The chief judge of the Milosevic trial is pondering to delay (or cancel?) the trial because the defendent is suffering high blood pressure and is at risk of a heart attack.
Milosevic' witness list is 1,600 strong, which means if it is not seriously cut back, it would reasonably take 10 years to complete the trial.
This is becoming hilarious, or tragic, depending on your level of cynicism. UN war crimes courts have been tragic failures ever since Nuremberg, and this also makes the ICC sound like the worst possible idea.
I am getting more and more convinced the Romanians did the right thing when they just shot Nicolae Ceaucescu.
I wasn't aware it was still in the theatres here. It is even better the second time. It is my strong opinion that the Kill Bill movies, forming one story, are two of the best ever.
A disturbing article about NATO being essentially a myth outside Europe, not even able to put up any substantial forces even if the political will was present. Nato has committed politically to secure the elections in Afghanistan, but has very little force it can put on the ground.
Both Bush and Kerry has an interest in pretending Nato is not a paper tiger. Bush wants to create the impression the alliance means something in Afghanistan, and Kerry wants to create the impression that "multilateralism" in Iraq would mean something.
It is well worth noting that the another recent article on the site takes issue with both Bush and Kerry for a campaign filled with lies and distortions.
President Bush, Senator Kerry, and their operatives are deliberately using a cynical combination of calculated deception, speed, and volume to exploit the press’s reluctance to call a lie a lie. Rather than sorting through the facts and pointing out what is true and what is not — something good reporters are qualified to do — we too often treat the truth as something the reader or viewer should be able to discern from competing bits of spin. In doing so, we encourage the candidates to mislead the public. And when the “facts” are coming from every conceivable angle and around the clock, it makes it even more unlikely that the press will sort through it all and render a judgment. Bush has taken advantage of this like no other president before him (this is how he governs, not just how he campaigns) and Kerry is learning quickly how to play the game. The rules of engagement on the campaign trail have changed, and the press must change the way it covers the race or risk drowning — along with the voters — under a toxic tsunami.
This is a dangerous development (though hardly as new as the author suggests). It is right to blame both the campaigns for lying and the press for passing on lies. Reporters fail to even attempt to uncover the truth, instead they have become mere microphone holders for conflicting claims.
The pseudo-objectivity created by “balancing” one half-truth against another does nothing to help voters make an informed choice. Instead, since candidates know they are much more likely to have their misleading spin repeated than to have it debunked, it is easier and more convenient to simply say whatever they think they can get away with and move on.
However, it can be argued that the ultimate fault lies with the voter who accepts "our side's lies" and even cheers them on when it targets the opposition. Liars are not punished, they are voted into office. Michael Moore hardly invented this dirty game, he just exploits the existing market like any good capitalist.
The Afghan president Hamid Karzai has ordered the death penalty for criminals who kidnap children to remove their organs for resale for organ transplants.
Authorities say kidnappers are the first link in an international chain of organized crime that sees Afghan children sold as servants, for sexual abuse, or for their organs that are sold for huge profits abroad.
Daqiq said authorities were investigating 47 cases of child kidnapping and trafficking in Kabul alone.
In some cases, residents say authorities have taken bribes to free kidnappers after arresting them.
A child rescued from kidnappers told Reuters last month in the southern city of Kandahar that he had seen the bodies of four boys of about his age that had been cut open and had their organs removed.
Officials said the kidnappers took the organs for sale in neighboring Pakistan where people are prepared to pay large amounts of money for healthy organs for transplants.
Obviously a hideous crime, but much rarer in real life than in the press. I have reasons to suspect this is yet another instance of aviciousurbanlegend that has made the rounds in the press and through the Internet for a long time. In the third world, the false stories are even more dangerous, and have cost the lives of a number of innocent foreigners around the world, including foreign health workers who try to aid children and are tragically targeted by mobs who believe such stories.
The documented cases of illegal organ trade involve poor people convinced to sell organs, typically a kidney, and then the operation is performed in a hospital. Organs from children would of course only be usable on other children, not adults, where the demand is much higher.
I don't deny it is possible, but in rural, primitive Afghanistan I would argue this is extremely unlikely. Organs have to be removed under very controlled circumstances and stored carefully. Only reasonably sophisticated hospitals can perform the operations, and storage and transportation must meet very strict demands. Time is also critical. Finally, the donor organ and the recipient of the organ must match biologically, and even then a transplant is very risky. This is why one normally tries to find matching donors in the family of the patient.
Kidnapping of children is almost always performed for another, no less sinister, purpose, typically exploiting the children for forced labour or, even worse, the international sex trade.
The press is unfortunately uncritical in reporting myths about organ trade and transplants, which again reduces the availability of organs for patients who desperately need them to survive.
