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Good show about to start on RTE 1 about Motor Neurone Disease, and Colm Murrays batle with the illness.

9.30pm RTÉ One
RTÉ Sport broadcaster Colm Murray has Motor Neuron Disease, which is progressive, incurable, terminal. Yet he is determined "to be of service". With characteristic fortitude, Colm is willingly partaking in the world class scientific research, trials and studies led by his doctor, Professor Orla Hardiman. In tonight's fascinating documentary, Colm seeks to understand the disease that has gripped him and play whatever small part he can in the ongoing search for a future cure

With the recent overthrow of the western backed dictator in Tunisia, and mass protests breaking out in Jordan, Yemen, Egypt and Algeria, against the dictators imposed upon them by the west, so too are things changing in Lebannon with a new Hezbollah led Government about to be installed.

Today, mass protests are been staged all across Egypt, with Cairo been brought to a standstill. Mubarak's days are numbered, and it wont be long before he is seeking refuge in Saudi (who also gave refuge to Idi Amen) along with his fellow Tunisian dictator,

Coupled with the leak of over 1,600 documents by Al Jazeera and the continued leaks by Wikileaks on the facts around Israel/US refusing a peace settlement with the Palestinians, we are seeing a massive change in the middle east.

With the US led illegal invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq now proven to be a disaster, with over 1 million people dead, and millions more displaced, what does the future hold for the middle east now? If free and democratic elections are held throughout the middle east, how will it shape foriegn policy of western countries?

We are truely living in interesting times........

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-12255189

A former Sinn Fein publicity director has suggested left-wing Scottish MP George Galloway would make a suitable successor to MP Gerry Adams in West Belfast.

Danny Morrison, writing in next Monday's edition of the Andersonstown News, says Mr Galloway could take on the "establishment" and raise issues in Parliament such as "collusion" and the Pat Finucane murder.

Mr Morrison suggests Mr Galloway would need to adhere to Sinn Fein's abstentionist policy.

However, he said he could be backed by Sinn Fein as an independent in the republican stronghold.

"In West Belfast, we can think outside the box, and, if so, what about you the people, welcoming into this revolutionary neighbourhood, Mr George Galloway?"

The article begins with the words, "I know it is probably a non-runner but."

Yet Mr Morrison, himself a republican prisoner, goes on to say why the Respect Party member and former MP for Bethnal Green and Bow might be a worthy choice. He describes Mr Galloway as "someone who used his status to tear strips off the establishment".

"He is articulate, personable, loyal and dedicated and one of the greatest supporters of our Palestinian brothers and sisters," he writes.

''Abstentionist problem'
"In 2005, when summoned to the US Senate to be humiliated and explain his stance on the Middle East he turned the anticipated outcome on its head and put American foreign policy in the dock."

In his article, Mr Morrison says that, if Mr Galloway was acceptable to the people of West Belfast, he would probably have to run as an independent because of the "abstentionist problem".

He adds that if republicans could be asked to vote for Alasdair McDonnell, SDLP, who does take his seat, then "I would have no problem in voting for George and with him taking his seat, berating the Brits over Pat Finucane, collusion, the bloodshed they have caused, their war crimes".

Mr Morrison suggests Mr Galloway could be an "incendiary presence" and "a voice for the oppressed of this earth."

He writes: "It would be us 'invading' them, a major reversal of colonialism, a statement of our internationalism."

In his article, Mr Morrison says that Sinn Fein has hundreds of "ex-prisoners and activists" to choose from when considering a candidate to contest a future by-election in West Belfast.

He cites Pat Sheehan, who recently inherited Gerry Adams assembly seat, Mairtin O Muilleoir, managing director of Belfast Media Group, who is seeking a council seat in Belfast, and MLAs Alex Maskey and Jennifer McCann.

A Sinn Fein spokesman said Mr Galloway was not a member of Sinn Fein and would not qualify for party selection

Tunisia's president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali fled his country tonight after weeks of mass protests culminated in a victory for people power over one of the Arab world's most repressive regimes.

Ben Ali was variously reported to be in Malta, France and Saudi Arabia at the end of an extraordinary day which had seen the declaration of a state of emergency, the evacuation of tourists of British and other nationalities, and an earthquake for the authoritarian politics of the Middle East and north Africa.

In Tunisia, prime minister Mohamed Ghannouchi announced he had taken over as interim president, vowing to respect the constitution and restore stability for Tunisia's 10.5 million citizens.

"I call on the sons and daughters of Tunisia, of all political and intellectual persuasions, to unite to allow our beloved country to overcome this difficult period and to return to stability," he said in a broadcast.

But there was confusion among protesters about what will happen next, and concern that Ben Ali might return before elections could be held. "We must remain vigilant," warned an email from the Free Tunis group, monitoring developments to circumvent an official news blackout.

Ben Ali, 74, had been in power since 1987. On Thursday he announced he would not stand for another presidential term in 2014, but Tunisia had been radicalised by the weeks of violence and the killings of scores of demonstrators.

Today in the capital police fired teargas to disperse crowds demanding his immediate resignation. The state of emergency and a 12-hour curfew did little to restore calm. Analysts said the army would be crucial.

Tonight , soldiers were guarding ministries, public buildings and the state TV building. Public meetings were banned, and the security forces were authorised to fire live rounds.

Tunis's main avenues were deserted except for scores of soldiers. Protesters who had earlier been beaten and clubbed by police in the streets still sheltered in apartment buildings. Army vehicles were stationed outside the interior ministry.

Opposition leader Najib Chebbi, one of Ben Ali's loudest critics, captured the sense of historic change. "This is a crucial moment. There is a change of regime under way. Now it's the succession," he said.He added: "It must lead to profound reforms, to reform the law and let the people choose."

Al-Jazeera television, broadcasting the story across an Arab world which has been transfixed by the Tunisian drama, reported that a unnamed member of Ben Ali's wife's family had been detained by security forces at the capital's airport. Hatred of the president's close relatives, symbols of corruption and cronyism, has galvanised the opposition in recent weeks. Tunisians were riveted by revelations of US views of the Ben Ali regime in leaked WikiLeaks cables last month.

Ben Ali's western friends, adapting to the sudden change, asked for a peaceful end to the crisis. "We condemn the ongoing violence against civilians in Tunisia, and call on the Tunisian authorities to fulfil the important commitments ... including respect for basic human rights and a process of much-needed political reform," said a White House spokesman

[US slams WikiLeaks ahead of release of diplomatic cables]

US slams WikiLeaks ahead of release of diplomatic cables

BAGHDAD — Washington's envoy to Iraq condemned WikiLeaks as "absolutely awful" Friday as world capitals braced for the looming release of some three million sensitive diplomatic cables by the whistleblower website.

The latest tranche of documents, the third since WikiLeaks published 77,000 classified US files on the Afghan conflict in July, have spurred Washington to warn both Turkey and Israel of the embarrassment they could cause, and American diplomats have also briefed officials in London, Oslo and Copenhagen.

"We are worried about additional documents coming out," US ambassador to Baghdad James Jeffrey told reporters at an embassy briefing.

"WikiLeaks are an absolutely awful impediment to my business, which is to be able to have discussions in confidence with people. I do not understand the motivation for releasing these documents.

"They will not help, they will simply hurt our ability to do our work here."

State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told AFP on Wednesday that the United States was "gearing up for the worst-case scenario, that leaked cables will touch on a wide range of issues and countries."

"We are prepared if this upcoming tranche of documents includes State Department cables. We are in touch with our posts around the world. They have begun the process of informing governments that a release of documents is possible in the near future," Crowley said.

He added: "These revelations... are going to create tensions on our relationships between our diplomats and our friends around the world."

WikiLeaks has not specified what the tranche of documents pertains to or when it would be released, but Pentagon spokesman Colonel Dave Lapan said US officials were expecting a possible release of documents "late this week or early next week."

The website has so far only said there would be "seven times" as many secret documents as the 400,000 it posted in Iraq war logs published last month.

Among the countries to have been alerted so far about the release of the documents are Britain, Denmark, Israel, Norway and Turkey, officials and reports said.

Washington contacted authorities in Ankara to give "us information on the issue, just as other countries have been informed," a senior Turkish diplomat told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

According to Turkish media reports, the planned release includes papers suggesting that Turkey helped Al-Qaeda militants in Iraq, and that the United States helped Iraq-based separatist Kurdish rebels fighting against Turkey.

Israel has also been warned of potential embarrassment from the release, which could include confidential reports from the US embassy in Tel Aviv, Haaretz newspaper said on Thursday, citing a senior Israeli official.

"The Americans said they view the leak very seriously," the official told the paper, on condition of anonymity.

And respected Russian business daily Kommersant reported on Friday that the files could harm Moscow's relationship with Washington, saying the cables contain general assessments of the political situation in Russia and "unflattering characteristics" of Russian leaders.

Officials in London, Stockholm and Copenhagen were also all either briefed by US diplomats or received contacts from local American missions about the impending release, officials in each country said.

WikiLeaks argues the release of the documents -- US soldier-authored incident reports from 2004 to 2009 -- has shed light on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, including allegations of torture by Iraqi forces and reports that suggested 15,000 additional civilian deaths in Iraq.

As today marks the 28th anniversary of the brutal massacres in the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps in Beruit, the following video and article by Robert Fisk gives an insight to one of the most brutal attacks to have ever taken place in the middle east over the past 50 years.
Robert Fisk was one of the 1st to arrive in the camps following the brutal attacks that left between 700 and 3,000 civilians dead inside 40 hours.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pWwkVfbY10


SABRA AND SHATILA

By Robert Fisk

What we found inside the Palestinian camp at ten o'clock on the morning of September 1982 did not quite beggar description, although it would have been easier to re-tell in the cold prose of a medical examination. There had been medical examinations before in Lebanon, but rarely on this scale and never overlooked by a regular, supposedly disciplined army. In the panic and hatred of battle, tens of thousands had been killed in this country. But these people, hundreds of them had been shot down unarmed. This was a mass killing, an incident - how easily we used the word "incident" in Lebanon - that was also an atrocity. It went beyond even what the Israelis would have in other circumstances called a terrorist activity. It was a war crime.

Jenkins and Tveit were so overwhelmed by what we found in Chatila that at first we were unable to register our own shock. Bill Foley of AP had come with us. All he could say as he walked round was "Jesus Christ" over and over again. We might have accepted evidence of a few murders; even dozens of bodies, killed in the heat of combat. Bur there were women lying in houses with their skirts torn torn up to their waists and their legs wide apart, children with their throats cut, rows of young men shot in the back after being lined up at an execution wall. There were babies - blackened babies babies because they had been slaughtered more than 24-hours earlier and their small bodies were already in a state of decomposition - tossed into rubbish heaps alongside discarded US army ration tins, Israeli army equipment and empty bottles of whiskey.

Where were the murderers? Or to use the Israelis' vocabulary, where were the "terrorists"? When we drove down to Chatila, we had seen the Israelis on the top of the apartments in the Avenue Camille Chamoun but they made no attempt to stop us. In fact, we had first been driven to the Bourj al-Barajneh camp because someone told us that there was a massacre there. All we saw was a Lebanese soldier chasing a car theif down a street. It was only when we were driving back past the entrance to Chatila that Jenkins decided to stop the car. "I don't like this", he said. "Where is everyone? What the f**k is that smell?"

Just inside the the southern entrance to the camp, there used to be a number of single-story, concrete walled houses. I had conducted many interviews in these hovels in the late 1970's. When we walked across the muddy entrance to Chatila, we found that these buildings had been dynamited to the ground. There were cartridge cases across the main road. I saw several Israeli flare canisters, still attached to their tiny parachutes. Clouds of flies moved across the rubble, raiding parties with a nose for victory.

Down a laneway to our right, no more than 50 yards from the entrance, there lay a pile of corpses. There were more than a dozen of them, young men whose arms and legs had been wrapped around each other in the agony of death. All had been shot point-blank range through the cheek, the bullet tearing away a line of flesh up to the ear and entering the brain. Some had vivid crimson or black scars down the left side of their throats. One had been castrated, his trousers torn open and a settlement of flies throbbing over his torn intestines.

The eyes of these young men were all open. The youngest was only 12 or 13 years old. They were dressed in jeans and coloured shirts, the material absurdly tight over their flesh now that their bodies had begun to bloat in the heat. They had not been robbed. On one blackened wrist a Swiss watch recorded the correct time, the second hand still ticking round uselessly, expending the last energies of its dead owner.


On the other side of the main road, up a track through the debris, we found the bodies of five women and several children. The women were middle-aged and their corpses lay draped over a pile of rubble. One lay on her back, her dress torn open and the head of a little girl emerging from behind her. The girl had short dark curly hair, her eyes were staring at us and there was a frown on her face. She was dead.

Another child lay on the roadway like a discarded doll, her white dress stained with mud and dust. She could have been no more than three years old. The back of her head had been blown away by a bullet fired into her brain. One of the women also held a tiny baby to her body. The bullet that had passed into her breast had killed the baby too. Someone had slit open the woman's stomach, cutting sideways and then upwards, perhaps trying to kill her unborn child. Her eyes were wide open, her dark face frozen in horror.

"...As we stood there, we heard a shout in Arabic from across the ruins. "They are coming back," a man was screaming, So we ran in fear towards the road. I think, in retrospect, that it was probably anger that stopped us from leaving, for we now waited near the entrance to the camp to glimpse the faces of the men who were responsible for all of this. They must have been sent in here with Israeli permission. They must have been armed by the Israelis. Their handiwork had clearly been watched - closely observed - by the Israelis who were still watching us through their field-glasses.

When does a killing become an outrage? When does an atrocity become a massacre? Or, put another way, how many killings make a massacre? Thirty? A hundred? Three hundred? When is a massacre not a massacre? When the figures are too low? Or when the massacre is carried out by Israel's friends rather than Israel's enemies?

That, I suspected, was what this argument was about. If Syrian troops had crossed into Israel, surrounded a Kibbutz and allowed their Palestinian allies to slaughter the Jewish inhabitants, no Western news agency would waste its time afterwards arguing about whether or not it should be called a massacre.

But in Beirut, the victims were Palestinians. The guilty were certainly Christian militiamen - from which particular unit we were still unsure - but the Israelis were also guilty. If the Israelis had not taken part in the killings, they had certainly sent militia into the camp. They had trained them, given them uniforms, handed them US army rations and Israeli medical equipment. Then they had watched the murderers in the camps, they had given them military assistance - the Israeli airforce had dropped all those flares to help the men who were murdering the inhabitants of Sabra and Chatila - and they had established military liason with the murderers in the camps

Well folks, and as some of you already know, I am setting off this Saturday on another convoy to Gaza.

On Saturday, a group of 100 people in 50 vehicles will leave London and travel through France, Italy, Greece,
Turkey, Syria, and then cross by ferry to Al Arish in Egypt. From there, it is a 30 mile drive to the Rafah Border,
and we hope to enter Gaza around October 10th.

From Doha another 70 vehicles will join us in Syria, along with another 50 from Morocco and Algeria.
By the time we reach Gaza, we hope to have close to 200 vehicles, and over 1 million pounds worth of aid..

All the vehicles will be carrying medical, building, and educational supplies.
Most of the vehicles are mini buses with wheelchair ramps, and most are ex NHS vehicles.

From Ireland, there are 5 vehicles.
1 from Tipperary, 1 from Belfast, 2 from North Antrim, and 1 from Tyrone.
A total of 10 Irish people will make the journey.

The situation in Gaza hasn't changed much since the attacks on the flotilla, with most of our
aid still banned from entering the besieged area.

Attacks on Gaza are still a daily occurence, ignored completly by the mass media.
Only this week, a 91 year old farmer and his 2 grandsons were murdered by the IOF,
and yesterday another man was also murdered.

So, I will keep you posted as we make our way to Gaza.

This is the 4th convoy organised by Viva Palestina in 18 months, and to date, over 1,000 people in
over 500 vehicles have successfully broke the siege on Gaza, and delivered millions of pounds
worth of aid.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/25/afghanistan-war-logs-military-leaks

A huge cache of secret US military files today provides a devastating portrait of the failing war in Afghanistan, revealing how coalition forces have killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents, Taliban attacks have soared and Nato commanders fear neighbouring Pakistan and Iran are fuelling the insurgency.

The disclosures come from more than 90,000 records of incidents and intelligence reports about the conflict obtained by the whistleblowers' website Wikileaks in one of the biggest leaks in US military history. The files, which were made available to the Guardian, the New York Times and the German weekly Der Spiegel, give a blow-by-blow account of the fighting over the last six years, which has so far cost the lives of more than 320 British and more than 1,000 US troops.

Their publication comes amid mounting concern that Barack Obama's "surge" strategy is failing and as coalition troops hunt for two US naval personnel captured by the Taliban south of Kabul on Friday.

The war logs also detail:

• How a secret "black" unit of special forces hunts down Taliban leaders for "kill or capture" without trial.

• How the US covered up evidence that the Taliban have acquired deadly surface-to-air missiles.

• How the coalition is increasingly using deadly Reaper drones to hunt and kill Taliban targets by remote control from a base in Nevada.

• How the Taliban have caused growing carnage with a massive escalation of their roadside bombing campaign, which has killed more than 2,000 civilians to date.

In a statement, the White House said the chaotic picture painted by the logs was the result of "under-resourcing" under Obama's predecessor, saying: "It is important to note that the time period reflected in the documents is January 2004 to December 2009."

The White House also criticised the publication of the files by Wikileaks: "We strongly condemn the disclosure of classified information by individuals and organisations, which puts the lives of the US and partner service members at risk and threatens our national security. Wikileaks made no effort to contact the US government about these documents, which may contain information that endanger the lives of Americans, our partners, and local populations who co-operate with us."

The logs detail, in sometimes harrowing vignettes, the toll on civilians exacted by coalition forces: events termed "blue on white" in military jargon. The logs reveal 144 such incidents.

Some of these casualties come from the controversial air strikes that have led to Afghan government protests, but a large number of previously unknown incidents also appear to be the result of troops shooting unarmed drivers or motorcyclists out of a determination to protect themselves from suicide bombers.

At least 195 civilians are admitted to have been killed and 174 wounded in total, but this is likely to be an underestimate as many disputed incidents are omitted from the daily snapshots reported by troops on the ground and then collated, sometimes erratically, by military intelligence analysts.

Bloody errors at civilians' expense, as recorded in the logs, include the day French troops strafed a bus full of children in 2008, wounding eight. A US patrol similarly machine-gunned a bus, wounding or killing 15 of its passengers, and in 2007 Polish troops mortared a village, killing a wedding party including a pregnant woman, in an apparent revenge attack.

Questionable shootings of civilians by UK troops also figure. The US compilers detail an unusual cluster of four British shootings in Kabul in the space of barely a month, in October/November 2007, culminating in the death of the son of an Afghan general. Of one shooting, they wrote: "Investigation controlled by the British. We are not able to get [sic] complete story."

A second cluster of similar shootings, all involving Royal Marine commandos in Helmand province, took place in a six-month period at the end of 2008, according to the log entries. Asked by the Guardian about these allegations, the Ministry of Defence said: "We have been unable to corroborate these claims in the short time available and it would be inappropriate to speculate on specific cases without further verification of the alleged actions."


Rachel Reid, who investigates civilian casualty incidents in Afghanistan for Human Rights Watch, said: "These files bring to light what's been a consistent trend by US and Nato forces: the concealment of civilian casualties. Despite numerous tactical directives ordering transparent investigations when civilians are killed, there have been incidents I've investigated in recent months where this is still not happening.

Accountability is not just something you do when you are caught. It should be part of the way the US and Nato do business in Afghanistan every time they kill or harm civilians." The reports, many of which the Guardian is publishing in full online, present an unvarnished and often compelling account of the reality of modern war.

Most of the material, though classified "secret" at the time, is no longer militarily sensitive. A small amount of information has been withheld from publication because it might endanger local informants or give away genuine military secrets. Wikileaks, whose founder, Julian Assange, obtained the material in circumstances he will not discuss, said it would redact harmful material before posting the bulk of the data on its "uncensorable" servers.

Wikileaks published in April this year a previously suppressed classified video of US Apache helicopters killing two Reuters cameramen on the streets of Baghdad, which gained international attention. A 22-year-old intelligence analyst, Bradley Manning, was arrested in Iraq and charged with leaking the video, but not with leaking the latest material. The Pentagon's criminal investigations department continues to try to trace the leaks and recently unsuccessfully asked Assange, he says, to meet them outside the US to help them. Assange allowed the Guardian to examine the logs at our request. No fee was involved and Wikileaks was not involved in the preparation of the Guardian's articles.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJPY-ZOtcS0

Big Brother at work in Toronto for the G20 meetings.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gaza-TV-News/119275738102852

Well folks, as some of you already know, a flotilla of ships will be sailing to Gaza next week.

9 ships in total will be sailing, 4 cargo ships, and 5 passenger ships.

600 people and approx 10,000 tonnes of aid will set off from various ports over the weekend
and by next Tuesday, they should be in Gaza. So, as you can imagine, a stand off is on the cards
on the high sea's of the Med.

Last week, an Irish ship left Dundalk and is currently on its way to meet up with the other ships.

This Flotilla is been headed up by IHH, a Turkish charity. On the last convoy, they teamed up with
Viva Palestina, and together, 517 people in over 200 vehicles broke the siege and delivered aid.

The Turkish Government is fully behind this flotilla, and have given it full support. So, a major diplomatic
stand off is also going to occur.

I was to be on the Turkish ship, but I have decided not to go and instead, I will be managing the media
aspect of the flotilla. I will be in constant communication with the ships, and will be the 1st point of contact for a few of the groups on board, 24 hours a day. Viva Palestina will be represented with a delegation on board, and they will report directly to me.

I have set up a News site on Facebook, "Gaza TV News" (GTV) 
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gaza-TV-News/119275738102852?v=wall&ref=mf

Each day at 6pm I will be filing a report, and if any breaking news develops, I will have it reported instantly.

This Flotilla is going to be a major news item next week, and as things progress, I will keep you all informed.

Thanks






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Folks, a good friend of mine has set up a Facebook page whereby all the results of the Championship
will be posted live at the final whistle. Plus, there will be half time and full time ipadio casts from the major games.
This will no doubt be a valuable source of information for everyone.

To keep everyone interested, there will also be competitions on a weekly basis.
Write a short match preview, or final whistle report and be in with a chance of a weekly prize.
Under your article, people can vote for the article they like best by clicking the "Like" button.

Plus, underneath the line out for each team, people can click the "Like" button to predict a winner
of the upcoming featured match.

1 week before the All Ireland Hurling and the Football Finals, every weekly winner in the review
and reports will be entered into a draw for 2 premium level tickets and a 4 star hotel stay for a night.

Try and keep the posts sensible, and any nonsense will be deleted. Repeat offenders will be barred.


To start things off, tomorrows Derry v Armagh game is the featured match, so there is time to write a preview
and voting can start......

Your article has to fit into one comment, so don't make it too long.
420 words is the max I think. Will find out for sure later.
So, click on the following link and join up. Also, do me a favour and invite as many friends as possible to join.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/GAA-News/119100338120402

PS. Tony Fearon will be closely monitored as he has a good track record in competitions......................

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the murder of 4 students at Kent State University in Ohio.
US forces shot 67 rounds in 13 seconds, killing 2 peaceful demonstrators, and 2 students walking nearby.
The protests were against Nixons plans to invade Cambodia.
Listen to the following song worte a week after the murders by Neil Young.  Ohio.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qs6aaaJBAv0&feature=related

The stunning news 40 years ago today erupted in an era when current events carried a more potent ability to shock: "Four dead in Ohio," as musician Neil Young would quickly write.

A tired and scared unit of militiamen had shot 13 students at Kent State University, 40 miles from my home in Northeast Ohio. Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Scheuer and William Schroeder died in the fusillade that warm spring day in 1970.

It hit close to home - real close. It cut right through whatever emotional walls I'd built from years of hearing about assassinations, civil rights unrest and deaths in a foreign war.

These shootings happened in a familiar place, not a rice paddy halfway across the world. And despite being a bit desensitized by the violence of a restless decade, I felt shock that my government - the power we granted to the United States of America - could so quickly and callously gun down its own citizens.

The college administration ordered the campus closed. The government declared martial law. People in the sleepy little college town not far from Cleveland sat on their front porches with shotguns in their laps, waiting for hemp-crazed students and "outside agitators" to storm their neighborhood.

The shootings came two days after a protest against President Nixon's decision to invade Cambodia escalated into a student riot on one of the first warm Saturday nights of the year. Protesters burned the ROTC building - a house-sized World War II barracks sheathed in horizontal wooden siding painted a bland banana yellow.

Forty years later, the government's response reads like a Marx Brothers script. Rival police agencies working at cross-purposes. A university president who didn't let the unrest deter him from leaving that weekend for a family trip to Iowa. University administrators' efforts to have Ohio State Highway Patrol troopers sent to campus overruled when Kent Mayor Leroy Satrom convinced Gov. Jim Rhodes to dispatch a bunch of National Guard troops instead. The patrol's jurisdiction ended at the edge of campus, but the guard had authority both downtown and on campus.

Suddenly, it seemed like a war was breaking out just down the road from my home. My high school English teacher, who'd recently graduated from the Kent State education college, threw out his lesson plan the next day. Students and teacher shared ideas and talked politics. I'm sure I told them I worried about my boyhood friend, who then lived a block from campus.

Within a couple of years, I found myself carrying boxes of clothes and records into Apple Hall, a brown brick dormitory on the eastern fringe of the Kent State campus. Soon I was attending journalism classes in Taylor Hall, where the guardsmen turned and fired. A metal sculpture outside still carried a neatly circular bullet hole from that afternoon.

And as those years of education accumulated, I began to learn a bit about "my government" and its treatment of citizens. It wasn't always the British Redcoats killing five civilians outside the Boston Custom House in 1770 or al-Qaida terrorists in the airports on a dark and equally shocking September day in 2001. It could just as easily be police battling protesters in Chicago's Haymarket Square in 1886, or the Pinkertons trading gunshots with strikers six years later in Homestead, Pa., or any number of instances as black people across the country struggled for equal rights in the 1960s.

Now, 40 years afterward, I felt compelled to return to Blanket Hill, the quiet hilltop where students once made out, infamous now as the place where the guardsmen opened fire. I wanted to be there today, to march silently around the campus where I graduated and pay my respects to those kids who died needlessly in a nondescript parking lot outside an ordinary classroom building on the campus of a middling Midwestern university.

Time has dulled the shock I felt then, but hasn't softened the political beliefs that the shooting helped to crystallize. I learned that day, and in more days to come, that "my government," though not evil in itself, can best succeed in its function of ensuring domestic tranquility when an alert and clearheaded citizenry keeps a close watch on its actions. All of its actions. Especially the actions it tells us are justified by the times in which we live. And now, as a member of the Fourth Estate, I've made a career of watching - and alerting others when necessary.

I think author Edward Abbey summed it up best, in writing about Henry David Thoreau and the bumper sticker slogan, "Question Authority." Thoreau, Abbey wrote, would have agreed but amended it to "Always Question Authority." To which Abbey said he would add "All," as in "Always Question All Authority."

• Roger Nielsen is metro editor at the Athens Banner-Herald. He received his journalism degree from Kent State University in the summer of 1976.

[eroticism on television and internet pornography were to blame for child sex abuse by priests.]

At this rate I dont think even Max Clifford could help the church.
This is from a Bishop in Mexico:

A Roman Catholic bishop in Mexico has sparked outrage by suggesting eroticism on television and internet pornography were to blame for child sex abuse by priests.


He also claimed sex education in schools was making it more difficult for priests to remain celibate.

Bishop Felipe Arizmendi was speaking before the Pope arrived in Malta where he is expected to meet victims of abuse by Catholic priests.

"With so much invasion of eroticism, sometimes it's not easy to stay celibate or to respect children," he told an annual meeting of bishops near Mexico City.

"If on television and on the internet and in so many media outlets there is pornography, it is very difficult to stay pure and chaste.

Blaming the problems that the Catholic Church has had with priests' sexually abusing minors on sex education borders on the pathetic.

"Obviously when there is generalised sexual freedom it's more likely there could be cases of paedophilia," he added.

His comments have been denounced by the Mexican Association for Sexual Health, a group of professional counsellors and educators.

"Those of good conscience in the church should stop this absurdity and find good help," the group said in a statement.

"Blaming the problems that the Catholic Church has had with priests' sexually abusing minors on sex education makes no sense," it added. "It borders on the pathetic."



Pope Benedict, who is 83, has been rocked by a series of revelations in recent weeks


Bishop Arizmendi's comments follow a series of controversial remarks by senior Catholic clergy about the child sex abuse scandal.

On Monday the Vatican's secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, said paedophilia amongst priests was linked to homosexuality not celibacy.

"Many psychologists and psychiatrists have shown that there is no link between celibacy and paedophilia," he said. "But many others have shown that there is," he said.

The Vatican was hit by another embarrassing revelation this week when a website posted a letter by a senior cardinal congratulating a French bishop in 2001 for not denouncing a self-confessed abusive priest to the police.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/8619205.stm

Thieves have stolen an empty cash machine from a shop in Greencastle, County Tyrone.

Martin McCullough, who owns Costcutter on the Greencastle Road, said he was awakened at 0500 BST by an alarm at his home linked to the shop.

He said that it appeared a digger had been driven through the front window of the premises before the ATM was taken.

Mr McCullough said that he empties the machine every night and that there was no money in it when it was stolen.

He added that he was sorry he did not get to the shop in time to confront the thieves.

"I would have had a go at them, if I had the chance," Mr Cullough said.

In the past 30 minutes, Israeli F16's have hit Gaza in 12 seperate air raids so far.
Last night they dropped leaflets warning people this would happen, and true to their word, they have started bombing again.
It's going to be a long night in Gaza.

I will post more as I get news.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8587082.stm

Pope Benedict faces child abuse cover-up queries 

Benedict once led the Vatican office charged with investigating abuse 
Questions are being raised about whether Pope Benedict was personally involved in covering up a case of child sex abuse by a Roman Catholic priest.

Documents seen by the New York Times newspaper allege that in the 1990s, long before he became Pope, he failed to respond to letters about a US case.

Fr Lawrence Murphy, of Wisconsin, was accused of abusing up to 200 deaf boys.

Defending itself, the Vatican said US civil authorities had investigated and dropped the case.

For more than 20 years before he was made Pope, Joseph Ratzinger led the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith - the Vatican office with responsibility, among other issues, for the Church's response to child abuse cases.

Allegations that the Church sought to cover up child abuse by Catholic priests in Europe have haunted the Vatican for months.

'So friendly'

The documents seen by the New York Times suggest that in 1996, the then Cardinal Ratzinger twice failed to respond to letters sent to him personally.


  Instead of removing [Fr Murphy] from the priesthood, they just gave him a free pass

Jeff Anderson
US lawyer
They concerned the Rev Lawrence Murphy, who worked at a Wisconsin school for deaf children from the 1950s.

Three archbishops of Wisconsin were told Fr Murphy was sexually abusing boys but those allegations were not reported to civil authorities at the time.

Alleged victims quoted by the New York Times gave accounts of the priest pulling down their trousers and touching them in his office, his car, his mother's country house, on class excursions and fund-raising trips, and in their dormitory beds at night.

"If he was a real mean guy, I would have stayed away," said Arthur Budzinski, 61, a former pupil of at St John's School for the Deaf, in St Francis, in the Diocese of Milwaukee.

"But he was so friendly, and so nice and understanding. I knew he was wrong, but I couldn't really believe it."

According to the New York Times, Fr Murphy was quietly moved to the Diocese of Superior in northern Wisconsin in 1974, where he spent his last 24 years working freely with children in parishes and schools. He died in 1998, still a priest.

Two lawyers have filed lawsuits on behalf of five men alleging the Archdiocese of Milwaukee did not take sufficient action against the priest.

One of the lawyers, Jeff Anderson, told the Associated Press news agency that the documents they had obtained on Fr Murphy, and shown to the New York Times, showed the Vatican was more concerned about possible publicity than about the abuse allegations.

"Instead of removing him from the priesthood, they just gave him a free pass," he said.

'Tragic case'

The Pope's official spokesman, Federico Lombardi, called it a "tragic case" but pointed out that the Vatican had become involved only in 1996, after US civil authorities had dropped the case.

"During the mid-1970s, some of Fr Murphy's victims reported his abuse to civil authorities," the Rev Lombardi said in a statement.

"The Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith was not informed of the matter until some 20 years later."

The Milwaukee diocese was asked to take action by "restricting Father Murphy's public ministry and requiring that Father Murphy accept full responsibility for the gravity of his acts", the Rev Lombardi added.

He also said that Fr Murphy's poor health and a lack of more recent allegations had been factors in the decision not to defrock him.

But the Vatican's decision not to carry out its own investigation is the question that brings the now Pope's own involvement centre stage, says BBC religious affairs correspondent Christopher Landau.

Victims of sexual abuse by priests have long argued that the Church has been more interested in protecting its reputation and helping its priests than seeking justice for victims, our correspondent adds.

Fr Murphy died in 1998, with - in the Church's view - no official blemish on his priestly record.

But questions about why Cardinal Ratzinger failed to respond to concerns being raised by American archbishops still demand answers, our correspondent says.

And such questions mean that this sexual abuse crisis continues to have an impact at the very highest level in the Roman Catholic church, he adds.

The line up for this years Electric Picnic has been announced today.

For more information, check out their web site
www.electricpicnic.ie

ELECTRIC PICNIC
Stradbally Hall, Co. Laois, Ireland
3rd, 4th, and 5th September 2010

Electric Picnic extends another warm invitation to all lovers of music, art, culture and general frivolity to our annual little get-together in Stradbally, Co Laois on 3rd, 4th & 5th September. A tantalizing world to entice and enthrall you, tickle and tease you. Now in our seventh year our ship's sails are fully hoisted and the journey we annually embark on is becoming more of a home-coming than a new exploration, although taking unknown and adventurous paths along the way is compulsory. How else would we discover the treasures and riches we will be offering to stimulate the senses. All six.

Music is just one of such offerings and it is here that we shall begin.....

Driven by the refined and effortless cool of Bryan Ferry, ROXY MUSIC will make their ever Irish festival appearance with a set that will cover all of their classic hits, such as 'Love is the Drug', 'Jealous Guy' 'Let's Stick Together' and 'Avalon'. One of the most influential acts of all time, the punks, new romantics, electro-poppers and more that have followed in their wake all owe a huge sonic and sartorial debt to ROXY MUSIC.

It was announced earlier this year that after a decade of hibernation, LEFTFIELD will be touring in summer 2010, bringing their epic live show to handful of select festivals and Electric Picnic 2010 is their chosen destination in Ireland. A quintessential Electric Picnic act; LEFTFIELD's unique fusion of electronica, house, dub reggae and rock saw them release two classic albums in the late '90s in 'Leftism' and 'Phat Planet' that will need no introduction.

Fresh from the stunning success of their long-awaited new album Heligoland, Bristol trip hop legends MASSIVE ATTACK make a very welcome return to Stradbally having played a storming set there in 2006. Forever innovating and pushing the boundaries, MASSIVE ATTACK's new audiovisual live show has to be experienced to be believed, and will also feature an array of guest vocalists.

LCD SOUNDSYSTEM's unique and dynamic blend of punk, funk and disco elements has seen them build up a massive cult following over the last five years and Electric Picnic is particularly honoured to welcome the 3-time Grammy-nominated New Yorkers back to Stradbally where they will treat us to tracks to their eagerly-awaited third album as well as established classics such as 'North American Scum', 'All My Friends' and 'Daft Punk is Playing at my House' . Their South London peers, close pals and DFA labelmates HOT CHIP also make a welcome return to Stradbally on the back of their new album 'One Life Stand'.

THE FRAMES celebrate their 20th birthday this year with their first show in Ireland in some 3 years. With a 20th anniversary 'Best Of' compilation due for release later in the year, Oscar-winner Glen Hansard and band re-group for Electric Picnic, airing some of their finest work, with the likes of 'Revelate', 'Lay Me Down', 'Pavement Tune, 'Monument', and 'Falling Slowly' sure to bring the house down. Rising Dublin superstar IMELDA MAY has been perhaps the biggest success story of the last 12 months, her triple platinum-selling album 'Love Tattoo' introducing rockabilly to a new generation. 2010 looks like being just as busy a year – having already performed at the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles in January with Jeff Beck, thereby becoming just the second Irish act to play the famous ceremony, she will play a number of festivals around the world this summer and releases a brand new album on the weekend of Electric Picnic.

The recently-reformed PUBLIC IMAGE LIMITED (PiL), led by ex-Sex Pistol John Lydon are bringing their raucous show to Ireland for the first time ever – some 32 years after they formed. Their distinct and dynamic brand of experimental post-punk rock and dub has had a massive influence on some of today's musical zeitgeist; with acts such as Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand, The Rapture and indeed LCD Soundsystem citing them a major influence on their work, most notably with the seminal 1979 'Metal Box' album. Reports from their comeback shows in London in December 2009 suggest this long-awaited appearance will be anything but a let-down.

With Brooklyn's THE NATIONAL and Washingtons' MODEST MOUSE, Electric Picnic welcomes two of America's biggest and well-loved indie rock acts of the last decade, both of whom release new albums in 2010 and whose stunning live shows need no introduction to music fans in Ireland. London indie-folksters MUMFORD & SONS continue their meteoric rise on the back of their excellent top 10 album 'Sigh No More' with their first trip to Electric Picnic; while 'the world's greatest living bluesman' Steve Cobold aka SEASICK STEVE's set at Electric Picnic 2009 went down so well, he had to be invited back to play the main stage in 2010.

In poet, author and soul/jazz/blues musician GIL SCOTT-HERON, Electric Picnic welcomes another iconic and massively influential veteran who has been described as 'the founding father of rap music'. Bringing a seven piece band with him to Stradbally, Gil Scott-Heron's show will mix old classics such as 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised' and 'Free Will' and 'The Bottle' with his stunning new album "I'm New Here" which was released by XL recordings last month and is already being tipped as a contender for 'best album of 2010'. The New Zealand seven-headed soul/reggae monster that is FAT FREDDY'S DROP bring their blistering live show to Electric Picnic – expect much good vibes at this show, and also at those by Los Angeles' 10 piece funk orchestra BREAKESTRA and the first ever live show in Ireland by veteran Guyana/Jamaican funk and soul combo CYMANDE.

THE WATERBOYS uplifting folk rock and 'big music' sound always produces a great live show, while AFRO CELT SOUNDSYTEM are to play their first show since reforming with their original line-up and anyone who has seen their signature blend of traditional celtic and African music with modern dance rhythms knows that this is a unmissable show. Singersongwriter PAUL BRADY will dig into his deep well of classic folk hits, while the originator of the Galway Girl and the veritable saviour of country music, STEVE EARLE, will air his Grammy award winning album Townes.

Sigur Ros frontman JONSI is getting great critical acclaim for his first solo album 'Go', released this month, and Picnickers will get a chance to see if his live show can reach the awe-inspiring heights achieved by his band when they headlined Electric Picnic 2008. Having featured in many critics top 10 albums of 2009; Sweden's FEVER RAY will play one of just three shows they play worldwide this year; while we have yet more Irish debut at EP for BAD LIEUTENANT – the new project of Joy Division/New Order 's Bernard Sumner and Phil Cunningham – and cult post-punk New Yorkers' LIQUID LIQUID.

For the fan of more contemporary classic acoustic guitar-based indie; look no further that another who released one of the critics favourite albums of 2009, THE LOW ANTHEM; plus an act who many are tipping to do the same in 2010 with their recent album BEACH HOUSE from Baltimore; venerable Canadian power-pop group THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS; Dubllin's guitar-wielding bard and recent Domino signee THE VILLAGERS, and recent Choice award champ ADRIAN CROWLEY.

Germany's finest electro house duo, BOOKA SHADE, with music from fourth studio album, More!; keeping it unreal MR SCRUFF; BLOODY BEETROOTS with their DEATH CREW 77 full 6 piece band fusing punk, rock & electronica; The uncompromising, intensive electro pop sound of Toronto duo CRYSTAL CASTLES; Award-winning electronic drone rockers THE BIG PINK, Mancunian veteran electronic act 808 STATE; Canadian psych traveller CARIBOU; Irish hip hoppers MESSIAH J & THE EXPERT; Black clad London quintet THE HORRORS; Welsh '80s hitmakers THE ALARM, Brooklyn electronic folkers HERE WE GO MAGIC; the debauched rock'n' roll antics of Israel's MONOTONIX; instrumental rock princes REDNECK MANIFESTO; Moniker-crazed one-man-band Dayve Hawk with his psychedelic pop MEMORY TAPES; the gentle electronic folk of former Beta Band frontman STEVE MASON; brothers and co-frontmen Peter and David Brewis'band FIELD MUSIC; eccentric and hilarious rapper EDAN, And no Sunday morning at EP would be complete without the Sunday morning wake-up call from THE DUBLIN GOSPEL CHOIR.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/kurt-cobains-roots-traced-to-co-tyrone-14737909.html

Nirvana legend Kurt Cobain's roots traced to Co Tyrone

Wednesday, 24 March 2010



Kurt Cobain


The rolling hills of Tyrone may not scream rock legend to the average person but one family's journey into their ancestry has uncovered a little piece of musical history.


The roots of Kurt Cobain, lead singer of cult band Nirvana, have been traced back to the small village of Inishatieve near Pomeroy in the Red Hand county.

Fionnola O'Reilly was moved to delve into her family tree after an American relative hinted that there may be a connection to the famous rock singer dating back to the 1800s.

After nearly six years of ploughing through family records Fionnola and her sister Maeve Erwin confirmed that their long-lost cousin was indeed the legendary Nirvana frontman.

They discovered that Kurt's ancestors Samuel and Letitia, whose surname was originally spelt Cobane, left their humble farm five generations ago bound for Canada before settling and working as shoemakers in the state of Washington in the US.

The wild and mountainous terrain of the village of Inishatieve is a world away from the mean streets of Aberdeen in Washington where Kurt, who married the controversial Courtney Love in 1992, grew up.

While Nirvana went on to have massive success with well-known hits, including Smells like Teen Spirit, the tragic singer developed a drug problem in his teens and committed suicide at the age of 27.

But the band, a former member of whom founded modern-day chart-toppers Foo Fighters, still has a cult following worldwide.

Fionnola's niece Caoimhe Kelly, who is Kurt's fifth cousin and still lives in the small Co Tyrone townland, was delighted when she found she was related to rock royalty.

"I am a big fan of Nirvana and thought it was really cool when I was told I'm Kurt's cousin," said the 18-year-old.

"I've told most of my friends. Some of them haven't heard of him but most of them are impressed.

"I play the guitar and I'd love to be in a band. Someday I would love to be as good as Kurt was."

Fionnola's father Pat Kelly, who lives with his wife Eileen in Inishatieve, said the famous family tree discovery was of more interest to his children and grandchildren than himself.

"To be honest I didn't know who Kurt Cobain was or who Nirvana were but my children were quick to tell me," he said.

"There are some Cobanes living around us here in Tyrone and I think there are a few in Antrim, but this is the first time the link has been discovered and written down."

Fionnola, who alongside her siblings presented her father with the completed family tree on his 70th birthday last month, said she is looking forward to bringing this history to life one day.

"I would love to see where Kurt was based during his lifetime so we will have to plan a trip to Aberdeen and Seattle sometime down the line for sure," said Finnola.

"Maybe when my baby son is all grown up."

Three people have been shot and killed at the University of Alabama, a university spokesman says.

A suspect has been apprehended after the violence on the university campus in the city of Huntsville, the spokesman, Ray Garner said.

One other person was injured in the incident, he added.

US educational sites have seen numerous fatal shooting attacks in recent decades, the most serious occurring at Virginia Tech University in 2007.

"We have three confirmed people who are dead, one injured," said Mr Garner.

"The police have secured the building. " he added.

Police were "sweeping the building to both look to see if there are other victims as well as to get evidence," Mr Garner said.

He said that a woman was in custody but he could not identify her or any of the victims.

A local television station, WAFF, quoting a police official, said the shooter was believed to be a female staff member.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8513727.stm