Canadians who are simply walking along thePolice -- who actually must be pretty bored,
street are under no obligation to tell police their name or agree to be
searched. “Papers, please,” are not words that people in this country
need to fear.
The report looks at five measures of
healthcare -- quality, efficiency, access to care, equity and the
ability to lead long, healthy, productive lives.
Britain, whose nationalized healthcare
system was widely derided by opponents of U.S. healthcare reform, ranks
first in quality while the Netherlands ranked first overall on all
scores, the Commonwealth team found.
In an ironic twist of events, US citizens have discovered that it
is their tax money that indirectly funds Taliban - the very people their
troops are fighting in Afghanistan.
A congressional
investigation revealed that millions of dollars spent by the US
military for security puposes has inadvertently gone into the pockets
of the Taliban.
The US pays millions of dollars annually to local warlords across
Afghanistan in exchange for gunmen to protect the supply convoys.
Investigations
revealed that these gunmen in turn bribed the Taliban not to attack.
When
convoys refused to pay warlords, their trucks were often attacked.
The
report concluded that this has undermined US efforts to end corruption
and build an effective Afghan government. On the contrary, it has
unwittingly funded the insurgency.
...
Sorry"Mr.
Speaker, this is a fundamental denial of Israel's right to exist,"
Harper said in the House of Commons on Tuesday. "It repeats the kind of
comments that were made by Helen Thomas on which she was forced to
resign and the member of the NDP who said those should be forced to
resign as well."Thomas was the veteran White House correspondent
who resigned after saying Jews in Israel should "get the hell out of
Palestine" and "go back to Poland, Germany, America and everywhere
else."Liberal foreign affairs critic Bob Rae also denounced
Davies' comments."To deny the state of Israel's right to exist
and to propose an international campaign of boycotts, divestments and
sanctions against a legitimate member of the world community for over
60 years is to reveal a level of hostility and ignorance that is truly
breathtaking," Rae said in a written statement.In a media scrum
later, Rae argued that Davies' comments were not simply a slip of the
tongue and called for her to step down as deputy leader.Earlier
this month, Davies was interviewed at a rally in Vancouver and asked
if she believes the occupation in Israel began in 1948 or 1967. After
hesitating, she answered:"Forty-eight. I mean, it's the longest
occupation in the world. But I mean, I'm not going to argue numbers.
It's too long, right?" She went on to say, "I mean, this is the longest
occupation in the world. People are suffering. I've been to the West
Bank in Gaza twice so I've seen for myself what's going on."The
state of Israel was established in 1948.In the video, Davies is
also asked if she supports the international campaign of boycotts, divestments
and sanctions against Israel (known as the BDS movement).
"I haven't even actually gone that far. You gotta understand, I'm
probably the strongest supporter in Parliament. There is virtually no
information in the political arena or understanding about the BDS movement.
People are actually afraid to speak out on this issue.… Elected people
who are sympathetic are actually afraid to speak out," Davies answers.
Later in the video, Davies says she personally supports the BDS movement,
adding, however, that she's not "someone who's there" but is instead a
Canadian politician demanding the Canadian government speak out more on
the issues.The interview was posted on YouTube.
Since
her comments were made public, Davies has posted on her website a
letter she sent to the editor of The Ottawa Citizen."My
reference to the year 1948 as the beginning of the Israeli occupation
of Palestinian territory was a serious and completely inadvertent
error," she wrote. "I apologize for this and regret any confusion it
has caused. I have always supported a two-state solution to the ongoing
Israeli-Palestinian conflict and have never questioned Israel's right
to exist and the Palestinians' right to a viable state."
Violence
in southern Kyrgyzstan started on Thursday, when armed mobs
attacked Uzbek neighborhoods - called mahallas - in the city of Osh.
Hundreds of people were killed, homes were set on fire, tens of
thousands of ethnic Uzbeks fled towards the border with neighboring
Uzbekistan, and supplies of food and
water are running low.
The scale of the violence makes it the worst to hit Kyrgyzstan in
decades - but tensions between ethnic Uzbeks and Kyrgyz have long been a
problem in and around Osh.
Liberal Leader Michael
Ignatieff has criticized the budget legislation as a "dumpster bill" but
says he's not prepared to force an election over what he calls "an
abuse of power."
“The Israeli soldiers beat me on the ship,” said Audeh in a telephone
interview with CBC from Jordan.
“They had us bound, handcuffed
... and we were detained for an extensive period of time and were not
allowed to go to the washrooms ... or sleep. It's been a rough 24 to 48
hours, let's put it that way.”
Audeh said the attack began in the early hours of Monday morning when
Israeli naval ships began firing live rounds, rubber bullets and sound
bombs at the flotilla.
Troops then boarded the ships via
helicopter and began shooting at the passengers, Audeh said, adding that
dozens were injured in the attack.
Audeh denied Israeli reports
that the flotilla passengers responded to the raid with violence and
resistance, calling such accusations “ridiculous.”
“The question
is, why were they coming after us in international waters and attacking
us? It was a humanitarian aid ship. We were all civilians, we were
unarmed and we did not attack them.”
...
A word on the legal position, which is very plain. To attack a
foreign flagged vessel in international waters is illegal. It is not
piracy, as the Israeli vessels carried a military commission. It is
rather an act of illegal warfare.
Because the incident took place on the high seas does not mean
however that international law is the only applicable law. The Law of
the Sea is quite plain that, when an incident takes place
on a ship on the high seas (outside anybody’s territorial waters) the
applicable law is that of the flag state of the ship on which the
incident occurred. In legal terms, the Turkish ship was Turkish
territory.
There are therefore two clear legal possibilities.
Possibility one is that the Israeli commandos were acting on behalf
of the government of Israel in killing the activists on the ships. In
that case Israel is in a position of war with Turkey, and the act falls
under international jurisdiction as a war crime.
Possibility two is that, if the killings were not authorised Israeli
military action, they were acts of murder under Turkish jurisdiction. If
Israel does not consider itself in a position of war with Turkey, then
it must hand over the commandos involved for trial in Turkey under
Turkish law.
In brief, if Israel and Turkey are not at war, then it is Turkish law
which is applicable to what happened on the ship. It is for Turkey, not
Israel, to carry out any inquiry or investigation into events and to
initiate any prosecutions. Israel is obliged to hand over indicted
personnel for prosecution.
...
The UN Security
Council has condemned acts leading to the deaths of civilians during
Monday's Israeli attack on a humanitarian aid convoy that was headed to
the Gaza Strip.
In a formal statement adopted after more than 10 hours of closed-door
negotiations, the council requested the immediate release of ships and
civilians held by Israel and called for an impartial investigation.
...
See also:
Previous Activists Killed By Israel
One of the ships in the Freedom Flotilla aid convoy is named Rachel Corrie, in honour of an American peace activist killed by an Israeli army bulldozer.
US Middle East policy in spotlight
... among some quarters in Washington, questions over unqualified US support for Israel remain.
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