How Palestinian Bloggers Cover Protests in Their Own Villages

As the cycle of protests goes on, Palestinian videographers and live bloggers produce footage of great immediacy and pointed perspective

I stumbled into Kamel Qadummi during a demonstration at his village, Kafr Qaddum, a few months ago. With his laptop in one hand and a small camera in the other, he was running straight into the cloud of tear gas, breathless. Unlike the foreign photojournalists, he didn’t have a gas mask, yet he was determined to film the events and webcast them live.

Watching him filming evoked many questions that have been gnawing at me lately.

For the past few years, I’ve been documenting stories of Palestinian villagers across the West Bank. I usually try to avoid photographing the weekly demonstrations. Can I possibly add anything significant to the ever expanding archive of protest imagery? All sides involved — Palestinians, Israeli soldiers and media correspondents — have years of experience in this repeated activity that has come to resemble a kind of ritual. Documented by numerous photographers and filmmakers who sometimes outnumber the actual protesters, the events and the images of them repeat themselves in a tragic cycle.

Tokyo Faces Fresh Tensions Over Disputed Territories

Island Territories Off Nation's Coast Are Challenged Anew by South Korea, Russia and China

Tokyo is facing escalating tensions on three fronts, as South Korea, Russia and China make fresh challenges to claims over island territories off the shores of Japan.

On Tuesday, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, speaking on the eve of Seoul's celebration of liberation from Japan at the end of World War II, criticized Japanese handling of the countries' historic and territorial grievances, tying it to Japan's imperial past. In a speech Wednesday, Mr. Lee again urged Tokyo to resolve some of the controversies that still linger from the colonial era but didn't mention specific territorial disputes.

Japan recalled its ambassador to South Korea on Friday and suggested it might ask the International Court of Justice to settle the possession dispute after Mr. Lee made a visit Friday to a set of South Korea-controlled islets that Japan also claims. The islets, called Liancourt Rocks by the U.S. and other countries, are named Dokdo in South Korea and Takeshima in Japan.

Japan on alert as pro-China group nears disputed isles

TOKYO: Japan's coastguard stepped up security Wednesday in waters near disputed islands in the East China Sea as a group of pro-Beijing activists sailed towards the chain.

"We are on high alert so as to prevent them from entering Japanese territorial waters or landing on the islands, while exercising caution to avoid a possible collision," said a local official of the Japan Coast Guard.

A group of 14 pro-China activists from Hong Kong and Macau set sail on a Chinese-flagged fishing boat from Hong Kong on Sunday, heading towards the disputed islands.

The activists, who belong to a group called the Action Committee for Defending the Diaoyu Islands, had said they would be joined at sea by two other vessels, one each from Taiwan and Xiamen city in southern China.

They said the move was aimed at countering a plan by a group of Japanese lawmakers to visit the disputed islands, known as Diaoyu in China but controlled by Tokyo, which calls them Senkaku.

But the meet-up from Taiwan was aborted after four Taiwanese activists cancelled their voyage.

The activists were due to reach the islands on Wednesday, the 67th anniversary of Japan's surrender at the end of World War II and as Tokyo is embroiled in an increasingly bitter spat with South Korea over another archipelago.

"Our boat is about 50 nautical miles from the Diaoyu islands," the Action Committee for Defending the Diaoyu Islands chairman Chan Miu-tak told AFP in Hong Kong.

"Two Japanese coastguard ships are following us closely," said Chan, who was not part of the 14-member team.

The Japanese coastguard official said he could not confirm the claim.

"I haven't received a report that the activists have crossed the median line," the territorial border claimed by Japan, he said. China does not recognise the border.

     

 The pro-China group has made repeated attempts to reach the islands, but apart from one successful foray in 1996 they have been blocked by Japanese patrol vessels.

The uninhabited outcrops were the scene of a particularly nasty confrontation in late 2010 when Japan arrested a Chinese trawlerman who had rammed two of its coastguard vessels.

Tensions spiked in April after controversial Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara said his city intended to buy the islands from their private Japanese owner.

- AFP/wm

Cambodia ‘needs casinos for protection’

Phnom Penh -Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Thursday said allowing the construction of a spate of border casinos was part of a “secret strategy” to protect the country's territory from its neighbours.

“I don't like casinos, but the biggest goal for giving permission to build casinos is to protect the border,” he told parliament during a five-hour speech addressing border demarcation issues with Vietnam.

“One can remove border markers, but one can't remove five-storey hotels. Don't be stupid,” Hun Sen said, in response to opposition criticism that the gambling dens were harmful to the country.

Cambodia's border with Vietnam and Thailand is dotted with dozens of casinos and accompanying hotels catering mostly to foreign gamblers since Cambodians are not legally allowed to gamble.

Court to weigh ‘like’-click speech

[Washington Post]

Daniel Ray Carter Jr. logged on to Facebook and did what millions do each day: He “liked” a page by clicking the site’s thumbs-up icon.

The problem was that the page was for a candidate who was challenging his boss, the sheriff of Hampton, Va.

That simple mouse click, Carter says, caused the sheriff to fire him from his job as a deputy and put him at the center of an emerging First Amendment debate over that digital seal of approval: Is liking something on Facebook protected free speech?

Carter filed a lawsuit claiming that his First Amendment rights had been violated, and his case has reached the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit.

Wallenda walk pumps up the crowds in A.C.

ATLANTIC CITY - This town would be the last place looking to minimize risk.

So, unlike Niagara Falls, Atlantic City required no safety harness for the intrepid Nik Wallenda as he walked, on a sandy wire 100 feet above the beach, the 1,300 feet from one casino, the Atlantic Club, to another, the Tropicana.

"You are the master," a spectator in the crowd that police estimated at 100,000 people shouted up at him about halfway through the 27-minute walk.

Wallenda, 33, dressed in a red shirt and black cargo shorts, pumped his fist in response, gripping his balancing pole with one hand.

And it was masterful. Both stunt and performance art, the walk was thrilling and serene, intimate and communal. Wallenda made sure to honor his high-wire-walking ancestors as well as his ultimate purpose: to promote both Atlantic City and the Wallenda Family Experience show, which opens Sunday at the Tropicana.

Body ID'd as missing La. college student

LAFAYETTE, La. – Investigators have identified the body discovered this week in Evangeline Parish as that of Mickey Shunick, a 21-year-old college student who had been missing since May.

Dental and medical records were used to help identify remains as those of Shunick, according to Keith Talamo of the Lafayette Parish coroner's office.

It could be two to four weeks before investigators are able to determine a cause of death, he said

Lafayette Police Department spokesman Paul Mouton said there will be no further comment on the Shunick investigation at this time.

Shunick, a student at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, disappeared May 19 around 2 a.m. as she rode her bicycle home from a friend's house in downtown Lafayette.