Date-Time: Monday, February 06, 2012 at 03:49:16 UTC Monday, February 06, 2012 at 11:49:16 AM at epicenter Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones Location: 9.964°N, 123.246°E Depth: 46.6 km (29.0 miles) Region: NEGROS - CEBU REGION, PHILIPPINES Distances: 72 km (44 miles) N of Dumaguete, Negros, Philippines 74 km (45 miles) WNW of Tagbilaran, Bohol, Philippines 80 km (49 miles) WSW of Cebu, Cebu, Philippines 569 km (353 miles) SSE of MANILA, Philippines

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (left) stands next to African Union (AU) Chairman Jean Ping on May 24, 2011 during the opening ceremony of the second Africa-India summit attended by 15 African countries in Addis Ababa.
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East African

Collaborative space dedicated to Western CoE members to share information, ideas, documents...more on the networkNepad initiative on Wikipedia.
www.aquaknow.net/.../nepad-western-african-coe-network-me...

The interactive session, which was organised by the office of the Special Assistant on New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), had as its theme: “Understanding and Improving Public-Private-Participation: Issues arising.
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In 130 BC, a ship fashioned from the wood of walnut trees, bulging with medicines and Syrian glassware, sank off the coast of Tuscany, Italy. Archaeologists found its precious load 20 years ago and now, for the first time, archaeobotanists have been able to examine and analyse pills that were prepared by the physicians of ancient Greece. DNA analyses show that each millennia-old tablet is a mixture of more than 10 different plant extracts, from hibiscus to celery. "Medicinal plants have been identified before, but not a compound medicine, so this is really something new," says Alain Touwaide, director of the Institute for the Preservation of Medical Traditions, which has the world's largest digital database of medical manuscripts. The pills, which researchers believe were diluted with vinegar or water to make them easier to ingest, were preserved inside tin boxes and were the size of coins. "What is remarkable is that we have written evidence [from the ancient Greeks] of what plants were used for which disorders," says Alisa Machalek, a science writer for the National Institute of Health, one of the world's leading research centres. "This research is interesting, especially for medical historians, because it confirms that what we eat affects our bodies." The shift toward synthetic chemical medicines occurred in the 20th Century, but according to Mark Blumenthal, the founder and executive director of the American Botanical Council, there is renewed interest in the medicinal benefits of natural foods - including those found in the pills.

Just as happened before the Iraq War, those who want to bomb Iran are scaring the American people with made-up scenarios about grave dangers ahead, new warnings as ludicrous as the "mushroom cloud" tales that panicked the U.S. public a decade ago, reports Robert Parry. A weak point in the psyches of many Americans is that they allow their imaginations to run wild about potential threats to their personal safety, no matter how implausible the dangers may be. Perhaps, this is a side effect from watching too many scary movies and violent TV shows. But this vulnerability also may explain why the current war hysteria against Iran is reviving the sorts of fanciful threats to the United States last seen before the Iraq War. Since right-wing Israelis and their neocon allies are having trouble selling the U.S. public on a new preemptive war in the Middle East, they have again resorted to dreaming up hypothetical scenarios to scare easily frightened Americans. For instance, in a New York Times Magazine article on Jan. 29 by Israeli journalist Ronen Bergman - which essentially laid out Israel's case for attacking Iran - Moshe Ya'alon, Israel's vice prime minister and minister of strategic affairs, is quoted as explaining the need to make Americans very afraid of Iran. Bergman wrote: "It is, of course, important for Ya'alon to argue that this is not just an Israeli-Iranian dispute, but a threat to America's well-being. 'The Iranian regime will be several times more dangerous if it has a nuclear device in its hands,' he went on. 'One that it could bring into the United States. It is not for nothing that it is establishing bases for itself in Latin America and creating links with drug dealers on the U.S.-Mexican border. "'This is happening in order to smuggle ordnance into the United States for the carrying out of terror attacks. Imagine this regime getting nuclear weapons to the U.S.-Mexico border and managing to smuggle it into Texas, for example. This is not a far-fetched scenario.'"

China has taken its relationship with Africa to a new level by snuggling to the continental body, the African Union. It has given a concrete evidence to authenticate that relationship and provided a new $200m (£127m) AU headquarters, funded and built ...
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Myjoyonline.com

Prosecutors like Eric Schneiderman need cops on the beat to put financial crooks behind bars. But thanks to Bush, these cops are missing in action. American Public Media's "Marketplace" had a recent segment focused on why it has taken so long to bring criminal prosecutions related to the financial crisis. Reporters observed that at the beginning of the crisis, the Obama administration wanted to calm the financial industry rather than impose accountability. They speculated, along with Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street participants, many of whom have been calling for prosecutions, that Obama's creation of a new group to prosecute mortgage fraud led by New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman was likely to be politically motivated. And they indicated that financial crimes are complex and prosecutors need time to develop their cases. But here's what they didn't say: A major reason the prosecutions don't exist is that President George W. Bush took the cops off the beat. Think about street crime. Imagine, for example, a protection racket in which gangs extort payment from fearful shopkeepers. Prosecutors rarely initiate criminal prosecutions; indeed, they may not even know that the crime is occurring. The police pound the beats that keep them aware of the increase in crime, respond to complaints, investigate, determine that a crime may have occurred that warrants attention, create a file and send it to the prosecutor's office. In routine cases, the prosecution proceeds on the basis of the police report alone. In more complex cases, the prosecutor may supplement the police investigation. But prosecutors rarely initiate cases. Even when a task force is appointed to target crime in a particular sector, it typically involves prosecutors working with the police. The prosecutors simply don't have the skills or the manpower to detect crime, conduct investigations and make the record necessary to prosecute.

Montreal - A casual text message to work colleagues encouraging them to ''blow away'' the competition at a trade show allegedly plunged a Muslim man into a terrorism probe. Telecommunications sales manager Saad Allami says the innocent message, aimed at pumping up his staff, has had devastating consequences on his life. The Quebec man says he was arrested by provincial police while picking up his seven-year-old son at school. A team of police officers stormed into his home, telling his wife she was married to a terrorist. And his work colleagues were detained for hours at the U.S. border because of their connection to him. Those are the allegations Allami makes in a lawsuit filed last month. The Moroccan native is seeking $100,000 from the Quebec provincial police force, one of its sergeants, and the provincial government. The six-figure sum is being sought for unlawful detention, unlawful arrest, loss of income and damage to his reputation.

Ten protesters and one security officer killed in Cairo and Suez in aftermath of deadly football violence At least 11 people have been killed in clashes with Egyptian security forces amid ongoing fallout from the 74 deaths at a football match in Port Said earlier this week. Five people were killed when hundreds of demonstrators in Cairo clashed with police near the interior ministry on Saturday morning. The protesters are demanding an end to military rule and retribution for those killed in the riots after Wednesday's match. Abdolheliem Mahmoud, a doctor at a field hospital in Tahrir Square, said Saturday's victims died birdshot to the head or chest during overnight clashes. Another protester was in critical condition. Demonstrators claimed that police fired rounds of teargas into the crowds and field hospitals were set up in streets near the interior ministry to help hundreds of cases of suffocation.

UN report says 3,021 civilians killed in 2011 8% increase on 2010 and fifth consecutive rise Number of suicide bombings static but toll rises 80% The civilian death toll for the war in Afghanistan reached a record high last year with 3,021 deaths, according to the United Nations. The number killed rose by 8% last year - the fifth consecutive rise - with a further 4,507 civilians wounded, the UN report said. Many were killed by roadside bombs or in suicide attacks, with Taliban-affiliated militants responsible for three-quarters of the deaths. The number of deaths caused by suicide bombings jumped to 450, an 80% increase over the previous year, even though the number of suicide attacks remained about the same. "A decade after the war began, the human cost of it is still rising," said Georgette Gagnon, director for human rights for the UN mission in Afghanistan.

A casual text message to work colleagues encouraging them to "blow away" the competition at a trade show allegedly plunged a Muslim man into a terrorism probe. Telecommunications sales manager Saad Allami says the innocent message, aimed at pumping up his staff, has had devastating consequences on his life. The Quebec man says he was arrested by provincial police while picking up his seven-year-old son at school. A team of police officers stormed into his home, telling his wife she was married to a terrorist. And his work colleagues were detained for hours at the U.S. border because of their connection to him.

Fears of an internet meltdown during the London Games may lead to web access being rationed for British businesses British businesses are being warned that they could lose their internet connections during the Olympics due to a surge in the number of people going online at key times. The demand could be such that internet companies might be forced to ration access, according to official advice. The warning, in the Cabinet Office's official advice, Preparing your Business for the Games, says that the country's telecoms system may be unable to cope with demand to access the internet in certain areas. Businesses are being encouraged to offer staff flexible working arrangements to try to ease the pressure. The document, shared with government departments, states: "It is possible that internet services may be slower during the Games or, in very severe cases, there may be dropouts due to an increased number of people accessing the internet." The document says that internet service providers "may introduce data caps during peak times to try to spread the loading and give a more equal service to their entire customer base", leading to concerns that major corporations or those in areas of high usage could experience problems.

Nicolas Sarkozy has been accused of stage-managing a visit to a construction site by bussing in fake "workers" to make him look more popular. The accusations against the French president come ahead of elections he is polled to lose. Mr Sarkozy, 57, received a warm response from workers when he visited the social housing construction site in Mennecy, Essonne, near Paris on Thursday. However, yesterday it was claimed that half the crowd of "workers" who braved the cold to meet the President had been specially drafted in for the occasion and had nothing to do with the building work. "I only recognised two or three but I didn't know the others," Ambroise, one bona fide bricklayer told Europe 1 radio. "They wanted more people around Nicolas Sarkozy," he said, adding that there were twice as many workers than usual.

Thanks to a subservient mainstream media, we are now fed a constant diet of preposterous double-think from American political leaders and their Israeli minions with regard to Iran and its alleged threat to world security. In this inadvertently valuable service, the pliant uncritical mainstream media is giving full vent to the most outrageous drivel dressed up as serious discourse. By acting as mouthpieces rather than critical interlocutors, the media are allowing such political figures to indict themselves with their own baseless, contradictory and hypocritical words. A few recent examples: Director of US National Intelligence James Clapper Jr in congressional testimony this week asserted that Iranian leaders are "now more willing to conduct an attack in the United States in response to real or perceived US actions that threaten the regime". The Washington Post reported the "intelligence" briefing with the headline: 'Iran, perceiving threat from West, willing to attack on US soil, US intelligence report finds. Yet Clapper, the US nation's supposed intelligence supremo, presents no evidence to support his reckless claim that Iranian forces are preparing such attacks. Indeed, the Washington Post notes in the same paragraph quoting the Director of National Intelligence: "US officials said they have seen no intelligence to indicate that Iran is actively plotting attacks on US soil." Then the paper goes on to amplify the unfounded accusations and assertions, by writing: "The warning about Iran's more aggressive stance was included in written testimony that Clapper submitted to Congress". Note how the paper in the space of few words moves effortlessly from acknowledging that there is no evidence to support Clapper's claptrap premise to peddling the claptrap conclusion that Iran has taken a "more aggressive stance". Rather than taking Clapper to task to justify his hyperbole about Iranian "threats on American soil" and possibly misleading Congress and the American people, the Washington Post passively goes along with the flow of what appears to be out-and-out propaganda. This meekness and complicity of the media in conditioning public opinion for a baseless war on Iran has echoes of the elusive, non-existent weapons of mass destruction that US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister were allowed to lie about by the same media for their criminal war on Iraq. But, as noted, this abject "churnalism" may eventually be a good thing. For it allows political leaders and their advisors to hang themselves with their own words.

The Brazilian government has deployed the army in the northeastern state of Bahia where a police strike has sparked a wave of violence. Official figures suggest the murder rate has more than doubled in the state capital, Salvador, since police stopped work there on Tuesday. The number of assaults and thefts has also risen compared to previous weeks.

Well below zero from Kyushu to Hokkaido and more cold looms The country experienced severe cold weather Friday and morning temperatures dropped to record lows at 38 locations nationwide, the Meteorological Agency said. From Tohoku to Kyushu, 16 prefectures recorded their lowest temperatures ever, including the town of Kusu in Oita Prefecture, where the mercury fell to minus 14.7 degrees, and Mashiki, Kumamoto Prefecture, where the temperature plunged to minus 8.4. Temperatures were below zero early Friday at more than 90 percent of 927 observation points across Japan, the agency said. The lowest figure was minus 32.6 in Esashi, Hokkaido.

Nobel Peace Prize officials were facing a formal inquiry over accusations they have drifted away from the prize's original selection criteria by choosing such winners as President Barack Obama, as the nomination deadline for the 2012 awards closed Wednesday. The investigation comes after persistent complaints by a Norwegian peace researcher that the original purpose of the prize was to diminish the role of military power in international relations. If the Stockholm County Administrative Board, which supervises foundations in Sweden's capital, finds that prize founder Alfred Nobel's will is not being honored, it has the authority to suspend award decisions going back three years - though that would be unlikely and unprecedented, said Mikael Wiman, a legal expert working for the county. Obama won in 2009, Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo won in 2010, and last year the award was split between Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian activist Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman of Yemen.

Anti-war activists across the United States and Canada have held rallies to protest at US and Israeli warmongering policies against Iran, Press TV reports. The demonstrations were staged on Saturday in 60 cities across the US, including Washington DC, New York, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia and San Francisco. In Canada, protests were held in Calgary and Vancouver. The protests were organized by a coalition of about 60 pacifist and human rights groups. The demonstrators censured any possible military action against Iran, saying that any such measure could result in dire consequences including escalated war in the Middle East and Northern Africa. The activists also demanded an end to sanctions against Tehran, referring to the embargoes as a war against the Iranian people.

A House-Senate conference report this week called on the Administration to accelerate the use of civilian unmanned aerial systems (UAS), or "drones," in U.S. airspace. The pending authorization bill for the Federal Aviation Administration directs the Secretary of Transporation to develop within nine months "a comprehensive plan to safely accelerate the integration of civil unmanned aircraft systems into the national airspace system." "The plan... shall provide for the safe integration of civil unmanned aircraft systems into the national airspace system as soon as practicable, but not later than September 30, 2015."