Sunday, December 26, 2004

Indian Ocean – The death toll continues to grow and millions face a homeless life in the new year as coastal communities in south Asia struggle against continued aftershocks and flooding caused by the largest earthquake to strike the planet in more than a generation.

The magnitude 9.0 undersea megathrust earthquake struck off the western coast of Sumatra, Indonesia on December 26, 2004, at 00:58:50 UTC (or 07:58:50 local time in Jakarta and Bangkok).

The earthquake was the strongest in the world since the 9.2-magnitude Good Friday Earthquake which struck Alaska, USA in 1964, and the fourth largest since 1900. More than 140,000 deaths[1] were caused by resulting tsunami, which in Thailand were up to 10 meters (33 feet) tall, and struck within three hours of the initial event.

Multiple tsunamis struck and ravaged coastal regions all over the Indian Ocean, devastating regions including the Indonesian province of Aceh, the coast of Sri Lanka, coastal areas of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the resort island of Phuket, Thailand, and even as far away as Somalia, 4,100 km (2,500 mi) west of the epicenter.

While the earthquake and the tsunamis are no longer ongoing (other than aftershocks), the humanitarian and economic crisis generated by the disaster is still ongoing. This report will attempt to cover the crisis as it continues to develop.

Saturday, July 22, 2017

On Thursday, Chester Bennington, lead singer of US rock band Linkin Park, died in his home in Los Angeles at the age of 41. The Los Angeles county coroner confirmed Bennington’s death; reportedly it was being investigated as a possible suicide.

A two-time Grammy award winner with the band, Chester Bennington joined Linkin Park when he was 23. Also featuring rapper Mike Shinoda, Linkin Park released their first album, Hybrid Theory, in 2000. The band went on to release six more albums featuring Bennington’s voice, including One More Light, which was released this year. The band was scheduled to go on a tour for One More Light, but it has been canceled.

Their song Crawling, from Hybrid Theory, won a Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance. The band was also nominated for Best Rock Album and Best New Artist. A year after releasing Meteora, Linkin Park collaborated with rapper Jay-Z for the Collision Course EP in 2004 whose single Numb/Encore won a Grammy for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. Meteora has sold more than 27 million copies, which featured the hit song Numb.

In his statement, Warner Bros. Records CEO Cameron Strang said, “Chester Bennington was an artist of extraordinary talent and charisma, and a human being with a huge heart and a caring soul.” The Recording Academy President Neil Portnow said, “We have lost a truly dynamic member of the music community”.

In 2013, Bennington performed at the MusiCares MAP Fund benefit concert, whose aim was to aid addiction treatment. Born on March 20, 1976 in Phoenix, Arizona, to a nurse and a police detective, Bennington recounted being abused in his childhood, molested by an older friend over the course of several years starting when he was seven or eight. In a 2008 interview with Kerrang!, he said, “It destroyed my self-confidence […] Like most people, I was too afraid to say anything. I didn’t want people to think I was gay or that I was lying. It was a horrible experience.”

In an interview with Noisecreep in 2009, he said, “I don’t have a problem with people knowing that I had a drinking problem. That’s who I am, and I’m kind of lucky in a lot of ways because I get to do something about it.” Of the band’s Grammy-winning song Crawling, Bennington said the song was “about feeling like I had no control over myself in terms of drugs and alcohol.”

His first marriage ended in a divorce, and he said, “I knew that I had a drinking problem, a drug problem, and that parts of my personal life were crazy, but I didn’t realise how much that was affecting the people around me until I got a good dose of ‘Here’s-what-you’re-really-like.'” In 2011, he told The Guardian, “When I was young, getting beaten up and pretty much raped was no fun. No one wants that to happen to you and honestly, I don’t remember when it started […] My God, no wonder I became a drug addict. No wonder I just went completely insane for a little while.”

Bennington died on the day his singer friend Chris Cornell would have turned 53. Cornell hanged himself earlier this year. After Cornell’s death, Bennington said, “I can’t imagine a world without you in it.”

Bennington is survived by his six children and his wife, Talinda Bentley, whom he married in 2006.

Monday, August 3, 2009

Two Palestinian families who have been living in East Jerusalem since 1956, were evicted from their homes on Sunday after an Israeli court rejected their appeal filed against the eviction. The eviction comes after increasing international pressure on Israel to stop settlement activity and end home evictions.

Israeli security forces entered the homes at 6:00 a.m. (local time) and forcibly removed the family and international activists who were also living in the homes. At least 19 children were among those removed. Al Jazeera reports that a family was beaten with batons as they tried to get back into their house. JTA reports that Jewish families moved into the homes shortly after the Palestinian families were evicted.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has laid biblical claim to the areas of East Jerusalem and has stated that Jews have the right to live anywhere in the city. Although Jerusalem is internationally recognized as occupied territory, Israel continues to evict Palestinians and instead build Jewish only apartments in the area, an action which is considered to be illegal under the Fourth Geneva Convention. Israel has plans for 350 new apartment buildings in East Jerusalem. U.N special coordinator for Middle East Peace, Robert Serry, condemned the evictions as “totally unacceptable”.

The international community, including the United States, has called on Israel to stop settlement activity and allow for the creation of a Palestinian state.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Ousted, and a fugitive seeking political asylum in the United Kingdom, Thailand’s ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra now faces a two year jail sentence if, or when, he returns to the country. The Thai Supreme Court found him guilty of corruption in a 5-4 ruling by the Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions section of the court and issued the sentence over a land deal. The court acquitted his wife who was the purchaser of the land. The contentious package of land was taken over by Thailand’s Financial Institutions Development Fund (FIDF) in 1995, following the collapse of the Erawan Trust in an effort to counter the trust’s losses.

In reading the court’s verdict, one judge stated, “Thaksin violated the article of the constitution on conflict of interest, as he was then prime minister and head of government, and was supposed to work for the benefit of the public, … He is sentenced to two years in jail.”

Despite his wife, Potjaman Shinawatra, having escaped sentencing in the Ratchadaphisek land deal case, she still faces jail time on return to Thailand. During July she was convicted of tax evasion and a warrant is outstanding for her to face three years in jail for that conviction. The Ratchadaphisek case centred around approximately thirteen acres of land in central Bangkok that was sold to her in 2003 for a knock-down price of 772 million baht (US$ 22.5 million).

With the law in Thailand barring ministers and their partners from doing business with government agencies, groups who protested for the removal of Thaksin are pleased with the result. People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) supporters were reportedly shouting, “We’ve won!” at the announcement of the verdict. They had watched a live telecast of the court’s ruling, hailing activist Veera Somkwamkid who filed the case as a hero.

Somchai Wongsawat, the country’s current Prime Minister and Thaksin’s brother-in-law, has given assurances that the current government will not interfere in the court’s ruling. In speaking to journalists after the ruling was handed down he stressed that the case only covered violation of the National Counter Commission Act barring government officials from involvement where they may have oversight. This was seen as the reason for Thaksin’s wife, Potjaman escaping prosecution in this case.

The case’s chief prosecutor has called on Britain to speedily extradite ex-PM Thaksin so he may begin his jail term. A number of other warrants for his arrest remain outstanding from additional cases brought over his time in office.

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Wednesday, October 8, 2008

South America, the current hot-spot for describing new frog species, may be in danger of seeing population declines due to an epidemic. A recent scientific paper has found the mysterious fungal disease, chytridiomycosis, has begun to establish into eastward Panama, heading across the Panama Canal boundary towards Colombian amphibian populations. The publication predicts that at the current rate, the fungus will spread into Tortí (Panamá Province) before 2012. The chytrid fungus is believed to be the leading cause of population mortality of amphibians. Species like the common rocket frog (Colostethus panamensis) are succumbing to the effects of the pathogen at an alarming rate. For the last 30 years, the infection has decimated amphibian communities, mostly because of increased temperatures resulting from climate change.

The culprit skin fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, is still not fully understood. It can be transmitted by touch, including contact with other amphibians and even rocks and water. Not only has it decimated frogs, salamanders and caecilians in the Americas, but has affected tropical Australia and Asia as well. Scientists think that the fungus may have come from an African clawed frog (Xenopus sp.), because of its worldwide popularity in the pet trade.

Captive breeding programs, like Amphibian Ark are preparing for the worst. There are still many species in the jungles of Central and South America that have not been properly documented, and could be fated to be studied after extinction.