~ firefly-dreaming a virtual home to learn (or teach!) alternative methods of solving problems we find facing us each day. By sharing ideas & knowledge on living with less stress, more joy & embracing tolerance & compassion we are working towards building a sustainable future for all living beings.
Earl's gusts grow to 140 mph, aims at East Obama declares emergency in N. Carolina; 30,000 flee Hatteras Island NBC, msnbc and news services HATTERAS ISLAND, N.C. - Hurricane Earl gusted stronger Wednesday night as it steamed toward the Eastern Seaboard.
Communities from North Carolina to New England kept a close eye on the storm packing 140 mph winds and worried that even a slight shift in the Category 4 storm's predicted offshore track could put millions of people in the most densely populated part of the country in harm's way.
President Barack Obama declared late Wednesday that an emergency exists in North Carolina and ordered federal agencies to help state and local officials with handling any problems caused by Hurricane Earl.
Stephen Hawking says universe not created by God • Physics, not creator, made Big Bang, new book claims
• Professor had previously referred to 'mind of God' Adam Gabbatt
The Guardian, Thursday 2 September 2010 God did not create the universe, the man who is arguably Britain's most famous living scientist says in a forthcoming book.
In the new work, The Grand Design, Professor Stephen Hawking argues that the Big Bang, rather than occurring following the intervention of a divine being, was inevitable due to the law of gravity.
In his 1988 book, A Brief History of Time, Hawking had seemed to accept the role of God in the creation of the universe. But in the new text, co-written with American physicist Leonard Mlodinow, he said new theories showed a creator is "not necessary".
USA
As U.S. deaths in Afghanistan rise, military families grow critical Some families of service members killed in the war say the rules of engagement protect Afghan civilians at the expense of American troops. U.S. combat tolls have peaked this summer. By David Zucchino, Los Angeles Times
September 2, 2010 Reporting from Queensbury, N.Y. - Bill and Beverly Osborn still can't bring themselves to erase the phone message from their son Ben. He had called from Afghanistan in June to assure them that he was safe. Four days later, he was killed in a Taliban ambush.
The Osborns long ago accepted the risks faced by their son, an Army specialist. But what they can't accept now are the military rules of engagement, which they contend made it possible for the Taliban to kill him.
Tesco's US operation accused of bullying staff European multinationals are exploiting America's weak labour laws to suppress unions, claims report by Human Rights Watch By Stephen Foley in New York Thursday, 2 September 2010 European companies, including the UK retail giant Tesco, are facing criticism from a leading human rights organisation for allegedly exploiting weak labour laws in the US and bullying employees to prevent them from joining unions.
Human Rights Watch says European multinationals talk nicely about labour relations at home, but pay scant regard to them overseas. In a report published this morning, the New York-based campaign group says that managers at Tesco's new mini-market chain in the US, Fresh & Easy, have created an anti-union atmosphere, and that employees who want to organise union activities live in fear for their jobs. Another UK company, the security firm Group 4 Securicor (G4S), fired an employee for trying to persuade colleagues to join a union.
Europe
Will Russia's Bloggers Survive Censorship Push? With so many of their media sources controlled by the state or government-friendly oligarchs, Russians have turned to their bloggers to keep informed and give voice to their grievances and concerns. But many of those in power are now seeking to impose rigid limits on online freedom. By Benjamin Bidder and Matthias Schep One sunny June day in California, Rustem Adagamov was rushing without his glasses on when he literally ran into Russia's president. "I simply didn't see Dmitry Medvedev," Russia's most influential blogger says, "and I bumped right into him."
Adagamov, 48, uses his blog to report on a range of grievances, including the arrests of opposition members and "unparalleled police brutality." Each day, his blog gets around 600,000 page views, making it more widely read than many of Moscow's daily newspapers. Adagamov has even made fun of Medvedev on his blog by posting photographs of cups bearing the portraits of Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and the caption "They all lie anyway" printed in bold.
Focus on Holocaust led to suspension, says Jewish teacher RUADHÁN Mac CORMAIC in Paris The Irish Times - Thursday, September 2, 2010 A JEWISH French history teacher has said she was suspended for spending too much time teaching her pupils about the Holocaust and organising trips to Nazi death camps.
Catherine Pederzoli (58), from the eastern city of Nancy, said she had been suspended for four months by the department of education for what it claimed were breaches of her obligation to be "neutral and secular" in the classroom
Middle East
Obama's high-stakes gamble on peace deal that eluded predecessors He has invested much in succeeding where others have failed, but doing so could fatally harm his re-election bid By Rupert Cornwell Thursday, 2 September 2010 Now it's his turn. After the elder George Bush, Bill Clinton and George Bush the younger, Barack Obama has became the fourth consecutive American president to seek international diplomacy's hitherto impossible prize: Israeli-Palestinian peace.
The roll-call of place names associated with such efforts since the end of the first Gulf War in 1991 is long: Madrid, Oslo, Wye, Sharm el-Sheikh, Camp David, Taba and most recently Annapolis. One thing, though, they have in common: failure. And so to Washington, September 2010.
The trickiest issue in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks As Israeli-Palestinian peace talks get under way in Washington, the largely Arab neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem shows the intensifying battle for control of the city. By Christa Case Bryant, Staff writer / September 1, 2010 Jerusalem
As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas enter direct peace talks on Thursday, an intensifying battle for Jerusalem has rendered the conflict's trickiest issue even more intractable.
A key flashpoint in this battle is Sheikh Jarrah, a predominantly Arab neighborhood revered by religious Jews. While the number of new Jewish residents remains small, Palestinians and human rights activists see their expanding presence as fulfilling a larger plan.
Overall, some 2,000 Jewish residents have moved into strategic locations in every Palestinian neighborhood around the Old City, home to key holy sites.
Asia
Throw these infidels in jail LIFE IN TALIBANISTAN, Part 1 By Pepe Escobar Dear reader: let's sit back, relax, and take a trip down memory lane to prehistoric times - the pre-9/11, pre-YouTube, pre-Facebook world.
Ten years ago, Taliban Afghanistan - Talibanistan - was under a social, cultural, political and economic nightmare. Arguably, not much has changed. Or has it?
Ten years ago, New York-based photographer Jason Florio and myself slowly crossed Talibanistan overland from east to west, from the Pakistani border at Landi Kotal to the Iranian border at Islam Qillah. As Afghan aid workers acknowledged, we were the first Westerners to pull this off in quite a while.
Mourners targeted in Lahore By: Jam Sajjad Hussain | Published: September 02, 201 LAHORE - At least 35 people were martyred and 254 others injured on Wednesday evening as two suicide bombers exploded themselves minutes after a cracker blast at a mourning procession held in connection with death anniversary of Hazrat Ali (AS) near Karbala Gamay Shah and Bhati Gate. Soon after the incident, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Al-Almi claimed the responsibility of carrying out the blasts.
On the other hand, Muslim Sunni Ittehad, Jafferia Alliance and the business community have announced three-day mourning across the country to protest against the heinous act.
Africa
Unions reject govt's revised wage offer The public-sector strike is set to continue after South Africa's main labour federation late on Wednesday rejected a revised government wage offer. JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA Sep 02 2010 "We got a report from unions and the overwhelming majority of provincial structures have rejected the government's offer, the strike continues," Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said.
However, the Independent Labour Caucus (ILC), one of the labour umbrellas representing about 1,3-million workers, was still divided on the offer.
Chris Klopper, chairperson of the ILC, said his organisation was "still in the process of collecting feedback from its members on the government's wage offer".
Deadly riots in Mozambique over rising prices Six people, including two children, are reported to have been killed during riots in Mozambique's capital, Maputo, over rising food and fuel prices. The BBC
But police spokesman Pedro Cossa told the AFP news agency only four people had died, and denied police had fired live rounds at the demonstrators after they blocked roads and threw stones.
The country's Interior Minister, Jose Pacheco, has appealed for calm.
The authorities had earlier warned that demonstrations would not be tolerated.
The violence was the worst in the impoverished African state since 2008.
'Outlaws'
Mozambique's private S-TV television station and Portugal's Lusa news agency said six people had been killed in Wednesday's riots across the capital and the suburbs.
Latin America
Felipe Calderón marks four years of reform efforts stymied by Mexico drug war The tenure of President Felipe Calderón, who is preparing to give his fourth state of the union address, has been marked by the brutal Mexico drug war and political infighting that's stymied reform. By Sara Miller Llana, Staff writer / September 1, 2010 Mexico City
Mexican President Felipe Calderón kicked off his presidency in December 2006 with an ambitious reform package. The can-do technocrat was going to tackle Mexico's entrenched corruption, disband its behemoth quasi-monopolies, and - most important - take the fight to Mexico's burgeoning drug cartels.
But in the fourth year of his six-year term, marked by handing his state of the union address to Congress today, it's become clear that the country's brutal drug war has sapped his administration's energy and that political infighting has squelched his reform agenda. Mr. Calderón will formally deliver his speech Thursday morning in a ceremony.
