Fighting
ISRAEL IS STILL FIRING MISSILES AT GAZA
And militants from Gaza are still firing rockets at Israel
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Israel launched more deadly strikes on Gaza, bringing the Palestinian death toll up to at least 87 since Israel launched their Operation Pillar of Defence on Wednesday with an air strike that killed Hamas military chief Ahmed Jabari.
Militants in Gaza have continued to fire rockets at Israel, with injuries reported in towns including Ashkelon and Ofakim.
US President Barack Obama said that Washington is “fully supportive of Israel’s right to defend itself”, while UK Foreign Secretary William Hague warned that a ground invasion would “lose Israel a lot of the international support and sympathy they have in this situation”.
Sources on both sides claim that attempts to reach a ceasefire are continuing.
Self Immolations
A BRITISH MONK BECAME THE FIRST WESTERN BUDDHIST TO SELF-IMMOLATE
No one knows if he was depressed or doing it for Tibetan solidarity
(via)
David Alain – a 38-year-old British man, who took the name Tonden after joining a French monastery – has become the first Western Buddhist monk to die from self-immolation, after setting himself on fire at the Nalanda monastery in Labastide-Saint-George, France.
Neither police or other monks living at the monastery are sure of what provoked the self-immolation, as there were no overt signs of it being a political statement or the suicide of a depressed man.
Since the appointment of Xi Jinping as the successor to China’s president Hu Jintao, nine Tibetan monks have self-immolated, although police are not linking those deaths to Tonden’s.
Guerilla Warfare
A GROUP OF CONGOLESE REBELS CLAIM THEY’RE ABOUT TO CAPTURE GOMA
Which wouldn’t be good news for the people living there
Photo via
(via)
The M23, a Rwandan-backed Congolese rebel group, have advanced to within 1.8 km of Goma, a crucial provincial capital in eastern Congo, marking the first time rebels have come this close since 2008.
M23 rebel spokesman Colonel Vianney Kazarama said “We are confident that we can take Goma and then our next step will be to take Bukavu,” the capital of the next province to the south.
The M23 is made up of soldiers from the now-defunct rebel army the National Congress for the Defence of the People, which disbanded in 2009, before taking up arms again this year after former CNDP fighters claimed the Congolese government had failed to keep their side of the 2009 peace agreement.
France’s ambassador to the UN said that the M23 must be stopped, otherwise Goma’s fall “would, inevitably, turn into a humanitarian crisis”.
Politics
CUBA HAS ITS FIRST ELECTED TRANSSEXUAL POLITICIAN
She served time in prison in the 80s for “dangerousness”
(via)
Adela Hernandez, a 48-year-old Cuban transsexual, has become the first transgender person to hold public office in the country, winning election as a delegate to the municipal government of Caibarien in the central province of Villa Clara.
Hernandez has lived as a female since childhood and served two years in prison in the 1980s for “dangerousness” after her own family denounced her sexuality.
After winning the election, Hernandez hailed her triumph as another milestone in the gradual shift away from macho attitudes and homophobia in the Caribbean country.
Policing
AN ENTIRE SOUTH LONDON POLICE TEAM HAVE BEEN AXED FOR PLAYING POKER ON THE JOB
It’s nice to know the police are working hard to keep people safe
Photo by dupo-x-y
(via)
Seven officers resigned or were dismissed from Bromley’s Safer Neighbourhood Team after a probe found officers had been playing poker and cleaning golf clubs while on duty.
A statement from the Met said, “The disciplinary panel heard evidence that officers from the team had played backgammon and poker whilst on duty, watched TV in the office, frequently failed to go out on patrol, had not worked full tours of duty and also claimed overtime that had not been worked.”
Criminals living in Bromley are presumably very upset at the news that a new team of police who actually do their job will be put to work on the district’s streets.
