Monday, June 27, 2005

The United States Supreme Court has ruled that “non-neutral” displays of the Ten Commandments in courtrooms violate the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment guarantee of religious neutrality, but that “historical” displays are permitted.

In the case McCreary County v. ACLU of Kentucky, the court ruled that the display of the Commandments in Kentucky county courthouses constituted an unconstitutional endorsement of religion. However, in the case Van Orden v. Perry heard at the same time, the court permitted the display of the Commandments in a monument at the Texas state capitol.

In the Texas case, Chief Justice William Rehnquist, writing for the majority, wrote that:

Texas has treated her Capitol grounds monuments as representing the several strands in the State’s political and legal history. The inclusion of the Ten Commandments monument in this group has a dual significance, partaking of both religion and government.

However, in the Kentucky decision, the Court ruled that the history of the Ten Commandments’ display in the courthouse was evidence of religious (and not historical) intention and that the reasoning given in legislative resolutions was not reflective of the counties’ actual intentions in their displays. Justice Souter wrote for the majority, drawing specific attention to the character of the display:

The display’s unstinting focus was on religious passages, showing that the Counties were posting the Commandments precisely because of their sectarian content. That demonstration of the government’s objective was enhanced by serial religious references and the accompanying resolution’s claim about the embodiment of ethics in Christ.

Proponents of displaying the Commandments hold that they represent the bedrock of Western legal tradition. Opponents hold that the ancient Biblical rules, which begin I am the Lord thy God, represent religious dogma, not law.

Sunday, August 6, 2006

Fifteen Israelis were killed and more than 115 injured in an attack that saw more than 180 missiles hit towns in northern Israel Sunday. At least seven rockets hit Haifa, Israel‘s third largest city, killing three and injuring more than 100. Other missiles have hit the Ma’alot, Carmiel and Kiryat Shmona.

Twelve reserve soldiers died when a Hezbollah missile hit Kfar Giladi in Israel. “The scene is very difficult, it can be described as a battlefield,” Shimon Abutbul, a rescue worker at the scene said. “There was a lot of blood.”

In Lebanon, 17 people were killed as Israeli warplanes and artillery struck southern Lebanon. Three Chinese UN peacekeepers were injured when a rocket landed near their post.

Israeli jets also struck the southern suburbs of Beirut.

Israel has announced the detention of a Hezbollah combatant suspected of being involved in the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers that prompted the Israeli incursion into Lebanon last month.

The mounting casualties occur as the UN Security Council continues discussions on a draft resolution to halt the fighting. France and the United States have agreed to the wording of a decree which is expected to come to a vote on Monday or Tuesday.

The draft calls for the “full cessation of hostilities based upon, in particular, the immediate cessation by Hezbollah of all attacks and the immediate cessation by Israel of all offensive military operations”.

The pending resolution has been welcomed by Israel but condemned by the Syrian foreign minister, Wallid Muallem, who called it a “recipe for the continuation of the war”. A senior Lebanese official has said his country would reject the resolution because it does not ask that Israeli forces withdraw from Lebanese soil.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Richard Thomas, the British Information Commissioner has criticized the Liberal Democrats for cold calling 250,000 British people automatically to encourage them to support their party. The commissioner announced in a press release made public on Thursday that “the Information Commissioner’s Office has taken enforcement action against the Liberal Democrats after finding the party in breach of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations.”

In the enforcement notice, which has been seen by Wikinews, the Liberal Democrats are told that “in view of the matters referred to above the Commissioner hereby gives notice that, in exercise of his powers under section 40 of the [Data Protection] Act, he requires that the Liberal Democrats within 30 days of the date of service of this Notice shall, in accordance with Regulation 19 of the Regulations, cease using an automated calling system to transmit communications comprising recorded matter for direct marketing purposes to subscribers who have not previously notified the Liberal Democrats that they consent to such communications being sent to them.”

The Liberal Democrats have been given 28 days to appeal against the action, although the party has said that they accept the decision. In 2005, the party successfully stopped the Scottish National Party for continuing to carry out a similar cold calling campaign. Nick Clegg, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, defended the party’s actions by saying that “I rather hope it won’t disturb. People don’t have to pick up the phone if they don’t like the time at which the call is made.”

If the Liberal Democrats continue to cold call users in thirty days time, they are at risk of prosecution and an unlimited fine.

Saturday, November 16, 2019

In findings published on Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE, an international team of scientists report ancient Egyptians captured sacred ibises (Threskiornis aethiopicus) from the wild for use in ritual sacrifice rather than domesticating the birds.

Millions of mummified ibis birds have been found in Egyptian tombs and catacombs in Saqqara and Tuna el-Gebel, and Egyptologists have reported they were sacrificed to the god Thoth, who is often depicted with the head of an ibis, the way Horus is shown with the head of a falcon and Bast with the head of a cat.

Lead author Sally Wasef of Australia’s Griffith University explained to the press, “The ibis was considered [to represent] the god Thoth, the god of wisdom, the god of magic, the god of judgment, writing all sorts of things […] If you had a boss that annoys you and you don’t feel like you are getting a good judgment from him or you want fairness and justice, you go and ask Thoth to interfere and in return you promise to offer him an ibis, a mummified ibis, in his annual feast.”

Some scholars have suggested Egyptians raised or farmed the birds to make them available in the necessary numbers. While some ancient Egyptian writers made passing mention of feeding bread and plants to ibises, according to Wasef archaeologists have not yet turned up any hatchery structures.

The team collected DNA samples from mummified birds collected from six separate catacombs including sites at Abydos, Saqqara, and Tuna el-Gebel with permission from the Egyptian Ministry of State for Antiquity, and several museums offered to send tissue samples from the mummified ibises in their collections. They were able to extract complete mitochondrial DNA sequences from fourteen. These they compared to those of 26 modern ibises from different parts of Africa — ibises of this species disappeared from Egypt itself during modern times. They found the DNA sequences from the ancient birds to be relatively diverse. If the birds had been domesticated or even heavily farmed, they reasoned, the Egyptian specimens would have shown only a little genetic diversity.

Wasif suggested, in likelihood, “next to each temple there was like a lake or a wetland — it is a natural habitat for the ibis to live in and if you are giving them food they will keep coming[.]”

According to the researchers, sacrifice and mummification of sacred ibises was common in Egypt from about 664 b.c.e. to 250 c.e., from the twenty-sixth dynasty into the early period of Roman Egypt.

Wednesday, January 18, 2006File:Greenpeace Vessels Esperanza and Arctic Sun.jpg

Anti-whaling protesters have joined forces across Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, and the U.S.A calling for an end to the killing of whales for meat by Japan. Greenpeace organised the international day of action as it continued its efforts to disrupt the hunting of minke whales by the Japanese whaling fleet currently in the Southern Ocean.

The day of action was being marked to protest the actions of the fleet which protesters believe violate the 1986 International Whaling Commission (IWC) global ban on commercial whaling. Japan’s JARPA Japanese Whale Research Program was allowed to operate under a Special Permit in the Antarctic according to Article VIII of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling. In its JARPA-2 plan, Japan plans to double its annual scientific research catch of Minke whales to 935, and to add 10 Fin whales to its quota. The International Fund for Animal Welfare states that over the next two years, Japan plans to kill 50 endangered Humpback whales and an additional 40 fin whales.

Monday, September 17, 2007

In a free trade zone in Antalya, Turkey, 80 women workers of FMC Novamed are in strike for almost a year now, since September 26th, 2006. They allege not only low wages but also severe abuses on FMC’s part.

Novamed, founded in 2001, is a factory managed by Turkish capitalists and located in the free trade zone in Antalya, Turkey. 95% of its workers are women. It is owned by Fresenius Medical Care (FMC), which is an international corporation with its headquarters in Germany. With factories in 12 countries and a total of 100,000 workers, FMC is a monopoly in the market of dialysis products.