And Now the News with Kandy Korrespondent!The Group of Eight (G8) summit is taking place this week on the Japanese island of Hokkaido. The meeting originally was to center around the issue of climate, but was changed due to surging food and oil prices.

The intensity of the global situation has turned this island paradise into a police state. Japan has spent $280 million on security, surrounding the summit venue with a human blockade of 21,000 riot police. Despite the wide security perimeters, protesters began to gather on Saturday with many more expected to arrive during the week.

Meanwhile in Malaysia, leaders of the world’s largest Islamic nations gathered for their annual “D8” summit to discuss global inflation. The D8 is a reaction against the exclusive nature of the G8 summit.

In Other News:

World leaders remain split over attending next month’s Olympics in Beijing. Chancellor Merkel of Germany and Prime Minister Brown of the UK will not be attending the opening games in protest of China’s poor human rights record—most notably demonstrated through the crackdown on Tibet in March.

Prime Minister Sarkozy of France is still debating the issue. Last week, as a result of Sarkozy’s public lambasting of China’s human rights abuses, the government said that it would give Sarkozy the cold shoulder even if he were to attend.

On the other side of the spectrum—President Bush reiterated his intent to attend the entirety of the Olympic games as has Japan’s Prime Minister Fukuda.

This morning, during rush hour in Kabul, Afghanistan, a suicide bomber attacked the Indian embassy. According to witnesses, the attacker targeted the line of people waiting in line for visas.

On Sunday, another suicide bomber killed 15 policemen in Islamabad, Pakistan during celebrations marking the end of last year’s Red Mosque Siege. No organization has claimed responsibility.

Will the violence never cease?

And Now, on a lighter note, for Something Completely Different:

In case you haven’t been following the news from Germany very closely, the country has been in an uproar for the past few months over the upcoming wax Hitler addition to Berlin’s Madam Tussaud’s wax museum. Barely minutes after the grand opening on Saturday, a German man forced his way past the figure’s guards and tore Hitler’s head off. I guess that was that.

That’s the news!

It’s news time with your Kandy Korrespondent!

First off here’s the latest Candidate Candy:

Democratic Party Chairman, Howard Dean (whose infamous scream ended his nomination bid four years ago), warned that a prolonged Clinton-Obama battle has the potential to hurt the party’s chances against John McCain in November’s presidential election.

Meanwhile both campaigns continued their struggle on Monday to derail the others’ lead. In North Carolina, Barack Obama sought to spread his magnetism to working-class voters—who throughout the primaries have remained solidly in Hilary’s camp. He told a rally that he was going to take their questions rather than give them another party speech. “I want you to be able to lift the hood, and kick the tires, you know, take me out for a test drive a little bit”

Senator Clinton got a boost on Monday night when a new AP poll placed her leading John McCain by 9 points.

The next democratic primaries will occur on May 6th in North Carolina, and Indiana.

It takes 2,024 delegates to capture the democratic nomination but as it stands now, neither candidate could capture that many from the remaining primaries.

In Other News:

On Monday Cuba’s President Raul Castro announced that all death sentences (with the exception of three convicted terrorists) had been commuted to 30 years to life. This is the latest of a series of reform-minded moves taken by Raul since he took over the office in February.

In Washington, DC on Monday, members of Trucks and Citizens United circled the National Mall in their rigs with horns blaring to protest rising fuel costs. With diesel prices at $4.18/gal it now costs $1,200 to top off a cross country rig. As the protest’s Chief organizer Mark Kirsch stated, “this was a groundswell movement. Truckers are parking their trucks because they can’t afford to haul freight. Businesses are going under, and folks haven’t seen Washington do a darned thing about it.”

Tragedy struck a family in the Gaza Strip when a missile crashed into a house where mother and four of her children were having breakfast. The incident occurred during an Isreali incursion into the area and it is unclear which side is to blame. According to the BBC, over 400 Palestinians, many of them civilians, have been killed in the Gaza Strip during the last five months.

And Now for Something Completely Different…

This past Saturday saw the first German Championships in Office Chair Racing in the town of Bad Koenig-Zell. With only a crash helmet and chair, 70 participants teetered through the 170-meter race. Now that’s a sight I’d love to have seen.

See ya tomorrow!

In my last article

Following that decision, German Interior Minister Otto Schily stated, “I am convinced that the Olympic games will have a positive effect on China’s democratic development.”

My dearest Otto, sorry to disappoint you, if anything, preparations for the Olympics are only increasing human rights violations in China.

In my last article, I introduced Freedom House’s measures of democratic freedom as a tool of comparative politics. (based on a 7 point scale with 7 being totalitarian and 1 signifying fully democratic) This measure is also a helpful tool when looking at a single state’s record over the course of several years.

China’s Freedom House ranking in 2001, was 7 for Political Rights and 6 for Civil Liberties, in 2008 it remains the same.

In 2007, moreover, in an effort to stabilize Chinese society, the country’s restrictions against media were tightened and human rights activists, civil rights lawyers, and other dissidents were detained.

Housing

In order to construct Olympic facilities, approximately 1.5million residents will be evicted by the beginning of the Olympics.

The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), notes that such housing evictions are often carried out using brute force and usually end in the total demolition of the houses. The forced relocation of these individuals often moves them further away from their jobs and social centers meaning that their transportation costs increase, which, if you’re already poor, is no joke.

One such example is Sun Rou Yu, whose restaurant unforgivably is in the path of the Olympic marathon trail. She told the BBC,

“They follow me wherever I go – even to the hospital […] “I tell them: ‘You’re violating my human rights, now you’re harassing the people I speak to.’”

Right to Water

Beijing has a water problem. In 2004, water resources per capita (person) are less than 300 m3/ person. The recognized lowest level of the world average per capita is 1000 m3. Ok so Beijing has a MAJOR water problem.

The demand for water with Beijing during the Olympics is projected to be 30% more than average.

This has placed a tremendous toll upon the surrounding provinces. In Chicheng county, farmers may only grow corn—it uses less water than rice or other vegetables but it also is worth less. The government has offered $30 in compensation but, as the AP reports, farmers say that not everyone received it.

Hebei province, another local supplier of water, is currently facing intense drought. It is still being asked to provide an additional 300m3 of to Beijing for the Olympics. Already, 33,000 km of farmland has been affected by the drought and a quarter of a million residents lack enough drinking water.

Pollution

The Olympics Committee has pressured the Chinese government to reduce pollution before the games stating that it is concerned for the players’ health.

In response to this, the Chinese government ordered the five provinces surrounding Beijing to reduce industrial activity for two months before the games. The capital city Beijing and nearby Tianjin will also reduce car use by drastically restricting private car use leading up to the Olympics.

If this sounds like a great triumph for environmental rights, take a minute and think about what this really means:

1. People who commute into work using their own cars will be incredibly hampered.

2. A reduction in industrial activity means the potential for job layoffs

3. Moreover, such a solution merely ensures a superficial compliance to pollution regulations. It does nothing to east the plight of the average Chinese person. Note that such pollution-reducing measures will only occur in the region around Beijing.

Perhaps the Olympic Committee had grandiose visions that hosting the Olympic Games, dedicated as it is to international harmony, would have a positive effect upon the harsh Chinese government.

What little good this will do in the long run is far outweighed by the harm being done right now.

Stay tuned: for the final part of this trilogy, we’ll examine China’s impact upon international human rights.

Well, apparently, there are people who want that slight but noticeable smell around them at all times.

Vulva Original (I’m not joking) is one of the newest sexual oddities to hit the market.

Its developers insist Vulva “is not a perfume”. Instead, they describe their product as “a beguiling vaginal scent which is purely a substance for your own smelling pleasure.”

Ew.

Developed in Germany, where a “research team” is working on complimenting the original scent with two new smells, “Exotic” and “Eighteen” (I mean, Jesus!).

Vulva Original doesn’t have much media surrounding it besides an explicit website with lots of vague references to sex.

Although, I guess if you’re selling something that supposedly smells like vajayjays, there really isn’t much to say besides “buy this if you like the smell of vagina”.

As for me, I’ll stick with my scented candles.

Tom Cruise is supposed to be filming this movie right now over in Germany, playing a guy named Claus von Stauffenberg. The movie is supposed to be about a plot to kill Adolf Hitler and Tom’s character is supposed to be the leader of the unsuccessful attempt to assassinate the Nazi dictator in 1944 with a hidden bomb.

Yea, this was supposed to be happening….

Not anymore!

Reuters reports the movie has been BANNED BY GERMANY. An entire freaking country has put its foot down, not because of what the movie stands for – but because of Mr. Scientology himself.

The German government doesn’t recognize Scientology as a church, saying “it masquerades as a religion to make money.” Therefore, if film makers officially ask to shoot in Germany, they “will not be allowed to film at German military sites if Count Stauffenberg is played by Tom Cruise, who has publicly professed to being a member of the Scientology cult”.

Oh man. This is funny. See what happens when you think you’re such a hot shot that you can go off on crazy tangents, piss off and offend people with your cult-like popularity? You get shot down from doing what you’re supposed to be doing in the first place – ACTING.

Tom Cruise is nuts.

What do you think about Tom Cruise?