World News Thread & Breaking News!!
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What the heck, a complete town in China threw out all non local government officials and authorities in anger over poor conduct and is now basicly under siege by the police. They already fended off a police effort to regain control over the town.
That is one heck of a stand off ...
Rebel Chinese village of Wukan 'has food for ten days'
The rebel Chinese village of Wukan, which has driven out the Communist party, has resorted to smuggling in food past a police ring of steel which has cut off its population of more than 20,000.
By Malcolm Moore, Wukan 5:23PM GMT 14 Dec 2011
Villagers say that they have enough supplies to hold out for only 10 more days.
Wukan has been encircled by the police cordon since Sunday, after a failed attempt by 1,000 armed police to capture the village. No food or water is allowed in, and no villagers allowed out.
But the villagers were unbowed yesterday, and their leaders said they had seen signs that the government would “blink first”.
“We have an old saying here,” said Chen Liangshu, one of the villagers, referring to the legendary aggression of the Wukanese and their neighbours. “In heaven there is the Thunder God, on earth there is Lufeng and Wukan.”
Trouble in Wukan has been brewing since September, after the fishing village revolted at an attempt to take one of its last parcels of farmland and give it to a major Chinese property developer, Country Garden. However it was the death of 43-year-old Xue Jinbo, one of the village’s 13 temporary representatives, in police custody that pushed Wukan into its current fury, and saw the last of the village’s dozen Communist party officials flee. His family believe he was murdered.
Thousands of villagers have held daily protest meetings outside the village hall since the news broke on Monday.
Almost all the village’s roadside restaurants are shut, but at the market around half the stalls are open. “We think we can last for 10 to 12 days,” said Zhang Xiaoping, a stall owner.
“We are using a corridor to the next village to smuggle in meat and vegetables on the back of motorbikes, but each trip takes an hour,” she added.
Wukan’s fleet of fishing boats has also been shut in. One fisherman, who asked to be named as “United Wukan”, said he had already cut down to two meals a day and was prepared, like everyone else, “to starve myself to death”.
Wukan used to make a tidy sum from fishing, and was originally happy to sell off its farmland. But in recent years, a combination of pollution and large trawlers has diminished the fishery.
The gap between the rich and poor in the village has also upset many, with at least a hundred families, including those of the former party secretary and village finance chief, living in palatial mansions, all built on farmland. By yesterday, almost all the rich families had also retreated out of the village, while the ones who remained refused to comment on the protests, shut in behind high walls and strong steel gates.
So far, the police have not made any further attempts to retake Wukan, and the village’s temporary leadership said negotiations with the government are now under way.
The local government sent a relative of Zhang Jiancheng, one of the four Wukan villagers still being held by local police, to offer a deal, according to Yang Semao, a village representative. It was refused.
“We turned down the offer,” said Mr Yang. “We want them to admit responsibility for the bloodshed when the riot police beat us in September, admit that we have a legal complaint, admit that the village representatives are a legal negotiating team, and to return all of our land to us, for us to split evenly among the villagers.”
That is one heck of a stand off ...
Rebel Chinese village of Wukan 'has food for ten days'
The rebel Chinese village of Wukan, which has driven out the Communist party, has resorted to smuggling in food past a police ring of steel which has cut off its population of more than 20,000.
By Malcolm Moore, Wukan 5:23PM GMT 14 Dec 2011
Villagers say that they have enough supplies to hold out for only 10 more days.
Wukan has been encircled by the police cordon since Sunday, after a failed attempt by 1,000 armed police to capture the village. No food or water is allowed in, and no villagers allowed out.
But the villagers were unbowed yesterday, and their leaders said they had seen signs that the government would “blink first”.
“We have an old saying here,” said Chen Liangshu, one of the villagers, referring to the legendary aggression of the Wukanese and their neighbours. “In heaven there is the Thunder God, on earth there is Lufeng and Wukan.”
Trouble in Wukan has been brewing since September, after the fishing village revolted at an attempt to take one of its last parcels of farmland and give it to a major Chinese property developer, Country Garden. However it was the death of 43-year-old Xue Jinbo, one of the village’s 13 temporary representatives, in police custody that pushed Wukan into its current fury, and saw the last of the village’s dozen Communist party officials flee. His family believe he was murdered.
Thousands of villagers have held daily protest meetings outside the village hall since the news broke on Monday.
Almost all the village’s roadside restaurants are shut, but at the market around half the stalls are open. “We think we can last for 10 to 12 days,” said Zhang Xiaoping, a stall owner.
“We are using a corridor to the next village to smuggle in meat and vegetables on the back of motorbikes, but each trip takes an hour,” she added.
Wukan’s fleet of fishing boats has also been shut in. One fisherman, who asked to be named as “United Wukan”, said he had already cut down to two meals a day and was prepared, like everyone else, “to starve myself to death”.
Wukan used to make a tidy sum from fishing, and was originally happy to sell off its farmland. But in recent years, a combination of pollution and large trawlers has diminished the fishery.
The gap between the rich and poor in the village has also upset many, with at least a hundred families, including those of the former party secretary and village finance chief, living in palatial mansions, all built on farmland. By yesterday, almost all the rich families had also retreated out of the village, while the ones who remained refused to comment on the protests, shut in behind high walls and strong steel gates.
So far, the police have not made any further attempts to retake Wukan, and the village’s temporary leadership said negotiations with the government are now under way.
The local government sent a relative of Zhang Jiancheng, one of the four Wukan villagers still being held by local police, to offer a deal, according to Yang Semao, a village representative. It was refused.
“We turned down the offer,” said Mr Yang. “We want them to admit responsibility for the bloodshed when the riot police beat us in September, admit that we have a legal complaint, admit that the village representatives are a legal negotiating team, and to return all of our land to us, for us to split evenly among the villagers.”
^^ I posted another story about this incident yesterday in the
http://www.sinodefenceforum.com/gen...ly-photos-videos-news-77-5535.html#post170043
scroll up once you get there.
You ought to check out that thread..lots of good stuff over there!
http://www.sinodefenceforum.com/gen...ly-photos-videos-news-77-5535.html#post170043
scroll up once you get there.
You ought to check out that thread..lots of good stuff over there!
Something entirely different:
With a cheap way to store electrical energy (super-capacitors, or my favorite, and I'm pretty ignorant about these things, reversible fuel cells, or something entirely different ) you can supply electricity everywhere were the population density is not to high and without having to transport it or the fuel to generate it from afar. Every island, every village can have electricity without having to buy oil or gas.
With a cheap way to store electrical energy (super-capacitors, or my favorite, and I'm pretty ignorant about these things, reversible fuel cells, or something entirely different ) you can supply electricity everywhere were the population density is not to high and without having to transport it or the fuel to generate it from afar. Every island, every village can have electricity without having to buy oil or gas.
Schumacher
Senior Member
3 months into the Occupy movements, the crackdown on peaceful protestors intensifies.
Dozens of Occupy protesters arrested in Manhattan
Published: 18 December, 2011, 05:53
Edited: 18 December, 2011, 14:42
Some 50 anti-Wall Street protesters have been arrested after trying to break into a church-owned property in Manhattan as the Occupy movement marked the three-month anniversary of its fight against economic injustice.
The anti-corporate demonstrators have been in search of a new location since they were evicted from their encampment in Zuccotti Park last month.
Dozens tried to claim a fence into the empty lot on Duarte Square in New York’s Tribeca neighborhood on Saturday afternoon. The square is city-owned, but a fenced section belongs to the Trinity Wall Street Church.
Activists tore holes in the fence around the private grounds, and used ladders to climb inside shouting “We are unstoppable! Another world is possible!”
The first person to get into the park was retired Episcopal Church Bishop George Packard. He tumbled over the fence, climbed onto a wooden bench inside the park and called on the crowd to follow.
Police dispersed the protesters, claiming that the occupiers, who did not have permission to enter the park, were turning violent. The retired bishop was arrested along with everybody who did not flee the site. The crowd yelled “Shame!” as the arrests took place.
Earlier the protesters had asked the Episcopal Church officials to allow them to occupy the church-owned park on Duarte Square, but were refused. Their bid was backed by South Africa’s prominent anti-apartheid activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
On Friday, the top bishop of the Episcopal Church asked the protesters not to trespass on the property of the Trinity Church on Duarte Square and called the move “regrettable.”
In an official statement issued by Trinity Wall Street, Trinity Church rector Rev. Dr. James H. Cooper said that the church does not believe that allowing an encampment on Duarte Square would do any good.
“In all good conscience and faith, we strongly believe to do so would be wrong, unsafe, unhealthy and potentially injurious,” the statement read.
The rector pointed out that the Church “has probably done as much or more for the protesters than any other institution in the area.”
“We have provided OWS with meeting rooms and offices for them to assemble, plan and hold private discussions. We have provided pastoral services. We have provided a place of refuge and tranquillity at our neighborhood center during opening hours where they can rest, use computers, charge cell phones, and use bathrooms,” Cooper said.
Meanwhile, a half a dozen Occupy Des Moines activists have set up a camp outside President Barack Obama’s campaign headquarters in Iowa, according to the Associated Press. The occupiers, who are protesting against military spending, vow to stay there around the clock.
The protesters say they want Obama to cut the US military budget by half and “dismantle our US military empire” to create jobs. No comments followed from Obama’s campaign.
In North Carolina, at least six Occupy protesters have been arrested and face charges. Police detained the activists in Raleigh as a group of about 20 to 30 demonstrators blocked the city’s downtown Hillsborough Street and refused to move.
The events come as a part of a call to “reoccupy” public spaces following the wave of police crackdowns and evictions of Occupy activists across the United States.
Dozens of Occupy protesters arrested in Manhattan
Published: 18 December, 2011, 05:53
Edited: 18 December, 2011, 14:42
Some 50 anti-Wall Street protesters have been arrested after trying to break into a church-owned property in Manhattan as the Occupy movement marked the three-month anniversary of its fight against economic injustice.
The anti-corporate demonstrators have been in search of a new location since they were evicted from their encampment in Zuccotti Park last month.
Dozens tried to claim a fence into the empty lot on Duarte Square in New York’s Tribeca neighborhood on Saturday afternoon. The square is city-owned, but a fenced section belongs to the Trinity Wall Street Church.
Activists tore holes in the fence around the private grounds, and used ladders to climb inside shouting “We are unstoppable! Another world is possible!”
The first person to get into the park was retired Episcopal Church Bishop George Packard. He tumbled over the fence, climbed onto a wooden bench inside the park and called on the crowd to follow.
Police dispersed the protesters, claiming that the occupiers, who did not have permission to enter the park, were turning violent. The retired bishop was arrested along with everybody who did not flee the site. The crowd yelled “Shame!” as the arrests took place.
Earlier the protesters had asked the Episcopal Church officials to allow them to occupy the church-owned park on Duarte Square, but were refused. Their bid was backed by South Africa’s prominent anti-apartheid activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
On Friday, the top bishop of the Episcopal Church asked the protesters not to trespass on the property of the Trinity Church on Duarte Square and called the move “regrettable.”
In an official statement issued by Trinity Wall Street, Trinity Church rector Rev. Dr. James H. Cooper said that the church does not believe that allowing an encampment on Duarte Square would do any good.
“In all good conscience and faith, we strongly believe to do so would be wrong, unsafe, unhealthy and potentially injurious,” the statement read.
The rector pointed out that the Church “has probably done as much or more for the protesters than any other institution in the area.”
“We have provided OWS with meeting rooms and offices for them to assemble, plan and hold private discussions. We have provided pastoral services. We have provided a place of refuge and tranquillity at our neighborhood center during opening hours where they can rest, use computers, charge cell phones, and use bathrooms,” Cooper said.
Meanwhile, a half a dozen Occupy Des Moines activists have set up a camp outside President Barack Obama’s campaign headquarters in Iowa, according to the Associated Press. The occupiers, who are protesting against military spending, vow to stay there around the clock.
The protesters say they want Obama to cut the US military budget by half and “dismantle our US military empire” to create jobs. No comments followed from Obama’s campaign.
In North Carolina, at least six Occupy protesters have been arrested and face charges. Police detained the activists in Raleigh as a group of about 20 to 30 demonstrators blocked the city’s downtown Hillsborough Street and refused to move.
The events come as a part of a call to “reoccupy” public spaces following the wave of police crackdowns and evictions of Occupy activists across the United States.
Salvaging and repairing the ship will be cheaper than building a new one. But it depends on what the owner, Carnival, which also owns several other cruise ship owning companies, will think of the future of the cruising market. I expect they will have the ship repaired.
A more immediate question: Is this the result of an incredible blunder of the Italian hydrographic service or a very serious mistake on board of the ship? And what kind of mistake and how do you prevent a repetition.
A more immediate question: Is this the result of an incredible blunder of the Italian hydrographic service or a very serious mistake on board of the ship? And what kind of mistake and how do you prevent a repetition.
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