http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/feb/28/avaaz-activist-group-conroy-rescue

Tuesday 28 February 2012
Avaaz: the activist organisation behind Paul Conroy's rescue in Syria

The 'clicktivist' group has campaigned on issues from Burma to Murdoch, but is taking on a riskier role in the Arab spring
Its founding president is Ricken Patel, a Canadian-British veteran of the International Crisis Group, a global thinktank, and MoveOn.org, a progressive American group. He runs a team of campaigners around the world, with offices in New York, Rio, Delhi, Madrid and Sydney. <snip>


Wednesday, February 29,2012
Avaaz: Syrian Activists Help Second journalist Escape From Homs

Avaaz can confirm that a second journalist, Javier Espinosa, has at last reached Lebanon from the shell-blasted Syrian city of Homs this afternoon. During his three day journey he was assisted by a team of brave and committed Syrian activists who were supported by Avaaz. In the last seven days they have managed to rescue 47 injured Syrians from Baba Amr. <snip>
http://www.ayyam.org/english/?p=265

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-17212781

Syria unrest: Surgeon tells of Homs makeshift hospital

Jacques Beres is a 71-year-old surgeon and co-founder of the Medecins Sans Frontieres group. He has just returned from the besieged Syrian city of Homs where, in a makeshift clinic, he managed to treat dozens of people wounded during weeks of bombardment. He told the BBC News website what he saw.

29 February 2012

"I spent 12 days in Homs, arriving via Lebanon. We planned the trip for several weeks. It was very dangerous to enter illegally so I made the journey with the help of a chain of intermediaries.

"One met me at the airport in Beirut. I landed in the evening and by 09:00 the next morning I was already in Syria. I had a rest at a farm and then progressed to Qusayr [three miles (4.8km) south-west of Homs], where I worked for a few days before making the journey into Homs.

"I was scared. It is only reasonable to have some fear. Bombs are never normal. I can't really compare Homs to any other war zone I have worked in though - apart, perhaps, from Chechnya. <more at link>

People use phrases like "rivers of blood" or "the streets were filled with blood" for impact. Usually, it's not meant literally.

Photo by Spanish correspondent Javier Espinosa. From Homs, Syria today.

gutters of bab al amar blood-stained
JAVIER ESPINOSA ‏ @javierespinosa2





Come and see the blood in the streets.
Come and see
The blood in the streets.
Come and see the blood
In the streets!

~Pablo Neruda

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/120228/injured-journalists-smuggled-from-syria-paul-conroy-edith-bouvier
Paul Conroy and Edith Bouvier were injured in the artillery attack that killed Sunday Times foreign correspondent Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik.

Tim FitzsimonsFebruary 28, 2012

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Paul Conroy, a British photojournalist, and Edith Bouvier, a French journalist, were rescued from Homs, Syria today. The two were injured in the artillery attack that killed Sunday Times correspondent Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik. Conroy is "safe" in Beirut, according to a diplomat quoted by Reuters. The Sunday Times confirmed his rescue, and Le Monde reported that Bouvier also arrived safely in Beirut today.

Several activist volunteers were reportedly killed when the evacuation team came under artillery fire while trying to leave Homs, according to the Guardian.

"The [Conroy] evacuation party came under fire twice. Three activists were killed on the first occasion while more were reportedly killed when they came under fire again," the Guardian wrote." <more>

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/224163/

Anti-racism group plans alternative event to counter white pride rally

A group that has urged people to stay away from a planned white pride rally Saturday morning at Duluth’s Civic Center is offering an alternative.

The group plans to hold a unity rally at the Aerial Lift Bridge at 10 a.m. Saturday.

“We are looking at this as an opportunity for people to recommit, as a community, to work on racial justice and to grow together as a stronger community,” said Joel Kilgour of the Loaves and Fishes Community, which provides shelter for homeless people. “There will be hundreds of people there. We are going to take a big group picture in front of the Lift Bridge.”
<more>

http://wikileaks.org/the-gifiles.html

"Stratfor’s use of insiders for intelligence soon turned into a money-making scheme of questionable legality. The emails show that in 2009 then-Goldman Sachs Managing Director Shea Morenz and Stratfor CEO George Friedman hatched an idea to "utilise the intelligence" it was pulling in from its insider network to start up a captive strategic investment fund. CEO George Friedman explained in a confidential August 2011 document, marked DO NOT SHARE OR DISCUSS : "What StratCap will do is use our Stratfor’s intelligence and analysis to trade in a range of geopolitical instruments, particularly government bonds, currencies and the like". The emails show that in 2011 Goldman Sach’s Morenz invested "substantially" more than $4million and joined Stratfor’s board of directors. Throughout 2011, a complex offshore share structure extending as far as South Africa was erected, designed to make StratCap appear to be legally independent. But, confidentially, Friedman told StratFor staff : "Do not think of StratCap as an outside organisation. It will be integral... It will be useful to you if, for the sake of convenience, you think of it as another aspect of Stratfor and Shea as another executive in Stratfor... we are already working on mock portfolios and trades". StratCap is due to launch in 2012. "

Is that a Halibut in your pocket, or you happy to see me?

A very important message for riders on the Dubai metro system







man, the stuff I find on Twitter

Syrian State TV click CC for English.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3460_162-57382599/santorum-homophobic-former-senator-says/

(CBS News)

Former Senator Alan Simpson had some choice words for his one time colleague, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum.

"I know Santorum, I served with him," he said. "He is rigid and a homophobic. He believes that gays and lesbians, he mentioned in an interview in 2003, about bestiality, and gays and lesbians. I think that's disgusting," said Simpson.

The former three-term Republican senator from Wyoming, who has always been known for both his candor and his ability to work across party lines, said Republicans are hurting themselves by focusing on social issues. <snip>

Ayatollah Santorum Excommunicates Obama, Mainstream Protestants

02/19/2012 by Juan Cole

Rick Santorum attacked President Obama on Saturday for his theology. Although people assumed that Santorum was, like other conservatives, hinting around that Obama is not a Christian but rather a secret Muslim, Santorum denied this allegation. And, likely he meant instead to lump Obama with the 45 million members of mainline Protestant churches in the US who he considers to be pagans. You see, for Santorum, Methodists and Lutherans and Episcopalians may as well be Muslims, since he does not believe that they are Christians.

What is remarkable is that it is Santorum who sounds like a Muslim fundamentalist. And ultimately maybe what he is saying is that Obama isn’t Muslim enough.

Santorum told his audience in Ohio that Obama’s policy is “not about you. It’s not about your quality of life. It’s not about your jobs. It’s about some phoney ideal, some phoney theology — not a theology based on the Bible, a different theology.” <snip>
http://www.juancole.com/2012/02/ayatollah-santorum-excommunicates-obama-mainstream-protestants.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+juancole/ymbn+%28Informed+Comment%29&utm_content=My+Yahoo