Greg's View of Todays News - 01/31/2009

• Hudson River plane crash hero game free online

  A FREE computer game has gone online that challenges players to become the next "Hero on the Hudson" by safely landing a virtual passenger jet on the New York City waterway.
  
  “The fate of the passengers is in your hands,” reads an introductory page of the game available online at tastyplay.com.

• Corporate energy production - not for public knowledge

  tags: press

  • The Department of Climate Change is proposing to amend the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007 (NGER Act) by removing the requirement for the Greenhouse and Energy Data Officer to publicly disclose corporate-level energy production data.
    • If we are going to be serious about combatting climate change, we need to have transparency - and here the Rudd government is legislating away any corporate transparency. - post by gnaylor

• ReliefWeb : OCHA Situation Report No. 19 - Gaza Conflict

  The number of trucks allowed to enter Gaza daily is insufficient to meet daily requirements. Staff of humanitarian organizations also continue to face serious restrictions to entering Gaza, which is impacting response efforts.

  • Protection

    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

    	Total # since 27 December	# / percent of total that are children since 27 December
    Palestinian Fatalities*	1,366	430 / 31 percent
    Palestinians Injured*	5,380	1,870 / 35 percent
    Israeli Fatalities**	14	Unknown
    Israelis Injured***	182	Unknown

    
    

    
    

    * According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health (MoH), as of 1600 hrs (1700 hrs GMT) 28 January, not including those who have died due to lack of access to regular health care.
    
    **According Magen David Adom. Including 11 Israeli soldiers.
    
    ***According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 339 Israeli soldiers were also wounded.

    • The mainstream press has been very quiet about the dead and injured due to the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip. This could barely be called a war - rather it is a ruthless routing of a civilian population - post by gnaylor

• Violence and intimidation mark run-up to Iraqi elections

  Landmark provincial elections to be held across Iraq on Saturday are being marred by widespread claims of vote-buying and intimidation, undermining faith in a ballot billed as the stirrings of democracy after four years of sectarian war.
  BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Gunmen killed three Iraqi election candidates in separate incidents on Thursday, two days before Iraq holds provincial polls that will test the war-weary country's fragile democracy.

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  • Landmark provincial elections to be held across Iraq on Saturday are being marred by widespread claims of vote-buying and intimidation, undermining faith in a ballot billed as the stirrings of democracy after four years of sectarian war.
    • Three candidates have been killed in the last two days and the elections are bing run under intimidation and violence.
      ... and this is the democracy George Bush said was needed in Iraq - post by gnaylor

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.