US envoy Bill Richardson warns of Korea tinderbox

North Korea has warned it will launch "unpredictable self-defensive strikes" if the drill goes ahead on the island of Yeonpyeong, which lies close to the disputed inter-Korean western maritime border.
But the South insists the one-day exercises will be held some time between Saturday and Tuesday.
Local news reports say they are likely to take place on Monday or Tuesday, when the weather is expected to be better.

Haiti cholera investigation announced by United Nations

The United Nations has set up an independent panel to investigate the source of cholera in Haiti.

The move comes after accusations that UN peacekeepers from South Asia introduced the disease to the poverty-stricken country.
The UN has previously denied any connection.
In November, the US Center for Disease Control found that the cholera strain in Haiti most closely resembled a South Asian strain.
A leaked study by epidemiologist Renaud Piarroux on behalf of the French and Haitian governments also suggested the strain had been imported from South Asia.
Sources who saw the report said it had evidence the outbreak was caused by river contamination by Nepalese troops.
The UN has said that health officials now estimated that 650,000 people in Haiti could become infected with cholera over the next six months.
Nearly 100,000 people in the country have already contracted the disease.

Image by tehf0x via Flickr

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WikiLeaks: Cuba banned Sicko for depicting 'mythical' healthcare system

Cuba banned Michael Moore's 2007 documentary, Sicko, because it painted such a "mythically" favourable picture of Cuba's healthcare system that the authorities feared it could lead to a "popular backlash", according to US diplomats in Havana.

( There was a flood of similar stories suggested by Zemanta )

¡Viva WikiLeaks! SiCKO Was Not Banned in CubaImage via Wikipedia

Former health insurance executive Wendell Potter recently revealed that the insurance industry -- which had decided to spend millions to go after me and, if necessary, "push Michael Moore off a cliff" -- had begun working with anti-Castro Cubans in Miami in order to have them speak out and smear my film.
So, on January 31, 2008, a State Department official stationed in Havana took a made up story and sent it back to his HQ in Washington. Here's what they came up with:

XXXXXXXXXXXX stated that Cuban authorities have banned Michael Moore's documentary, "Sicko," as being subversive. Although the film's intent is to discredit the U.S. healthcare system by highlighting the excellence of the Cuban system, he said the regime knows the film is a myth and does not want to risk a popular backlash by showing to Cubans facilities that are clearly not available to the vast majority of them.

Sounds convincing, eh?! There's only one problem -- the entire nation of Cuba was shown the film on national television on April 25, 2008! The Cubans embraced the film so much so it became one of those rare American movies that received a theatrical distribution in Cuba. I personally ensured that a 35mm print got to the Film Institute in Havana. Screenings of 'Sicko' were set up in towns all across the country. In Havana, 'Sicko' screened at the famed Yara Theater.

Image via WikipediaCuba Documentation Project

Freed on bail – but US steps up efforts to charge Assange with conspiracy

US authorities have stepped up their efforts to prosecute Julian Assange by offering Bradley Manning*, the American soldier allegedly responsible for leaking hundreds of thousands of government documents, the possibility of a plea bargain if he names the Wiki-Leaks founder as a fellow conspirator.

*The Torture of Bradley Manning

One peculiar outcome of the new clampdown on whistleblowers is the spectacle of Americans cheering on the destruction of their own rights, as in the case of avowed tough guys commenting in blogs that people like Bradley Manning "did the crime and now does the time," deserves no sympathy, and merits the clear torture he is now undergoing. The tough consistently miss the point that Manning has been convicted of nothing, and that the treatment he is undergoing has become the new norm in the case of high profile cases purportedly involving national security.
The peerless Glenn Greenwald in this case gets it wrong when he says Manning's treatment is "possibly" torture. Isolation is torture, and has been proven to be so. Hardened prisoners have said they would take almost any other punishment for misbehavior over isolation, and its effects on the mind and the spirit.