• From the Mail & Guardian:

    Zimbabwe State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa said: “Anyone, particularly Tsvangirai, who threatens peace and stability in this country will get capital punishment … and we mean it. We maintain organs of national security such as the army to protect the stability and integrity of our country. They will be instructed to use all resources at their disposal, including guns [to stop protests].”

    In a most chilling reminder to the opposition, Mutasa added: “We have shed blood before to achieve independence. So let no one be fooled that we will fold our arms while they [the opposition] cause mayhem and violence to remove democratically elected governments. They will pay, and pay dearly.”

    Here.

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  • From the Guardian:

    Almost 100 journalists have been arrested in Nepal in the six days since nationwide pro-democracy demonstrations began in the Himalayan country.

    Reporters Sans Frontiers claims 97 journalists have been arrested and 24 injured since April 5, with at least 20 reporters remaining in detention.

    Journalists covering the protests have been threatened, injured or arrested, according to the international press watchdog, including leaders of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists who have been targeted by security forces.

    Here.

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  • From the New York Times:

    Mostly, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales refused to answer any question that went beyond his maddeningly narrow talking points. But for anyone who has watched him in action, this was no surprise. Nor was it terribly surprising that he repeated his weak arguments for Mr. Bush to go outside the law for a program that could have been run legally. Mr. Gonzales has yet to find a stretch of presidential power he can’t excuse.

    Here.

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  • From Wired:

    Fifteen minutes later, another reporter called, and at that moment the tooth phone transformed from conversation starter to probable product. Yes, they told the reporter, they were looking to build a prototype, and, yes, possibly have it available within a year.

    That phone call launched a tech hoax whose brew of misrepresentation, obfuscatory articles and the internet created a media blitz that landed them on Time magazine’s 2002 Best Inventions list.

    Here.

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  • From Juxtapoz:

    Photos from the opening of Business Minded, a group show at Renowned Gallery in Portland, OR. photos by Cecilia Singer

    Group show featuring artwork on business cards by Jeremyville, Lily deSaussure, APAK, Jill Bliss, Kevin Scalzo, Deth P Sun, Luke Ramsey, Ryan Bubnis, Jacob Magraw, Jennifer Jackman, Wilson Hsu, I Like Drawing, Daniel Lim, Omar Lee, Victoria Keddie, Michelle Blade, Marci Washington, Maxwell Holyoke-Hirsch, Kelly Lynn Jones, and many others. @ Renowned Gallery
    Here.

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  • From Juxtapoz:

    Graham Roumieu is a Toronto-based illustrator whose latest publication ME WRITE BOOK: IT BIGFOOT MEMOIR just came out a couple months ago and is already on its second printing.

    Roumieu’s website here.

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  • From the New York Times:

    This yuck-fest stars the hard-working Rob Schneider as Gus, a landscape gardener with a mighty baseball swing, and two dumb-and-dumber sidekicks: dumb in this case being Richie, a 39-year-old virgin with a Prince Valiant hairdo, played by David Spade with his characteristic insolent laziness; dumber being Clark, a booger-eating mama’s boy played by Jon Heder, using up the last of the 15 minutes he squeezed out of “Napoleon Dynamite.” Mr. Heder and Mr. Spade could not be less appealing; Mr. Schneider, on the other hand, is so strangely endearing here that you wish him better management.

    Here.

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  • From the Los Angeles Times:

    I immediately shut her site down.

    I had to ask her to do it for me.

    This is how she responded:

    “I’m really mad because it feels like you’re saying I can’t talk to my friends anymore. On MySpace, I get to talk to my friends and see people I don’t see a lot. You get to keep in touch with everyone and it’s fun. You took away my fun!”

    Here.

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  • From the Daily Sun, Nigeria’s King of the Tabloids:

    A police raid on the stall of an herb seller in Osun State has turned up several human parts meant for sale.

    Oyelaran said: “We don’t kill people, we only pick up accident victims along the expressway and we also use mad people’s skull when they are dead.

    Here.

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  • From The Digital Journalist, a series of remembrances and photo galleries on the late photographer Gordon Parks:

    We at The Digital Journalist want to acknowledge that with his death on March 7th of this year not only has photography lost a giant, but so too has humanity, so we offer in this issue a mix of his work and recollections from people who knew him well and loved him for it.
    Here.

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  • From The Digital Journalist:

    A single Marine might be able to fold a flag for the widow of a fallen brother. But it wouldn’t have the perfect feel the job demands.

    The same might be said of the story Final Salute by photographer Todd Heisler and reporter Jim Sheeler of the Rocky Mountain News. Of course, Todd’s photographs stand on their own. As do Jim’s words. Separately, they were recognized by the American Society of Newspaper Editors as the best examples of photojournalism and non-deadline writing in 2005. But together, these two talented journalists created something more complete and more powerful than either could have done alone.

    Here.

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  • From Wired:

    Let us praise the joys of double-wielding a pair of Uzis with unlimited ammo; let us delight in the gorgeous fractal carnage of a rocket launcher as it slams into your target. Let us talk openly about how just totally awesome it is to grab a fully loaded railgun in Quake 4 and wade into a mass of gibbering Strogg aliens and kill and kill and kill again, until there are guts on, like, the ceiling.

    Here.

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  • From the Daily Sun, Nigeria’s King of Tabloids:

    Mercy Nwokocha
    I beg, what is this fuss about breast enlargement? After all it is part of beauty technology. Ladies do it because men like you. You people push them into doing it, isn’t it? When you can’t seem to take your eyes off ladies with big boobs, isn’t that a way of encouraging others to go pump up theirs? No, no no! Don’t photograph me. I just sneaked into Lagos from school. I don’t want to appear in the newspaper. I even regret giving you my surname.

    Here.

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  • From the Daily Sun, Nigeria’s King of the Tabloids:

    Jokingly, the three cleaned your chair, making exaggerated motions. You ordered booze. As the booze, a mixture of Gulder, Star beer, and Small Stout, began to roll out, the gist of their sex life began to flow. Other dwarfs sensed what was afoot and quickly joined.

    Here.

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  • From the Washington Post:

    Shiite Muslim militias pose the greatest threat to security in many parts of Iraq, having killed more people in recent months than the Sunni Arab-led insurgency, and will likely present the most daunting and critical challenge for Iraq’s new government, U.S. military and diplomatic officials say.

    Assassinations, many carried out by Shiite gunmen against Sunni Arabs in Baghdad and elsewhere, accounted for more than four times as many deaths in March as bombings and other mass-casualty attacks, according to military data. And most officials agree that only a small percentage of shooting deaths are ever reported.

    Here.

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  • From PhotoArts:

    Lucia Guanaes’ photographs, Frontières de la mer

    Here.

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  • From The New Yorker, Seymour Hersh, Would President Bush go to war to stop Tehran from getting the bomb?:

    Other European officials expressed similar skepticism about the value of an American bombing campaign. “The Iranian economy is in bad shape, and Ahmadinejad is in bad shape politically,” the European intelligence official told me. “He will benefit politically from American bombing. You can do it, but the results will be worse.” An American attack, he said, would alienate ordinary Iranians, including those who might be sympathetic to the U.S. “Iran is no longer living in the Stone Age, and the young people there have access to U.S. movies and books, and they love it,” he said. “If there was a charm offensive with Iran, the mullahs would be in trouble in the long run.”
    Another European official told me that he was aware that many in Washington wanted action. “It’s always the same guys,” he said, with a resigned shrug. “There is a belief that diplomacy is doomed to fail. The timetable is short.”

    Here.

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  • Here is why you come to this blog.

    From Cocorioko, Sierra Leone’s biggest and most widely read newspaper online:

    Foday Sankoh’s Ex-Press Secretary , Sylvia Blyden , just would not leave COCORIOKO alone. Just when we have forgotten that she exists, she will attack us again. For those appealing to us to leave her alone in her mire, what do you say ? This psychotic woman really wants attention . She will always find a way to get at us. Why is she so envious of COCORIOKO ? WHY WON’T SHE JUST LEAVE US ALONE ?

    Here.

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  • From Wired:

    “Despite what we are hearing, and considering the public track record of this administration, I simply do not believe their claims that the NSA’s spying program is really limited to foreign communications or is otherwise consistent with the NSA’s charter or with FISA,” Klein’s wrote. “And unlike the controversy over targeted wiretaps of individuals’ phone calls, this potential spying appears to be applied wholesale to all sorts of internet communications of countless citizens.”

    Here.

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  • From the Vancouver Sun:

    One bride is Lorraine Johnson, an American, sent by her family to “marry” Blackmore, who was then the powerful bishop. She was his 18th wife. It’s not clear whether Johnson immigrated legally to Canada or simply came across the border and stayed.

    The other bride is Shelina Palmer, a Canadian born into a polygamous family in Bountiful and assigned to Blackmore. She is wife number 22.

    Here.

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