The Torture Chambers Of Benghazi

As Gaddafi forces move out of towns and cities across Libya, the media are moving in. For the first time we are seeing the extent of the regimes apparatus of torture, and it's victims, as this report from Al-Jazeera shows:

UPDATED Mar 9: Map Of Areas Of Regime & Protester Control Within Libya

Please note that this map is from the Wikipedia article on the Libyan uprising, replacing my map from earlier posts. 

pop stars and a knight, it must be a gaddafi party

Over the last few weeks, Wikileaks has published some damming reports that the Gaddafi family has given millions of pounds to fund their education and their entertainment. This has forced some celebrities to donate the earnings to a charity and to give a some what half hearted apology, mixed with an excuse. Wikileak's findings has also cause an independent enquiry into the funding of over 3.7 million pounds to the London School of Economics from the Gaddafi family and the resignation of its director Sir Howard Davies.

The artists and reported earnings for Gaddafi linked events:

2005 - 50 cent - unknow - undcilosed fee

2007 - Nelly Furtdo - 45 mins - $1million

2009 - Mariah Carey - 4 songs - $1million

2009 - Beyonce Knowles - 1 hour - $2million

2009 - Usher - 1 hour - undisclosed fee

Rumoured to have perform, Lionel Richie, Enrique Iglesias and Timberland. Most the pop stars have come out with regret at preforming at these event and have since donated their earning from this to charities.

Donations or payments to London School of Economics:

£2.2 - to train Libyan civil servants and professionals

£20,000 - tuition to head of Libyan investment authority 

£31,000 - advice from Davies himself on Libya's wealth fund

£22,857 - travel costs from for academic LSE speakers to go to Libya 

Gaddafi's son attended LSE and is now being investigated for plagiarism on his PhD thesis.

Earthquake from space

New Zealand's Christchurch as seen through the Japanese spacecraft Alos. It shows the movement on the day the 6.3 tremor killed 160 people and destroyed the cities foundation.   

The colour bands shows movement towards and from the satellite, you can see that the centre of the quake hit right under Christchurch. 

Sexism And Car Insurance

Further to our post earlier on the European Court of Justice's flawed decision on equal insurance premiums for male and female drivers, Dizzy has an interesting post here:
http://dizzythinks.net/2011/03/asessing-risk-will-never-be-as-cheap.html

Demonstrations In Morocco Prompt Concern In Other Arab Monarchies

Recent protests in the Kingdom of Morocco have prompted concerns in other Arab kingdoms. So far the extreme protests in the Arab world have taken place in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya - all republics.
There have been small scale protests in countries such as Jordan, Oman and Saudi Arabia, but these have been contained with, on the most part, little bloodshed.
That Morocco, a country that has seen a decade of reforms, is subject to large scale street protests has damaged the theory that Arab monarchies are not inherently more stable than their republican neighbours.
The demonstrators are unhappy about repression and curbs on civil liberties, and are calling on Morocco to adopt a constitutional monarchy, such as those in the UK and Spain.

Ivory Coast At The Brink Of Civil War

A view of the bay at Abidjan.

Rebels in the Ivory Coast have pushed south and taken a town formerly held by government loyalists. We reported last week of clashes in the southern port of Abidjan, and now appear to have taken a town in the Dix-huit-montagnes region,  Zouan-Hounien. This small provincial town near the Liberian border is not an important gain in itself, but marks a general escalation of hostilities.

This map (based on a map from Wikipedia) shows the rebel controlled areas in the north of the country, the government held regions in the south, and the "zone de confiance", or ZDC, a military buffer zone that was created in 2007. The Yellow stars mark the recent flashpoints, the red star the location of the town of Zouan-Hounien:

Tensions have been mounting in the Ivory Coast for several months following elections in November 2010 after sitting president Mr Gbagbo refused to accept defeat to Mr Ouattara. At this time of turmoil in North Africa and the Middle East, the UN and the international community must ensure that it doesn't forget the Ivory Coast, a return to war there would be a tragedy.

VIDEO: Up To 20 Killed In Gaddafi Air Strikes On Brega

News Ninja Current Events Trackers

With a tip of the hat to the Crisis Monitors on the fantastic Blogs Of War, I have introduced our very own Current Event Trackers.

This page (accessible from the navigation bar at the top of the page) will contain Twitter widgets running searches for major current events, updated in real time.

For now there's only one, following the Arab rebellions and protests, more will follow.

If you have any ideas for other trackers, let me know in the comments below.

Should Saif Gaddafi Take A Leaf Out Of German Defence Ministers Book?

Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, the German Defence minister has resigned after a scandal involving his PhD thesis.

The German aristocrat was found to have copied large sections of text from sources without attribution, including newspapers and a US government website.

After a backlash from the academic community, which led to a wider campaign in Germany, Guttenberg has finally stood down, stating that he was the minister for defence, not self defence.

Guttenberg is not however the only politician to be facing charges of plagiarism. Saif Gaddafi, son of Libya's beguiled leader Colonel Gaddafi and widely seen as his heir and right hand man, is caught up in a similar scandal.

Saif Gaddafi studied at the London School of Economics from 2003 - 2008, earning a masters degree and a doctorate. The LSE is investigating allegations that he plagiarised, or rather his ghost writer plagiarised, large sections of his thesis.

The institution received £300,000 from the Gaddafi regime and is under pressure to give this money to charity, and to revoke Saif Gaddafi's doctorate.

Last week Saif was questioned on whether he and his father would leave Libya. His response was:

 

"There are three plans, plan A, plan B, and plan C. Plan A is to live and die in Libya. Plan B is to live and die in Libya. Plan C is to live and die in Libya."

 

I see he hasn't forgotten how to copy and paste.

 

 

 

If you would like to help humiliate Saif Gaddafi, check out the Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi Thesis Wiki, where you can collaborate on finding evidence of plagiarism in the thesis.

 

UPDATED Mar 1: Map Of Areas Of Regime & Protester Control Within Libya

Map showing areas controlled by the Gaddafi regime (red) and anti-government protesters (green).

 

If you can help improve this information leave a comment below.

The European Court Of Political Correctness

The European Court of Justice has ruled that it is unlawful for insurance companies to offer cheaper insurance to female motorists despite the fact that they have fewer accidents. 

The change, which comes into force in 2012, will see women paying significantly more for their insurance, whilst men will pay slightly less - effectively being subsidised by their female counterparts.

Whilst gender equality is an important goal, this is not an example of it. Insurance companies assess the risk of insuring motorists based on many different demographic factors. If it is discriminatory to ask men to pay more, it follows that it is also discriminatory to ask younger people to pay more, or people who live in deprived areas with higher rates of vehicle crime.

Followed to it's logical conclusion, this decision by the European Court of Justice is, well, unjust.