French Jewish students sue Twitter!

 


The Union of French Jewish Students (UEJF) has announced that it is suing Twitter for €38.5m (£32.8m) over its failure to comply with a French court ruling over the #unbonjuif case.
On January 24 this year, a French court ordered Twitter to hand over the details of people who had tweeted racist and anti-Semitic remarks, and set up a system that would alert the police to any further such posts as they happen.
Although Twitter deleted the offensive comments from the site, it has failed to implement its country withheld content feature to pre-filter potentially offensive content.
The Parisian court gave the micro-blogging site two weeks to comply or face a fine of up to €1,000 (£849) for every day it doesn't. As it stands, Twitter owes €44,000 but the UEJF has stated it wants considerably more because "is making itself an accomplice and offering a highway for racists and anti-Semites".
UEJF president, Jonathan Hayoun told AFP: "Twitter is playing the indifference card in not respecting the decision of 24 January,” adding that if the UEFJ wins its case, it will donate the money to the Shoah Memorial Fund.
Twitter has maintained that as it is based in the United States it is protected by the 1st Amendment's freedom of speech guarantees.

Justin Bieber is the cover of Teen Vogue: The best Bieber photoshoot Ever!

UN passes historic arms trade treaty by huge majority!

Activists put a replica of a military helicopter on a roof near the UN in New York

The UN General Assembly has adopted a historic treaty to control the trade in conventional arms, voting it through by a huge majority.

Member-states voted by 154 votes to three, with 23 abstentions, to control a trade worth $70bn (£46bn) annually.

The treaty went to a vote after Syria, Iran and North Korea blocked its adoption by consensus.

Russia and China, some of the world's biggest exporters, were among those who abstained from the vote in New York.

The treaty prohibits states from exporting conventional weapons in violation of arms embargoes, or weapons that would be used for acts of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes or terrorism.

It also requires states to prevent conventional weapons reaching the black market.

Washington welcomed the move, with Secretary of State John Kerry describing the treaty as "strong, effective, and implementable".

He said the document "can strengthen global security while protecting the sovereign right of states to conduct legitimate arms trade".

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said: "This is an historic day and a major achievement for the United Nations.

"The world wanted this treaty and would not be thwarted by the few who sought to prevent the introduction of robust, effective and legally-binding controls on the international trade in weapons."

Amnesty International tweeted: "We did it! The world has been waiting a long time for this historic #ArmsTreaty...and now we have it."

Before the vote, Australia's ambassador to the UN, Peter Woolcott, had said the final draft of the treaty was a compromise text to bring together the broadest range of stakeholders.

"We owe it to those millions - often the most vulnerable in society - whose lives have been overshadowed by the irresponsible and illicit international trade in arms,'' he said.

But Russia's Vitaly Churkin described as a significant shortcoming the lack of a clause in the draft treaty about banning the supply of weapons to non-state entities.

Syrian concerns

The assembly had heard from member-states' ambassadors objecting to, or supporting, the draft.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

We owe it to those millions - often the most vulnerable in society - whose lives have been overshadowed by the irresponsible and illicit international trade in arms”

Peter WoolcottAustralia's ambassador to the UN

• Q&A: Global Arms Trade Treaty

Syria's Bashar Jaafari said his country did not object to regulating the international arms trade, but opposed the draft because it did not refer to the arming of "non-state terrorist groups".

Some of the countries behind the draft treaty, he said, were "fully engaged in supplying terrorist groups [in Syria] with all kinds of lethal weapons".

The BBC's Paul Adams, in Washington, says the Syrian government, which depends on arms imports from Russia and Iran, is clearly worried about its ability to continue fighting its civil war.

Cuba's Rodolfo Reyes Rodriguez said his country would abstain from the vote, saying the draft contained "ambiguities" which gave it "serious limitations" and that it favoured the interests of arms exporters.

But proposing the draft, Costa Rica's Eduardo Ulibarri said the treaty showed the UN was an "indispensable organisation in the 21st Century".

Long negotiation

Diplomats have worked for nearly a decade to agree on a set of principles to control the flow of such arms.

Saudi preacher who 'raped and tortured' his five -year-old daughter to death is released after paying 'blood money!

Lama

Outrage is mounting in Saudi Arabia about the case of a 5-year-old girl who died after allegedly being beaten and tortured by her father, who activists say is an Islamist preacher.Lama's mother and several high-profile activists in Saudi Arabia accuse the girl's father, Fayhan Al-Ghamdi, of committing those crimes. Saudi Arabia's Human Rights Commission, a government-backed rights group, confirmed that Al-Ghamdi has been accused of torturing his daughter and that he is on trial for crimes leading to her death. Attempts to reach Al-Ghamdi via activists, government officials and King Saud Hospital have been unsuccessful.

"My dear child is dead, and all I want now is justice so I can close my eyes and know she didn't die in vain," the mother, Syeda Mohammed Ali, told CNN. "She was brutally tortured in the most shocking ways."

Activists say Al-Ghamdi is an Islamist evangelist popular in Saudi Arabia for his televised appearances and for speaking on air about the rewards of repenting to God. But they also say he only fancies himself as a cleric and is not recognized by the clerical establishment.Some media reports say that Al-Ghamdi was sentenced to pay blood money for Lama's death, and others say that he has been released from jail. But Mohammed Almadi, with the Human Rights Commission, told CNN that the father has been in prison for about eight months and has been accused of the torture that led to the girl's death. Lama's mother says the next hearing in the case will take place in about two weeks

."We have appointed a lawyer to assist the mother in the case," said Almadi, who added that there was a hearing Sunday and that the case is still under review. "Reports that the accused is out of prison are incorrect. The case is still actively being studied."At the Sunday hearing, Lama's mother tried to bring her own case against Al-Ghamdi. "The Human Rights Commission considers this case to be not just an assault against Lama," Almadi said, "but also an assault against every Saudi little girl. We are asking that the aggressor receive the maximum penalty."Several activists and numerous local media reports say that Lama was also raped, but her mother denied that happened, despite saying that the father had burned Lama's rectum. Syeda said that Lama's father also was concerned about the virginity of his 5-year-old daughter. "The father confessed to the abuse, the beating and torturing Lama in the most obnoxious manners," she said. "These are not some unfounded accusations, but everything is based on the medical examination by the hospital and the team of physicians who treated Lama when she was first admitted."Syeda, who is divorced from Al-Ghamdi, says Lama's torture occurred while she was staying with her father. She added that Al-Ghamdi is now remarried with two more children and that "the state needs to even consider taking his two children from him and his wife away because I fear for their lives."

 Aziza Al-Yousef, a human rights activist and lecturer at King Saud University, who is in very close contact with Lama's mother, said this case highlights the urgent need for legislation in Saudi Arabia that would better protect women and children from domestic violence. "We need to get some laws passed to protect women and children here. It's been difficult getting these laws passed," she said. "This case is a horrifying example of the kind of violence that can be faced by children here." 

Prominent Saudi women's rights activist Manal Al-Sharif, who has launched an online campaign and created a Twitter hashtag, #IAmLAMA, expressed a similar sentiment, explaining how this case reflects once again how dire the situation is for women in Saudi Arabia, who must contend with a male guardianship system that she says infantilizes women and strips them of any power."In Saudi Arabia," Al-Sharif told CNN, "all women are considered minors and are automatically assigned to the care and judgment of their most immediate male relative."Al-Sharif said Saudi courts tend to "show leniency toward male abusers," and she said she is concerned that might happen in this case as well.Lama's mother says she wants to make sure this doesn't happen to other children."I want to address the king and urge him to consider my case and my daughter's case," she said, "because such brutality needs to be punished in order to set a clear example for anyone who dares to abuse and harm their children."

‘My Oga At The Top’ Civil Defence Man Redeployed!

Mr. Shem Obafaye, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC Lagos Commandant, who popularised the ‘My Oga At the Top’ joke has been redeployed from his post.

Obafaye has been replaced by Mr. Adesuyi Clement, from the Oyo State Command.

Obafaye became an object of snide remarks after he committed a gaffe when he was guest on a breakfast show on Channels Television, a development that embarrassed the NSCDC authorities. Hint of Obafaye’s removal was given, weekend, when the Commandant General of the NSCDC, Mr. Olu Abolurin, while visiting Lagos over the recent killings of two of his men, introduced Clement as the new commandant of the NSCDC in Lagos to pressmen.

Abolurin did not give reasons for Obafaye’s replacement but many readily connect the action to Obafaye’s embarrassing outing on the TV guest show.

The NSCDC had, in the days following Obafaye’s poor showing, denied it had taken any disciplinary action against him, though reports said he had been suspended.

Obafaye’s ordeal began 12 March when he appeared as a guest on Lagos-based Channels Television’s flagship morning programme, Sunrise Daily.

The commandant had been prompted by the show’s presenters to give the NSCDC’s website – following reports of a recruitment scam that had to do with some people setting up a fake website of the paramilitary organisation to con job seekers.

But to the interviewers’ surprise, Obafaye said he could not give a website now, and it would turn out, in his words, “My Oga at the top” (his boss), would give a different website later.

The presenters prodded the officer further, explaining that they merely wanted the organisation’s functional website, just so the public could be wary of falling into the hands of frauds, who had set up the fake website.

Obafaye, behaving as though he now understood the question clearly, shocked his interviewers, and viewers alike, even further when he gave the website as merely: “ww.nscdc”, paused a few seconds, and added “that’s all”, without including the “.com” that should have completed the website address.

After Obafaye’s howler, the footage of the interview instantly went viral on social media, making him an object of several rude jokes, including graphic illustrations on Blackberry Messenger, Facebook , Twitter, T-shirts, and musical mixes by DJs.

Brazilian doctor charged with 7 murders, may have killed as many as 300: investigator !

A Brazilian doctor who was charged with killing seven patients to free up beds at a hospital intensive care unit may have been responsible for as many as 300 deaths, according to a Health Ministry investigator.

Virginia Helena Soares de Souza with police in February. 

Prosecutors said Dr. Virginia Soares de Souza and her medical team administered muscle relaxing drugs to patients, then reduced their oxygen supply, causing them to die of asphyxia at the Evangelical Hospital in the southern city of Curitiba.

De Souza, a 56-year-old widow, was arrested last month and charged with seven counts of aggravated first degree murder. Three other doctors, three nurses and a physiotherapist who worked under De Souza have also been charged with murder.

Prosecutors for the state of Parana said wiretaps of De Souza's phone conversations revealed that her motive was to free up hospital beds for other patients.

"I want to clear the intensive care unit. It's making me itch," she said in one recording released to Brazilian media. "Unfortunately, our mission is to be go-betweens on the springboard to the next life," she added in the same phone call.

De Souza's lawyer, Elias Mattar Assad, said investigators had misunderstood how an intensive care unit works and she would prove her innocence.

More cases are expected to emerge as investigators comb through 1,700 medical records of patients who died in the last seven years at the hospital, where De Souza headed the intensive care unit.

"We already have more than 20 cases established, and there are nearly 300 more that we are looking into," the chief investigator assigned by Brazil's Health Ministry, Dr. Mario Lobato, said on Globo TV's Fantastico program on Sunday.

If prosecutors prove that De Souza killed 300 patients, this could be one of the world's worst serial killings, rivaling the notorious case of Harold Shipman, the English doctor who was found to have killed at least 215 patients.

Lobato said the deaths he reviewed occurred under similar circumstances: a muscle relaxant such as Pancuronium (trademark Pavulon) was administered, increasing the patients' dependence on artificial respiration; then the oxygen supply was reduced, causing death by asphyxia.

Some of the patients were conscious moments before they died, he said.

Prosecutors said De Souza felt "all powerful" running the intensive care unit homicide, to the point where she "had the power to decree the moment when a victim would die."

In some cases, De Souza was absent from the hospital and gave instructions to end the life of a patient by telephone to members of her medical team, according to documents detailing the charges.

Last week, a Curitiba judge ordered the release of De Souza and her medical team. Prosecutors sought on Monday to have her returned to custody because she was the leader of the team and witnesses had reported being intimidated.

Parana state prosecutors asked police on Wednesday to investigate whether more hospital employees, including former managers, were involved in the case.

President Dilma Rousseff's government will announce steps on Thursday to reorganize the hospital, a spokesman for the Health Ministry said.

Pictures from Lagos carnival

In Nigeria's biggest city, a Monday morning typically sees bumper-to-bumper traffic as people struggle through heat and exhaust fumes to get to work. This Monday, however, the roads were not filled with cars, but with people celebrating theLagos Carnival.

Dancers in colorful costumes resembling those of Brazil's Carnival shimmied and shook their way through the streets.

This year, Lagos' state government said the festival would commemorate the region's historical ties with Brazil. Portuguese explorers once came to the region and Brazilian-style homes can still be seen in the city's older neighborhoods.

The curious lined up to watch and take mobile phone pictures, some ogling the women dressed in bikini-styled outfits. Tuesday, though, the streets will again jam with traffic.

Here are some photographs of this year's festivities in Lagos.