Friday, 18 February 2011

Baghdad wants U.S. to pay $1 billion for damage to city

Iraq's capital wants the United States to apologize and pay $1 billion for the damage done to the city not by bombs but by blast walls and Humvees since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
The city's government issued its demands in a statement on Wednesday that said Baghdad's infrastructure and aesthetics have been seriously damaged by the American military.
"The U.S. forces changed this beautiful city to a camp in an ugly and destructive way, which reflected deliberate ignorance and carelessness about the simplest forms of public taste," the statement said.
"Due to the huge damage, leading to a loss the Baghdad municipality cannot afford...we demand the American side apologize to Baghdad's people and pay back these expenses."
The statement made no mention of damage caused by bombing.
Baghdad's neighborhoods have been sealed off by miles of concrete blast walls, transforming the city into a tangled maze that contributes to massive traffic jams. Despite a sharp reduction in overall violence in recent years only 5 percent of the walls have been removed, officials said.
The heavy blast walls have damaged sewer and water systems, pavement and parks, said Hakeem Abdul Zahra, the city spokesman.
U.S. military Humvees, driven on street medians and through gardens, have also caused major damage, he said.
"The city of Baghdad feels these violations, which have taken place for years, have caused economic and moral damage," he said.
U.S. troops pulled out of Iraq's cities in June 2009 before formally ending combat operations last August. Around 50,000 remain in Iraq but they are scheduled to withdraw by year end.
Baghdad is badly in need of a facelift. Electricity and trash collection are sporadic, streets are potholed and sewage treatment plants and pipes have not been renovated for years.
Iraq has seen growing protests in recent weeks over poor government services.
Zahra said the city's statement issued on Wednesday would be the start of its measures to get the United States to pay for damages but he did not say what other steps might be taken.
@'Reuters'

♪♫ Oesch's die Dritten - Ku-Ku Jodel

Thursday, 17 February 2011

The Daily Exorcism

via

Bahrain

BitTorrent is to movies what "bolt-cutters are to stealing bicycles"

(GB2011) Scrap the minimum wage for young people

Youth unemployment in the UK is at a record high, with nearly a million 16 to 24-year olds out of work – 20.5% of that age group. Around 600,000 of them have never worked at all. Youth unemployment is particularly worrying. If young people cannot get a job and learn work skills, and the basic habits of work, it blights their whole lives. Sadly, too few youngsters are not getting into the work stream but instead are getting drawn into the welfare stream. Instead of learning about life in work, they are learning about life on benefits.
Youth unemployment – and the same is true of immigrants and other minority groups – is always worst when times are hard. Employers keep the best workers and shed the labour they do not value so much. And the fact is that young people are just not worth as much to employers as older workers. They may have no marketable skills. They will have little or no experience of how workplaces operate. They might, after a decade and a half of state education, even lack basic life skills.
And yet government regulation forces employers to pay not less than £4.92 per hour for 18 to 20-year-olds and £5.93 for those 21 and above. It is plain that many employers think a large proportion of young people are just not worth that amount of money too them. Particularly when other employment legislation adds to their costs even more, and makes it almost impossible to get rid of workers they find they don't need. No wonder they aren't hiring.
It's time to scrap the minimum wage for young people. It just prices them out of jobs, so does them no good at all. For them, low-paid work is a way of building up some human capital that will make it easier to find a better job. But we stop them even getting that work at all – and all in the name of protecting workers.
HERE

NickKristof Nicholas Kristof

At hospital in #Bahrain. 600 brought here w/ injuries as of 8 am, more since. Beatings, shotgun pellets, rubber bullets.

Bahrain government officials resign as protests continue

"King Hamad, you are responsible".

Crackdown in Pearl Square

2احداث البيضاء ليبيا 2011/2/16

Protesters chant "Gaddafi you dictator! Your turn has come! Your turn has come!"

Libyan protesters prepare for 'day of rage'

Footage broadcast by Libya's state television showing Libyans holding portraits of Muammar Gaddafi

State television shows Libyans holding portraits of Muammar Gaddafi during a demonstration in support of him in Sebha. Photograph: Libyan TV/AFP/Getty Images

Protesters in Libya are planning to take to the streets for a "day of rage," inspired by uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, but rights groups warned of a possible crackdown by security forces.
In a country where public dissent is rare, plans for the protests were being circulated by anonymous activists on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, and it was not clear if the demonstrations would materialise.
Libya has been tightly controlled for over 40 years by Muammar Gaddafi – who is now Africa's longest-serving leader – but the oil exporter has felt the ripples from the overthrow of long-standing leaders in its neighbours Egypt and Tunisia.
Though some Libyans complain about unemployment, inequality and limits on political freedoms, analysts say an Egypt-style revolt is unlikely because the government can use oil revenues to smooth over most social problems.
Witnesses and local media reported that several hundred people clashed with police and Gaddafi supporters on Tuesday night in the city of Benghazi, about 1,000km (600 miles) east of the Libyan capital.
Late on Wednesday evening, it was impossible to contact witnesses in Benghazi because telephone connections to the city appeared to be out of order.
State media reported there were pro-Gaddafi protests too across the country, with people chanting "We sacrifice our blood and souls for you, our leader!" and "We are a generation built by Muammar and anyone who opposes it will be destroyed!"
People posting messages on opposition website Libya Our Home, which is based outside the country, urged Libyans to protest and drew parallels with the uprising this month that toppled the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak.
"From every square in our beloved country, people should all come together in one city and one square to make this regime and its supporters afraid, and force them to run away because they are cowards," said a post from someone called Mustafa.
A Facebook page dedicated to the planned protest urged followers to "make it a day of rage in Libya".
Gaddafi says Libya does not need to import western concepts of democracy because it is run on his system - known as the Third Universal Theory - under which citizens govern themselves through grassroots institutions called popular committees.
Thursday is the anniversary of clashes on 17 February 2006 in Benghazi, when security forces killed several protesters who were attacking the city's Italian consulate.
Amnesty International voiced concern about a new crackdown. "The Libyan authorities must allow peaceful protests, not try to stifle them with heavy-handed repression," it said in a statement.
@'The Guardian'