NATO air strike kills fighter linked to Afghan hotel attack

NATO aircraft killed an dissatisfied leader linked to a deadly hotel attack in the Afghan capital this week, the coalition said on Thursday, a raid that raise questions about whether Afghan forces are ready for the frightening security transition.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the harass on the Intercontinental, one of two major hotels used by foreigners and Afghan government officials, a unusual night-time raid that began on Tuesday and ended five hours later on with 12 killed.

The NATO-led Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani system had also been involved in the physical attack by nine suicide bombers and gunmen.ISAF identified the Haqqani network leader kill in an air strike as Ismail Jan, who it describe as a deputy to the senior Haqqani leader in Afghanistan, Haji Mali Khan.

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Senate cancels break as budget battle heats up

Democrats stepped up their harass in a tense budget battle with Republicans on Thursday as the Senate disregarded its July 4 recess and a top lawmaker accuse Republicans of deliberately sabotaging the financial recovery.

With time running short before a likely default in early August, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said he would hold the chamber in session after that week to work on a budget deal that would permit the country to keep paying all its bills.

One day after President Barack Obama compares Senate Republicans to lazy schoolchildren, the Senate's top Republican, Mitch McConnell, said Obama be supposed to come to Capitol Hill as soon as possible to talk about what could pass Congress.

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Death Penalty: Older but Not Wiser

New report looks back at 35 years of the death penalty

35 years after the death penalty was reinstated by the nation's highest court, it remains a punishment inflicted as arbitrarily as a lightning strike, according to a new report commemorating the infamous anniversary from the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C.

The U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty on July 2, 1976; it had previously ruled the ultimate punishment unconstitutional because of its arbitrary and unpredictable application, writes Rich­ard Dieter, the DPIC's executive director. Unfortunately, all these years later, he argues, that is still true. In sum, he writes, the "experiment" of capital punishment has failed. Indeed, the report notes, the system discerning who receives the death penalty and who doesn't – and for what crimes – appears worse than random. For example, Texas – still by far the national leader in executions, with 470 under its belt since reinstatement – executed Michael Richard in 2007 despite evidence of his mental impairment; meanwhile, in Washington, the so-called "Green River Killer," Gary Ridg­way, was spared death after confessing to murdering 48 people. Most notorious in Texas, perhaps, is the case of Cameron Todd Willingham, executed for an arson murder that many experts now say was likely a tragic accident; on the other hand, Ernest Willis – also convicted and sentenced to death for an arson murder that the state later decided was likely an accident – was spared death and ultimately exonerated.

"A review of state death penalty practices exposes a system in which an unpredictable few cases result in executions from among thousands of eligible cases. Race, geography and the size of a county's budget play a major role in who receives the ultimate punishment," reads the report. "In such a haphazard process, the rationales of deterrence and retribution make little sense." The entire report is available at www.deathpenaltyinfo.org.

Source: Austin Chronicle, June 30, 2011

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Court delays Egypt brutality case verdict

Court postpones verdict on policemen charged over death of Khaled Said, whose case helped spark Egypt's revolution.

Khaled Said's death caused public outrage that paved the way for the January 2011 uprising.

The trial of 2 Egyptian policemen charged over the death of Khaled Said, a 28-year-old man allegedly fatally beaten in Alexandria a year ago, has been postponed until September 24, a judge told the court on Thursday.

Said died in June 2010, allegedly after being dragged out of an internet cafe by plain-clothes police and assaulted in the street, according to witnesses.

Pictures of his body, taken by his family in a morgue, caused public outrage that paved the way for Egypt's January 2011 uprising.

Young Egyptians used social media such as Facebook and Twitter to spread the message, and to coordinate protests in Cairo and Alexandria calling for an end to torture and impunity.

Facebook pages set up to express anger at Khaled Said's death would later be used to coordinate 'Day of Rage' protests on the streets of Cairo.

Al Jazeera's Ayman Mohyeldin speaking from Alexandria outside the courthouse, said that lawyers for Khalid's family submitted a new independent autopsy that could change the charges from manslaughter to torture and murder.

"If new charges are filed against the two police officers they could include torture and murder. which carries the death penalty. Under the current charges they would have been sentenced to seven to 15 years.

"But with the new charges they could face either life in prison or the death sentence."

Mohyeldin emphasised the presence of many protesters gathered in expectation of hearing a verdict because the trial had become an iconic symbol of the struggle of many young Egyptians.

"A year after his death, Khaled Said’s family still wait for justice. His case highlights the widely shared belief that the Egyptian authorities are still not doing enough to deliver justice - not only for Khaled Said but for all those unlawfully killed and injured by the security forces during mass protests earlier this year," said Malcolm Smart, Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme.

"This belief is exacerbated by the slowness with which the authorities are handling trials of police officers accused of killing protesters during the uprising, when more than 800 died, and the fact that many of those facing trial have not been suspended from active duty and remain in positions where they can intimidate witnesses and subvert justice," he said.

Speaking to Al Jazeera before the trial's postponement, Said’s uncle, Ali El-Qassam, said: "We are anxious, but hopeful about the verdict.

"I know that everyone in the world will be following the outcome. I know the Egyptian youth will react to whatever outcome the verdict will be in a peaceful and civil manner that represents Egypt."

Source: Al Jazeera, June 30, 2011

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Lundbeck Won't Pull Controversial Drug

Danish drug maker H. Lundbeck A/S said Wednesday it will keep selling its Nembutal anesthetic in the U.S even though it opposes the drug's use there in lethal-injection executions.

Designed to treat epileptic seizures but also sometimes used to euthanize animals, Nembutal is being increasingly used in U.S. prison executions even though it wasn't meant for that purpose.

"We're doing everything we can to make sure the drug is used for the patients in the right way and trying to prevent misuse of the drug," Lundbeck's Chief Executive Ulf Wiinberg said. "The problem is that in the U.S., no one controls the end use of any medicine. Lundbeck's role is to be there for patients, and that's why it's still on the market."

He said Lundbeck is urgently looking into actively managing the drug's distribution there to ensure that patients have access to the drug, while also preventing its misuse. Asked if those steps will include "end-user clauses" and other restrictive measures, Mr. Wiinberg replied: "There are several options that we are exploring and once we've cleared our check list, then we'll make a decision on what to do."

The drug, acquired when the Danish company bought U.S.-based firm Ovation in 2009, has no strategic importance to Lundbeck and represents less than 1% of its overall sales.

"We acquired Ovation for use as a platform to launch ourselves into the U.S. market. Ovation had a strong CNS [central nervous system] and orphan drug orientation. But with that acquisition we also got a number of unimportant drugs which were going to go generic, and anesthetic Nembutal was one of them," Mr. Wiinberg said.

Prisons in the U.S. where capital punishment is conducted switched to Nembutal after U.S.-based Hospira Inc. decided earlier this year to stop making thiopental sodium, an anesthetic typically used to render a condemned inmate unconscious before other lethal drugs, including a paralytic agent, are administered.

Mr. Wiinberg said his initial reaction to news of Nembutal's use in executions was to pull it off the market. "But we were then told by the medical community that it would compromise treatment if we did that, because there's no comparable alternative on the market," he said.

The Danish government is also trying to help Lundbeck find a solution. Like most European countries, Denmark opposes capital punishment.

Mr. Wiinberg said Lundbeck gets many appeals from civil-rights groups as well as friends and family members of convicts on death row, urging the company to pull the drug. "We get appeals from all kinds of people who are engaged in this, directly or indirectly," he said.

"The Nembutal issue for us is one where it's financially irrelevant but where it's very important that we do the right thing and that we communicate the fact that we're doing the right thing in a transparent way. We're doing a lot of things. Some may work, and some may not work."

Source: Wall Street Journal, June 30, 2011

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National Standards: The government is listening – but only to people who say what it wants to hear

Today, more than 300 schools handed their charters to the Ministry of Education without National Standards information because they believe setting targets for student achievement using National Standards will produce unreliable information. They were supported by the NZEI. All 300 must be processed within 25 working days, as per section 63A of the Education Act 1989.

Coincidentally, there seems to be a bit of a scrap between the NZEI and the government's National Standard’s Advisory group - a group set up to give the sector a voice and provide feedback to the government on the implementation of National Standards.

The group released its latest report after this month's meeting - and included many recommendations.

One was that “the Minister should be invited to approve the launch of a carefully managed process of review of the standards themselves alongside the current monitoring and evaluation of implementation”.

The NZEI responded that while the education sector was saying that the standards were flawed, it was significant that the National Standards Advisory Group was saying that they need to be reviewed.

Not so, responded Professor Gary Hawke, who heads the group. He said that rather than an admission that the standards needed to be reviewed because they were flawed, they were more about beginning to explore “ how continual improvement might be extended to the way the Standards are stated”.

So it’s all about the language - how how certain teachers express how things are done.

Rather than talking to schools that are representative of the sector, the group appears to be only listening to certain schools - called “ leading schools” - who undertake National Standards-speak. These schools claim National Standards is successful, as teachers say they are able to “diagnose where gains in student achievement are available”. The advisory group can then provide palatable advice to the Minister.

Meanwhile the NZEI would rather express things in language other than National Standards and so the two groups are talking past each other.

The schools’ Boards of Trustees and teachers just want the best for their students whatever the Ministry tells them to do. But in correspondence with the Ministry, many are couching language in National Standards terms for fear of reprisal.

Meanwhile in the classroom, most are doing what they have always done, because they recognise that National Standards – however carefully managed - makes no difference to student achievement.

But you won't hear that advice from the advisory group.

Egyptian policeman sentenced to death for killing protesters

The 1st Egyptian police officer sentenced to death for killing protesters during the January revolution remained at large Monday as the country braced for a summer of trials on the police brutality that defined President Hosni Mubarak's regime.

Mohamed Ibrahim Abdul Monem was sentenced in absentia late Sunday for the Jan. 28 shooting deaths of 23 protesters rioting outside a Cairo police station. The court's ruling was quickly affirmed by the nation's top Islamic cleric, Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, who reviews all death-penalty cases.

Abdul Monem told Egyptian TV over the weekend that he had killed no one while following orders to protect the police station. He said he would seek a new trial and accused the Interior Ministry of not standing by him. He has yet to explain why he hadn't appeared in court or why authorities hadn't apprehended him.

"The Interior Ministry abandoned my case," said Abdul Monem, who contended that he only fired into the ground in an attempt to disperse an angry mob at the police station. "The ministry didn't even assign lawyers to defend me."

The verdict against Abdul Monem came as families of protesters killed during the 18-day revolt hurled rocks at police and military vehicles after the trial against former Interior Minister Habib Adli was adjourned Sunday for a 2nd time. Adli faces capital punishment on charges he ordered state security forces to violently crush an uprising, which led to the deaths of more than 800 protesters.

But the most anticipated case is the trial of Mubarak, set for August. The ousted Egyptian president is accused of financial crimes and of having a hand in the deaths of protesters. He could face the death sentence, and his fate is a crucial test of the ruling military council's ability to balance justice and the demands for blood from many Egyptians who suffered under Mubarak's government.

Though the country's economy is ailing, and confusion and worry linger over upcoming parliamentary elections and the writing of a new constitution, many Egyptians believe the country cannot move forward until the sins of the past are punished. They fear that Mubarak, who has been in a hospital since April with apparent heart problems, will maneuver to escape his day in court.

"Abdul Monem is just a street cop. Where are the superiors and the higher-ranked police officers?" said Mohamed Sayed, whose brother was killed in the protests. "Why aren't any of them convicted yet despite the fact that many of them have been on trial for months now? People like Habib Adli and others get their trials continuously adjourned."

Former top officials, including Trade Minister Rashid Mohamed Rashid, Finance Minister Youssef Boutros-Ghali and Adli, have been found guilty of corruption and abuse of power and sentenced to prison. Their trials offered a glimpse into the entrenched world of businesspeople and government officials who ran the country for personal benefit, even as more than 40% of the population lived on $2 or less a day.

But the death sentence against Abdul Monem is dramatic for an Egypt attempting to reconcile its past as it struggles toward a democratic future. Cases of police brutality seldom reached the courtrooms in Mubarak's repressive state; security forces brazenly roamed the country, torturing and demanding bribes. That an officer has been sentenced to death further breaks down the psychological barrier that had helped keep the former president in power.

Abdul Monem was assigned to Cairo's Zawiya Hamra police station, notorious for corruption and abuse. On Jan. 28, three days after the revolt began, protesters, some of them armed, descended on the building as they vented years of rage. In his TV interview, Abdul Monem said that he was inside when a commander told officers and police officers to fire their weapons to protect the building.

The attackers "set fire to all our vehicles and a street cop was shot and died on the spot, and three other street cops, including myself, were injured," he said. "I did not see one protester fall as I fired shots into the ground."

But prosecutors said Abdul Monem fired indiscriminately, killing 23 and wounding 16 others.

Source: Los Angeles Times, June 28, 2011

Cleric approves cop's death sentence

An Islamic cleric affirmed the death sentence meted out to an Egyptian police officer for killing protesters during a January protest.

Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa sanctioned the execution of Mohamed Abdel Moneim, who remains at large, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.

Abdel Moneim was sentenced May 22 for shooting to death 23 protesters rioting near a Cairo police station Jan. 28, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Abdel Moneim told Egyptian television during the weekend he was just following orders to protect the police station and had killed no one, firing only into the ground to try to scatter an angry mob at the station.

He said the mob "set fire to all our vehicles and a street cop was shot and died on the spot, and three other street cops, including myself, were injured. I did not see one protester fall as I fired shots into the ground."

Prosecutors said Abdel Moneim fired randomly, killing 23 and injuring 16 others.

Abdel Moneim said he would seek a new trial.

"Abdel Moneim is just a street cop. Where are the superiors and the higher-ranked police officers? Why aren't any of them convicted yet despite the fact that many of them have been on trial for months now? People like (Interior Minister) Habib Adli and others get their trials continuously adjourned," said Mohamed Sayed, whose brother was killed in the revolution.

Adli's trial was adjourned for a second time Sunday. He faces the death penalty on charges he ordered state security forces to fire on an uprising, leading to the deaths of more than 800 protesters, the newspaper said.

Source: United Press International, June 28, 2011

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