All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

Broke 10,000 killed since 2012! Weekend Gun Report: December 13-15, 2013 – NYTimes.com

According to Slate’s gun-death tracker, an estimated 11,545 people have died as a result of gun violence in America since the Newtown massacre on December 14, 2012.

via Weekend Gun Report: December 13-15, 2013 – NYTimes.com.

A French Version of NSA Electronic Surveillance Program? · Global Voices

The existing legislation already allows a form of “surveillance” of the web and social networks by the intelligence services. The surveillance that we are talking about here is, in fact, the possibility for some agencies of the administration to access “data connection” logs stored by electronic communications operators services: telecom operators, ISPs and hosts

via A French Version of NSA Electronic Surveillance Program? · Global Voices.

Avian Flu Diary: FAO: Surge In Animal Disease Increases Zoonotic Threats

With an increasingly mobile global population now numbered over 7 billion, huge increases in the number of animals being raised for food consumption (often in environments conducive to the spread of diseases), and man’s continual encroachment into remote jungles and forests of the world – you have a huge potential to introduce new `exotic’ diseases to mankind.

via Avian Flu Diary: FAO: Surge In Animal Disease Increases Zoonotic Threats.

Bloggers celebrated in Paris, arrested and beaten in Vietnam – Reporters Without Borders

Plainclothes police beat the bloggers Chau Van Thi and Hoang Dung in Ho Chi Minh City, while in Hanoi, Dao Trang Loan, Le Hien Duc and Pham Minh Vu were roughed up.

A group of bloggers was attacked at round 5 p.m. on 8 December in Ho Chi Minh City while heading to the demonstration. A woman blogger, Nguyen Hoang Vi, was dragged and beaten. Me Nam, another woman blogger, was pushed to the ground while carrying her five-year-old son.

Seven other bloggers – Hoang Dung, Nguyen Tien Tuyen, Tran Hoang Han, Trung Hieu Hieu, Vo Cong Dong, Hoang Bui and Tin Ba – who were nearby were beaten when they rushed to help them. Vi and Nam were forced to return home, where a policeman prevented them from leaving for several hours.

via Bloggers celebrated in Paris, arrested and beaten in Vietnam – Reporters Without Borders.

Bulgaria Marks Six Months of Continued Protests · Global Voices

Still on the question of the outside world, anti-government protesters seize eagerly on what international media coverage there has been. Such stories are shared and reposted on social networks, a morale booster for the protest participants. Ironically, the very fact that the protests have been largely peaceful, with the very few exceptions where police have been ordered to get tough on anti-government protesters, makes the story hugely less sexy than events elsewhere, from Istanbul to Kyiv and beyond.[…]

This picture of a situation in which no one is winning, neither a discredited government nor those opposed to it, cannot be complete without noting that no political force currently lacking seats in Parliament seems to be making genuine gains. […]

But while there is a standoff, as the current BSP government refuses to give up, the six-month mark being reached on December 14 shows that the anti-government protesters are not ready to give up either.

via Bulgaria Marks Six Months of Continued Protests · Global Voices.