Nobel Peace Prize Outrages China ..[ 1853 ]

China Outraged Over Nobel Peace Prize Selection

Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESSPro-democracy protesters raise pictures of Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo with Chinese words reading: ‘Release Liu Xiaobo’ during a demonstration outside the China's Liaison Office in Hong Kong, 08 Oct. 2010

Stephanie Ho | Beijing 08 October 2010

Sarah Williams' Q&A with VOA Beijing Correspondent Stephanie Ho:

China has lashed out at the Nobel Peace Prize committee after it awarded this year's prize to jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, who has long called for political reform in the country.
The Chinese government's reaction was swift and unequivocal. A statement on the Chinese Foreign Ministry's website called the award "an obscenity" that goes against the aims of the award.  It warned the award also will hurt China's relations with Norway, the country where the Nobel Committee is based.
The Chinese government's dismay had been expressed in recent days, in less harsh language, by Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu.

Jiang does not mention Liu Xiaobo by name, but points out that Chinese judicial authorities sentenced him to jail for violating Chinese law.

In December, Liu was sentenced to 11 years in prison for subversion, although officials have given no details of which laws he has violated.

CHINESE REACTION

VOA Beijing - Stephanie Ho "Inside China... the government has been making an effort, apparently, to have a total news blackout on the fact that he's been awarded a Nobel prize. I mean, China would like to win a Nobel, but the thought of awarding a Nobel Peace Prize to a Chinese dissident who is in jail is not something that the Chinese government would want to make public. So there's been no news announcement on TV. In fact, when the international news channels tried to make an announcement, the Chinese apparently tried to pull the plug. My TV has been cut off quite a few times whenever the announcement comes up."

The 54-year-old writer was detained in December 2008, shortly before the release of Charter 08 - a manifesto he helped organize that calls for sweeping political reform.
Patrick Poon, of the Independent Chinese PEN Center, a writers' group that Liu has previously headed, says he thinks a hard-line from the Chinese government will actually inspire more people to speak out.

"As we can also see in the situation in the past few years, there may have been more and more crackdowns, but we have not seen a decreasing number of dissidents, people expressing their views," said Poon.


"On the contrary, we are having more and more petitioners, more and more human rights defenders coming onto the scene.  I think that will only bring a reversal effect, if the Chinese government cracks down on the people, that will have a reverse effect, to get more people in the streets," he added.

The statement expressing the Chinese government's anger was carried on the Foreign Ministry's Webpage and aimed at outsiders.

Other than that, the news of the Nobel Peace prize going to Liu Xiaobo was not carried in Chinese media, and broadcasts of international TV channels carrying the news were temporarily cut.  Internet users could find information about it on the Internet, but only if they used proxies to get around cyber-blocks the Chinese government maintains to filter out information that it deems sensitive or illegal.

NASA Image of the Oct 7th..[ 1852 ]

The latest NASA "Image of the Day" image.

Soyuz Liftoff in Kazakhstan

The Soyuz TMA-01M rocket launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 7:10 p.m. EDT on Thursday, October 7, 2010 (5:10 a.m. Friday in Kazakhstan). 

Expedition 25 Soyuz Commander Alexander Kaleri of Russia, NASA Flight Engineer Scott J. 

Kelly and Russian Flight Engineer Oleg Skripochka are due to arrive at the International Space Station on Saturday, October 9.  

Credit: NASA/Carla Cioffi

Πέμπτη, 7 Οκτώβριος 2010 7:00:00 πμ

Russian "Ikebana" expert..[ 1851 ]

New title blooms for Russian ikebana expert

Moscow-born Galina Davidenko, 46, acquired the status of first-class professor last year. Her 21-year-old daughter also studies ikebana. (Mainichi)

 

(Mainichi Japan) October 8, 2010

Galina Davidenko, a born and bred Russian, has been appointed the second ever head of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) chapter of Japan's oldest school of "ikebana," or Japanese floral art.
While the Ikenobo school, which boasts a history of 550 years and a worldwide membership of 3 million, is known to be active both in Japan and overseas, it is rare for someone who is neither a Japanese national nor a local resident of Japanese descent to be appointed head of a chapter.
Ikebana was just another hobby for Davidenko when she began dabbling in it 20 years ago. However, what was a mere hobby developed into an integral part of Davidenko's life as she continued her study under teacher Midori Yamada, 74, the chapter's first leader. Eventually, Davidenko began teaching as well. In preparation for her rise to the position of chapter head, she visited Japan, where she met numerous times with 77-year-old Sen'ei Ikenobo, the Ikenobo school's 45th head.
The chapter Davidenko will be taking over was founded by Yamada when she moved to Moscow 20 years ago. As with any other art or school, a growing number of disciples usually means a greater likelihood that jealousy and ill feelings will arise, even in the ikebana world. Yamada is confident of her successor's ability to handle any potential discord, however.
"(Davidenko) has a huge, soft heart capable of taking others in," she says.
At an exhibit commemorating the CIS chapter's 20th anniversary on Sept. 16, Yamada gave Davidenko a certificate naming her as the next chapter head. It should have been a happy occasion, but Davidenko could not stop crying when she thought of the imminent return of her longtime teacher to Japan.
"She was just a teacher to me at first, but now she is a friend, not unlike a relative," Davidenko says. "The 20 years in which I received her instruction were really very short."
Heading a chapter with 250 members across Russia is a huge responsibility to bear. For now, Davidenko's main goal is to hold an exhibition every year.

Click here for the original Japanese story

(Mainichi Japan) October 8, 2010

Oslo: Nobel Peace Prize..[ 1850 ]

Jailed Chinese dissident Liu wins Nobel Peace Prize

Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo smokes a cigarette in this undated photo released by his family. Jailed Chinese pro-democracy activist Liu won the Nobel Peace Prize on October 8, 2010, an announcement that Beijing had anticipated and bitterly criticised.

Credit: Reuters/Handout (CHINA - Tags: POLITICS) FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS. THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. IT IS DISTRIBUTED, EXACTLY AS RECEIVED BY REUTERS, AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS

By Wojciech Moskwa

OSLO | Fri Oct 8, 2010 8:03am EDT
 

OSLO (Reuters) - 
Jailed Chinese pro-democracy activist Liu Xiaobo won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for decades of non-violent struggle for human rights, infuriating China, which called the award "an obscenity."

The prize puts China's human rights record in the spotlight at a time when it is starting to play a bigger role on the global stage as a result of its growing economic might.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised Liu for his "long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China" and reiterated its belief in a "close connection between human rights and peace."

Liu is serving an 11-year jail term for helping to draw up a manifesto calling for free speech and multi-party elections.

China said the award went against the aims of Alfred Nobel and would hurt ties between China and Norway, which are currently negotiating a bilateral trade agreement.

"This is an obscenity against the peace prize," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said in a statement.

But Nobel Committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland said China, the world's second biggest economy, should expect to be under greater scrutiny as it becomes more powerful, just as the United States was after World War Two.

"We have to speak when others cannot speak," Jagland told reporters. "As China is rising, we should have the right to criticize ... We want to advance those forces that want China to become more democratic."

PRIZE FOR ALL

Liu's wife, Xia, said she had not expected her husband to win the prize: "I can hardly believe it because my life has been filled with too many bad things.

"This prize is not only for Xiaobo but for everyone working for human rights and justice in China," she said in an emotional telephone interview with Hong Kong's Cable television.

Rights groups said the prize came at a time when human rights have dropped down the agenda of Western governments focusing on China's growing economic power.

Nicholas Bequelin, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, called it "a victory for all the courageous Chinese dissidents, activists, lawyers and human rights defenders who have continued to stand up to tyranny for all these years."

Earlier this year, Deputy Foreign Minister Fu Ying had warned the head of the Nobel Institute against granting the prize to Liu, saying it would damage ties between China and Norway as they negotiate a bilateral trade deal.

China strongly criticized Norway after the 1989 prize went to Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

Putin's birthday ....[ 1849 ]

Russian calendar girls in Putin birthday battle

 

The university authorities criticised the erotic calendar's producers

BBC., 8 October 2010 Last updated at 11:16 GMT

Female students at Russia's prestigious Moscow State University (MGU) have produced rival calendars - one erotic, the other sombre - for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's 58th birthday.

First a group of journalism students posing in lingerie featured in a calendar with suggestive captions, such as:

"You put out forest fires, but I'm still burning."
Then another group hit back, posing in black, with their mouths taped shut.
Polls suggest Mr Putin is very popular.
He has been filmed riding bare-chested through the mountains, swimming in a Siberian river and sitting at the controls of a firefighting helicopter.

The Happy Birthday erotic calendar for 2011 was called "Vladimir Vladimirovich, we love you" and showed 12 pouting students in lingerie.
"How about a third time?" asked Miss February - hinting provocatively at a possible third presidential term for Mr Putin. He is eligible to run again in 2012.
A spokeswoman for the pro-Kremlin youth group Nashi, quoted by the Associated Press news agency, said the calendars had a 50,000 print run and went on sale in Moscow supermarkets.
Questions for Putin

 

Students in the alternative calendar asked provocative questions instead

Later a rival calendar appeared on the internet, with female students all wearing black and with their mouths taped shut - in apparent protest at the silencing of political dissidents.
The text on one page read "Who killed Anna Politkovskaya?" - referring to the still unresolved murder four years ago of a journalist who was one of the Kremlin's sharpest critics. She had exposed human rights abuses by security forces in Chechnya.
The alternative, sombre calendar bears the words "Vladimir Vladimirovich, we have some questions..." and "When will they free Mikhail Khodorkovsky?" - a reference to the highly controversial jailing of the former Yukos oil magnate, who was widely seen as challenging the Kremlin's power.
Yelizaveta Menshikova, one of the students in the sombre calendar, told bbcrussian.com that her calendar had received many expressions of support online.

"Breasts are pretty, yes - I have them too. But I also have a head on my shoulders. And we girls did this all ourselves, without producers," she said.
The dean of the journalism faculty at MGU, Yelena Vartanova, said she was annoyed that MGU had been associated with the erotic calendar.
"I simply don't understand what the journalism faculty and university have to do with this. To make their commercial project successful the girls used brands that they did not create, that do not belong to them," she said.