http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/19/radi-aid-charity-single-africa

Frostbite kills too so lets spread some warmth, says music video designed to mock patronising and misguided appeals for Africa

Who ever said Norwegians don't have a sense of humor? Just in time for the holidays, a Norwegian group calling itself Radi-Aid has launched an appeal to ship radiators from Africa to Norway. Their cause is the plight of freezing children during Norway's harsh winter months. It's complete with a new music video, and incorporates all the right tropes (see here, here and here) — some people might miss the satire.

These people aren't playing around though. Their effort is a serious critique of misguided development, and of the Western media coverage which often accompanies it. What they want:

1. Fundraising should not be based on exploiting stereotypes.

2. We want better information about what is going on in the world, in schools, in TV and media.

3. Media: Show respect.

4. Aid must be based on real needs, not "good" intentions.

http://www.bikyamasr.com/80897/times-of-israel-falsely-accuses-haifa-students-of-holding-vigil-for-hamas-chief/

RAMALLAH: On Friday morning Times of Israel published an article that accused Arab students of holding a vigil for Ahmad Jabari, the Hamas military chief who died in an Israeli targeted assassination on Wednesday afternoon.

“Students at Haifa University held a silent demonstration on Thursday in the memory of assassinated Hamas military leader Ahmad Jabari,” Times of Israel writer Asher Zeiger began.

“Ronit Moskowitz, a student at the University of Haifa, told Globes that one of the demonstrators told her that the 20-minute vigil was ‘in memory of our chief of staff,’” wrote Zeiger, alluding to Ahmad Jabari and relying on indirect testimony from interested sources.

Organizers of the vigil told BikyaMasr.com that the Times of Israel did not contact them for a statement and instead used only the politically-biased testimony of the counter-protest.

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A friend of mine was actually there. Both Jewish and Arab students were at the vigil where they wanted to hold a moment of silence for victims of the conflict. This was ruined by right wing students who showed up chanting "death to all arabs", calling them terrorists etc. They were also backed by about 50 cops who did not intervene to stop the harassment. If you google University Haifa right now you get right wing newspaper Arutz Sheva claminig they were mourning Jaabari too. One thing that i cannot find mentioned anywhere is that the students attending the vigil are facing expulsion from the university.

Free speech, huh?

http://www.euronews.com/ Tawadros II has officially become the Pope of Egypt's Coptic Church.

He will lead the largest community of Christians in an Arab country, around 10 percent of Egypt's 83 million people.

"The Church and Copts are an integral part of the country. Their role is similar to that of Cairo's Al-Azhar university and any other religious entity in Egypt," said head of the opposition Constitution Party Mohamed ElBaradei.

Egypt's ruling party, the islamist Muslim Brotherhood, is keen to keep the Pope and Church out of politics, with the party's Supreme Guide Abdel Raham al-Bar reminding the new Pontiff of his statements about the Church's purely spiritual role.

"The Church, as it has already stated on various occasions, plays a purely spiritual role. This is a church for Egyptians and it should not play any political role, as Pope Tawadros has announced," said al-Bar.

Worried Christians who now find themselves living in a country dominated by an Islamist party and are worried about discrimination may be looking towards the Pope. This could especially be the case as Egypt tries to draft a new constitution meant to represent everyone.

Forty-years since the last recorded case of malaria in Greece, the disease everyone thought was a thing of the past is back. There have been 28 cases among the Greek population in the southern agricultural land of Laconia in the last year alone. Higher temperatures caused by global warming and the economic crisis have both contributed to the resurgence. Al Jazeera's Simon McGregor Wood reports from Laconia, Southern Greece.

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Christ, is there nothing these people won't have to endure?

http://www.fpa.org.il/?categoryId=73840

The Foreign Press Association is concerned at the attacks by the Israeli IDF on buildings housing journalists in Gaza last night.

The IDF stated this morning that “The sites that we targeted overnight were all positively identified by precise intelligence over the course of months.”

One building houses or has been used by the following FPA members: British news organisations Sky News, and Sky News Arabia, MBC TV ,Al Arabiya, ORF and other European broadcasters.

The other one the Shawa Husseiri building house: ARD TV. Eight journalists working for various organizations were injured.

http://www.globalfirepower.com/defense-spending-budget.asp

Pretty interesting website this. I am unsure who is behind it or what their sources are, but this graph looks fairly accurate.

Now how big of a fiscal burden is social security again?

7:55 P.M. Interior Minister Eli Yishai on Israel's operation in Gaza: "The goal of the operation is to send Gaza back to the Middle Ages. Only then will Israel be calm for forty years."

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/live-blog-idf-prepares-for-ground-invasion-as-gaza-offensive-enters-fourth-day-1.478505


Well at least someone in the Israeli administration admits it, although there is nothing like a good war to win an election.

Oh yeah and that was his fourth goal of the night against England...