Thursday, January 22, 2009

Three Death Sentences in Chinese Milk Scandal

http://soapbox411.blogspot.com/

Now here is a way to make corporations responsible. Sentence the executives to death. Hmmm, one upside is that if you do this only every now and then, most if not all other companies will fall right in line and operate ethically.
BB

By DAVID BARBOZA
Published: January 22, 2009
BEIJING — A group of high-ranking dairy company executives and middlemen were sentenced by a Chinese court on Thursday to long jail terms, life in prison and, for three individuals, the death penalty for endangering public safety last year by selling and producing tainted milk products, according to the state-run news media.

The court said members of the group had intentionally produced and sold fake or substandard dairy products laced with a toxic chemical called melamine, which the government says sickened about 300,000 children and caused the death of at least six in one of the worst food safety scandals in China in decades.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Worldwide Protests Escalate in Response to Israel's Ground War on Gaza

On Saturday January 3rd, Israeli troops entered the Gaza Strip with the stated goal of destroying the elected government in Gaza, Hamas, and the suspected goal of helping two senior Israeli politicians in upcoming elections (see [1] | [2] | [3]). The ground assault came after eight days of air strikes, which were launched in response to small scale rockets that killed four Israelis. At writing, at least 660 Palestinians have been killed and 3000 injured, an estimated 50 percent of which are civilians.
Reports: IMEMC.org | Cyprus Indymedia | Indybay

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Gaza invasion: Powered by the U.S.

Whether you take sides about issues in the middle-east or not, namely Israel and the ongoing conflicts it has with it's neighbors, U.S. tax-dollars not only take sides but have been doing so for decades. This heavy handed, one sided support draws criticism from the rest of the world and is one facet as to why, other than Israel, we, the U.S., are not friends of the region.
BB

Taxpayers are spending over $1 billion to send refined fuel to the Israeli military -- at a time when Israel doesn't need it and America does.



Jan. 16, 2009 | Israel's current air and ground assault on the Gaza Strip has left about 1,000 Palestinians dead, including 400 women and children. Several thousand people have been wounded and dozens of buildings have been destroyed. An estimated 90,000 Gazans have abandoned their homes. Israel's campaign in Gaza, which began more than two weeks ago, has been denounced by the Red Cross, multiple Arab and European countries, and agencies from the United Nations. Demonstrations in Pakistan and elsewhere have been held to denounce America's support for Israel.