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From SeeingBlack.com The 411 UN Increases Estimate of DRC Rape Victims
UN Report Accuses Rwandan Troops of Committing Genocide in the Congo A forthcoming UN report on the Democratic Republic of Congo says crimes committed by Rwanda’s army and Congolese rebels during the 1990s in the Congo could be classified as genocide. The New York Times reports the UN report bluntly challenges the conventional history of events in the region after the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The UN report charges that after the genocide ended in Rwanda, Tutsi-led Rwanda troops and their rebel allies killed tens of thousands of members of the Hutu ethnic group inside the Congo. A draft of the report states, “The majority of the victims were children, women, elderly people and the sick, who were often undernourished and posed no threat to the attacking forces.” The US-supported Rwandan government has dismissed the findings of the UN report, and the government is threatening to reconsider its contributions to UN peacekeeping missions if the draft report is published. Another Oil Rig Explodes in Gulf of Mexico Another oil and gas rig has exploded in the Gulf of Mexico about 100 miles south of the Louisiana coast. The fire broke out on a platform operated by Mariner Energy Thursday morning. Thirteen workers were rescued more than two hours after jumping into the Gulf to avoid the fire. Coast Guard and company officials said there is no evidence of leaks, but there were reports that an oil sheen could be seen near the site. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said toxic dispersants could be used if an underwater spill develops. Gov. Bobby Jindal: "They report they’ve got pre-approval to do that, but again, they’re not planning to use dispersants this time, based on only the sheen being visible. The company suspects that what is burning now is what was actually in storage. They had about a hundred barrels of condensate on the platform in storage. Again, we don’t have independent confirmation of what is burning at this time. This would also be a very important point." Calls Grow for Offshore Drilling Ban The latest developments come as environmental activists are ratcheting up calls for a ban on offshore drilling. Earlier this week over 200 people took part in protests outside the San Francisco offices of oil giants Chevron and BP. Twenty-six people took part in a blockade outside BP’s offices, and 15 were arrested. The Reverend Kenneth Davis of the Bay Area Coalition of Concerned Citizens spoke out as the activists stopped in front of the Chevron building. Rev. Kenneth Davis: "It’s not a nice thing when we think about the poorest people in the world have to suffer the injustices of those that inhabit places like this. We want you to all understand that these robbers, crooks and killers, they also come in three-piece suits and ties. Here is environmental injustice. Environmental injustice, when they can pour the pollution in my neighborhood, make me breathe it, and tell me that I should love it." BP: Denial of Drilling Permit Threatens Gulf Coast Claims In other oil drilling news, the New York Times is reporting BP has warned Congress that if lawmakers pass legislation barring the company from new offshore drilling permits, it may not have the funds to pay for all the damages caused by its Gulf of Mexico oil spill. New figures, meanwhile, show BP has spent more than $93 million on advertising in the over four months since the oil disaster began. That amounts to $5 million per week, and over three times BP’s ad spending during the same span in 2009 Report: NOLA Officers Ordered to Shoot Looters After Katrina The investigative news website ProPublica is reporting New Orleans police officers received orders to shoot looters in the days after Hurricane Katrina. ProPublica says details of the alleged orders are "fragmentary" and cited the accounts of "present and former members" of the New Orleans Police Department. ProPublica says a police captain named James Scott was videotaped telling patrol officers, "We have authority by martial law to shoot looters." Scott now heads the New Orleans Police Department’s special operations division. Another police captain has told prosecutors he was ordered by then-second-in-command, Warren Riley, to "take the city back and shoot looters." Riley has denied making the statement. Judge Rejects Death Row Prisoner Troy Davis’s Innocence Claim A federal judge in Georgia has rejected death row prisoner Troy Anthony Davis’s claims of innocence. Last year the Supreme Court took the unusual step of ordering a district court in Georgia to hold a special evidentiary hearing to consider evidence that surfaced after Davis’s conviction and might establish his innocence. Davis was convicted for the 1989 killing of an off-duty white police officer, Mark MacPhail. Since then, seven of the nine non-police witnesses have recanted their testimony, and there is no physical evidence tying him to the crime scene. Davis’s attorneys are preparing an appeal. After Years of Organizing, Domestic Workers Win Bill of Rights Law in New York New York Governor David Paterson has signed into law a measure establishing a landmark set of working standards for housekeepers, nannies and other domestic workers. With the signing of the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, New York becomes the first state where domestic workers will be guaranteed overtime pay after a forty-hour workweek, at least one day off per week, and at least three days off with full pay per year LA Garment Factory to Pay Workers Unpaid Overtime, Allow Monitor A Los Angeles garment company, meanwhile, has reached a settlement over allegations it subjected workers to sweatshop-like conditions. Around 50 minimum-wage workers accused Seventeen Incorporated of forcing them to work 12-hour shifts, sometimes back to back, without breaks or overtime for six days a week. The workers also say they were exposed to harmful chemicals, a cockroach and rodent infestation, with no way of leaving the factory at nighttime in case of emergency. The factory has supplied clothes to well-known retailers including Forever 21 and Macy’s. Under the settlement, workers will receive compensation for unpaid overtime. And in what prosecutors call an unprecedented provision for a US-based factory, Seventeen agreed to allow an independent monitor observe the factory for a year. One in Six Americans Now Enrolled in Anti-Poverty Programs USA Today reports one in six American are now enrolled in government anti-poverty programs due to the housing and job crisis. The number of Americans on Medicaid has reached more than 50 million, a 17 percent increase since December 2007. More than 40 million people receive food stamps—an increase of nearly 50 percent since the start of the economic crisis. And close to ten million receive unemployment insurance, nearly four times the number from 2007. . Recession Spurs Sharp Decline in Undocumented Immigration New figures show the number of undocumented immigrants entering the United States has declined by almost two-thirds in the past decade. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, the number fell by more than half to 300,000 after the recession hit in 2007. Overall, an estimated 11.1 million undocumented immigrants lived in the United States last year, an eight percent decrease from a peak of 12 million in 2007. Study: CEOs Who Fired Most Workers Earned Highest Pay A new study shows the CEOs who fired the most workers during the economic recession have also taken home the highest pay. According to the Institute for Policy Studies, the CEOs of the fifty corporations responsible for the worst layoffs were paid an average $12 million—42 percent more than the average for the Standard & Poor’s 500. The study covered the period from November 2008 to April of this year. For 72 percent of companies, layoffs were announced at the same time as earnings were increasing. Bank Profits Soar, But Lending Drops New figures meanwhile show the nation’s banks reduced lending last quarter while seeing their highest profit jump in three years. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation reported that bank profits were up 21 percent to nearly $22 billion. But lending over the same period fell 1.3 percent, or about $96 billion. The exception was community banks or credit banks, which slightly increased lending during the same period. 5 Arrested After Shots Fired at New York Mosque Five teenagers have been arrested on charges of disrupting a religious service at a mosque in upstate New York. Police say the group shouted obscenities, set off a car alarm, and fired a shotgun over the course of two nights of harassment at the World Sufi Foundation mosque in Carlton. Mosque member Bilal Huzair witnessed the incident. Bilal Huzair: "We heard two cars that were screaming and driving back and forth, yelling obscenities, you know, against the religion itself, calling us Muslim, you know, blank-blanks. If it was a hate crime, so be it. They need to be charged as a hate crime." Seattle Man Charged with Hate Crime after Attack on Turban-Wearing Clerk In Washington state, meanwhile, a Seattle resident has been charged with a hate crime for assaulting a turban-wearing clerk at a local 7-11 convenience store. Police say the suspect punched the clerk in the head and yelled, "You’re not even American! You’re al-Qaeda! Go back to your country!" Poll: 71% of New Yorkers Oppose Islamic Center in Lower Manhattan The attacks come amidst the ongoing hysteria around plans for an Islamic cultural center blocks from New York’s Ground Zero. A poll released Tuesday shows 71 percent of New Yorkers now think the Park 51 project should be built somewhere else. Speaking in Dubai at the end of a State Department-sponsored Middle East tour, the imam for the proposed center, Feisal Abdul Rauf, criticized the campaign to delegitimize the project. Feisal Abdul Rauf: "Well, it is led by a very small group, and they have succeeded in putting some confusion, arousing confusion and suspicion, in a broader base of people. And this is unfortunate. There are always more then one opinion on any question, but it’s unfortunate that those who have sought for other purposes, for other agendas, to politicize such a project and to make it a cause of division rather than healing." Armed Suspect Killed After Taking Hostages at Discovery Channel A hostage-taking at the Maryland headquarters of the television network Discovery Channel ended Wednesday with the fatal shooting of the suspect. Police say James Lee had entered the building armed with a handgun and possibly wearing explosives. Lee was described as a mentally unstable environmentalist who had long railed against Discovery’s coverage of environmental issues. Youth Unemployment Reaches Record Level In economic news, the unemployment rate for youths reached a record 19.1 percent last month. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, it was the highest midsummer jobless rate for 16-to-24-year-olds since record keeping began in 1948. The youth unemployment rate has nearly doubled over the past two years. Meanwhile, a prominent economist from the University of Maryland is warning the US economy could experience painfully slow growth and high unemployment for another decade or longer as a result of the economic crisis and the collapse of the housing market. Economist Carmen Reinhart made the comment at a recent symposium in Wyoming organized by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. Study: More Than Half of Poor Infants Raised by Mothers Suffering from Depression A new study says over half of babies living in poverty are being raised by mothers who suffer bouts of mild to severe depression. The Washington, DC-based Urban Institute says the high rate of depression among low-income mothers could affect their children’s development. One in nine infants in poverty with mothers that have severe depression are typically breastfed less than other infants. Just 30 percent of low-income mothers suffering from depression said they had received medical help Mice, Maggots, Manure Found at Factory Egg Farms Linked to Salmonella Outbreak Federal investigators have finally had a chance to inspect the factory egg farms in Iowa linked to the largest salmonella outbreak of its kind in the United States. Inside the henhouses, investigators found live mice, infestations of flies and maggots, and eight-foot-high piles of manure. FDA officials also found that water that had been used to wash eggs at one of the farms had been tested positive for salmonella. Admin Sides with Utilities in Emissions Case The Obama administration is backing the effort of major utility companies to dismiss a case seeking to impose curbs on emissions of greenhouse gases. A group of plaintiffs including eight state governments and the City of New York has filed suit seeking to force the Tennessee Valley Authority and five other utilities to reduce their emissions each year for a decade. the Justice Department said the case is unnecessary because the Environmental Protection Agency has sought to limit emissions. But environmentalists criticized the move because the curbs have only been proposed, not enacted. Top Obama Environmental Advisers Sidelined During Drilling Talks Two of President Obama’s top environmental advisers have admitted they were excluded from the decision-making process behind the expansion of offshore drilling earlier this year. In a move criticized by environmentalists, the White House opened large swaths of the Atlantic, Gulf and Alaskan coasts to offshore oil and gas drilling. The move came just weeks before the BP oil spill in the Gulf set off the largest environmental disaster in US history. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration administrator Jane Lubchenco and Council on Environmental Quality chair Nancy Sutley both said they had a limited role in the decision process. Their disclosures came in testimony before the presidential commission investigating the oil disaster. The panel’s co-chair, William Reilly, criticized the White House for ignoring its top environmental officials. William Reilly: "I’m disappointed that a policy to expand so significantly the area of offshore oil and gas would not have involved direct consultation with the CEQ [Council on Environmental Quality] chair." Deficit Commission Co-Chair Urged to Resign over Social Security Comments the Republican co-chair of the Obama administration’s bipartisan panel on cutting the deficit is under criticism for again disparaging recipients of Social Security. In an email to the Older Women’s League, former senator Alan Simpson writes, "We’ve reached a point now where it’s like a milk cow with 310 million tits! Call when you get honest work!" Earlier this year, Simpson was videotaped calling Americans reliant on Social Security "lesser people." Simpson has apologized for his latest remarks, but critics, including Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Congress member Peter DeFazio of Oregon, are calling for his resignation. Glenn Beck Hosts Rally on Anniversary of MLK’s March on Washington In Washington, competing rallies were held August 28, on the 47th anniversary of the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech. The right-wing Fox News broadcaster Glenn Beck organized a large rally in front of the Lincoln Memorial, the same site as the 1963 march. Many of the speakers, including Sarah Palin, repeatedly invoked Martin Luther King’s name. Sarah Palin: "You have the same still spine and the moral courage of Washington and Lincoln and Martin Luther King. It is in you. It will sustain you as it sustained them. So with pride in the red, white and blue, with gratitude to our men and women in uniform, let’s stand together. Let’s stand with honor. Let’s restore America. God bless you, and God bless America." Meanwhile, civil rights leader, the Rev. Al Sharpton, organized a counter-rally called “Reclaim the Dream." He accused Glenn Beck of disgracing Martin Luther King’s name. Rev. Al Sharpton: "We wouldn’t disgrace today by allowing you to provoke us. No matter what you say, no matter what you do, we’re going to celebrate those that laid down their lives to give us a chance. This ain’t about them. This is about Dr. King." Heavily Armed Army Veteran Shot Dead in Utah An Army veteran who recently returned from Afghanistan was shot dead in Salt Lake City on Friday after he opened fire on a police officer at one of the city’s busiest intersections. At the time of his death, twenty-eight-year-old Brandon Barrett was in full military fatigues, black combat boots and a mask, carrying an assault rifle with dozens of rounds of ammunition. Barrett joined the armed forces almost four years ago but went AWOL last month. He returned in June from a yearlong deployment to Afghanistan. Environmentalist Sentenced to 4 Months for Accepting Facebook Friend Request And an environmentalist with a long rap sheet for various radical actions has been sentenced to another four months in prison for having an online interaction with another activist. A US district judge in Michigan ruled that Rod Coronado had violated the terms of his parole after he accepted a Facebook friend request from fellow radical activist Mike Roselle. In accepting Roselle’s friend request, Coronado’s action amounted to one click of his computer’s mouse. Coronado was also using what his parole officer called an "unauthorized" computer. More International News Obama Administration Sued over Plan to Assassinate US Citizens The American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights have sued the Obama administration over its claim to have the authority to assassinate US citizens accused of terrorism links abroad. Earlier this year, the Obama administration added the US-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki to a CIA list of targets for capture or killing. Al-Awlaki is currently living in Yemen. Jameel Jaffer, Deputy Legal Director of the ACLU: "One of the dangers with this kind of program, a targeted killing program, is that we will end up killing the wrong people. Dozens of times we’ve detained people as terrorists only to find out later that the evidence was weak, nonexistent or wrong. At least with detention there’s the possibility of a court challenge or the possibility of appeal, but there’s no appeal from a drone. There’s no appeal from a death sentence after it’s imposed." Vince Warren is executive director at the Center for Constitutional Rights. Vince Warren: "If we were to set the precedent of going around the world and killing people that the United States thinks are suspects, that would be setting probably one of the most dangerous precedents out there, because there would be nothing to stop, for example, China from targeting its citizens in the United States." Four African Union Troops Killed in Somalia In Somalia, four African Union troops from Uganda died when militants fired mortars at the Somali presidential palace in Mogadishu. Meanwhile, the Committee to Protect Journalists reports that veteran Somali radio journalist Barkhat Awale has been killed, becoming the second journalist killed in Somalia this year. And the size of the UN force in Somalia could soon increase dramatically as Uganda is offering to send up to 10,000 more troops contingent on receiving funding from the United States. UN: Over 1 Million Pakistanis Displaced in 2 Days The United Nations says the flooding in Pakistan has displaced an additional one million people. The warning comes as hundreds of thousands of people are being evacuated from the southern city of Thatta. At the United Nations, Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes said the flooding has significantly affected over 17 million people. Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes: "The extent of the flooding continues to spread, particularly in the southern tip of the Sindh province as the floodwaters get down right to the south of Pakistan and begin, we hope, to escape finally into the sea. But this means, as I said, that more people being affected as the flooding continues to spread even if it begins, we hope, some of the water start to recede further north. What that means is that the numbers affected have continued to rise steadily. Our latest estimate is that 17.2 million people have been significantly affected." The UN says some eight million people are in need of emergency aid. Aid officials meanwhile are warning they’re coming under threat from Taliban and other militant groups. In Washington, State Department spokesperson P.J. Crowley said the US is monitoring the threats. P.J. Crowley: "We are concerned that extremist elements within Pakistan including the TTP may well decide to attack foreigners who are in Pakistan, helping the people in Pakistan, or may choose at this time to attack government institutions in Pakistan that are responding on behalf of the Pakistani people. I think that just underscores the bankrupt vision that these extremists have, and we are conscious of that threat. We are working with the government of Pakistan to deal with that threat, but it is something that we are watching very carefully." 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