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For 18 years, people in northern Uganda have endured a brutal conflict with consequences that are nearly invisible to the outside world. More than 1.6 million people � 80 percent of northern Uganda�s entire population � have been displaced and now live in squalid conditions. Civilians have been attacked and killed by the Lord�s Resistance Army (LRA) in their villages, as well as in the camps where they have sought refuge. The LRA has abducted tens of thousands of children, forcing them into combat and sexual slavery, a fear that causes up to 50,000 children to stream into city or camp centers across the north every night from as far as 10 miles away in search of a safe place to sleep. The Ugandan army has moved hundreds of thousands of civilians against their will into �protected villages� that offer little security and hardly any assistance, and has victimized ordinary people with brutal raids against suspected LRA militants. While the death toll from direct violence reaches into the tens of thousands, chronic food and water shortages in the 200 makeshift settlements throughout the north have also exacted a heavy price. In November 2004 alone, MSF recorded staggering death rates in six camps in Lira and Pader districts, with many dying from preventable diseases like malaria, respiratory disease, and diarrhea. Recent peace overtures from both the LRA and the government have not led to a noticeable improvement of the situation for people living in deplorable conditions and in constant fear.

(for the nine others, follow the link)

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I strongly believe that terrorists are cowards but the cowardice you�re going to see in this story is just exceptional.
The suicide attack that was performed on an election center in one of Baghdad’s districts (Baghdad Al-Jadeedah) last Sunday was performed using a kidnapped “Down Syndrome” patient.
Eye witnesses said (and I’m quoting one of my colleagues; a dentist who lives there) “the poor victim was so scared when ordered to walk to the searching point and began to walk back to the terrorists. In response the criminals pressed the button and blew up the poor victim almost half way between their position and the voting center’s entrance”.

I couldn’t believe the news until I met another guy from that neighborhood who knows the family of the victim. The guy was reported missing 5 days prior to elections’ day and the family were distributing posters that specified his descriptions and asking anyone who finds him to contact them.

When a relative of mine (who has a mental handicap due to an Rh conflict at birth) told me a month ago that a group of men in a car tried to kidnap him as he was standing in front of the institution he periodically visits to get medicine and support waiting for his brother; I thought that he was imagining the whole story.
He said that they tried to force him into the car telling him not to be afraid and that they’re from the “mujahideen and not going to hurt him”. My relative, despite his handicap was moved by his survival instinct and managed to run away.
After I heard the other story, I began to connect between the two stories and to consider my cousin’s story as a true one that uncovered a new miserable war technique that can come only from the sickest minds.

What a huge difference there is between those who kidnap and use the mentally handicapped to perform their murders in cold blood and between the brave Iraqis who sacrificed their lives to protect their brethren. one story that is famous now in Iraq is about one brave Iraqi (A’adel Nasir) who saw a suspicious looking guy walking around a polling center in (Al- Hurriyah) district and soon the brave man realized that the suspicious guy was trying to commit a suicide attack; he ran towards him, wrestled him and knocked him down causing the bomb carried by the terrorist to explode, sacrificing his own life and saving the lives of the people standing in line at the gate of the voting center. It turned out later that the terrorist carried a Sudanese id.
Now, the school that hosted the voting center on the 30th carries the name of A’adel Nasir, as the Iraqi minister of education announced today.

(More here)

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Russia said yesterday it had abandoned efforts to tie the rouble’s movement closely to the dollar and switched to shadowing both the euro and the US currency.

The move heightened expectations that other countries operating de facto dollar pegs, such as China, could follow suit.

With 81 per cent of Russia’s oil exports currently sold to Europe, the move also provoked fresh speculation that Russia could decide to denominate its oil in euros. Russia is the world’s second-largest oil exporter, behind Saudi Arabia.

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As he walked through the mud surrounding his temporary barracks, 1st Sgt. Ken Agueda carried an M-4 assault rifle without its essential lethal components: bullets. Earlier in the day, Agueda had turned in his ammunition — cartridges, assorted grenades — in preparation for his journey home after nearly 13 months in Iraq.

“It’s like walking around without your pants,” said Agueda, a 17-year U.S. Army veteran from Bayamon, Puerto Rico.

With their departure just days away, Agueda and his unit, the 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment of the 25th Infantry Division, were euphoric and reflective. In more than a dozen interviews over three days this past week, soldiers with combat experience in all corners of Iraq offered up a mixed final assessment of a conflict that is burned into them forever. Its ultimate outcome, all agreed, remains highly uncertain and far away.

Soldiers ranging from privates to senior officers described last Sunday’s national elections as vindication for over a year of hard service. The unexpectedly strong turnout, they said, altered their perception about the willingness of Iraqis to embrace the American mission here and helped project a rare positive image of the U.S. military following such stains as the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal last year.

“This was the opposite of Abu Ghraib,” Agueda said. “I think it’s safe to say that this is the biggest thing that anyone of us has ever done. I mean, in our humble positions, we helped make history. We did something that could have a positive effect on the entire world.”

Spec. Andrew Field, 31, of Tallahassee, described the elections as “the culminating event for our whole deployment. If it hadn’t gone well, it would have been incredibly demoralizing to everyone. It gave meaning to everything we were doing.”

But the soldiers were reluctant to say that the elections were a turning point in the war. “Leaving with the elections will definitely be a positive in our minds, but I don’t know if I’m optimistic or pessimistic,” said Capt. John Hussey, 26, of Uvalde, Tex. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the entire country descends into chaos. But I wouldn’t be surprised if it flourishes, either.”

Asked how long he thought U.S. troops would remain in Iraq, Hussey said: “Probably 10 or 15 years, if we want to do it right. I don’t think there’s going to be 135,000 Americans in Baghdad 10 years from now, but there are going to be Americans in Iraq for a long, long time.”

As always, the grunts have the most realistic view of the situation…

A reveller of the ‘Rumberos’ group performs on stage in Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands during carnival celebrations late January 29, 2005. The 2005 Tenerife carnival’s motto is ‘The Great Comedy’, inspired in the great musical comedies of Broadway offering an important variety of costume elements and props as well as a wide range of possibilities for disguises and carnival fantasies which runs till February 13. REUTERS/Carlos Guevara

Samba dancer at the 2004 Rio de Janeiro carnival. Carnival rhythms are beginning to pound in Brazil, a week from Rio’s world- famous samba parade, with cities around the nation in full festival mode, fixed on completing preparations(AFP/File/Vanderlei Almeida)

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It’s no surprise therefore that MCI has consistently occupied first place in Spamhaus “TOP 10 World Worst Spam Service ISPs” chart, with over 200 spammers and spam gangs on the MCI network in full knowledge of the security managers and the General Counsel.

For over two years Spamhaus has repeatedly informed the same MCI executives that the distribution of ‘stealth’ anonymous spamware is also illegal in the State of Virginia where MCI UUNet is based. In other words, we do not simply see MCI’s knowingly servicing known spam gangs as highly unethical activity for an ISP to be involved in, we also see it as being illegal in MCI UUNet’s home state.

Spamhaus has for a long time campaigned for ISPs to cease knowingly profiting from hosting known spam gangs and aiding the sale and distribution of illegal spamware such as Send Safe and DMS. Spamhaus has repeatedly uncovered deals between ISPs and spam gangs, in which the spam gangs pay a premium for hosting in return for the host turning a blind eye, and seen internal memos in which executives of one ISP discuss how much revenue they are making from hosting known spam gangs.

We estimate that MCI earns upwards of US$5,000,000 a year from selling service knowingly to known spam gangs, incentive enough for MCI Sales executives to want to keep the income coming, no matter what havoc the paying spam gangs are wreaking to the Internet.

If you’re an MCI customer – tell them why you’re switching to another provider right away.

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Bill Gates has sent an email to all Microsoft’s corporate customers warning that those in search of technological interoperability shouldn’t look towards open source software.

Interoperability, Gates wrote, should be in every firm’s thinking: “Businesses face an ongoing challenge of making a wide variety of software from many different vendors work together… Bringing heterogeneous technologies together while reducing costs is today a challenge that touches every part of the organisation,” he said in the email.

He is the world’s leading expert on lack of interoperability, he knows what he’s talking about: you really, really should keep all your office subscriptions current! Running more than one version of Word is bound to cause lots of problems.