Lost Their R-Card For Praising Mandela
• Newt Gingrich to Conservatives: 'What Would You Have Done?'—"A message about Nelson Mandela that conservatives sorely need to hear."
• Pickens County Sheriff will not lower flag for Nelson Mandela—"Nelson Mandela did great things for his country and was a brave man but he was not an AMERICAN!!!"
• Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu to skip Mandela memorial, citing cost

Ukraine

• Ukraine's capital Kiev gripped by huge pro-EU demonstration
• World boxing champion Vitali Klitschko leads Ukraine's protests, hopes to become next president
• Ukraine police move on protesters and opposition party

UK not OK

• Amnesty International suspects British intelligence surveillance, will take legal action against UK government
• London's biggest university bans student protests
• Shop owner quizzed over 'Bernard Manning-style' Nelson Mandela gags—"Neil Phillips furious after being DNA swabbed and finger-printed over close to the knuckle web comments about the late former South African president." Punishing thoughtcrime
• Edward Snowden to give evidence to EU parliament, says MEP—"British Conservatives oppose video appearance by NSA whistleblower, which Green MEP says could happen this year."
• British intelligence anxious to catch Snowden in Russia - investigative journalist

China Air Pollution

• Smog promotes equality!—"Air pollution also makes people funnier and smarter, a government-controlled outlet claims." Salon
• Our Smog Is A Major Defensive Advantage On The Battlefield—With this much spin, the smog should have been blow away already.
• Smog set to lift in eastern China, but experts say solution is a long way off

Politics

• Thai PM Yingluck to dissolve parliament and call elections
• China expresses regret over South Korea air defense zone
• Canada to claim north pole as its own—"UN submission will seek to redefine Canada's continental shelf to capture more Arctic oil and gas resources."

Whistleblowers

• Snowden and Greenwald: The Men Who Leaked the Secrets—"How two alienated, angry geeks broke the story of the year."
• Six months after NSA story broke, Snowden looks even more patriotic
• Saving the Net from the surveillance state: Glenn Greenwald speaks up

Journalism and Transparency

• An open letter from Carl Bernstein to Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger—"You are being called to testify at a moment when governments in Washington and London seem intent on erecting the most serious (and self-serving) barriers against legitimate news reporting – especially of excessive government secrecy – we have seen in decades."
• Thousands protest in Japan against new state secrets bill
• Russian news agency RIA Novosti closed down—"The state-owned Voice of Russia radio station has also been closed. The decree was effective immediately."
• Coalition accused of organising 'assault on ABC' over spying revelations—"Labor frontbencher Brendan O'Connor says government is working with News Corp to bully the public broadcaster."

NSA Spying

• Xbox Live among game services targeted by US and UK spy agencies—"NSA and GCHQ collect gamers' chats and deploy real-life agents into World of Warcraft and Second Life."
• NSA morale down after Edward Snowden revelations, former U.S. officials say—"They add that they are surprised President Obama has not visited the agency to show his support." WaPo
• NSA spying hurts business of large U.S. hardware makers
• Twitter, Facebook and more demand sweeping changes to US surveillance—"AOL, Yahoo, Microsoft, Google, Apple and LinkedIn to call for reforms to restore the public's trust in the internet."
• Jon Stewart on the benefits of NSA surveillance: If you like your spy, you can keep your spy

Surveillance and Privacy

• Int'l call for democracy in digital age—"Leading newspapers of 32 countries including The Daily Star, 560 authors from 83 countries and several Nobel Laureates have issued an international appeal against mass surveillance."
• Bill Clinton says security does not justify espionage
• Chinese hackers spied on Europeans before G20 meeting: researcher
• 'Let's be honest, we eavesdrop too': former French foreign minister on NSA spying claims
• The US has access to Swedish intelligence—"The United States has been allowed access to information obtained by Sweden's National Defence Radio Establishment (FRA) through cable interception since 2011, top-secret documents obtained by Swedish Television show."
• Canada set up spy posts for U.S., new Snowden document shows
• Inside Canada's top-secret billion-dollar spy palace—"While the Harper government is preaching government austerity, it is spending almost $1.2 billion on a new Ottawa headquarters for a little-known military spy agency. It's the most expensive Canadian government building ever constructed."

Baby Steps, Thinking for the Children, Censorship, Kidnapped, Sandusky, Law and Disorder, Bullying, Educamation, Behavior Modfication

Baby Steps

• Exposing Kids To 10 Hours Of Science A Year Makes Them Smarter
• Omaha schoolgirl dresses as a different historical figure each day
• Argentina's Senate passes bill to lower voting age from 18 down to 16

Thinking for the Children

• Outlaw possession of written accounts of child abuse says MP
• Australian Medical Association president calls for legal drinking age to be lifted to 25
• Cops think pen is a rifle round, lock down Hopatcong High School
• Ban under-threes from watching television, says study
• Russia Wants To Ban Children From Using WiFi

Censorship

• Noted smut rag The New Yorker banned from Facebook for obscene cartoon
• The Man Who Banned Tintin From A Stockholm Library… For One Day
• CBLDF: Seattle Area Resident Shocked at Yaoi Manga, Asks Library to Revise Circulation Policy

Kidnapped

• Australia: Sorry for 30-year adoption policy--"The Federal Government will formally apologise to families torn apart by forced adoptions."
• China's stolen children--""Chinese authorities have hailed the success of an operation last week in which they arrested 800 human traffickers and rescued nearly two hundred children."
• Spanish Baby-Snatching Victims Seek Answers and Justice--These Niños Robados have been living a lie.
• India slowly confronts epidemic of missing children
• A new use for 404 pages: appeals for missing children

Sandusky

• Jerry Sandusky gets 30 to 60 years for child sex abuse
• Jerry Sandusky's court ramble reflects 'banal self-delusion'
• Sandusky begins grim transition to prison
• Jerry Sandusky and the Mind of a Pedophile --"Children constantly surrounded Sandusky, so much so that they became part of his persona," Joe Posnanski writes in his new biography of Jerry Sandusky's boss, the former Penn State head coach Joe Paterno.
• Prison sentence doesn't end Sandusky saga at Penn State

Law and Disorder

• History of boarding school 'torture' uncovered in Switzerland--"Thousands of children fell victim to violence and abuse in Catholic boarding schools in Switzerland up until the 1970s, according to a recent study decrying "sadistic" practices resembling 'torture.'"
• Doing What's Best for the Tribe--"Two-year-old 'Baby Veronica' was ripped from the only home she's known. The court made the right decision." The Indian Child Welfare Act was ignored despite Veronica's Native American heritage being known throughout the entire adoption process.
• Don't ask your grandson how his jaw got broken, say social workers--"An alarming story about a boy in foster care raises concern over 'child protection.'"

Bullying

• 8 girls charged in London, Ont. bullying case
• Japan: Kids and Laughing Teachers Bullied Suicide Teen
• Did Anonymous Unmask the Wrong Guy in Its Hunt for the Man Who Allegedly Drove a Teen to Suicide?--Did the wrong guy get doxxed?
• Cyberbullying-linked suicides rising, study says
• Mark Millar, others team up to take down online bully

Educamation

• In Victory for Common Sense, Minnesota Will Allow Free Online Courses After All
• My daughter can't be average Salon
• SMBC: College Degrees

Behavior Modification

• Sir, You Would Like To Be A Better Citizen
• U.K. school cracks down on bad manners
• When did the middle finger become offensive?

Olympics 2012, By Committee, Business, Sponsors, Alert Mode

Olympics 2012

• UK bans leaders who abuse rights
• Saudis allow women to compete
• Racist tweet ends Olympic dream
• I didn't make the Olympics. Now what?--"I spent years training for gold, but came up short at the trials. Where does an obsession go when the dream dies." Salon
• Longing for the Return of Dueling Pistol--"As the Olympics has grown and modernized over the years, many events have fallen by the wayside. While many are unmourned — does anyone miss club swinging? — others could easily return to the program. Here are the top 10 events that would be exciting to resurrect." NYT

By Committee

• US Olympic Committee says sorry to knitters whom it claimed "denigrated" the games
• London Olympic committee says you're only allowed to link to their site if you have nice things to say
• Olympics Can't Handle An Official Parody Twitter Account, So Twitter Takes It Down

Business

• How to Fix the Olympics
• Can London Afford the $14.5 Billion Price Tag of the Summer 2012 Olympic Games?
• London 2012 Olympics: 10 to a room and 1 shower for 75 people: Inside the 'slum' camp for Olympic cleaners
• Olympic beer to cost £7.23 a pint
• Cambodian workers on £10 a week making Olympics 'fanwear'--"Adidas, the sportswear company, is facing an investigation over claims that Cambodian workers are being paid £10 a week in basic wages to make official merchandise for the London Olympics."
• Creepy Olympic mascots take over London
• London 2012 anti-logos Salon

Sponsors

• Britain Flooded with 'Brand Police' to Protect Olympic Sponsors
• McDonald's Olympics French Fry Monopoly: Sponsorship Deal Bans Other Vendors From Selling Fries
• Lord Coe's astonishing sponsors outburst--"Heavy-handed security chiefs will ban Olympic spectators for wearing the wrong brand of clothes...."
• Censorship Olympics: The organisers of the Games have been handed unprecedented control over everyday speech
• Graffiti artist who worked for Adidas is banned from Olympic Games venues

Alert Mode

• Olympic security contractor G4S told ministers... it could not fulfil brief--The failure to provide enough guards was a "humiliating shambles."
• TSA agents to staff UK airports during Olympics
• London 2012: even Beijing didn't put an army on the gates--"Olympics organisers say visitors will find the huge military presence at the Games 'reassuring' – the most questionable of claims." That's fascist talk.
• London residents lose missiles case --"Worried residents have lost a High Court battle to stop surface-to-air missiles being stationed on the roof of a 17-storey residential tower block during the London Olympics."
• Olympics security poster 'gibberish' to Arabic speakers

International Women's Day, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Middle East, Ultra-Orthodox Judaism, To Know A Veil, Violence

International Women's Day

• Laurie Penny: That's enough politeness – women need to rise up in anger--"The men who run the world have become too used to not being afraid. Let's make them afraid."
• 'Mademoiselle' Exits Official France--"In a memo addressed to state administrators across France, Prime Minister François Fillon ordered the honorific — akin to 'damsel' and the equivalent of 'miss' — banished from official forms and registries." NYT
• E.U. Considers Quotas for Women in Boardrooms NYT

Saudi Arabia

• Saudi women no longer need male OK to vote or seek office
• Crisis looms for private schools in Saudi Arabia as 9,000 teachers quit--"A senior official at the Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry said that many private schools fear losing more teachers in the near future following the recent decision of the Ministry of Education to hire 40,000 women teachers for government schools."
• Allowing women drivers in Saudi Arabia will be 'end of virginity'--"Allowing women drivers in Saudi Arabia will tempt them into sex, promote pornography and create more homosexuals, according to some conservative Muslim scholars."
• Saudi women push challenge to driving ban--"No laws prohibit women from driving, but conservative religious edicts have banned it and officials comply with those."
• Saudis and Female Olympians--"The controversy ahead of the summer Olympics in London is starting early as criticism grows over Saudi Arabia's decision not to take a female team to the games."
• Women only to work in Saudi Arabia lingerie shops
• Blast from the Past: Saudi court rejects divorce plea from EIGHT-year-old girl married to 58-year-old man

Afghanistan

• Afghan woman is killed 'for giving birth to a girl'--"A woman in north-eastern Afghanistan has been arrested for allegedly strangling her daughter-in-law for giving birth to a third daughter."
• Afghan women trapped in tribal court system
• Afghan concern over 'guidelines for women'

Middle East

• Women Expose Secret Genital Cutting Rite
• Egypt bans military's forced virginity tests
• In a Baghdad E.R., Women's Psychological Wounds Go Untreated NYT

Ultra-Orthodox Judaism

• Extremist Jews prevent women from voting in Israel
• In Jerusalem, women are voiceless at a decidedly womanly event--"The controversial exclusion of women from various settings in Israel because of pressure from ultra-Orthodox Jewish leaders reached a new level this week with a major conference on gynecological advances that is permitting only males to address the audience."
• Israel police: A dozen extremist Jews attack woman hanging posters near Jerusalem
• Lechery, Immodesty and the Talmud: Ultra-Orthodox Jews and the Modesty Fight NYT
• The Growing Influence of the Ultra-Orthodox in Israel--"Veiled women, radical rabbis and gender segregation: Israel is facing a rise in the influence of ultra-Orthodox Jews."

To Know A Veil

• Canada: Face veils banned for citizenship oaths
• French businessman 'to pay all burqa fines'
• Australian Muslim women must show faces for identity checks under new law
• Cairo's 'hijab-free' zones trigger cries of hypocrisy--"In Cairo, the latest controversy centres on several high-end bars and restaurants that have recently declared themselves 'hijab-free zones,' refusing veiled women entry."
• Fireman Sam creator David Jones held over veil remark--It was claimed to be 'offensive'.

Violence

• 'Strict Muslim' raped four women at knifepoint to 'punish them for being on the streets at night'
• Shafia family found guilty of first degree murder in Canadian honour killing--A fatwa has been issued against honour killings, domestic violence, hatred of women.
• Sterilized by North Carolina, she felt raped once more--"Elaine Riddick was only 14 when the state decided that she was not capable of mothering children and quietly cauterized her fallopian tubes. The $50,000 now offered to her only makes her angrier." Emphasis mine.