Monday, August 5, 2013

Xu Zhiyong's detention and its significance for Chinese political reform

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Source: lawprofessors.typepad.com --- Sunday, August 04, 2013
The following is a very slightly modified version of my contribution to the ChinaFile conversation on this subject: When I heard that Xu Zhiyong had just been detained, my first thought was, ?Again?? This seems to be something the authorities do every time they get nervous, a kind of political Alka Seltzer to settle an upset constitution. I searched the New York Times web site to confirm my intuition. Although my hopes were briefly raised by a pop-up ad that optimistically proclaimed, ?We know where Xu Zhiyong is? and offered me his address, telephone number, and credit history, the stories in the results list were depressingly as expected: ?A leading human rights advocate is detained in Beijing? (July 13, 2013); Xu Zhiyong ?in the company of security agents and unable to talk? (Feb. 20, 2011); ?Just before dawn on Wednesday, the founder of Gongmeng, Xu Zhiyong, was taken into police custody, and he has not been heard from since? (July 31, 2009). Two other detentions, on June 7, 2012 and in June 2011, didn?t show up. There may be more I?ve missed. In any case, this is clearly a man who knows his way around the back seat of a Black Maria. Today?s topic is what, if anything, this detention means for the broader question of political reform in China. Let?s be clear: Xu Zhiyong is an extremist in his moderation. As Jeffrey Prescott, then at Yale?s China Law Center, said in 2009, ?He is someone of rare idealism, judgment, commitment t ...

Source: http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/china_law_prof_blog/2013/07/xu-zhiyongs-detention-and-its-significance-for-chinese-political-reform.html

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Sunday, August 4, 2013

Egypt says clock ticking on sit-in standoff

FILE - In this Friday, July 5, 2013 file photo, The Muslim Brotherhood's General Guide Mohammed Badie speaks onstage as military helicopters fly overhead before tens of thousands of supporters in Cairo, Egypt. Egypt?s official news agency says the Muslim Brotherhood?s leader, Badie and his powerful deputy, Khairat el-Shater will go on trial Aug 25 for their complicity in and incitement of the killing of eight protesters. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - In this Friday, July 5, 2013 file photo, The Muslim Brotherhood's General Guide Mohammed Badie speaks onstage as military helicopters fly overhead before tens of thousands of supporters in Cairo, Egypt. Egypt?s official news agency says the Muslim Brotherhood?s leader, Badie and his powerful deputy, Khairat el-Shater will go on trial Aug 25 for their complicity in and incitement of the killing of eight protesters. (AP Photo, File)

In this Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012 photo, Muslim Brotherhood nominated deputy leader Khairat el-Shater, listens during an interview with the Associated Press in Cairo, Egypt. Egypt?s official news agency says the Muslim Brotherhood?s leader, Mohammed Badie and his powerful deputy, el-Shater will go on trial Aug 25 for their complicity in and incitement of the killing of eight protesters. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

A supporter of Egypt's ousted President Mohammed Morsi prays before "Iftar," the dusk meal when observant Muslims break their day-long fast, during a protest near Cairo University in Giza, Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2013. Egypt's Interior Ministry warned supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi on Saturday for a second time to abandon their protest encampments as a senior U.S. diplomat was meeting with officials on both sides of the political divide to try to find a peaceful resolution to the standoff.(AP Photo/Manu Brabo)

Supporters of Egypt's ousted President Mohammed Morsi wash their hands before "Iftar," Arabic for breakfast, the dusk meal when observant Muslims break their day-long fast, during a protest near Cairo University in Giza, Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2013. Egypt's Interior Ministry warned supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi on Saturday for a second time to abandon their protest encampments as a senior U.S. diplomat was meeting with officials on both sides of the political divide to try to find a peaceful resolution to the standoff. (AP Photo/Manu Brabo)

A supporter of Egypt's ousted President Mohammed Morsi holds a banner with Morsi's image, during a march against Egyptian Defense Minister Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi in the Nasr City section of Cairo on Friday, Aug. 2, 2013. (AP Photo/Manu Brabo)

(AP) ? Egypt's highest security body warned Sunday that the clock is ticking for a peaceful end to the standoff over sit-ins by supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi, suggesting that authorities will break up the vigils unless mediation efforts produce results soon.

More than a month after the military overthrew Morsi, tens of thousands of the Islamist leader's supporters remain camped out in two main crossroads in Cairo demanding his reinstatement. Egypt's military-backed interim leadership has issued a string of warnings for them to disperse or security forces will move in, setting the stage for a potential bloody showdown.

Also Sunday, authorities announced a court case accusing the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and his powerful deputy of inciting murder will start Aug. 25. Morsi hails from the Brotherhood.

The U.S. and EU are trying to find a peaceful resolution to the standoff to avoid a repeat of violence that has killed more than 250 people ? at least 130 of whom pro-Morsi protesters shot dead by security forces in two clashes ? since the July 3 military coup.

While diplomats raced to find a compromise, the Egyptian interim government signaled that its patience with the pro-Morsi sit-ins was running out.

The National Defense Council, which is led by the interim president and includes top Cabinet ministers, said the search for a peaceful resolution is not open-ended. The council said a negotiated resolution also would not shield from legal proceedings what it called "law-breakers" and others who incite against the state.

It said a chance should be given to all "negotiations and mediations" that could end the protests without bloodshed, but that the timeframe should be "defined and limited." It also called on the protesters to abandon the sit-ins and join the political road map announced the day of Morsi's ouster.

With the Islamist-backed constitution adopted last year suspended and the legislature dominated by Morsi's supporters dissolved, the road map provides for a new or an amended constitution to be put to a national referendum later this year and presidential and parliamentary elections early in 2014

In a move that underlined the government's resolve in dealing with the protests ? now in their second month ? Egyptian authorities on Sunday denied Yemen's Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakkul Karman entry into Egypt after she landed at Cairo airport on Sunday.

Karman, the first Arab woman to win the Nobel Peace prize, has stated her opposition to Egypt's military coup and said she had intended to join the pro-Morsi sit-in protests.

Airport officials said she was sent back on the Sunday flight that brought her to Cairo from the United Arab Emirates. They did not say why she was denied entry, only that her name had been placed by various security agencies on a stop list at the airport. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

The decision to bar Karman suggests authorities wanted to deny the pro-Morsi camp the publicity she would have generated and the idea that prominent figures outside Egypt also oppose Morsi's ouster. Morsi supporters strongly condemned Karman's barring, claiming it was evidence of the "resurrection" of the police state Egypt had under autocrat Hosni Mubarak, toppled in a 2011 popular uprising.

Karman shared the Nobel Peace prize in 2011 with Liberia's President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and women's rights campaigner Leymah Gbowee. She earned it for her role in the protests that swept Yemen in 2011 to force longtime dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh from office.

Pro-Morsi protesters blocked a major road Sunday that runs through most of the city and leads to its international airport.

Meanwhile, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns extended his visit to Cairo by one day so he can have further talks with Egyptian leaders. He met Defense Minister Gen. Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi, who led the coup, on Sunday. A member of the pro-Morsi delegation that met Saturday with Burns said the four delegates also would hold another round of talks with the U.S. diplomat.

Other top diplomats in Cairo are the foreign ministers of the United Arab Emirates, which had been at sharp odds with Morsi's government, and Qatar, which maintains close ties to the Brotherhood. European Union's special envoy, Bernardino Leon, is also in Cairo.

At the core of discussions is the political future of the Muslim Brotherhood and its Islamist allies. The Brotherhood says it is looking for concessions before beginning talks with the military-backed administration. These measures could include releasing detained Brotherhood leaders, unfreezing the group's assets, lifting a ban on Islamist television stations loyal to Morsi and reigning in the use of force against its protesters.

Morsi has been held at undisclosed locations since July 3. He faces accusations of comprising with the militant Palestinian Hamas group to escape prison in 2011. Morsi has been visited by Catherine Ashton, the EU's foreign policy chief, and a delegation of African statesmen. Ashton reported that he was well and had access to television and newspapers.

Egypt's state news agency said on Sunday that Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie and his deputy Khairat el-Shater are to stand trial Aug. 25 for complicity and incitement in the killing of eight demonstrators outside the group's Cairo headquarters.

Badie is at still large, while el-Shater is in custody.

The killings took place during the first day of the mass street protests calling for Morsi's ouster. The agency also said that senior Brotherhood figure Rashad Bayoumi will face trial on the same charges. Three others face murder charges in the same case.

Morsi's palace aides Rifaah el-Tahtawi and Asaad el-Sheikha meanwhile faced questions over allegations they illegally held and tortured anti-Morsi protesters last Dec. 5 after supporters of the ousted leader descended upon a group of unarmed demonstrators camped outside the presidential palace. Clashes lasting all day left at least 10 dead and hundreds injured.

Both el-Tahtawi and el-Sheikha are in detention.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-08-04-ML-Egypt/id-0ab64abc4a3c4206b633f5a08b4e6d1f

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Refoldable Cardboard Furniture Makes It Cheap And Easy To Mosey On

Refoldable Cardboard Furniture Makes It Cheap And Easy To Mosey On

When you're moving and you have a lot of IKEA furniture, you know what you should do. You should take it apart, transport it and then put it back together on the other end. You know this. You consider this. And then you create a last minute flash sale on Craig's List, get whatever money you can from all that MALM, and re-buy down the line. Chairigami is trying to end this cycle.

Read more...

    


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/-y2WnaECguQ/refoldable-cardboard-furniture-makes-it-cheap-and-easy-1019574762

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Best of food and drink this week | canada.com

A round-up of some of our favourite recipes and food-related features this week including an ingredient spotlight on corn, sweet and savoury recipes featuring peaches, a food chat on late-summer fruit, and finding your wine style.

Corn on the cob

PHOTO: denio109/Fotolia.com
Corn on the cob

We?ve put together a collection of sweet, savoury and boozy recipes featuring corn, including Sweet Corn Ice Cream, Grilled Corn on the Cob, and a Bourbon Sour cocktail.

Grilled Lemon Garlic Seafood and Peach Skewers

PHOTO: Patricia Chuey/Postmedia News
Grilled Lemon Garlic Seafood and Peach Skewers

This juicy, nutritious, flavour-packed fruit can work in sweet or savoury recipes: Grilled Lemon Garlic Seafood and Peach Skewers, Peaches and Cream with a Warm Caramel Sauce, and Fresh Cut Peach Salsa.

Saskatoon Jam

PHOTO: ATCO Blue Flame Kitchen/Calgary Herald
Saskatoon Jam

Turn fresh, delicious fruit into something you can savour all winter long with recipes for Cherry and Rhubarb Jam. Microwave Blueberry Jam, Saskatoon Jam, Strawberry Jam, and Prize Apricot Jam.

Nectarines, plums and apricots

PHOTO: Chariclo/Fotolia.com
Nectarines, plums and apricots

This week?s food chat was all about the best in late-summer fruit ? cherries, peaches, plums and nectarines ? while the wine chat focused on understanding your own personal wine style.

Wine chat panelist and columnist Michael Godel also shares seven alternative wines to look for this coming August holiday long weekend.

For late-summer fruit recipe inspiration, please see our Pinterest board.

Be sure to check out Chat Central on Thursdays at 1 p.m. ET for the food chat, and 2 p.m. ET for the wine chat with our editors and writers, or follow the events on Twitter.

Paloma cocktail

PHOTO: Colleen De Neve/Calgary Herald
Paloma cocktail

The Paloma cocktail is the most popular tequila-based cocktail in Mexico ? even more popular than the margarita. It?s simple and refreshing, and typically prepared by mixing tequila with grapefruit soda.

And to finish, some tasty inspiration from the blog world:


- 1 Minute Meal: ?Arepas Del Viaje? via The Eaten Path
- Scream! How to Make Your Own Incredible Ice Cream from Bon App?tit
- French Dining Staple Is Losing Its Place at the Table from The New York Times
- Before Cronuts: 50 Years of Pastry Hybrids from Food & Wine
- Knives: The New Bling from Eat This Podcast

Source: http://o.canada.com/2013/08/02/best-of-food-and-drink-this-week-60/

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Friday, August 2, 2013

Ford celebrates 150th anniversary of Henry Ford's birth

July 30th, 2013 marked the 150th anniversary of Henry Ford's birth. Celebrations were held in Dearborn, Michigan, on what is now known as Henry Ford Day, while in Washington D.C., hundreds of people enjoyed commemorative cupcakes delivered by a food truck.

Elsewhere around the world, dealers in 21 Asia Pacific markets have launched Ford Heritage month, transforming showrooms into exhibitions on Ford?s rich history. In the U.K., celebrations were capped by the reveal of a restored statue of Henry Ford at the company?s Tech Centre. Ford of Germany held a series of 5 road rallies that celebrated Ford?s numerous automotive breakthroughs, while more than 4,000 people attended community events held by Ford in Romania.

Festivities will continue with additional events across the United States, Europe, and South America in the coming months.

Henry Ford, who died on April 7th, 1947 at 83 years old, was named ?Businessman of the Century? by Forbes in 1999. Last year, a History Channel documentary highlighted him as one of ?The Men Who Built America.?

Source: http://www.auto123.com/en/news/ford-celebrates-150th-anniversary-of-henry-fords-birth?artid=158430&utm_medium=feeds&utm_source=feed-all&utm_campaign=feeds

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In the latest Temeraire novel, only Chinese dragons can save Europe

In the latest Temeraire novel, only Chinese dragons can save EuropeS

Naomi Novik's beloved Temeraire series is about to come to an end. Her penultimate novel of the alternate history series, Blood of Tyrants, comes out August 15. In it, we witness some of the last battles of the Napoleonic Wars ? from the backs of dragons who aren't just weapons anymore. They're generals.

Spoilers for previous books in the Temeraire series ahead!

Perhaps the most fascinating part of Novik's series has always been the evolving role of dragons. In England, homeland to our hero Captain William Laurence, dragons are treated as chattel. Though they are clearly intelligent, able to speak, read, and reason, English dragons are treated as sentient bombers in the Aerial Corps. But all of that begins to change when Laurence is adopted by a brilliant, fierce and slightly eccentric Chinese dragon named Temeraire.

The two fight in the British Corps, but also travel the world, where we discover how the fate of Asia, Africa and the Americas has been completely altered by the existence of dragon warfare. Each nation has its own ways of handling dragons. In China, they are treated as honored citizens and leaders. Among the Inca, they are the heads of human families. Their existence has meant that colonization didn't quite go as it did in our world. Napoleon, for example, has solidified his political power by marrying an Incan princess.

Laurence and Temeraire become war heroes and diplomats, but they also become civil rights activists. In England, they have become outcasts for insisting that dragons be granted the same rights as humans. At one point, they were even banished to Australia because Laurence rescued foreign dragons from a plague spread by the British.

And yet despite these grand changes to world politics, Novik charms us with her odd insistence that the Napoleonic Wars have raged on, with familiar battles unfolding much as they did in our own histories. Blood of Tyrants takes us to the Russian front, where the British are depending on military aid from the Chinese to defeat Napoleon's forces in the wasted, frozen fields outside Moscow.

In the latest Temeraire novel, only Chinese dragons can save Europe

There are long battles but there are also culture clashes between the Chinese troops ? led entirely by dragons ? and the British. (And also, my darling, we'll figure out the best way to deal with those troublesome Opium Wars.) Once we meet the insane Russian dragon corps, there are more problems. It's hard for Laurence to know whom to root for at certain points. After all, the French acknowledge the humanity of their dragons, granting them equal rights; but the Russians torture their dragons with wing hobbles and worse.

In many ways, this novel is about Temeraire finally becoming a true adult. He's already come of age, seen action, and even made an egg with another dragon. But he's never had to take a leadership role comparable to Laurence's on the battlefield. Temeraire's self-confidence will be tested, and he's forced to confront the fact that he can't be his fussy, peculiar self if he's going to lead men and dragons.

If you love these novels, this installment will please you immensely. The final battle scene is a little overlong, but all the intriguing dragon politics are in play, and we even meet old Boney himself.

And if you've never read these novels, now is the time to start. The final novel arrives next year, so you'll have a complete set to devour.

Source: http://io9.com/in-the-latest-temeraire-novel-only-chinese-dragons-can-979234540

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Thursday, August 1, 2013

Amnesty International weighs in on California prisons hunger strike

By Ronnie Cohen

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Amnesty International weighed in on a 22-day-old hunger strike in California prisons on Tuesday, calling solitary confinement conditions faced by protesting inmates an "affront to human rights" and urging an impartial probe into the death of a prisoner.

Billy Sell, 32, serving a life term for attempted murder, was found hanged in his cell July 22 in the "security housing unit" - for prisoners held in solitary confinement - at the Corcoran State Prison in central California.

The local coroner preliminarily ruled his death a suicide by strangulation, prison officials said. They added there was no evidence that Sell's participation in the hunger strike, which the corrections department initially denied, had been a factor.

According to inmate advocates, however, fellow prisoners reported Sell had been requesting medical attention for several days before his death, though a spokeswoman for a federal receiver overseeing state prison healthcare denied Sell was refused medical treatment.

In a statement issued late on Monday, corrections officials acknowledged that Sell had been on a hunger strike from at least July 11 - by which time he already had missed nine straight meals - until July 21, the day before his death.

They also said Sell was awaiting trial on murder charges and facing the death penalty if convicted in the 2007 strangulation and stabbing death of a cell mate. A source close to the corrections probe said he hung himself with a bed sheet.

Several entities at the state, federal and local level are reviewing the circumstances surrounding Sell's death, which inmate advocates say was preventable and points to inhumane conditions that protesting inmates claim to suffer.

The global human rights group Amnesty International joined inmate supporters from the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition in calling for an independent inquiry into the death, one that is thoroughly transparent and without government ties.

"Conditions for prisoners in solitary confinement in California are an affront to human rights and must end," Thenjiwe McHarris of Amnesty said in a statement. "No human being should be held under the deplorable conditions we have witnessed in California prisons for prolonged periods, even decades."

DEATH WAS 'ABSOLUTELY PREVENTABLE'

Isaac Ontiveros, a spokesman for the inmate support coalition, said Sell had been in solitary for five years, adding that the United Nations "counts any day after 15 days (of isolation) as cruel and unusual punishment."

"His death was absolutely preventable," he said.

Corrections department spokeswoman Deborah Hoffman countered that inmate advocates "are shamelessly exploiting a man's death to mislead the public about a hunger strike orchestrated by violent gang members."

More than 30,000 inmates from some two dozen California prisons began refusing food on July 8 to protest what they regard as cruel and unfair use of solitary confinement as punishment within the system. By Tuesday, the number of inmates participating in the strike had dwindled to 525 in eight prisons, corrections officials say.

Strikers' principal demand has been to end a policy of keeping thousands of inmates in near or total isolation for years on end solely on the basis of alleged gang affiliations. They say the only way out of solitary confinement for many inmates is to become a gang informant, a choice that would be tantamount to signing their own death warrant.

On Tuesday in Sacramento, the state capital, about 50 mothers, wives and other relatives of inmates presented Governor Jerry Brown's office with a petition bearing 41,000 signatures calling for reform of solitary confinement practices.

"We're hoping the governor realizes the support that's being gained to end these types of conditions," Dolores Canales said before leading a march to Brown's office. She said her 37-year-old son has been in solitary confinement in Pelican Bay State Prison for 13 years because of his alleged gang ties.

Corrections officials say nearly 3,600 inmates, or 3 percent of the state's prison population, are held in security housing units, most of them for ties to gangs, others for committing crimes while in prison.

The protest comes at a challenging time for the state prison system, which houses roughly 132,800 inmates and has been ordered by a federal court to reduce its population by 10,000 prisoners this year to ease crowding.

The state has begun housing many low-level offenders in county jails. Medical care in the prisons has been placed under the supervision of a court-appointed federal receiver, and mental healthcare is being watched by a special master.

(Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Stacey Joyce)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/amnesty-international-weighs-california-prisons-hunger-strike-015629832.html

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