Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Hug anyone...?




















Yeah I know...But it's one of those early mornings when you can't go back to sleep and you just feel like you need a hug from someone. Wait, not just anyone but more like...yeah you guessed it, Thierry bien sur. So I went ahead and did this...



Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Ex-deputy goes to trial on genocide allegations.

Simeon Nshamihigo is accused of participating in the killings of thousands of people during the infamous 1994 Rwandese genocide that left over a million people dead in just a few days and millions more displaced.

Up until recently he was working for the international tribunal in charge of trying people who've been accused, falsely or not, of carrying out the killings. And he had been working as a defence investigator up until 2001 under a pseudo name. The Rwandan government has complained that several people implicated in the genocide were employed by defence teams at the Arusha based court, BBC online reports.

Just last week another lawyer was forced to resign after the Rwandese government issued a warrant on him since he's wanted for similar charges as well. Check out this link for details on the horrific killings.

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Worldwide rallies for peace in Darfur.


From Cambodia to South Africa to London, thousands of people are expected to gather in protest and call out to the Sudanese authorities to allow UN peacekeepers into Darfur, where tens of thousands of people have been killed. Up to two million have been displaced in three years of conflict in Darfur. France and the US are already calling the conflict a genocide and the US has publicly and directly accused Khartoum of responsibility.

In Phnom Penh, Cambodia, devastated by the Khmer Rouge genocide in the 1970s, a candle-lit vigil was held in the capital. Among those involved are Canadian General Romeo Dallaire, who headed the UN peacekeeping force in Rwanda during that country's genocide in 1994 and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

"Unfortunately, the people there in the West, in Europe and the United States are moved by the media and the media is unfortunately moved by political agendas," Khartoum says. Sudan's junior foreign minister, Ali Karti, said the demonstrators were misunderstanding the situation in Darfur as the country is "defending the territorial integrity of Sudan against rebels backed by neighbouring Chad."

Thursday, September 07, 2006

South African health minister called to resign over AIDS remarks!

Manto Tshabalala-Msimang publicly told people living with HIV to eat garlic and beetroot. In a country where more than million people are HIV positive, and infant rape is rampant, the remarks came as a thunderous shock and more than 60 international experts on HIV/Aids have called for the resignation of Ms Msimang. In a letter sent to President Thabo Mbeki, the academics called the government's health policy "disastrous and pseudo-scientific", BBC reports.

The South African government has said it will change the way its Aids message is communicated. But Mr Mbeki, the president has rejected previous calls to sack Ms Tshabalala-Msimang.