In the news

Me too. Thanks.

Far right male politician slaps female Communist party politician 3 times on Greek TV.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDaW4G8HFtk&feature=youtu.be

excuse the audio, but go straight to 1:10

Fuckin' hell.

Blimey! Someone needs anger management.

Or one off the wrist.

Bloody hell.

Media reported seeing him being escorted *by police *to the 'Golden Dawn' HQ, at the same time there is a 72hr immediate arrest warrent issued on him.

Shit like this is interesting: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18116112

This is very interesting, the Road of Bones is another one worth looking into (and well known compared to the railway).

Thanks.

UN monitors in Syria after being denied access to the latest area which has alledgedly been the subject of a massacre by government forces, were fired upon(although they are not 100% sure by whom, syrian forces are suspected though).

This is really the tipping point in this saga, international intervention surely is soon to follow.

This is really the tipping point in this saga, international intervention surely is soon to follow.

Don't hold your breath.

Far right male politician slaps female Communist party politician 3 times on Greek TV.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDaW4G8HFtk&feature=youtu.be

excuse the audio, but go straight to 1:10

Care to translate for us?

There are a lot of syllables to translate ...

Greek: Why use monosyllabic words when fifteen will do? :)

I love Greek for that, and also for possibly being the language with the greatest incidence of double consonants.

Far right male politician slaps female Communist party politician 3 times on Greek TV.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDaW4G8HFtk&feature=youtu.be

excuse the audio, but go straight to 1:10

Wish our political debate was more like this^.

Yawn...

Media reported seeing him being escorted *by police *to the 'Golden Dawn' HQ, at the same time there is a 72hr immediate arrest warrent issued on him.

Hardly surprising though. It's been widely reported that the Greek police have been in cahoots with the Golden Dawn, indeed nearly half of Athens police officers voted for them according to polls.

Have you got a link about that, Prole Art?

UN monitors in Syria after being denied access to the latest area which has alledgedly been the subject of a massacre by government forces, were fired upon(although they are not 100% sure by whom, syrian forces are suspected though).

This is really the tipping point in this saga, international intervention surely is soon to follow.

Don't hold your breath.

China condems Syria for the first time today

Oxford St just reopened after the fire service spent about an hour removing some of the union flags and bunting damaged by the wind.

Unfortunately I believe it was too late for Graham Norton. RIP.

China condems Syria for the first time today

'Cos China have a legendary human rights record.

Have you got a link about that, Prole Art?

http://www.rt.com/news/greek-police-vote-nazis-350/

Russia Today, not the most reliable of sources, but they're quoting a Greek paper.

And again in the Guardian today:

Dimitris Trimis, the head of the Greek journalists' association, ESEA:

"Suspicions of the collaboration between the police and Golden Dawn were confirmed at the ballot box in May," he said.

"As much as 50% of the police force voted for the party. There might be all the political will to arrest Kasidiarias. But there is a certain level of unwillingness among the police force that will stop that happening."

If this is the case, Greece are fucked in every sense of the word.

UN monitors in Syria after being denied access to the latest area which has alledgedly been the subject of a massacre by government forces, were fired upon(although they are not 100% sure by whom, syrian forces are suspected though).

"according to a new report in Germany’s leading daily, the Frankfurte r Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), the Houla massacre was in fact committed by anti-Assad Sunni militants, and the bulk of the victims were member of the Alawi and Shia minorities, which have been largely supportive of Assad. For its account of the massacre, the report cites opponents of Assad, who, however, declined to have their names appear in print out of fear of reprisals from armed opposition groups.

According to the article’s sources, the massacre occurred after rebel forces attacked three army-controlled roadblocks outside of Houla. The roadblocks had been set up to protect nearby Alawi majority villages from attacks by Sunni militias. The rebel attacks provoked a call for reinforcements by the besieged army units. Syrian army and rebel forces are reported to have engaged in battle for some 90 minutes, during which time “dozens of soldiers and rebels” were killed."
-- Report: Rebels Responsible for Houla Massacre

"Marat Musin, a journalist for the Abkhazian Network News Agency (ANNA), writes that killings took place in the village of Tal-Dow (or “Taldou”) on May 25, which is apparently a district of Houla (or “Al-Hula”) or neighboring village. The original report is in Russian, but relying on Google’s translation, Musin comments, “Apparently, the purpose of this operation was the adoption of UN Security Council resolution for the start of NATO military operations in Syria.”

...

Musin states that the rebel account that militias loyal to Syrian regime were responsible for the massacre is inconsistent since “the names of those killed were from people loyal to the authorities”."
-- Eyewitnesses Corroborate Syrian Government Account of Houla Massacre

"A direct testimony from the Syrian city of Homs collected by the Swiss journalist Silvia Cattori, who paints a very different picture than that spread by a majority of western media. Since 6 February Cattori has lost contact with her local informants, terrorized by armed groups "wildly shelling, killing to kill”, as reported in an interview with an inhabitant of Homs."
-- Homs in the hell of armed groups

Gilles Jacquier was killed by the "rebels":
"In Homs, a French journalist who worked for the France 2 channel was killed and a Belgian journalist was injured. The Government and opposition accused each other of being responsible for the incident, and both sides issued statements of condemnation. The Government formed an investigative committee in order to determine the cause of the incident. It should be noted that Mission reports from Homs indicate that the French journalist was killed by opposition mortar shells."
-- Report of the Head of the League of Arab States Observer Mission to Syria for the period from 24 December 2011 to 18 January 2012 (page 6, section 44)

Channel 4 News' chief correspondent Alex Thomson writes of his recent experiences:
"Led in fact, straight into a free-fire zone. Told by the Free Syrian Army to follow a road that was blocked off in the middle of no-man’s-land.

...

I’m quite clear the rebels deliberately set us up to be shot by the Syrian Army. Dead journos are bad for Damascus.

...

Please, do not for one me moment believe that my experience with the rebels in al Qusair was a one-off.

This morning I received the following tweet:

“@alextomo I read your piece “set up to be shot in no mans land”, I can relate as I had that same experience in Al Zabadani during our tour.”

That was from Nawaf al Thani, who is a human rights lawyer and a member of the Arab League Observer mission to Syria earlier this year.

It has to make you wonder who else has had this experience when attempting to find out what is going on in rebel-held Syria."
-- Set up to be shot in Syria’s no man’s land?

All an UN/NATO intervention does is to make a bad situation much much worse.

Which is why I think they're so reluctant to dive in, guns blazing. It seems really unclear who's doing what over there and there's no one bunch anyone would like to lend their support to.

David and Samantha Cameron show their inner chav, and their security teams incompetence when they leave their 8 year old daughter in the pub

ha just coming here to post that

lets be fair to them, they do have two or three kids after all.... must be darned difficult dealing with that many kids, counting them all out and back in again
there are a lot of numbers involved

I know, its a good thing that David Cameron has someone as numerically astute as George Osborne to back him up when it comes to things that need tricky counting, like the economy.

pictures the pair of knobs sitting round a desk in downing street with their shoes and socks off so that they can count up to 40