Irena Sendlar - One of the Great Heroes of WWII

Irena Sendler

Irena Sendlar, one of the great heroes of WWII

Died: May 12, 2008 (aged 98)
Warsaw , Poland

During WWII, Irena, got permission to work in the Warsaw ghetto, as a Plumbing/Sewer specialist. She had an ulterior motive. Irena smuggled Jewish infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried. She also carried a burlap sack in the back of her truck, for larger kids.

Irena kept a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto. The soldiers, of course, wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the children and infants' noises.

During her time of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 children and infants.

Ultimately, she was caught, however, and the Nazis broke both of her legs and arms and beat her severely.

Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she had smuggled out in a glass jar that she buried under a tree in her back yard. After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived
and tried to reunite the family. Most had been gassed.

Those kids she helped got placed into foster family homes or adopted.

In 2007 Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize.

She was not selected.

Al Gore won, for a slide show on Global Warming. Later another politician, Barack Obama, won for simply being the first black president of the US. After all, what is saving 2500 children's lives at enormous personal risk compared to a slide show. I've made slide shows, I know how difficult it is. Good grief! Gore should have refused the prize so a real hero could be honoured.

It is now more than 65 years since the Second World War in Europe ended. This blog post is in memory of the 6 million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians, and 1,900 Catholic priests who were murdered, massacred.

Now, more than ever, with Iran, and others, claiming the Holocaust to be 'a myth', it’s imperative to make sure the world never forgets,  because there are others who would like to do it again.

Canadian Sniper Will Crush American Sniper at Box Office

What would American Sniper look like if it was set in Canada? Well, the villain would be a "gosh-darned" moose and the hero would gulp down maple syrup by the bottle.

That's the vision realized in the Canadian Sniper parody video produced by comedy duo Jeff Ayars and Dan Rosen, otherwise known as Cannibal Milkshake.

While it's Clint Eastwood's film about U.S. sniper Chris Kyle that's up for best picture at the Oscars Sunday night, it was Canadian Sniper racking up accolades online before the awards show.

Watch the trailer

Illiterate Peruvian Peasant Stands Up to US Mining Giant

With her straw hat and peasant dress, Maxima does not look like the type to take on a global mining giant, but as she gazes out from her small house in the Peruvian highlands she is adamant: this is her land.

Maxima Acuna de Chaupe lives with her husband, four children and son- and daughter-in-law on a small farm that sits on the land where Yanacocha, a subsidiary of US mining giant Newmont, wants to expand South America's largest open-pit gold mine.

The firm is facing widespread opposition to the $4.8-billion gold- and copper-mining project from the local community and the regional government of Cajamarca in northern Peru, which says the mine expansion will put the water supply at risk.

Maxima, 48, has become the face of that resistance.

For four years the illiterate peasant farmer has been fighting the mining company in a court battle that took a dramatic turn last week when she tried to build an addition on her house and Yanacocha tore it down.

"I can show that we have owned this land since 1994. All my papers are in order," Maxima told AFP.

"What counts here are documents. Let them show their documents! If they're the owners, let them present the bill of sale, the document with my signature that says I sold this land," said Maxima, an indigenous woman with a chiseled face who wears bright traditional clothing and the wide-brimmed straw hat that is customary in the region.

Maxima's farm is a 25-hectare (60-acre) plot at an altitude of nearly 4,000 meters (13,000 feet) in the hamlet of Tragadeogrande.

Yanacocha claims it bought the land in 1996 from the local department of Sorochuco.

It pressed charges against her for invasion of property, but Maxima was acquitted.

Her lawyer, Mirtha Vasquez of environmental defense group Grufides, says the matter should have ended there.

But when the family tried to expand its small house, Yanacocha workers demolished the cement addition, with the help of the police, according to Maxima.

"They want to make me leave by force. They see that I'm poor, that I don't know how to read and they think I can't stand up for my rights. But I have my documents. I've got no reason to be humiliated or afraid," she said by telephone.

With her lawyer's help, Maxima has now brought charges of her own against Yanacocha for invasion of property.

- 'My family has suffered' -

Since 2011, the mining company has had to suspend prospecting in the region over concerns about the environmental impact of its plans to drain the area's high-altitude lagoons and replace them with artificial reservoirs.

Those plans have only strengthened Maxima's resolve.

"My land borders Yanacocha. It has springs... which we drink from. If I sell it, what water am I going to drink? What will we live off of?" she said.

She accuses the mining firm of blocking the access roads to her land and preventing her family from going out for food.

But she is not intimidated.

"My family has suffered for defending this land, but I just want to leave my children a place where they can live," she said.

Her fight has brought new attention to the conflicts between Peru's indigenous communities and mining companies that extract the country's natural resources, its main source of wealth.

According to the government mediator for such cases, 140 environmental conflicts were registered last month alone.

This week a 25-year-old villager died in clashes between police and protesters fighting oil company operations in the Amazon.

The protest in the central village of Pichanaki came on the second day of a strike targeting oil operations that local people fear will contaminate rivers and soil.

After the clashes, which also left 20 people wounded, the government ordered the oil company, Argentine firm Pluspetrol, to withdraw from the area.

But such disputes present a dilemma for the government, which is keen to revive mining investment after it fell more than 10 percent last year -- a drop that mining firms blame on environmental regulations that delay their projects.

Good grief, we wouldn't want environmental regulations. I guarantee their environmental regulations are much less severe than those in developed countries. Would this be another example of a multi-national company raping a third world country of its natural resources and leaving them worse off than before? No wonder the US is so despised in Latin America.

Putin Says War With Ukraine Unlikely

Good luck Mr Poroshenko, the Russians are Coming!

If this doesn't mean an invasion is imminent, I will be astonished.

Vladimir Putin laid a wreath on Monday at a ceremony for
Russia's Defenders of the Fatherland Day

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has said war with neighbouring Ukraine is "unlikely", in an interview for Russian television.

Mr Putin also stressed his support for the recent Minsk ceasefire deal as the best way to stabilise eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine says Russian troops have been fighting in Ukraine. Mr Putin repeated denials that this was the case.

Earlier, Ukraine's military said rebel shelling had prevented them withdrawing heavy weapons from the front line.

In his interview - his first extended comments since the ceasefire deal was agreed on 12 February - Mr Putin was asked if there was a real threat of war, given the situation in eastern Ukraine.

"I think that such an apocalyptic scenario is unlikely and I hope this will never happen," he said.

Mr Putin said that if the Minsk agreement was implemented, eastern Ukraine would "gradually stabilise".

"Europe is just as interested in that as Russia. No-one wants conflict on the edge of Europe, especially armed conflict," he said.

Heavy weapons to withdraw, if they can just stop shooting at each other.

Analysis: Sarah Rainsford, BBC News, Moscow
This was a confident Vladimir Putin, fielding soft questions on the Ukraine conflict with ease, even smiles. Russia's president said that in his eyes, the way to peace in Ukraine is clear - the deal struck in Minsk has to be implemented.

He underlined that the agreement had been backed by the UN Security Council - and that matters to Moscow. He was also keen to point out that it devolves more power to eastern parts of Ukraine, currently controlled by Russian-backed rebels.

As for Russia invading Ukraine, President Putin once again shrugged off evidence that he's deployed troops to help the rebels. He said Kiev was claiming that to hide its humiliation at being defeated by former miners and tractor drivers.

He was just as scathing on the issue of Crimea, which Russia annexed last year, advising Ukraine's president to concentrate on saving his country's collapsing economy, instead of vowing to take back that land.

Major destruction in Debaltseve  before withdrawal

The Russian leader also said the Minsk deal had become an "international legal document" following UN Security Council approval of a Russian-drafted resolution endorsing it.

Last week the deal looked in danger of collapsing when rebels captured the strategically important transport hub of Debaltseve.

Both sides have two weeks under the terms of the Minsk deal to pull artillery and tanks out of striking distance, and both agreed at the weekend to begin withdrawing heavy weapons shortly.

But on Monday, the Ukrainian military said rebels had not stopped firing and that it was therefore unable to withdraw heavy weapons.

The rebels, however, were not expected to begin their pullback until after Russia's Defenders of the Fatherland Day, that they were observing on Monday.

The BBC's Paul Adams reports from the self-declared People's Republic of Donetsk that rebels there said they were experiencing less intense fighting than before, with less use of heavy weapons by the Ukrainian army.

But he adds that soldiers and an appreciative crowd were in defiant mood as they listened to a little girl deliver a rousing speech to mark the holiday, calling down God's judgement on the government in Kiev.

Minsk agreement: Key points

Ceasefire from 00:01 on 15 February (22:01 GMT 14 February)
Heavy weapons to be withdrawn within two weeks
All prisoners to be released; amnesty for fighters
Withdrawal of all foreign troops and weapons from Ukrainian territory, disarmament of all illegal groups
Lifting of government restrictions on rebel-held areas
Constitutional reform to enable decentralisation for rebel regions by the end of 2015
Ukraine to control border with Russia if conditions met by the end of 2015

Fighting began in eastern Ukraine in April, a month after Russia annexed the Crimea peninsula.

Nearly 5,700 people have died and at least 1.25 million have fled their homes since the conflict began early last year.

The Ukrainian government, Western leaders and Nato say there is clear evidence that Russia is helping the rebels with heavy weapons and soldiers.

Independent experts echo that accusation while Moscow denies it, insisting that any Russians serving with the rebels are "volunteers".

We just reported on those 'volunteers'.

Brigitte Bardot on Trial Again for Insulting Muslims

Former film star Brigitte Bardot, France’s iconic blonde bombshell and “sex kitten” who reigned supreme from 1952 – 1973, is currently on trial for the fifth time for insulting Muslims and “inciting racial hatred.” Bardot has been fined four times and has also received suspended jail sentences.

Now, the prosecutor, Anne de Fontette, wants a heftier fine and a tougher sentence: the equivalent of $24,000 and a two month (hopefully) suspended jail term.

What crimes has Bardot committed in the land without a First Amendment, in the land of Hate Speech laws that are being slickly exploited by non-persecuted Muslims?

Bardot has written: “I am fed up with being under the thumb of this population which is destroying us, destroying our country.”…

Good grief! Guess I had better not go to France!

Al-Shabaab Names Mall of America, West Edmonton Mall as Possible Targets for Attack

The al-Qaeda-linked group al-Shabaab appears to call on followers to attack shopping malls in the United States, U.K., France, and Canada and has released a video naming West Edmonton Mall as a possible target.

Most of the recording posted to YouTube on Saturday glorifies the attack by the Somalia-based group on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya, where gunmen killed about 60 people in September 2013.

Close to the end of the nearly 77-minute video, a masked man with an English accent calls on "Muslim brothers to target the disbelievers wherever they are" and lists a number of shopping centres that could be attacked in the West.

"If just a handful of mujahedeen fighters could bring Kenya to a complete standstill for nearly a week, then imagine what a dedicated mujahedeen in the West could do to the American or Jewish-owned shopping centres across the world," the man says.

"What if such an attack was to occur in the Mall of America in Minnesota, or the West Edmonton Mall in Canada, or in London's Oxford Street, or any of the hundred or so Jewish-owned Westfield shopping centres dotted right across the western world?" he continues.

Other malls listed in the video include two in Paris, Les Quatre Temps and Forum des Halles.

CNN reports that al-Shabaab militants have recruited members in Minneapolis, home to the largest Somali population in the United States and the Mall of America.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson told CNN the statement from al-Shabaab "reflects a new phase we've evolved to in the global terrorist threat."

Mall of America

Asked about the threat to Mall of America, one of the world's largest shopping complexes, Johnson said: "Anytime a terrorist organization calls for an attack on a specific place, we've got to take that seriously." He advised people going to the Mall of America to be particularly careful.

On March 7, 2010, the Canadian government added al-Shabaab to the country's terrorist list, following claims that the organization is targeting Canadian youth for recruitment.

Edmonton mall tightens security

Alberta RCMP Staff Sgt. Brent Meyer said the force is aware of the report of a possible threat and is investigating.

"While the exact content and authenticity of such a reported video is being actively pursued by the RCMP in Alberta with our local policing partners, as well as the  RCMP nationally and our international national security partners, there is no evidence at this time of any specific or imminent threat to Canadians," Meyer said in a statement Sunday.

The West Edmonton Mall also issued a statement Sunday, saying it will "continue to monitor events" with the help of law enforcement agencies.

"West Edmonton Mall has implemented extra security precautions; some may be noticeable to guests, and others won't be," the statement said.

West Edmonton Mall

Specializing in mall attacks?

Christian Leuprecht, a security expert in Kingston, Ont., at the Royal Military College of Canada and Queen's University, says it's conceivable that shopping centres in North America could be targets because specific malls were named in the video.

"And we know that the three largest concentrations of Somali communities in Canada are in Edmonton, Ottawa and Toronto," he said. "We also know that we have some Somali youth who appear to have disappeared from Edmonton and joined up with al-Shabaab."

Leuprecht said by naming malls, al-Shabaab appears to be trying to expand its reach as it carves out a niche among extremist groups.

"They're in competition with ISIS and with al-Qaeda for air time," he told CBC News. "And I think the primary purpose here is for them to get air time in the media, to show that they, too, are a group that requires attention by the West and that they, too, need to be taken seriously, as to their particular demands."

Like a spoiled or neglected child looking for attention, al-Shabaab raises the bar by calling for attacks on western shopping malls. What an insane world when a group calls for massacres around the world just for attention.

Russian Conscripts Bullied into Signing Contracts Sending Them to Ukraine

Russia has denied it is sending arms and troops to support the separatists
in Ukraine, but dozens of soldiers have been reported killed during drills
 in the Rostov region of southern Russia

When Alexander was due to finish his year of mandatory military service in October, his commander told him he had no choice: He had to sign a contract to extend his stay in the army and head to southern Russia for troop exercises.

The 20-year-old knew that meant he might end up fighting alongside pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. Other soldiers he talked to had been sent there.

His commanders "didn't talk about it, but other soldiers told us about it, primarily paratroopers who had been there," Alexander said in an interview with The Associated Press, which is not using his surname for his safety.

The former private first class ended his military service earlier this month. He avoided being sent to Ukraine — although not without first being threatened with prison for desertion.

Human rights complaints

Human rights groups have received dozens of complaints in the past month alone from Russian conscripts like Alexander who say they have been strong-armed or duped into signing contracts with the military to become professional soldiers, after which they were sent to participate in drills in the southern Rostov region.

"We receive messages from all over in which (soldiers) say that they're being sent again to Rostov for military exercises," said Valentina Melnikova, head of the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers, a group with a three-decade history of working to protect soldiers' rights.

"Those who have been there (to the Rostov region) before know that in actual fact it means Ukraine."

People lay candles and flowers at memorials to victims of the Maidan uprising
one year ago on Maidan square, the day before a march in which several
European  heads of state are scheduled to participate on Feb. 21, 2015, in Kyiv.

Because only contract soldiers can legally be dispatched abroad, worries are spreading among families that inexperienced young conscripts could be sent to fight in eastern Ukraine.

While Russia has denied it is sending arms and troops to support the separatists, since the summer dozens of soldiers have been reported killed by explosions during drills in the Rostov region — deaths that rights groups actually attribute to the conflict over the border in Ukraine. Weapons appear to flow freely across the frontier, and one group of Russian paratroopers was even captured in August, 50 kilometres  inside the war zone.

Russian protesters dressed as Cossacks mark one year since Yanukovich ousted

So far, the Russian government has been able to keep a tight lid on information about any soldiers in eastern Ukraine through a shroud of official denials, harassment of independent reporters who cover the deaths, and carrot-and-stick pressure on the families of those killed. But rising concerns among families with young sons could pose a risk for President Vladimir Putin.

Russia's secrecy about the soldiers' deaths has an important precedent: During the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan in the 1980s, the government released little information about those killed in the conflict. When the true numbers of casualties became known, the intervention turned unpopular.

Carnage left in the Donetsk region after last weekends fighting

No numbers on soldiers killed

More than 5,600 people have been killed since April in the fighting between Ukrainian troops and the rebels. It is unclear how many Russian soldiers have died in the conflict, as the Defence Ministry has rejected rights groups' requests on the number of soldiers killed on duty in 2014. But the rising casualty count among Russian soldiers specifically could prove decisive in Putin's thinking as he comes under pressure to prevent an expansion of the conflict that might put more Russians in the line of fire.

At least 1,500 Russian troops and military hardware entered Ukraine
over the weekend as fighting, which killed nine Ukrainian soldiers
and wounded dozens of others

"This is a conflict that reaches pretty deep into the psyche of the Russian people. It's not a foreign conflict. ... It's something very close to home," said Dmitri Trenin, an analyst at the Carnegie Endowment in Moscow. "This is something that's at the back of a lot of people's minds, and in particular, people with sons of draft age are worried.

"Military conquest, in my view, would not be supported by the Russian people, and I think everyone knows it," he added.

In October, Alexander was preparing to return to his hometown of Inta, a city of 30,000 people that skirts the Arctic Circle, when he and a dozen other recruits were told to report immediately to their base outside of Moscow.

"They told us: You have to go on a trip," he said as he wolfed down a full tray of food at the local McDonald's. "At first there wasn't any talk about a contract, but later they said that in order to go on the trip we would have to sign a contract, because we can't go as conscripts."

Toilet paper rolls with the face of Russian President Vladimir Putin printed on them
stand for sale at an outdoor kiosk on Feb. 21 in Kyiv. Both the Ukrainian and
western governments accuse Putin of actively supporting the current violence
in eastern Ukraine by allowing troops and heavy weapons to pass from Russia
across the border to pro-Russian separatists

'We had to go'

Russia requires almost all young men to serve in the army for one year at age 18, although many find ways to defer or avoid it. Those who want to have careers in the army can become professional soldiers by signing contracts for two or three years.

Alexander and his best friend in the unit both have pregnant girlfriends and had no intention of extending their army service. But they were told that they had already agreed to the trip, and that they couldn't back out.

"We wanted to refuse," he said. "But they refused our refusal, and we had to go."

Adelya Kamelatdinova's 19-year-old son was serving as a recruit in the army in July when he sent her a text message saying he was being sent to military exercises in Rostov. Then in August, he disappeared for weeks — only to resurface in September and tell her had been stationed in the Ukrainian region of Luhansk, in a village about 80 kilometres from the Russian border.

When she went to the local recruitment office to complain with another mother whose son had been hospitalized with a concussion, nobody listened: "They told us that our sons were participating in exercises and there aren't any soldiers in Ukraine; that it was a fantasy we thought up."

Kamelatdinova, who asked that her son's name not be used for fear of retribution, said he had not signed a contract but that he had been forced to sign a statement in which he agreed to cross the Ukrainian border.