Pope urges UN reform after Ukraine war, Covid ‘limits’

Dgital Journal – AFP, October 16, 2022 

Pope Francis in his new book called for the reform of the UN after the pandemic
and the Ukraine war showed its 'limits' - Copyright AFP

Pope Francis said the need to reform the United Nations was “more than obvious” after the Covid-19 pandemic and the Ukraine war exposed its limits, in an extract of his new book published Sunday. 

The Argentine pontiff said Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine highlighted the need to ensure the current multilateral structure — especially the UN Security Council — finds “more agile and effective ways of resolving conflicts”. 

“In wartime, it is essential to affirm that we need more multilateralism and a better multilateralism,” but the UN is no longer fit for “new realities”, he added in an extract published by La Stampa daily. 

The organisation was founded to prevent the horrors of two World Wars from happening again, but although the threat represented by those conflicts was still alive, “today’s world is no longer the same”, said Francis. 

“The necessity of these reforms became more than obvious after the pandemic” when the current multilateral system “showed all its limits”, he added. 

Francis denounced the unequal distribution of vaccines as a “glaring example” of the law of the strongest prevailing over solidarity. 

The 85-year-old advocated “organic reforms” aimed at allowing international organisations to rediscover their essential purpose of “serving the human family” and said international institutions must be the result of the “widest possible consensus”. 

The pope also proposed guaranteeing food, health, economic and social rights on which international institutions would base their decisions. 

Francis’s new book, “I ask you in the name of God: Ten prayers for a future of hope”, is due to come out in Italy Tuesday. 

Ohio death penalty anonymity law is unconstitutional, inmates say

• Four death-row inmates sue to stop law that shields names of all associated
• Lawyer calls secrecy legislation ‘a clear violation’ of first amendment rights

The Guardian, Jessica Glenza in New York, 20 January 2015

Execution chamber at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Huntsville
Unit in Huntsville, Texas. Photograph: AFP/Paul Buck/EPA

Opponents of an Ohio law that grants anonymity to nearly everyone involved in executing prisoners say the law infringes on the public’s first amendment rights. Attorneys also point to a lack of similar protection for those who carry out other controversial procedures, such as abortion and stem cell research.

Four death row inmates are suing Ohio to stop a law, passed in November’s lame duck legislature, which made the names of doctors, employees, contractors and compounding pharmacies involved in executions secret, immune even from a subpoena.

The legislation exempts such information from the state’s open-records laws, and means people who reveal names of those involved in executions can be sued and subject to punitive fines. It is scheduled to take effect in March.

Supreme court rules Missouri prisoner's
 death penalty appeal should be heard
(Read more)

“Ohio’s new secrecy law is specifically designed to foreclose only one side of this debate, which is a clear violation of the public’s first amendment rights,” said Timothy F Sweeney, a lawyer for one the four death row prisoners.

“Constitutional protections are most needed precisely when the government begins to limit the ability of its citizens to question, speak, or inquire freely into its workings, and that is certainly the case here.”

One of the arguments lawyers have made against the secrecy law is that doctors involved in areas of similar public policy debate have never enjoyed such protection.

“Those who perform abortions or those who engage in stem cell research, for example, also face intense directed speech from citizens in opposition to their activities,” the motion filed by the prisoners reads.

“If such be ‘harassment’, they are exposed to levels of that purported ‘harm’ that are magnitudes greater than what those shielded by [state bill] HB 663 would ever face or even imagine.”

The Ohio law is one of several attempts by death penalty states to keep proceedings secret. Not all have taken the statutory route – Texas, for example, has through regulatory action refused to release information about where it has sourced drugs used in lethal injections. Such drugs have been in short supply since European pharmaceutical companies began refusing to sell drugs for use in executions.

“We’re looking at the broader issues of our democracy and our constitution,” said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. “And, in that light, the decisions are going to start coming down differently.”

Dieter said he believed Ohio’s law could be a candidate for judicial testing because of its broad public disclosure exemptions, which exclude even courts in most cases.

“Courts are going to recognize that this is controversial – that’s exactly where you need information,” he said. “There’ll be some people who don’t want that exposure, but that’s part of a democracy. You do have to take responsibility for your action.”

Doctor angry Ohio executed inmate
despite 'horror' warning (Read more)

Ohio has faced pressure to reform its lethal injection procedures since the January 2014 execution of Dennis McGuire. McGuire’s death took more than 20 minutes, during which he gasped for breath and attempted to sit up. The 53-year-old’s gruesome death was predicted by a Harvard professor of anesthesiology.

The doctor told Judge Gregory Frost in a nine-page declaration that the state’s experimental two-drug cocktail of midazolam and hydromorphone would not be enough to kill McGuire without causing him undue harm. States are required to perform executions without inflicting excess pain, part of the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

The botched execution of McGuire led to a court-imposed moratorium on the death penalty in Ohio until February 2015. Judge Frost is also hearing the lawsuit to stop Ohio from keeping secret details about how it administers the death penalty.

According to the state bill, HB 663, Ohio needed to make secret the names of small compounding pharmacies that make the drugs for executions in order to protect them from “physical harm” and “harassment”. The law would also bar medical licensing boards from sanctioning doctors who take part in executions.

States have sought to shield manufacturers of the drugs used in lethal injections since public scrutiny pushed makers to stop selling such drugs for executions. The lack of companies willing to supply execution drugs has led to a drug shortage, forcing some states to use untested lethal injection combinations, such as in McGuire’s execution.

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US executes man despite disability claim

Wife of Lashed Saudi Blogger Calls for His Release

Jakarta Globe – AFP, Jan 14, 2015

Ensaf Haidar, center, the wife of the Saudi Blogger Raef Badawi, holds a vigil in
 Montreal, Quebec on Jan. 13, 2015 urging Saudi Arabia to free her husband who
was flogged in public on Jan. 9, 2015 near a mosque in the Red Sea city of Jeddah,
receiving 50 lashes for ‘insulting Islam’. (AFP Photo/Clement Sabourin)

Montreal. The wife of a Saudi blogger who was publicly flogged for “insulting Islam” called for his release on Tuesday.

“My husband, Raef Badawi, is imprisoned for simply expressing liberal ideas,” Ensaf Haidar, who sought asylum in Canada with her three children after Badawi was arrested, told a news conference in Montreal.

In September, a Saudi court upheld a sentence of 10 years in prison as well as the 1,000 lashes for Badawi, who has been behind bars since June 2012.

The 31-year-old received the first installment of 50 lashes last Friday and is expected to have 20 weekly whipping sessions until his punishment is complete.

“We’re here so that he won’t have to endure another 50 lashes next Friday,” said Beatrice Vaugrante of Amnesty International.

“We talk a lot about freedom of speech nowadays: I am Charlie, I am Raef Badawi,” she said. “This concerns Canada, it concerns all Western nations that advocate freedom of expression.”

The Canadian government has called the public lashing “inhumane” but said it was limited in what it could do for Badawi beyond expressions of outrage as the blogger is not Canadian.

Agence France-Presse

Protesters demand the immediate release of Saudi blogger,

 Raif Badawi, in front of the Saudi Embassy in The Hague.

Photograph: Martijn Beekman/EPA

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Indigenous peoples need better protection

The UN General Assembly is holding its first World Conference on Indigenous Peoples. Yvonne Bangert from the Society for Threatened Peoples is convinced that Germany needs to do more in this area.

Deutsche Welle, 22 Sep 2014

DW: When we talk about indigenous peoples, how many people are we talking about and in how many countries?

Yvonne Bangert: Various estimates exist, ranging from 350 to 400 million people. There are 7,000 indigenous peoples in total, across all continents. Most people think that there are no indigenous people left in Europe, but there are the Sami (pictured above), who are mainly in Norway.

Why do these ethnic groups need special protection?

Mainly because they are losing their land. It's worth pointing out that indigenous peoples often feel a close connection to the land and the soil they live on. They often talk about "Mother Earth" - which tells you a lot. It's important for their survival - in a spiritual as well as a physical sense - that they have their own land with a degree of autonomy.

But they are increasingly losing that land, as it often contains natural resources like oil, gas, coal and uranium, so there are economic interests there. They often have to defend themselves and have their backs to the wall. They often say "Our land is our supermarket and our church. If we lose it, we lose everything."

How do these people live? Are they reclusive, or perhaps living on reservations, or have some of them adapted to modern urban life?

There is a great variety, just like in the non-indigenous world. For example, in the rainforest areas along the Amazon, people have chosen to live an isolated life, but there are also peoples who live in both worlds - like the Huaorani in Ecuador or the Ashaninka in Brazil.

Among them, there is now a young generation of people who have a good education and who can both uphold the traditional ways of their communities and represent their interests politically and internationally.

As the Society for Threatened Peoples, we also often have guests from these indigenous groups who come to Germany and deal critically with development projects in their country. Through us, they hope to make contact with policymakers in Berlin.

There is the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, also known as ILO 169, which is meant to protect indigenous peoples. Why has it only been ratified by 22 countries?

We suspect that it is very strongly due to the fear that if the indigenous peoples are taken seriously as a negotiating partner on an equal footing, some economic projects can no longer be carried out as might be desired - as some politicians have argued openly, even here in Germany. There is then a fear of financial losses.

So far, Germany has not ratified the Convention either. What is the political mood at the moment?

We are working tirelessly toward the ultimate goal of German ratification. By this I mean not only the Society for Threatened Peoples, but an alliance of numerous NGOs, church aid agencies and other groups who have come together in the interest of ILO 169 and are lobbying for it together with receptive politicians.

There have been several times in the past when the German government was ready to ratify it, but it always failed because of a change of government. We have a good base of support with the SPD and the Greens, and it will surely not be long before the issue comes up again.

What is the German government now doing to ensure the protection of indigenous peoples?

It says that it is committed strongly to working at the UN level. I certainly believe that the colleagues there are working with a sense of goodwill. But there's still little sign that the interests of the affected people are taken seriously.

For example, there's the highly controversial Belo Monte dam in Brazil, where German companies are earning money by building the pipeline, as they are with the pipeline in Ecuador, which was partly finaced by German bank WestLB. The pipeline has burst several times and contaminated the soil.

Another matter is the negotiations on free trade agreements with Canada and the US: Whoever wants to import natural gas from fracking needs to know that this often takes place on Native American land.

This year, for the first time, a World Conference on Indigenous Peoples is being held at the United Nations in New York (22-23.09.2014). How did this come about?

The conference is taking place now because the UN's Second International Decade of the World's Indigenous People comes to an end this year. It's a kind of closing conference, in which we will assess what has been achieved in the last 20 years, what goals we can still aspire to and how things should go from here in terms of organization.

What do you expect from this event? What are you hoping for?

The indigenous speakers are already voicing criticism about the way it has been organized. They wanted to take equal part in organizing it, but they are not sitting together with the others on the podium.

This is about their rights. They have complained that they feel excluded. And although this has happened, we can look on the bright side and hope that a mechanism can be found to allow the structures and working methods of the previous two decades to continue. Mechanisms already exist, but they must be further improved.

Yvonne Bangert works in the Office for Indigenous Peoples of the Society for Threatened Peoples in Göttingen, Germany.

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Dutch take legal action over Greenpeace ship seized by Russia

DutchNews.nl, Friday 04 October 2013

Premier Medvedev at platform
Lukoil (AFP)

The Netherlands is taking legal action against Russia in an effort to have the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise released from Russian coastguard control.

Foreign minister Frans Timmermans said on Friday he is taking steps under the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea to have the ship released. He will fight for the crew's release through diplomatic channels.

The 30 activitists on board the ship, which sales under the Dutch flag, were arrested last month while protesting about a Gasprom rig in Russia’s northern waters. All have since been remanded in custody and charged with piracy.

According to Nos television, a tribunal in Hamburg will decide if Russia was right to take the action it did.

‘We understand that Russia wants to preserve the security of its waters but we are not in agreement with the way the Greenpeace ship has been dealt with,’ a spokesman for the minister told website nu.nl. ‘That is why we are taking this action.’

According to the BBC, the Netherlands is the first country to take action in an effort to have its nationals released. Two of the crew are Dutch.

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Greenpeace activists arrested in Arctic

Obama: 'Trayvon Martin could have been me, 35 years ago'

Google – AFP, 19 July 2013

US President Barack Obama speaks about race and the death of 

Trayvon Martin on July 19, 2013 in Washington, DC (AFP, Saul Loeb)

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama offered a very personal take on the Trayvon Martin case on Friday, saying that 35 years ago, he could have been the unarmed black teen shot dead by a neighborhood watchman.

In a surprise appearance before reporters, Obama hailed the "incredible grace and dignity" of Martin's parents and warned that a resort to violence in the wake of the Florida court verdict would "dishonor" his death.

He also called for a review of controversial "stand your ground" laws like the one in place in Florida, which assert that citizens can use lethal force -- rather than retreat -- if they sense their lives are at risk.

"Trayvon Martin could have been me, 35 years ago," Obama said, in his first substantive comments on a verdict that has aroused an impassioned debate on US race relations.

Demonstrators march in Beverly Hills

 on July 17, 2013 to protest the acquittal

 of George Zimmerman (AFP/File,

Robyn Beck)

While he refrained from direct comment on the jury's decision to acquit neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman on Saturday, Obama weighed in on the larger issues of race raised by the case.

"I just ask people to consider if Trayvon Martin was of age and armed, could he have stood his ground on that sidewalk?" Obama asked.

"And do we actually think that he would have been justified in shooting Mr. Zimmerman who had followed him in a car because he felt threatened?

"And if the answer to that question is at least ambiguous, then it seems to me that we might want to examine those kinds of laws," he said.

Obama also urged better training of law enforcement at the state and local levels "to reduce the kind of mistrust in the system that sometimes currently exists."

He said young African American males needed greater encouragement in the face of negative stereotypes that many blacks believe was at the root of the shooting death.

Martin, 17, was fatally shot on the rainy night of February 26, 2012 during an altercation with the 29-year-old Zimmerman in a gated community in Sanford, Florida.

Zimmerman said he acted in self-defense and his team did not specifically invoke the "stand your ground" law in its arguments.

A jury of six women, all but one white, cleared him of second-degree murder and manslaughter charges.

Critics of Saturday's verdict argue that Zimmerman racially profiled the youth -- who had no criminal record -- and was able to kill him with impunity because of a biased criminal justice system.

But Zimmerman -- who has a white father and a Peruvian mother -- has insisted race was not a factor in the incident.

Florida Governor Rick Scott speaks

 to the media on May 28, 2013 in

 Miami, Florida (Getty Images/AFP/

File, Joe Raedle)

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Kryon Q&A

Question: I’m a black woman who enjoys your teachings tremendously. It seems that there aren’t a lot of black people involved in these discussions. Is this true, and is there a reason for this? Is it cultural? Or am I wrong in this assumption?

Answer: Dear one, yes. If you’re speaking about black Americans, you’re right. It’s cultural. There are two basic reasons you won’t find many blacks in metaphysics in your culture: The first one is that in your land, your race is a minority with a history of oppression. This has created a very strong spiritual support base. Almost from birth, most of you have been exposed to very high church and spiritual support and a feeling of belonging and sticking together. There are few groups that have this kind of support and prayer base. So spiritually, you don’t look around much for answers other than what you have already learned about the love of God. This works for you and is honored.

The second reason is perhaps politically incorrect in your culture to speak of, but Kryon is not of your culture. Many of you are in survival mode due to sustained second-class citizenship you experience from birth. This causes despair, poverty, and a shift to crime among many due to despondency over life and a need to survive in a system that does not honor you. When a Human is consumed with survival in a difficult environment, they don’t have time or a desire for introspection or a search to better themselves spiritually. All their time is spent spinning within the challenges they have, many of which they assume to be their plight, many of which they have created themselves.

The sadness here is that if they did look within, they would find the tools to co-create a life outside of survival, and start processes that honors their endeavors and their lives. Blessed are those with life challenges, as so many of the minorities have, but who have decided to increase their spiritual knowledge as a solution, instead of trying to force-manipulate the reality of the cultural situation.

Obama vows new push to close Guantanamo

Google – AFP, 30 April 2013

Activists demand the closing of the US military's detention facility in

Guantanamo, April 11, 2013 in New York City (AFP/File, Stan Honda)

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama vowed Tuesday to make a renewed attempt to close the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay, amid a hunger strike by suspected terrorist detainees.

Obama told a White House news conference he did not want any prisoners to die and called on Congress to help him find a long-term legal solution to the problem of prosecuting terror suspects.

"I continue to believe we have to close Guantanamo. I think it is critical for us to understand that Guantanamo is not necessary to keep America safe.

"It is expensive. It is inefficient. It hurts us in terms of our international standing. It lessens cooperation with our allies on counterterrorism efforts. It is a recruiting tool for extremists.

"It needs to be closed," he said.

Obama favors prosecuting enemy combatants in civilian courts and transferring those cleared of wrongdoing to their home countries.

His tough words were the most extensive the president has delivered on Guantanamo for months and reflected his frustration with Congress which he blamed for blocking his efforts to shut the jail at a US naval base in southeastern Cuba.

President Obama made closing Guantanamo

Bay an early priority but he met fierce resistance

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Jolie joins world powers to vow action against rape as weapon of war

Google – AFP, 11 April 2013

Angelina Jolie in front of G8 foreign ministers speaks on sexual violence against

women in London on April, 11, 2013 (Pool/AFP, Alastair Grant)

LONDON — World powers pledged new measures and funds on Thursday to tackle rape and sexual violence used as a weapon of war, in a "historic" deal drawn up with UN special envoy Angelina Jolie.

G8 foreign ministers meeting in London agreed to commit $35.5 million (27 million euros) to tackle what British Foreign Secretary William Hague likened to slavery as "one of the greatest and most persistent injustices in the world".

Under the new declaration, Hague said rape and sexual violence during conflict would constitute grave breaches of the Geneva Convention, putting a responsibility on signatories to actively seek out and put perpetrators on trial.

"I am delighted to announce that today we have reached a historic agreement as G8 foreign ministers: pledging to work together to end sexual violence in conflict," said Hague.

Hollywood actress Jolie, a United Nations special envoy for refugee issues, praised Hague and said the declaration signed at the Group of Eight ministerial meeting as "long-overdue".

"Rape is not a women's issue, or a humanitarian issue, it is a global issue and it belongs here at the top table of international decision-making where he has put it," she said.

Jolie and Hague visited the Democratic Republic of Congo last month to highlight the issue, which Britain has made a priority of its chairmanship of the G8 this year.

In one community in DR Congo, 11 babies between the age of six months and a year old were raped last year, UN special representative Zainab Hawa Bangura told the press conference.

Although Hague conceded that the largest numbers of victims were in Africa -- 250,000 women raped in DR Congo over the last decade and hundreds of thousands in the Rwandan genocide -- he said tens of thousands had also been abused during the war in Bosnia.

The declaration committed the G8 to work towards a new protocol setting out how to investigate such crimes, provide new training for their militaries on how to deal with sexual violence and provide support for prosecutions in countries worst affected.

Jolie said those raped had for too long "been the forgotten victims of war: responsible for none of the harm, but bearing the worst of the pain."

"But today, I believe, their voices have been heard, and that we finally have some hope to offer them."

Anti-poverty campaign group Oxfam welcomed the new initiative but said promises must be accompanied by the necessary funding to ensure victims receive the protection and justice they deserve.

"Much more investment is needed to improve the police, security and justice systems that are designed to protect women and girls, but so often fail to do so," said Oxfam's acting chief, Penny Lawrence.

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Israel partially lifts media gag on 'Prisoner X'

Move comes after global coverage of case of top-secret detainee, said to be Mossad agent, who died in Israeli prison 

guardian.co.uk, Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem and Alison Rourke in Sydney, 13 Feb. 2013

Ben Zygier, identified by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation as an
 agent for Israel's Mossad, was reportedly locked in solitary confinement since
2010 in a high-security Israeli prison. Photograph: ABC TV

The Israeli authorities have partially lifted a gag order concerning a man known as "Prisoner X", following widespread international coverage of the case of the top-secret detainee who hanged himself in a high-security prison in Israel. The prisoner was revealed to be an Australian citizen.

According to Israel Radio, domestic media outlets were permitted to quote foreign reports on Prisoner X but not publish or broadcast original material.

The secret detainee was identified by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation as BenZygier, from Melbourne, who it said had become an agent for the Mossad, Israel's spy agency. Zygier – also known as Ben Alon and Ben Allen – was reported to have been locked in solitary confinement under conditions of strict secrecy in 2010, and hanged himself in his cell later that year. ABC did not disclose the reason for his detention.

The allegations were reported on international news websites, but the Israeli media was forbidden from publishing or broadcasting details. Editors were called by the Israeli prime minister's office to an emergency meeting on Tuesday afternoon, at which their co-operation with the government and the withholding of sensitive information was demanded. Gag orders and military censorship are common in Israel.

Until the partial lifting of the gag order, the media were restricted to reporting questions asked under privilege in the Israeli parliament, which elicited no information beyond a statement by the justice minister that the matter should be examined.

In a front-page comment piece, Aluf Benn, the editor-in-chief of Haaretz, wrote: "Instead of hushing up the blunder, [gag orders] merely shine a spotlight on it. But [Mossad chief Tamir] Pardo and the others believe that if they just apply a little more pressure, the door will remain shut. In the meantime, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are awash with people forwarding the information, sharing links to foreign websites, expressing opinions – and utterly ignoring those who are making pathetic attempts to turn back the clock to a time before WikiLeaks, and before bloggers who don't give two hoots about the censor."

In the aftermath of the revelations, Australia's department of foreign affairs and trade (DFAT) has launched a review into how diplomats handled the case of Prisoner X.

The review was announced after it became known that department officials had been made aware in 2010 that Zygier was being held in jail in Israel, but had not passed on the information.

"DFAT had [originally] advised that it was unaware of Mr Allen's detention in Israel," a spokesman said. "DFAT has now advised that some officers of the department were made aware of Mr Allen's detention at the time in 2010 by another Australian agency."

Earlier, the foreign minister, Bob Carr, had said consul officials were not aware of Zygier's circumstances until his parents asked for help in repatriating his body to Australia. Under normal circumstances, foreign embassies are usually advised if one of their nationals is being held in prison.

The leader of the Australian Greens, Christine Milne, said she would pursue the case. "According to press reports, Prisoner X was a dual citizen whose body was returned to Melbourne under suspicious circumstances. Minister Carr must pursue this matter with the Israeli government as a matter of urgency," Milne said in a statement.

Zygier's family have declined to speak to the media.

According to ABC, Zygier was 34 at the time of his death in Ayalon prison. He was married to an Israeli woman, Maya, with whom he had two children. It is unknown whether they still live in Israel or have moved abroad.

A former colleague, Patrick Durkin, who trained as a lawyer with Zygier, wrote of his fond memories of the alleged Mossad spy in the Australian Financial Review. "I remember drinking with Ben one night in 2001 when he recounted his famous story about taking a bullet in the posterior during his military service in Israel which he served shortly before joining our group. He described in vivid detail serving on the front-line and backtracking across war-torn countryside while gun-fire peppered the ground.

"He was extremely proud of his time in the military … I remember passionately debating the finer points of the Israeli-Palestine conflict with Ben who was obviously deeply engaged with the issue."

The tombstone of Ben Zygier at the Chevra Kadisha Jewish

cemetery, Melbourne, Australia. Photograph: Julian Smith/EPA

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(Religions – Zionism - March 1, 2012 - Matthew Channelled by Suzanne Ward)

9. It can be no other way—simply, this is the physics that governs life in this universe. As Earth continues apace into successively higher planes, nothing with low vibrations in any form—physical bodies, subversive plans, theft, dishonesty, unjust laws and imprisonment, bigotry, cruel customs and deeds—can survive.

10. Moving on, no, it will not be quite like religions being “totally discarded and replaced by universal laws in the Golden Age.” When the truths come forth that science and spirit are one and the same and that religious dogmas were originated by early leaders of church and state to control the masses, people whose consciousness has risen beyond the constraints of third density will adhere to the spiritual aspects of their respective religions and the devised, controlling aspects will fall by the wayside.

11. One of the truths to come forth is that Zionism, which by dark intent has been made synonymous with Judaism, actually is a bellicose political movement within the Illuminati, and its aim for more than six decades has been to create conflict and instability in the entire Middle East. Zionists, who have wielded powerful influence within and behind major governments and their military forces, do NOT represent the Jewish peoples in Israel or anywhere else. And, like all other Illuminati factions, they have been committed to that cabal’s goal of global domination.

12. Although Semites are of diverse national origins and religions, the Zionists have been successful in convincing many that “anti-Semitic” is exclusively prejudice against the Jewish peoples and opposition to Israel’s right to defend itself from its “enemies.” By means of that blatant distortion, they obtained not only world sympathy, but also massive defense funding from Israel’s allies, most especially the United States, all of which served to increase the Illuminati’s vast profits from their industrial-military machine.

13. In addition to controlling the masses through dogmatic teachings, religions have served the dark purpose of divisiveness to such an extent that it resulted in centuries of trauma and bloodshed. Witness the Crusades, wars between Catholics and Protestants, pogroms against Jews, executions of “blasphemous” individuals who refused to “recant.”  (Read More …)

A Message From Eve - 1 Billion Rising (14 Feb 2013)

Eve extends her gratitude to the ONE BILLION of you who are practicing and preparing, organizing, singing, dancing, and writing for an end to violence against women.One week until we rise! (14 February 2013)

http://www.onebillionrising.org

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Sri Lankan maid Rizana Nafeek 'executed in Saudi Arabia'

BBC News, 9 January 2013

The parents of Ms Nafeek had repeatedly appealed to King Abdullah
to pardon her

Related Stories

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Saudi Arabia has executed a Sri Lankan domestic worker for killing a baby in her care in 2005, a foreign ministry official in Colombo has told the BBC.

The maid, Rizana Nafeek, had denied killing the four-month-old boy.

Her supporters say she was only 17 at the time of the killing. They say her execution is a breach of international child rights.

The Sri Lankan parliament held a minute's silence on Wednesday in honour of Ms Nafeek.

An MP who campaigns for Sri Lankan workers abroad, Ranjan Ramanayake, described the Saudi government as "dictators" who would never execute Europeans or Americans, only Asians and Africans.

The parents of Ms Nafeek had repeatedly appealed to King Abdullah to pardon her.

She was convicted in 2007 of murdering a four-month-old baby she was caring for in 2005.

Human rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have criticised the Saudi authorities for their handling of the case, as have campaigners in Sri Lanka, who argue that there were serious translation problems at the time she confessed to the crime.

They also argue that they she did not always have access to a lawyer, and that her reported execution breaches the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child which Saudi Arabia has ratified.

There has been no comment so far from Saudi Arabia.

Demonstrators hold up an image of Rizana Nafeek as they shout

 slogans during a protest against her execution, in Colombo January

11, 2013. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte

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Executed Sri Lankan maid's mother refuses Saudi money

Saudi slams world reaction to maid's beheading

UN decries Saudi beheading of Sri Lankan maid

EU 'dismayed' at Saudi beheading of Sri Lankan maid

Anger online as Saudi in his 90s marries 15-year-old