Dear Kitty backup UK

From the BBC:

Afghan clash 'kills police chief'

The provincial police chief and at least eight other police have been killed in a clash with US-trained Afghan guards in Kandahar, reports say.

The clash is said to have erupted after the guards, who are employed by US special forces, tried to remove an Afghan prisoner from a civic building.

The situation remains confused, with Kandahar city closed off.

Kandahar province is a Taliban stronghold, but there is no suggestion the Taliban were involved. ...

Gun battle

The guards are said to have tried to free one of their colleagues who was being kept prisoner at the prosecutor's office in Kandahar City. ...

The BBC in Afghanistan has been told that what began as a fist fight with police turned into a gun battle.

Ahmad Wali Karzai, head of Kandahar's provincial council and a brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, confirmed the incident.

"The police chief for Kandahar, the head of the city's criminal department and seven other police were killed in the clash," he told Reuters news agency.

A BBC update, later today, says:

Afghan guards held after shootout

Forty-one US-trained Afghan guards have been arrested after a shootout in which Kandahar's provincial police chief was killed, the regional governor says.

Thoryalai Wesa says the guards will be sent from the southern province to the capital Kabul for trial.

Up to eight other policemen were killed after the guards, who are employed by US security forces, entered the prosecutor's office in Kandahar city.

They were trying to free colleagues held in the building, the BBC was told.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said he "seriously condemns this action", describing it as a "serious blow to governance-building".

Gun battle

In a statement, Mr Karzai's office described what had happened.

"Armed men from one of the private security firms based in Kandahar tried to free two criminals - they attacked the local prosecutor's office," it said.

"The police chief of Kandahar and the head of the criminal investigation department resisted them - these guards opened fire" and killed them, it went on.

The statement said three others were also killed, although other reports put the total at nine.

The police chief has been named as Matiullah Qatay and the head of the criminal investigation department as Abdul Khaliq Hamdam.

The US military spokesman in Kabul, Col Greg Julian, confirmed to the AFP news agency that there had been "an incident" but did not have details.

Some witnesses had said US forces were at the scene of the incident, but this is unconfirmed.

...

The BBC's Martin Patience in Kabul says that Afghan guards are often employed at coalition military bases across the country.

They are paid and trained by the US. While the guards are recognised by the Afghan government, they do not come under their command.

Locals often refer to these guards as Afghan special forces as they are well-trained and well-armed, our correspondent says.

From Associated Press:

Paleontologists don't dig closing Wyo. dino museum

By Mead Gruver

Associated Press Writer / June 12, 2009

CHEYENNE, Wyo. -- Paleontologists are in an uproar over a decision by the University of Wyoming to save money by closing its Geological Museum, home to dinosaur specimens including a rare skeleton display.

Closing the museum -- and laying off its director and a part-time employee -- is expected to save about $80,000 a year. It's part of $18 million in cuts the university in Laramie announced last week amid predictions of declining state revenue.

But paleontoligsts, including ReBecca Hunt-Foster of Grand Junction, Colo., say closing the museum would be a mistake. "I really don't think they've thought this through," she said. "They've got world-class specimens."

Hunt-Foster ... writes a paleontology blog and calls herself "Dinochick" online. She has been circulating an online petition that as of Friday had more than 800 signatures.

She said schoolchildren from all over Wyoming and Colorado visit the museum, which includes an apatosaurus skeleton that is one of only about a half-dozen such displays in the country.

"You can go to a lot of little museums and see the same thing over and over and over again. But at the museum in Laramie, they really do a good job of interpreting their local paleontology and geology," she said.

...

Blaire Van Valkenburgh, president of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, said other natural history museums have had to reduce staffing and hours of operation due to decreased funding, but this is the first natural history museum she knows of that is closing.

"Of course we're very horrified and these are very tragic decisions if they do follow through with it," said Van Valkenburgh, who is a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. "It's very unfortunate."

Dewey Blanton, a spokesman for the American Association of Museums in Washington, D.C., said other natural history museums facing budget trouble recently include the University of Kansas Natural History Museum, which cut back its hours of operation; the San Diego Natural History Museum, which cut staff pay 10 percent; and the University of Connecticut's Connecticut State Museum of Natural History, which has cut both its hours and staff.

"It's certainly not confined to natural history museums but all museums -- all nonprofits are suffering in the economy," Blanton said.

The University of Wyoming's budget cuts are in response to low natural gas prices. Taxes and royalties on natural gas production provide a significant chunk of Wyoming's state government revenue.

Then, why not tax Big Oil and Gas a bit more, so that the museum dinosaurs will stay?

From British daily The Morning Star:

Apartheid struggle remembered

Thursday 11 June 2009

A new exhibition documenting the South Africa's vicious apartheid system will open tomorrow at the Museum of London.

Forward to Freedom highlights the struggle of the Anti-Apartheid Movement in Britain and is timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the movement's foundation.

The display will include campaign posters and materials spanning 40 years.

The Anti-Apartheid Movement was the largest and most potent international solidarity movement in British history, one which bridged political divides and involved ordinary people from many backgrounds.

The display explores the versatility and creativity of its most significant campaigns, including the decades-long consumer boycott, the high-profile demonstrations against touring South African rugby and cricket teams, the call for an end to arms trade with South Africa and the many campaigns in support of political prisoners and against apartheid executions.

The display also underlines the central importance of London as the city where the Anti-Apartheid Movement was founded and based many of its campaigns and the capital of a country which was inextricably linked with apartheid South Africa, especially during the Thatcher-led Tory years in the 1980s.

Commenting on the exhibition, Lord Bob Hughes of Woodside, who is a former Labour MP and previous chairman of the Anti-Apartheid Movement, said: "This display and partnership with Museum of London and the Bodleian Library reflects the ethos of collaboration demonstrated by the Anti-Apartheid Movement throughout its history."

Forward to Freedom runs from June 12 to September 6 and is free for all.

See also here.

The exhibition is in the Museum of London, London Wall, London EC2Y 5HN.

This video from the USA is called John McCain: [Shiite] Iran training [Sunni] Al-Qaeda, Oh, I mean extremists.

From Sam Stein's blog in the USA:

McCain's Top Strategist Lobbied For Iran-Linked Firm

June 2, 2008

In the summer of 2005, John McCain's chief strategist Charlie Black, working for his firm Black, Kelly, Scruggs & Healey, was paid $60,000 to lobby the U.S. government on behalf of the Chinese oil conglomerate CNOOC. At the time, CNOOC was mounting an aggressive bid to buy Unocal, a California-based oil giant, and Black was tasked with churning up congressional support. But the bid ultimately fell through, in part because of objections over the China oil industry's ties to Iran, a country in which it had already invested tens of millions of dollars.

"This transaction poses a clear threat to the energy and national security of the United States," wrote Rep. Joe Barton, a Texas Republican. ...

Flash-forward nearly three years and Black's old client -- which later scored a $16 billion deal with the Iranian government -- could now create major headaches for his current boss. On Monday, McCain, in a speech at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, called for a broad and aggressive international campaign to divest from Iran.

Maybe McCain's "bomb, bomb Iran" macho talk aims at erasing the tracks of his buddy Black's link to the Iranian regime ... like Dick Cheney's warmongering against Iran may try to cover up Cheney's Halliburton's selling of nuclear components to Iran ... and Donald Rumsfeld's war against Iraq took attention away from the chummy 1980s Rumsfeld-Saddam Hussein relationship ...

Yesterday, suddenly the Blogsome site became inaccessible. A problem for many bloggers, including me with over 2,000 entries at "Dear Kitty. Some blog", there.

I do hope the problem will be solved very soon. I don't want the heartbreaking experience at ModBlog again, where the owners pulled the plug on thousands of bloggers without any notice.

At least, I have two backup blogs for my main blog at Blogsome. However, only this one here at blog.co.uk is working now. As my backup blog at Blogger was blocked, as over zealous anti spam blog software decided my blog was supposedly a spam blog. If I would not inform them within twenty days, they said, that it was not a spam blog, they would delete my Blogger blog.

Of course, I informed them, and I hope now they will make my Blogger blog accessible again. However, it being a backup blog; and my main blog at Blogsome having, until yesterday, few technical problems; I was lucky to go there yesterday, as I did not come there often.

Stay tuned, for the moment at this blog here.

UPDATE: fortunately, my BlogSome blog is back. The downtime was "only" 12 hours. I hope it won't happen again.

This video, in English and Spanish, is against the death penalty in the USA.

From Dutch NOS TV:

In the US state of Oklahoma, a terminal cancer patiënt has been killed by an injection. It is a 49 year old man, convicted eleven years ago for shooting his employer.

Opponents of the death penalty call this execution senseless as the man had only half a year left to live. His lawyer had asked the supreme court to stop the execution as it would be against the constitution which bans cruel and unusual punishment.

See also here.

This video is called The Plight of the Chagos Islanders Part 1.

Part 2 is here.

From British daily News Line:

Wednesday, 27 June 2007

Chagos Islanders head for 10 Downing Street

Chagos Islanders are angry that the Blair government, in its dying hours has appealed to the House of Lords against the recent Court of Appeal decision that they are able to return to a part of the Chagos Islands Group.

They were forcibly expelled from the Chagos Islands by the Wilson government so that Diego Garcia could be handed over to the US governent for a massive US naval and air base.

The House of Commons never voted on their eviction.

The ethnic cleansing was carried out by a special order in council signed by Elizabeth II.

On Friday, at 3pm, a delegation of Chagos Islanders will be delivering a letter to 10 Downing Street demanding that the new Prime Minister Brown withdraw the appeal to the House of Lords and makes arrangements for the islanders to be able to return to their homes.

Many Diego Garcians now live in Crawley in Sussex.

Some of them will be travelling up to Downing Street on Friday at 3pm.

Chairman of the Chagos Islanders Community Association, Hengride Permal told News Line yesterday: ‘We are going to bring a petition letter to Mr Brown because we think the British government is playing with us, especially now after the court judgement that we have the right to go back to the Chagos Islands.

‘This is the third time they have said they are going to appeal it and now they are going to appeal to the House of Lords.

‘It’s time for the government of Mr Brown to meet us face to face about what is going to happen to us and negotiate because we are not going to sit around and wait until they decide. The Chagossian people need action now.

‘A lot of the Chagossians have signed the petition letter and it’s about time that we had justice. It was Blair’s last decision as prime minister to appeal against the court decision.

‘Three times the court has judged that what they did to us was illegal and three times they have appealed. It’s very disrespectful and very disgraceful.’

From The herptile blog:

Rare species of frog, snake in Orissa

Kendrapada (Orissa), June 26: Two highly endangered species, the crab-eating frog and the white belly mangrove snake, have been spotted in Orissa.

The rare species were seen at the river mouth of Dhamra, five kilometres from the Bhitarkanika national park in Kendrapada district, some 170 km from Bhubaneswar, Sushil Kumar Dutta, a herpetologist, told IANS.

Dutta, a zoology professor with the North Orissa University at Baripada, and his team found the frog and the snake during a recent study. ...

The crab-eating frog, scientifically known as ‘fejervarya cancrivora’, is native to Southeast Asia. It inhabits mangrove swamps and is the only known modern amphibian that can tolerate salt water.

The white belly mangrove snake is scientifically known as ‘fordonia leucobalia’. It stays in mangrove swamps and tropical tidal wetlands from Southeast Asia to the coasts of Northern Australia.

The snake hangs out in crab-made holes, after eating its occupants. It is an estuarine species and has all the adaptations necessary for survival in a fully marine life.

After the first part of the first round two weeks ago, today was the second part of the first round of the slam poetry tournament.

There were supposed to be six poets: two from The Netherlands, four from Belgium.

However, from Flanders, Tine M Ducatteeuw and Pauline Pisa were not there.

From The Netherlands, the first poet on stage was Seipie from Amsterdam.

His poems were on an elephant, a carp, and more.

Second was Leon Koek, added to the program later.

His poems included one on an inflatable doll.

Third was Sylvie Marie from Belgium, whose poems included one on the Sleeping Beauty fairytale.

Then, Jos Zuijderwijk, with a poem on gulls in Leiden, and more.

Finally, David Troch from Belgium.

After a pause, with rap music by Horizontaal, including a song on Guantanamo Bay, the same poets again, but in reverse order.

Jos Zuijderwijk had a poem on the Afghanistan war.

The jury decided David Troch would go on to the final round of the slam poetry tournament.

And the votes of the audience decided that Leon Koek would join him there.

Hi, welcome to Dear Kitty backup blog UK.

It is a backup blog in case something goes wrong with my main blog.

When I started here in 2005, that was at ModBlog: it was Dear Kitty Modblog.

UPDATE 25 October 2006: Unfortunately, ModBlog is gone.

Now my main blog is at Blogsome, here.

As the new Harry Potter book comes out these days: a picture of a snowy owl.