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26. februar 2005
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Miguel has the scoop on the fake pictures with fake crowds promoting Venezuela's fake revolution.
Now, who said bloggers don't do original reporting?
11:01:57 PM 
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Children are married to dogs in a tribal ceremony in northern India, according to Ananova, a great collector of weird stories from around the world.
Residents of Kuluptang in Jharkhand organised the 'kukur vivaha' or 'marriage of dogs' with local children in a bid to ward off evil.
Parents of children whose first tooth grows out of the upper jaw perform such marriages "for the peace and welfare of the entire community" because such growth is considered "inauspicious".
The last sentence in the article had me jumping, however, and I sincerely hope it doesn't mean what it sounds like.
Sonamuni, a 54-year-old woman, whose three-year-old granddaughter was given away in marriage to a dog, told Press Trust of India: "The wedding was no less important than other ceremonies. All customs which are normally associated with marriage were followed but discreetly."
8:26:39 PM
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It's been a popular pastime in European media to point to quizzes showing the ignorance of American students about subjects like geography. One country often hailed as an example for schools worldwide, Japan, can often show impressive results, but certainly not in geography:
North Korea has menaced Japan with missiles, kidnapped its citizens and stands between it and a place in the soccer World Cup finals, but one in four Japanese high-school students can't place the country on a map.
Only 76 percent of high school pupils in a survey by an academic body could locate the reclusive communist state, despite a daily bombardment of news about it in the Japanese media.
As for Iraq, where Japan has some 550 soldiers in one of the country's most controversial overseas deployments and where a Japanese was beheaded by kidnappers, over 40 percent of university students and high-school pupils couldn't find it.
I guess we can politely agree that a quite high proportion of high school students everywhere are totally ignorant.
6:42:48 PM
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Second only to Jihadists, the group most easy to anger must be animal rights activists. Kraft Foods probably hoped they would get some extra publicity for candy shaped like critters run over by cars, and they did.
The fruity-flavored Trolli Road Kill Gummi Candy — in shapes of partly flattened snakes, chickens and squirrels — fosters cruelty toward animals, according to the New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
"It sends the wrong message to children, that it's OK to harm animals. And that's the wrong message, especially from a so-called wholesome corporation like Kraft," said society spokesman Matthew Stanton.
The society is considering petition drives, boycotts and letter-writing campaigns to get the candy pulled from the market, Stanton said.
After receiving a complaint from the NJSPCA Wednesday, Kraft officials pulled an animated advertisement from Trolli's Web site that featured car headlights and animals. No other decisions on changes have been made, said Kraft spokesman Larry Baumann.
Kraft can save on its advertising budget now that the activists did their job for them. Clever!
PS: I propose a new Kraft product: PETA nut fruitcakes!
6:36:09 PM
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Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak announces democratic reforms.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Saturday ordered a revision of the country's election laws and said multiple candidates could run in the nation's presidential elections, a scenario Mubarak hasn't faced since becoming the country's leader in 1981.
In his surprise announcement, Mubarak said the country needed "more freedom and democracy," responding to critics' calls for political reform in Egypt. The possibility of a democratic election comes shortly after the historic elections in Iraq and the Palestinian territories that brought a taste of democracy to a region the United States has urged to reform.
"The election of a president will be through direct, secret balloting, giving the chance for political parties to run for the presidential elections and providing guarantees that allow more than one candidate for the people to choose among them with their own will," Mubarak said in an address broadcast live on Egyptian television.
Mubarak — who has never faced an opponent since becoming president after the 1981 assassination of Anwar Sadat — said his initiative came "out of my full conviction of the need to consolidate efforts for more freedom and democracy."
Uh, ok, this surprised me. Is it for real? I am not the only one surprised, and certainly not the only one to be skeptical:
Hafez Abu Saada, director of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, praised Mubarak's "unexpected step," which he said reflected local, regional and international pressure.
"It is an important step that gives the Egyptian society a strong push for more freedom and democracy," he said.
Activist Aida Seif el-Dawla was tentative in her praise.
"This concession is made to the United States of America. It is better for him (Mubarak) if this decision came as a result of the national dialogue with the opposition parties and in response to the protests against the law," she said. "Let us wait and see, because a free campaign of more than one candidate requires more than a statement from the president."
I can't claim to have predicted Mubarak to give in to Bush's and Rice's pressure so fast. Of course, if he really saw the writing on the wall, the only sensible thing for him is to announce democracy fast, thus giving himself a good shot at actually winning a democratic election.
Also, as Putin has demonstrated in Russia, there is democracy and there is democracy. Free elections also require a free press and freedom for opponents to campaign. This development will be followed very closely.
PS: More from the BBC. Mubarak's surprise announcement may ensure that he actually wins:
A meeting in Cairo of G8 and Arab foreign ministers was recently cancelled because it was expected to raise sensitive issues about reforms in Egypt.
But the president will now be able to silence his critics, our correspondent says.
She says it is unlikely that any candidate from an opposition party will be able to win against Mr Mubarak in the short term.
We'll see. The democratic process is often full of surprises. If Mubarak indeed wins free and fair elections, more power to him (literally!).
12:34:38 PM
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A Palestinian terrorist blew himself up, killing at least four people and wounding 50 others outside a discotheque in Tel Aviv, just before midnight.
Defense sources told Haaretz that the bomber, Abdullah Badran, a resident of the West Bank town of Deir al Ghusun, had connections to Fatah and Islamic Jihad agents in the Tul Karm region as well as with Hezbollah. Palestinian security officials issued a similar assessment.
The village of Deir al Ghusun is adjacent to the separation fence. Security officials said it remains unclear how Badran was able to reach Tel Aviv, though they believe Badran travelled through Jerusalem.
The Israel Defense Forces imposed a curfew early Saturday on a West Bank village, arresting five people and informing a family that their son was the suicide bomber who earlier attacked a Tel Aviv night club, Palestinian security officials said. [...]
The militant Islamic Jihad organization initially claimed responsibility for the attack, while members of the Fatah-linked Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades said the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah was involved in the bombing.
A senior Palestinian security official confirmed the bomber was recruited by Hezbollah. The official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said the bomber, a Palestinian from the northern West Bank town of Tul Karm, was a member of the Brigades.
The army said troops had carried out an arrest raid and that a curfew had temporarily been imposed, but gave no further details.
Hezbollah denies involvement. It is notable, of course, that the Lebanese terrorists have so far avoided being branded a terrorist organisation by the EU, and admitting involvement in a suicide bombing would make it difficult even for the French to keep up that charade.
Naturally, it is in Abu Mazen's interest to blame somebody outside his sphere of control. For once, all the usual suspects have denied involvement, maybe indicating that the tone in the PA has changed (at least!). Somewhat interestingly, it appears to be in the interests of Israel, too, to not totally sever the ties with the new PA, on which so much hope has been based.
Saying what he needed to say to try to salvage the peace, Abu Mazen promised to crack down:
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has pledged to punish the perpetrators.
"The Palestinian Authority will not stand silent in the face of this act of sabotage," he said in a statement after a meeting with security chiefs, quoted by the Associated Press news agency.
Those words must be followed by action. Sharon may sound like a dove these days, but if there is no genuine change in Palestine, he also knows that the peace process is futile.
10:46:53 AM
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© Copyright 2005 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.03.2005; 01:33:27.
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