1,280 UN Personnel Brought to Haiti After Their Exposure to Nepal Cholera

By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. The epidemiological information about Haiti’s cholera outbreak is brought together with up-to-date molecular biology evidence, in an article by Dr. Renaud Piarroux and his colleagues, to make an ironclad scientific case about a United Nations (UN) MINUSTAH Nepalese base being the source of Haiti’s cholera contamination. The epidemic is attributed directly to the inadequate medical surveillance of 1,280 UN personnel who were taken to Nepal to train during an epidemic and the unsanitary practices at the base to which they came, upriver from the towns of St. Marc and Mirebalais, Haiti.

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Poison Seeds, Herbicides, Pushed Again on Haitian Farmers | Des semences empoisonnées et des herbicides encore forcées sur les paysans haïtiens

By Edner Son Décime, AlterPresse | Benjamin Fernandez, Le Monde Diplomatique | Marie-Monique Robin, YouTube | Commentary and translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Monsanto hybrid and genetically modified (GMO) seeds are once again being pushed as aid. Together with expensive fertilizers, and harmful pesticides, and noxious herbicides, these seeds represent a project to convert Haitian farmers from producers into helpers. (English | French)

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Hana Shalabi’s Health a Continued Concern After Expulsion to Gaza

Joint Statement, Addameer, Physicians for Human Rights – Israel | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Addameer and PHR-Israel fear that while Hana Shalabi was gravely ill from her hunger strike, she might have been coerced into ending this strike by a prevention of family visits and restriction of her access to physician and lawyers. UPDATE on April 5, 2012: Family reunited with Hana Shalabi in Gaza.

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Frederico Garcia Lorca: ‘On Lullabies’

By Frederico Garcia Lorca | Translation by A. S. Kline | Paintings by Gabriel Alix | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Frederico Garcia Lorca describes the lullabies of Spain in their cultural contexts and with a singular respect for children’s appreciation of abstraction. One lullaby from the region of Burgos is reminiscent of Haiti’s “Dodo Titit.”

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Tunisian Pirate Party Inaugurated

By Monia Ghanmi, Magharebia | Nate Anderson Ars Technica | Haiti Chery. Tunisian bloggers have formed the first anti-censorship political party in Africa and the Arab world: the Tunisian Pirate Party. “The ideology of this party is freedom and use of the internet as infrastructure and democracy, because free Internet is an indicator of democratic nations.” – Slim Amamou

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ACTA Needs No Court Decision Before European Parliament Vote

By Jennifer Baker, IDG News. In a major victory for the campaign against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), the European Parliament’s trade committee rejected by a vote of 21 to 5 a plan to send the proposed accord to the European Court of Justice (ECJ). This means that the European Parliament vote on ACTA will not be delayed 1 1/2 years and could happen as early as June 2012.

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FCC Opens Air Waves to Low-Power FM Radio for Small U.S. Communities

Press Release, Prometheus Radio Project | FCC. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has decided to open the airwaves to Low Power FM (LPFM) stations; this will allow for the first new urban community radio stations in the U.S. in decades. The FCC will start to accept applications as early as Fall 2012.

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First Circuit Court of Appeals, City of Boston: Citizens May Videotape Police

By Stephen C. Webster, Raw Story | Tiffany Kaiser, Daily Tech | Haiti Chery. The City of Boston settled a lawsuit filed by Simon Glik, an attorney arrested in 2007 as he recorded police using force to subdue a man. According to a First Circuit Court of Appeals Aug 2011 decision: “Gathering information about government officials in a form that can readily be disseminated to others serves a cardinal First Amendment interest in protecting and promoting the free discussion of governmental affairs….”

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Paramilitary Gangs Join UN Force in Preying on Haitian Population

By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. It is hardly worthwhile to entertain some notion that the U.N. force MINUSTAH and the new paramilitary gangs are somehow at odds with each other. Both are supported by the U.S. and France, and both prey on the Haitian population and National Police. MINUSTAH’s abuses are given as the reason why a Haitian army is needed to defend the national sovereignty, and the threat of abuse by paramilitaries serves to justify MINUSTAH’s continued stay.

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Fracking-Earthquake Link Known For Decade By Scientists, Military and Frackers

By Andrew Nikiforuk, The Tyee. Hydraulic fracturing was identified by the U.S. as an earthquake trigger as early as 1990, and scientists have long known that injection of fluid where the Earth’s crust lies closest to faults and fractures can cause earthquakes.

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Argentina Remembers Children Stolen During Dictatorship: Trial Finally Under Way | Memorias de la dictadura argentina: las pruebas sobre el robo de bebés

By Marcela Valente, IPS | Staff, Cuba Debate. The Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo are finally getting heard in court after 35 years of demanding their stolen grandchildren. Eight former officials of the brutal Argentinian dictatorship that began on March 24, 1976 and lasted 7 years, are accused of “taking, retaining, hiding and changing the identities of” 34 children born to political prisoners held in clandestine prisons during the dictatorship. UPDATE on Mar 27th: Closing arguments. (English | Spanish)

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Hana Shalabi: ‘Our freedom is even more precious and more powerful than their cells’

By Allison Deger, Mondoweiss | Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel and Al-Haq joint statement | Vivien Sansour, YouTube. Despite Hana Shalabi’s immediate risk of death, the Israeli Prison Service refuses to transfer her to a hospital, and an Israeli military judge of the Court of Appeals has postponed yet again making a decision regarding the order of a four-month long administrative detention.

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