The News Review:
- FACTBOX-African warlord Charles Taylor on trial
- Wayne Coyne: Pop star politics
- New York Times Best Seller
- Refugees given a voice
FACTBOX-African warlord Charles Taylor on trial
Reuters AlertNet – Jun 24, 2007
Bush demanding he leave. * The court indicted Taylor in March 2003 on 17 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity over the war in Sierra Leone but condensed the charges to 11 counts in March 2006 to ensure a more focused trial. * The charges at the U. -backed Special Court for Sierra Leone include acts of terrorism, murder, rape, enslavement, conscripting child soldiers, sexual slavery, pillage and outrages upon personal dignity. He has pleaded not guilty. * Taylor is known simply as "Pappy" by a generation of child soldiers who went into battle on a cocktail of marijuana and amphetamines and were led by self-appointed generals with names such as "Peanut Butter", "Bad Boy" and "Butt Naked".
Wayne Coyne: Pop star politics
The Independent – Independent – Jun 24, 2007
U2 (of course) do “Instant Karma” itself but so do Duran Duran and a band called Tokio Hotel. REM play “Number Nine Dream”, but the producers obviously felt the world needed another version, by A-Ha. The sons of Bob Dylan and George Harrison pair up, but the strangest combination is cartoonish hard rockers Aerosmith with the Sierra Leone Refugee All Stars on a version of “Give Peace a Chance”. The Flaming Lips contribute “(Just Like) Starting Over”, a love song Lennon wrote for Yoko Ono just before he was shot. Now Wayne Coyne, beardy, raggedy-haired purveyor of dreamy psychedelic pop, must talk about it. But isn’t this whole thing just a bit ridiculous?”Yeah, I guess,” he concedes, and cackles.
New York Times Best Seller
Taipei Times – Jun 24, 2007
EINSTEIN by Walter Isaacson Simon & Schuster A biography based on newly released personal letters. I FEEL BAD ABOUT MY NECK by Nora Ephron Knopf A witty look at aging from a novelist and screenwriter of When Harry Met Sally. A WOMAN IN CHARGE: THE LIFE OF HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON by Carl Bernstein Knopf The Pulitzer Prize-winning Watergate reporter presents a detailed portrait of Clinton from her Midwestern girlhood with special attention to her marriage.
Refugees given a voice
Independent Online – Jun 24, 2007
“Refugees must encourage locals to talk to them and not about them,” Councillor JP Smith, Chairperson of the Good Hope Sub-Council, told a World Refugee Day youth celebration in Cape Town on Saturday. In a statement the city said that over 700 youth, between the ages of 10 and 25, attended the celebration at the Good Hope Centre. Refugee youth were from countries such as Bulgaria, Burundi, Cameroon, Congo Brazzaville, Cote d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iran, Iraq, Liberia, Pakistan, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. “This year’s theme is ‘The Unheard Voices of Refugee Children’ and the aim of this event was to facilitate integration between refugee youth and local youth in a fun, interactive programme,” said Kemal Omar, manager of inter-governmental relations for the City of Cape Town.