Thursday, June 26, 2008

The Hong Kong based Asian Human Rights Commission or AHRC appealed to the Philippines government to seriously pursue judicial options against victims of torture in the country.

The AHRC press statement was issued as part of the commemoration of the United Nations‘ International Day in Support of Victims of Torture calendared every June 26.

AHRC is a regional non-governmental organization monitoring and lobbying human rights issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984

The statement claimed that the Philippines Constitution specifically prohibits torture but there was no specific law against it, The group also lamented that, “there no judicial remedy for a violation of this right, torture has also not been declared a crime in the Philippines.”

An appeal was also conveyed to the Supreme Court to plan and implement remedies for torture victims and appealed to the country’s law makers to enact a law specifically banning and criminilizing any acts of torture.

AHRC compared the Philippines to Sri Lanka, wherein both countries are signatories to the Convention against Torture Act of 1994 of the United Nations.

The group cited that, “Sri Lanka has already complied with its obligation under the convention, the Philippines, which has signed and ratified the same U.N. convention against torture, has not done so despite being a party to the convention since June 1987.“

Saturday, April 14, 2018

Current United States Speaker of the House and 2012 Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan announced Wednesday he will not seek reelection and plans to retire from the U.S. House of Representatives when his term expires in January.

“We all know that I did not seek this job, I took it reluctantly, but I have given this job everything I have and I have no regret whatsoever in accepting this responsibility,” Ryan told the press. Ryan took over the Speaker position after John Boehner retired in 2015. Ryan cited wanting to spend more time with his three children. Some reports suggested he was also disillusioned with the Trump presidency. Ryan contradicted this in public: “I’m grateful to the president for giving us this opportunity to do big things to get this country on the right track,” he said. According to Axios, Ryan considered last December’s restructuring of the U.S. tax code to be the most important accomplishment during his time as Speaker.

President Trump said via Twitter, “Speaker Paul Ryan is a truly good man, and while he will not be seeking re-election, he will leave a legacy of achievement that nobody can question. We are with you Paul!”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer praised Ryan as “a good man who is always true to his word” and said “[w]ith his newfound political freedom, I hope the Speaker uses his remaining time in Congress to break free from the hard-right factions of his caucus that have kept Congress from getting real things done.”

Not all reactions to Ryan’s departure were admiring. While various Democrats and others have opposed Ryan for his Republican views, many Republicans have criticized what they describe as a lack of support for President Trump’s projects, such as the US Mexico border wall Trump has proposed to build on the U.S. border with Mexico. Far-right media outlet Breitbart News described Ryan on Tuesday as “the leader of the globalist wing of the Republican Party,” citing his “pro-immigration, wage-crushing, big business-first record, whereby American workers have been left behind by multinational free trade and mass immigration.” Fox News commentator Sebastian Gorka tweeted “GOOD RIDDANCE.” Amongst late-night comedians, Stephen Colbert of The Late Show called him “CrossFit Dracula” in a reference to his well-documented fondness for fitness programs: “He said today he wants to spend more time with his wife and kids. Which, of course, is what he calls his biceps.” Jimmy Fallon of The Tonight Show added “House Speaker Paul Ryan announced that he is retiring from Congress. He said he wants to spend more time with his children at home, and less time with the child in the White House.”

Paul Ryan currently represents a district in southeastern Wisconsin. As of January, he will have served twenty years in the United States Congress.

According to Business Insider, waiting until January of next year would push Ryan into a slightly higher pension bracket within the Federal Employees Retirement System because his time as Speaker will give him three years at a sustained salary of US$223,500. If he retires as planned, he would be eligible to draw noticeably more annually than if he retired sooner.

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, asked by Fox News whether he would run for Ryan’s position as Speaker, responded with a reference to the upcoming 2018 midterm elections, “We’re getting way ahead of ourselves. […] We’ve got to make sure we keep the majority.”

In November, one third of the U.S. Senate and the entire House of Representatives are up for re-election. The Republicans currently have a majority in both houses of congress, but would lose control of the House if the Democrats gained 23 out of its 435 seats. Close to 30 Republicans have announced they would be retiring this year. BBC analyst Anthony Zurcher speculates Ryan may be retiring now to preserve his reputation for a presidential run sometime in the future.

In the U.S. government, the Speaker of the House automatically assumes the presidency if the president and vice president are both killed or incapacitated. The Speaker is elected by the members of the House of Representatives, and so is usually a member of whichever of the two main political parities happens to have the majority that session.

Friday, April 6, 2007

On Wednesday, approximately forty Hells Angels locations were raided by police in Ontario, New Brunswick, and British Columbia. Police arrested more than thirty people in the three provinces.

The largest Hells Angels location in Canada, located in downtown Toronto on 498 Eastern Ave., was raided early Wednesday morning. Nearly sixteen members were arrested with two members still on the wanted list. Toronto Police removed the sign and are now investigating. They are currently planning a large crackdown on the Hells Angels in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).

“Hopefully by now biker gangs and their associates are getting the message: we’re here to shut you down. You can run but you can’t hide, and we will do all that we can to bring you to justice,” said Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner (OPP) Julian Fantino. “I believe that we have to continue the attack on organized crime however it’s manifested, and we owe the citizens of our community no less.” “It’s a good day for policing in Toronto, a good day for policing in Ontario.”

“Project Develop was an 18-month investigation that utilized a full-patch Hells Angels member as a police agent to infiltrate the Toronto downtown chapter of the Hells Angels,” OPP Inspector Dan Redmond said yesterday. “Hells Angels criminal activity has been exposed by one of their own.”

Nearly 170 charges were laid against thirty-one people, police said, though they provided no list of charges or names. Sixteen full-patch members are said to be in custody, with arrest warrants outstanding for another two. Police seized vehicles, drugs, weapons, property and real-estate, but were not specific about the amounts.

The Hells Angels is a large biker gang founded 1948 in Fontana, California and is estimated to have 1,800 members in 22 countries. Since they started many other biker gangs merged with them, due to the fact that the Hells Angels are larger. The Hells Angels have 500 members in Canada, thirty-four active chapters in Canada, sixteen in Ontario, seven in British Columbia, five in Quebec, three in Alberta, two in Saskatchewan, and one in Manitoba. A number of raids have been made since, with two in September and January 2006.

A location on Sherwood Ave. in Scarborough, Ontario, and a house on Berard Court in Barrie, Ontario are under a restraining order as they may have drug related crimes.

The Toronto chapter of Hells Angels, in the “Real Deal News” section of their website, alleged that the police were staging a show for the media and that the raids were overly dramatic to make Hells Angels look bad on television.

2009

[edit]

Monday, August 17, 2009

Earlier this month, over 150 delegates from cultural institutions, government and the online community gathered at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra over one and a half days for the first GLAM-WIKI conference. The conference brought together representatives from the GLAM sector, comprising galleries, libraries, archives and museums, politicians, and members of the Wikimedia community (who edit the online encyclopedia Wikipedia and its sister sites), to enter into a dialogue regarding ways the three areas can work collaboratively to preserve and promote cultural collections online.

Highlights from the conference included keynote speeches by Wikimedia Foundation Chief Program Officer Jennifer Riggs and Senator Kate Lundy, as well as a panel discussion on the political pressures involved in improving and disseminating GLAM organisations’ online collections featuring Senator Lundy as well as Senator Scott Ludlam, ACT Legislative Assembly shadow minister Alistair Coe, Government 2.0 Taskforce member Seb Chan, Adjunct Director to the Digital Library of the National Library of New Zealand Paul Reynolds and Kylie Johnson, the New Media Advisor for the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts. Sessions focused on ways the Wikimedia and GLAM communities could better work together to further their missions of preserving, curating and sharing cultural knowledge, with streams examining the topics of legal and technical barriers, and the impact on business and education.

Two case studies were presented at the conference, the first being the Powerhouse Museum’s experimental release of some of their photographic collection to Flickr Commons, and the second the collaboration between the German Wikimedia chapter and German Federal Archives to release their collection to Wikimedia Commons. While these and other projects were examined as successful forays into open content, the recent legal action between the United Kingdom’s National Portrait Gallery and a Wikimedian was raised in most sessions as an example of such efforts having negative consequences.

Delegates at the conference engaged in heated discussion both on- and offline, with the #GLAM-WIKI tag on Twitter generating over 500 tweets during the course of the first day. Overall, feedback from participants was strongly positive over both the event and its plans for the future.

Liam Wyatt, the Vice President of the Australian Wikimedia Chapter and organiser of the event, was impressed by the turnout. According to Wyatt, “at 170 registrations it is one of the largest Wikimedia events ever, after [international Wikimedia conference] Wikimania, and to be able to offer that for no attendance fee is testament to the support we received from our partners – most especially the WMF … There are many proposals and discussions that are now starting up as a result of the event and, rightly, these may take quite some time to bear fruit. However, what I think we have achieved immediately is to take the heat out of the debate between the cultural sector and the Wikimedia community.”

Jennifer Riggs was similarly impressed by the dialogue that came as a result of the conference. “It’s gone terrifically, really. People have had the opportunity to be really frank about the concerns that they have.”

Friday, April 10, 2009

On Monday, April 6 Saskatchewan Premier, Brad Wall, signed the proclamation that April 13 shall be declared “Corner Gas Day” to honour six seasons of the award winning sitcom, Corner Gas the hit television comedy which will air its last episode “Good Night, You’ve Been Great” April 13, 2009. Lead comedian, producer and writer, Brent Butt was recognised at the signing ceremonies for developing what is called the most successful Canadian show made.

“For six great seasons, Corner Gas has welcomed people from across Canada and around the world to our province, and made short work of the misconception that there’s ‘not a lot going on’ in Saskatchewan. We want to thank Saskatchewan’s own Brent Butt, the Corner Gas producers, cast and crew for many hours of laughter.” said Wall, “Their stories have really captured the spirit of this great province, and shown off Saskatchewan to the world.”

Corner Gas has an audience of 1.4 million in Canada since first airing in January 2004. The show has been honoured with over 80 nominations, and diverse accolades and awards such as six Gemini awards, one of which was Best Comedy Series.

“I’m honestly humbled by this. It’s a wonderful and much appreciated gesture by my home province to honour us in this way. It’s the type of honour you don’t even think about happening, so when it does, it makes you stand up and think: ‘Wow, maybe we really did something here’,” said Butt.

Joking with Wall, Butt suggested that “Corner Gas Day” should be a statutory holiday, if not for everybody then at least for service station attendants. The proclamation signing was aired on CTV the same Monday that Wall was featured in a cameo appearance on the Corner Gas series episode, “Get the F Off my Lawn”. Wall was filmed in a scene in which he was getting his gas tank filled up at the Corner Gas service station.

Susanne Boyce, President, Creative, Content and Channels, CTV Inc said “It’s farewell, not goodbye. While April 13 marks the series’ finale, the memories and the legacy it leaves behind will live on forever. A heartfelt thank you goes out to everyone who have made this history-making series a juggernaut success, and to the millions of fans who visited Dog River weekly.”

The Canadian comedy series is aired by CTV Television Network in Canada and is distributed to 26 countries worldwide.

The popular sitcom, Corner Gas is filmed about 40 kilometers (25 mi) south of Regina in the tiny farming community of Rouleau. CTV will air tributes on April 13 in honour of Corner Gas and Dog River which feature the cast and behind the scenes footage.

Monday, January 1, 2007

A crowd of approximately 1 million has welcomed the new year in Sydney overnight. Many of the crowd had camped out since 6 AM AEDT (7PM UTC) to ensure they had the best vantage point for the fireworks displays at 9 PM and 12 AM. Earlier predictions of rain failed to dampen enthusiastic revellers and fortunately did not eventuate.

According to police, vantage points were Circular Quay and Sydney Opera House closed around 7 PM.

This year’s theme was “A diamond night in Emerald City” and celebrated the Sydney Harbour Bridge’s diamond anniversary of 75 years which will fall in March.

As usual, the bridge became the centre piece of Sydney’s celebrations with a question mark turning into a coat hanger during the 9 PM fireworks show before a diamond appeared at 11 PM.

Entertainment was held in the city throughout the day, culminating in a spectacular fireworks display at midnight. Revellers counted down the final seconds of 2006 with numbers on the side of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The festivities are estimated to have cost AUD $4 million and organisers claim their fireworks display is “the largest in the world”. Sydney’s celebrations were broadcast on television live around the world as other countries prepared their New Year’s Eve celebrations.

Despite the large crowd, police made only 58 arrests for offences including offensive conduct, stealing, assaulting police, goods in custody, assault, drink driving and affray.

Ambulance officers were called to 1,139 incidents in Sydney with another 900 in country areas.

Saturday, September 24, 2005

Human Rights Watch yesterday released a report containing new and detailed allegations, by three serving US army officers, of widespread torture and abuse of Iraqi detainees by American forces, at Forward Operating Base Mercury, near Fallujah.

Prisoners are alleged to have been severely beaten, forced into painful “stress positions”, deprived of sleep, denied food and water, subjected to extremes of hot and cold, and to have had chemical substances applied to their skin and eyes.

Some of the abuses were specifically ordered by Military Intelligence personnel, prior to prisoner interrogations, say the officers. In other cases, soldiers tortured prisoners (known as Persons Under Control—PUCs) on their own initiative, in order to “relieve stress”.

“Everyone in camp knew if you wanted to work out your frustration you show up at the PUC tent. In a way it was sport”, one sergeant told Human Rights Watch.

Human Rights Watch suggests that the widespread abuses result from “civilian and military failures of leadership and confusion about interrogation standards and the application of the Geneva Conventions“.

“The administration demanded that soldiers extract information from detainees without telling them what was allowed and what was forbidden,” the group’s Washington Director, Tom Malinowski, is quoted as saying. “Yet when abuses inevitably followed, the leadership blamed the soldiers in the field instead of taking responsibility.”

The US government has claimed in previous cases that such abuses are exceptional, and not the fault of civilian or military leaders.

An unnamed captain told Human Rights Watch that he had tried repeatedly, over a period of 17 months, to raise concerns about the abuses with his superior officers, only to be told to ignore them and “consider his career”. The concerns were only taken seriously after he approached members of Congress, he says. The Los Angeles Times today named the officer as Captain Ian Fishback.

The US army yesterday announced that it had launched an investigation into the captain’s allegations. Army Spokesman Paul Boyce told the Associated Press that army officials opened the inquiry as soon as the concerns were brought to their attention. “These are allegations of potential felony crimes,” Boyce told the Los Angeles Times. “We want to speak to anyone else who might be able to corroborate this information. These things should be looked into thoroughly.”

According to the Los Angeles Times, the investigation was opened following a referral from the Senate Armed Services Committee. Captain Fishback is the first officer to make such allegations publicly since the Abu Ghraib prison scandal came to light last year, says the newspaper, quoting an unnamed Capitol Hill aide as saying that the allegations are “very credible”.