Hmong refugees back in Laos – and now the Rohingya will be sent back to Burma Despite fears and international protests, the Thai government forcibly repatriated 4,000 Hmong refugees, including 158 who had been identified by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees as political refugees. With the press, UNHCR and all international observers barred and cell phone service blocked, there is no direct word from those who have been forced back to Laos. Laotian government officials say that the refugees will be resettled in two villages and given homes. Continue reading
Iran police kill protesters / Mark Dayton on depression / Olympian Lindsay Vonn injured / Drug-resistant TB
In Iran, government forces killed a number of protesters and arrested hundreds Sunday. Government officials denited the reports of deaths, and continued to bar all foreign reporters. The number of those killed was reported variously as five, eight or ten, including the nephew of the main opposition leader. Continue reading
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Forcing Hmong back to Laos
Thailand sent soldiers into a Hmong refugee camp to force 4,000 Hmong back to Laos on Sunday, ignoring U.N. protests and letters from nine U.S. Senators, including both Senator Al Franken and Senator Amy Klobuchar. The Thai forces will first transport the Hmong refugees to a staging area and then into Laos, with plans to complete the entire operation within 24 hours.
Jamming all cell phone communications from the camp and barring reporters, the Thai government effectively stopped reporting on exactly what was happening. (BBC) Continue reading
Saturday morning headlines: From snow to bombs
Snow-pocalypse, Snowmageddon, call it what you will – The Twin Cities got everything from snow to sleet to rain over the Christmas holiday. Highlights included cancellation of all Greyhound bus routes on New Year’s Eve, as well as delays and some cancellations of airline flights, snow emergencies across the metro, and record-setting snow measurements. Today – falling temps and rising winds. Snow emergency continues in Minneapolis, so watch where you park. Paul Douglas advises:
A friendly word to the wise: try to get out and push that slushy, sloppy concoction off your driveway or sidewalk (slowly, carefully – this is VERY heavy, wet snow with a high water content, what some doctors euphemistically call “heart attack snow.”) The reason? If you don’t get out there fairly soon it may become a cement-like, semi-permanent part of your yard.
For more snow, snow emergency, snow shoveling info, see What you need to know about snow in the Twin Cities.
Minnesota Lutherans have their first Hmong pastor – Nengyia Her ordained in the Minneapolis Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and installed as pastor of Luther Memorial Lutheran Church in north Minneapolis. (Star Tribune)
American Indians, First Nations in Canada, and aboriginal Australians have have been hit harder by swine flu than other populations. Possible reasons: poverty, overcrowded housing, higher incidences of asthma and diabetes, lack of access to health care. (NPR)
A Nigerian man failed to damage a Delta/Northwest flight to Detroit on Chdristmas Day – though he tried to set off an incendiary device and apparently wanted to commit a major act of terrorism. His failed attempt succeeded in landing him in the hospital with second-degree burns to his legs, where he had taped explosive powder. He was overpowered by passengers after his failed attempt resulted in a firecracker-like popping noise and some smoke. According to the New York Times, “Although Mutallab is said to have told officials that he was directed by al-Qaida, the counterterrorism official expressed caution about that claim. ‘It may have been aspirational,’ the [federal counterterrorism] official said.”
Christmas doesn’t stop the wars. In Iraq, bombs killed 23 people on December 24, mostly Shia Muslims celebrating the holy day of Ashura (BBC). In Afghanistan, suicide bombers took eight lives in Kandahar (BBC). And the United States assisted Yemen in airstrikes targeting Al Qaida meetings (NPR), killing at least 30 people.
Paul Krugman responds to center and left objections to the Senate health care bill, with numbers showing that it will provide major relief to middle and lower-income families buying individual policies. Krugman: “Guys, this is a major program to aid lower- and lower-middle-income families. How is that not a big progressive victory?” Maybe because subsidizing private insurance coverage still means feeding the fat cat insurers?
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A tale of two sheriffs
© Georgios Kollidas - Fotolia.com
Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher is raising all kinds of ethical issues with a recent fundraising effort, and across the river, Sheriff Rich Stanek’s newest initiative seems to be based on the premise that there’s no place like jail for the holidays. Continue reading
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Reforming health care – and the Senate
In two sunrise votes on Tuesday morning, Senators continued the march toward approval of their version of health care reform. Republican opponents can delay a final vote until Christmas Eve. Paul Krugman says the Senate needs reform, too (below). Continue reading
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Big change at WCCO
David Brauer at MinnPost says that WCCO radio and television will have to combine their on-line operations, creating “a single WCCO news site here. Right now, TV has wcco.com and radio has the angry-on-the-eyes wccoradio.com.” The reason for the change is a new CBS mandate, described by Chief Operating Officer for local media, Anton Guitano: Continue reading
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Demonstrations everywhere
Last week, the demonstration was on the ice of Lake Minnetonka, targeting UnitedHealth CEO Stephen Hemsley, and meeting with vehement objections from a neighbor who insisted that demonstrating outside someone’s home is just wrong, especially because “it’s f#%&ing Christmas!” The health care protests, with the support of Physicians for a National Health Program continue with bannering over area freeways. Continue reading
NOT writing about …
NOT writing about health care or COP15 today. No, I’m not. Not going to write about the minute-by-minute, breathless coverage of the cloture vote in the Senate, now dramatically scheduled for Christmas Eve on a watered-down bill that will give big new profits to insurance companies — or about the fact that this bill, once passed by the Senate, heads to conference committee for compromises with the House bill, so we really don’t know what will end up on the President’s desk. The nastiness of the final debate, rather than the substance of the bill, was the focus of much coverage. With one Republican Senator calling for prayer that a Democrat would get sick or die to prevent the final vote.
And NOT going to write about COP15, or how it fizzled to a close with an unenforceable sort-of-agreement that might or might not make any difference, after Denmark showed that its cops could compete in the worldwide bash-a-demonstrator competition. If you want to see what happened, go to The Uptake, and if you want to read about it, BBC sums it up.
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Feeling the cold
Shivering your way toward the end of the year? You’re not alone. The Star Tribune reports increasing numbers of MInnesotans appyling for heating assistance, up eight percent statewide over 2008 and 19.5 percent over 2009. Increases in the metro area are even higher: Continue reading
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Mary Turck