Japan, the Death penalty system ..[ 1692 ]

Time to scrap Japan's gruesome death penalty system

Murakoshi Hirotami, second from right, executive officer of the parliamentary league opposing the death penalty, speaks on July 28. (Mainichi)

(Mainichi Japan) August 23, 2010

The news that Justice Minister Chiba Keiko attended the execution of two death-row inmates in late July was shocking.

Readers will recall that Chiba was an anti-death penalty activist for 20 years before attending the hangings of Shinozawa Kazuo and Ogata Hidenori.

According to one Japanese newspaper's report, the former Socialist Party politician appeared "tense and pale" after being "persuaded to do her duty" by Justice Ministry bureaucrats.

The newspaper, of course, made sure to point out that public support for the death penalty here is 85 percent. I wonder would support be as strong if the public knew the gruesome details of this system?

Inmates are deprived of contact with the outside world, kept in solitary confinement and forced to wait an average of more than seven years, and sometimes decades in toilet-sized cells while the legal system grinds on.

When the order eventually comes, the condemned have literally minutes to get their affairs in order before facing the noose. Because the order can come at any time, they live each day believing it may be their last.

Amnesty International recently called the system a "regime of silence, isolation and sheer nonexistence," singling out the same-day execution notice as "utterly cruel."

The hangmen are undeterred by age, senility or handicap: The condemned include 84-year-old Okunishi Masaru, who has protested his innocence for poisoning five women for over four decades.

Of the more than 30 people who have been hanged since January 2006, five were in their 70s. It is not unheard of for some inmates to be ferried to the gallows in wheelchairs.

Although Japan incarcerates far fewer citizens per capita than the U.S. or many European countries, its astonishing 99-percent-plus conviction rate means that the condemned almost certainly include innocent men.

Some have quite literally been driven mad while waiting to die. At least five of Japan's 107 condemned prisoners are mentally ill, says Amnesty, with many more elderly inmates on the brink of senility.

Secrecy and lack of independent scrutiny means that the exact number is unknown. Recent victims include Chinese national Chen Detong, who was "quasi-insane" according to his defense.

A few years back, I interviewed Menda Sakae, who was framed by the police for a double murder. Unlike most other victims of miscarriages of justice, Menda was released -- after 34 years on death row.

That's 12,410 days believing every one would be his last. "Waiting to die is a kind of torture," he told me, "worse than death itself."

Inflicting this torture does nothing to bring back the victims of violent crimes. I very much hope that once Chiba has recovered from the shock of her trip to the gallows that she will do as she promised and begin a much-needed debate on capital punishment. (By David McNeill)

(Profile)

David McNeill writes for The Independent and Irish Times newspapers and the weekly Chronicle of Higher Education. He has been in Japan since 2000 and previously spent two years here, from 1993-95, working on a doctoral thesis. He was raised in Ireland.

Iran " Israel can'not face us "..[ 1691 ]

Israel 'too weak face up to Iran'

By JPOST.COM STAFF 
08/22/2010 22:51

Photo by: Associated Press 

Ahmadinejad dismisses US as "unable to beat a small army in Iraq."

 

(JPost.com.,22-8-2010) Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rejected fears of an attack on Iran, taunting Israel as "too weak to face up to Iran militarily," and the US as unable to beat even a small army in Iraq, speaking in an interview with Al-Jazeera Sunday.

"Israel doesn't have the courage to do it," Ahmadinejad said, "and I do not think its threat is serious." He also stated that "America is not interested in sparking a military confrontation with Iran."

The Iranian president's provocative comments came the same day as he inaugurated Iran's new long-range bomber aircraft, which he called an "ambassador of death" to Iran's enemies, and the day after the Islamic Republic began fueling its nuclear reactor at Bushehr.

There has long been speculation that Israel could attack Iran's nuclear facilities, which it insists are for peaceful purposes, but which Israel fears would be used to build a nuclear weapon pointed at the Jewish state. The international community, led by the US and the UN, has levied increasingly harsh sanctions against Iran in a bid to force it to halt its nuclear program.

Last week, former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton made headlines when he stated that Israel had only days left to strike Iran's Bushehr nuclear reactor before it began the fueling process, sparking debate over whether Israel, or even the United States, would attack Iran to destroy its facilities.

Ahmadinejad also predicted in his interview that the Arab states in the Gulf would not allow US bases in the region to be used to launch an attack against Iran, saying that "they are more intelligent than that."

 

New York rallies for the Muslim center..[ 1690 ]

Muslim center dispute sparks New York rallies

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Dominick DeRubbio holds a picture of his uncle David DeRubbio, who died in the World Trade Center attacks, during a rally held to oppose a proposed Muslim cultural center and mosque near the World Trade Center site in New York August 22, 2010. Supporters and opponents of a proposed Muslim cultural center and mosque near the World Trade Center site rallied in downtown Manhattan on Sunday, kept blocks apart by a heavy police presence.

Credit: Reuters/Jessica Rinaldi

By Edith Honan and Chris Michaud

NEW YORK | Sun Aug 22, 2010 1:53pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Supporters and opponents of a proposed Muslim cultural center and mosque near the World Trade Center site staged competing rallies in downtown Manhattan on Sunday, kept apart by police and barricades.

The emotionally charged debate, which has gained national political significance, centers on plans to build the center two blocks from the site of the September 11, 2001 attacks by al Qaeda, which killed nearly 3,000 people.

Republicans against the project are using it to attack Democratic President Barack Obama ahead of midterm elections, where his party is fighting to retain control of Congress.

Opponents of the center, which would include a prayer room, say its proposed location is insensitive and fear it will harbor religious extremism. Those who back it cite the right to religious freedom and a need to promote tolerance and understanding.

Hundreds of opponents on Sunday chanted "No Mosque," sang patriotic songs and waved photographs of violent attacks by Islamic extremists.

One sign read: "Not all Muslims are terrorists, but all the terrorists were Muslim."

Around the corner, supporters chanted: "We don't care what bigots say, religious freedom is here to stay."

A supporter, retired school teacher Ilene Kahn, said: "This has become a political tool to preach hatred. The peace-loving Muslims did not attack us."

While tempers were heated and shouting matches erupted, no violence or arrests were reported. Uniformed police and rows of barricades kept many in the crowds apart. Police officials said extra forces were deployed but would not say how many were added.

Obama and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg have said they support the right of Muslims to build the center near Ground Zero, while Republicans, including former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, oppose it.

Others suggest it be moved to a less controversial spot.

Ali Akram, a local doctor who supports the project, said: "The people who say the mosque is too close to Ground Zero, those are the same people that protest mosques in Brooklyn and Staten Island and Tennessee and Wisconsin and California. What radius will they go for? There's no end to it."

Many in the crowd opposing the center were firefighters and construction workers, who carried signs reading: "This is Sacred Ground to New Yorkers."

One sign read: "Everything I Ever Needed to Know about Islam I Learned on 9/11."

Plans for the project include a 13-story building to house an auditorium, swimming pool, meeting rooms as well as the prayer space. The structure is architecturally plain and does not include a minaret, dome or other motifs often associated with mosques.

Some opponents have taken legal action, seeking to void a ruling that would allow construction to proceed, while some construction workers have launched a Hard Hat Pledge, vowing not to work on the project.

Chile :Trapped miners alive, ..[ 1689 ]

Trapped miners alive, Chilean president says

By the CNN Wire Staff

August 22, 2010 -- Updated 2107 GMT (0507 HKT)

Relatives of the miners trapped in the San Esteban gold and copper mine wait for news in Chile on Sunday.

(CNN) -- The thirty-three miners trapped underground for more than two weeks in a Chilean mine are alive and in a shelter, Chilean President Sebastian Pinera said on Sunday.

Rescuers retrieved a note from the mine that said that all of the miners are alive, he said. The handwritten note was tied to a probe authorities had sent underground earlier on Sunday.

"Now we know the most important thing. They are alive," said Pinera, who spoke outside the mine.

The miners have been trapped since the mine caved in on August 5.

Andres Sougarret, who is in charge of rescue operations, said he hoped to make further contact with the miners Sunday afternoon, though he cautioned it could take several months to rescue them.

He added rescuers would next send down a camera and microphones in hopes of learning more about the miners' conditions.

Family members of the trapped miners celebrated outside of the mine, video from CNN Chile showed.

Beaming, Pinera held the note pulled from the mine for television cameras. Written in Spanish in red ink, it read simply: "The 33 of us are fine in the shelter."

The San Estebean mine is located in the Atacama region in northern Chile, the world's largest producer of coppe

The adbentures of Vang Gogh in Egypt..[ 1688 ]

Van Gogh recovered after being stolen from Egyptian museum for second time

A painting by Vincent van Gogh, 'Vase with Flowers' valued at £32 million, was seized at Cairo airport hours after being stolen from a museum for the second time.

 

'Vase and Flowers' by Van Gogh

 

By Alastair Jamieson
Telegraph co.uk.,Published: 9:10PM BST 21 Aug 2010

 

The work, which also goes by the name “Poppy Flowers”, vanished from the Mahmoud Khalil Museum on the banks of the River Nile in central Cairo.

Egypt’s minister of culture, Farouk Hosni, said airport security officials confiscated the painting from two Italians on Saturday evening.

 

He said the pair - a young man and a young woman - had been trying to leave the country and had been arrested.
It is the second time that the canvas by the Dutch-born post-impressionist has been stolen from the museum. Thieves previously made off with it in 1978, before authorities recovered it two years later at an undisclosed location in Kuwait.
The one-foot-by-one-foot painting resembles a flower scene painted by the French artist Adolphe Monticelli, whose work deeply affected the young van Gogh. The Monticelli painting also is part of the Khalil collection.
The theft of the work for the second time is embarrassing for the museum authorities, who are understood to be facing an inquiry into claims that security at the museum was lax. Exact details of the first theft of the painting have never been disclosed. When it was recovered, Egypt’s then-interior minister said three Egyptians involved in the heist had been arrested and informed police where the canvas was hidden. It remains unknown whether the thieves were ever charged or tried, or whether any kind of “ransom” was paid for the painting’s return.
Experts have said they believed the Cairo canvas was painted around 1887. Most of the canvasses for which van Gogh is remembered were painted in 29 months of frenzied activity before his suicide in 1890 at age 37.
The Khalil collection is home to one of the Middle East’s finest collections of 19th and 20th century art, put together by the politician Mohammed Mahmoud Khalil, who died in 1953.
Other works in the collection, all from the 19th-century French school, are by Paul Gauguin, Gustave Courbet, Francois Millet, Claude Monet, Edouard Manet, Auguste Renoir and Auguste Rodin.