From No Right Turn - New Zealand's liberal blog:

The Olympic flame arrived in London today for the European leg of its worldwide relay in the leadup to the Beijing Olympics.  The Chinese, in true propaganda style, have dubbed the relay "the journey of harmony", but its already turning out to be anything but.  The London leg began at 10:30am UK time.  Within an hour, someone had grabbed it, others had tried to put it out with a fire extinguisher, and ten people had been arrested.

From No Right Turn - New Zealand's liberal blog:

Since China's crackdown in Tibet, pressure has come on governments and leaders around the world to show their disapproval by refusing to attend the "oppression Olympics".  Now that pressure has borne fruit, with a number of European leaders refusing to attend the opening ceremony:

From No Right Turn - New Zealand's liberal blog:

In the wake of yesterday's admission from the CIA that it had tortured three suspected terorists in violation of US and international law, the White House has come out fighting, denying that waterboarding is torture and saying that they might waterboard more people if they decide it is necessary.

From No Right Turn - New Zealand's liberal blog:

Five years ago, Tony Blair launched an illegal war of aggression on Iraq.  Now, he wants to be President of the European Union.  Some people at European Tribune have taken exception to this, and have started a campaign to stop Blair.  They're aiming to get a million signatures from people who oppose his nomination.  While they're primarily aiming at europeans, they will also accept signatures from outside the EU, to build a case that a Blair presidency would damage the EU's relations with the rest of the world.

The petition went online tonight, and you can sign it here.

From No Right Turn - New Zealand's liberal blog:

"Free and fair presidential elections"

That's the motto of the Electoral Commission of Kenya.  Unfortunately, in their most recent election, it seems they have failed to live up to it.  Rather than being free and fair, Kenya's presidential election was fixed by the ruling party.  Here's what the EU observation mission had to say:

The General Elections in the Republic of Kenya have fallen short of key international and regional standards for democratic elections. They were marred by a lack of transparency in the processing and tallying of presidential results, which raises concerns about the accuracy of the final result.

From No Right Turn - New Zealand's liberal blog:

During the election campaign, Australia's then-opposition leader made ratifying Kyoto the top of his list of things he would do if elected.  He was elected - and he has been true to his word:

Australian Labor Party leader Kevin Rudd has been sworn in as prime minister, following a landslide victory in parliamentary elections last week.

Immediately after the ceremony, Mr Rudd signed documents to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, reversing the previous administration's policy.

"This is the first official act of the new Australian government," he said.

The US is now totally isolated as the only developed nation opposed to taking real action on climate change.  So, is there a chance of seeing a change in policy any time soon?

From No Right Turn - New Zealand's liberal blog:

US President George Bush is well-known for his opposition to serious action on climate change.  Domestically, he has refused to ratify Kyoto, while internationally he has worked to undermine it (chiefly by trying to set up rival agreements which promise - and therefore will deliver - nothing).  However, the US is a federal system, and so state governments have taken the lead where the federal government will not...  

From No Right Turn - New Zealand's liberal blog

Last week, we saw yet another exercise in sophistry as President Bush reacted to the New York Times' revelation that his administration had specifically approved the use of techniques such as waterboarding, beating and freezing on "enemy combatants" by saying

This government does not torture people. We stick to US law and our international obligations.

Of course, given what the NYT had revealed - that administration lawyers had redefined "torture" specifically to exclude these techniques - that's not even a non-denial denial anymore.  But just in case, Andrew Sullivan puts the final nail in the coffin today by pointing out that the Bush administration's interrogation methods, and the arguments used in support of them, almost exactly follow those used by the Nazis in World War II:

From No Right Turn - New Zealand's liberal blog:

I usually have very little good to say about the US military, particularly when they're fighting an illegal and immoral war in Iraq.  But 50 years ago, the US Army gave its most honourable service, when soldiers from the 101st Airbone Division escorted a group of nine teenagers to school:

From No Right Turn - New Zealand's liberal blog:

The Bush Administration is reportedly planning to dump Iraq on the international community as a way of getting the issue off the US political agenda before the 2008 presidenial elections.  What this means in practical terms is finding some suckers to provide a peacekeeping force, allowing US troops to be withdrawn, while dumping responsibility for reconstruction (you know, the thing the US promised but didn't do, while stealing all the funds for Halliburton) on the UN.

After the way the US treated the international community and the United Nations in the lead-up to the invasion, the gall is simply astounding.  Having told the rest of the world that he does not care what they think, George Bush now expects them to bail him out of his stinking quagmire and send their children to die so that American may live (oh, and help his party, the gang that enabled all this, to win an election)?  Fuck that!

Iraq is America's mess, and America can clean it up.  And if they're unwilling to do it, then they can hardly expect anybody else to do it for them.

From No Right Turn - New Zealand's liberal blog:

Two years ago, the British government introduced a system of control orders, allowing them to restrict the freedom of movement, speech or association of suspected terrorists, or even place them under house arrest, all with the flick of a minister's pen. One of the arguments against this move was that it circumvented the vital protections of independent review before a judge and jury.  Another was that this erosion of fundamental human rights would not long be restricted to suspected terrorists, but would inevitably be extended into other parts of the criminal justice system.  Sadly, it seems these fears are about to be realised.

From No Right Turn - New Zealand's liberal blog:

Five years ago today, the US shipped its first load of prisoners - drugged, shackled, and in total sensory deprivation - to its Caribbean gulag in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  

From No Right Turn - New Zealand's liberal blog:

The Iraq war truly has been a disaster. According to the UN, it has resulted in 3.7 million displaced people - one in eight Iraqis.  Two million of those live as refugees in foreign countries, mainly in Syria and Egypt, and a further 1.7 million are internally displaced, forced from their homes by bombings, death squads, and ethnic clensing by rival sectarian groups.  According to the UNHCR, this is "the largest long-term movement since the displacement of the Palestinians after the creation of Israel in 1948".  And its only going to get worse.

From No Right Turn - New Zealand's liberal blog:

So the Butcher of Baghdad is dead - executed secretly this morning in a desperate rush to get him out of the way before he could tell the world about how the Americans backed his campaign of genocide against the Kurds. But now what?  This isn't a bad fantasy novel, where everything is instantly better and the sun comes out the moment the Dark Lord is dead. Saddam's judicial murder will not end the insurgency in Iraq.  It will not stop the deaths of more Iraqi civilians or US troops.  Instead, it will simply add another body to Bush's pyramid of skulls, a pyramid which is more than high enough already.

From No Right Turn - New Zealand's liberal blog:

Last week, the Democrats won control of both the US House and Senate.  Cynics have asked what they are willing to do with this newfound power.  Today, we have the first answer: hold the Bush Administration accountable for its illegal program of "extraordinary rendition":

From No Right Turn - New Zealand's liberal blog:

Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has been found guilty of crimes against humanity for ordering the torture and mass-murder of 148 people in the village of Dujail. Along with two other co-defendants, he has been sentenced to death by hanging.

While I agree with the verdict, its more an accident than the product of a robust judicial process. Unlike the Nazis, Milosovic, or the genocideres of Rwanda, Saddam did not receive a fair trial according to basic international standards. Instead, he was paraded before a kangaroo court, with deliberately lowered standards of evidence and judges who were forced to resign if they tried to ensure the defence could put their side of the case.  This farcical process (made even more farcical by Saddam's antics in the courtroom) has undermined the credibility of the verdict, and will allow Saddam's followers to forever claim that he was a victim of "victor's justice". And sadly, they won't be entirely wrong.

From No Right Turn - New Zealand's liberal blog:

The BBC's recent global survey on attitudes to torture has produced some disturbing results.  27,000 respondents in 25 countries were asked to select between two competing statements about torture:

• Clear rules against torture should be maintained because any use of torture is immoral and will weaken international human rights standards against torture.


• Terrorists pose such an extreme threat that governments should now be allowed to use some degree of torture if it may gain information that saves innocent lives.

From No Right Turn - New Zealand's liberal blog

Fortunately, that's not in the Mexican sense, but it looks as if there has been a problem with electronic voting in the Ecuadorian election:

A day after the elections, the Ecuadorians did not know the conformation of the Congress and the definitive result of the presidential ones, due to the collapse of the system of count of a Brazilian company/signature, accused previously of anomalies that fed denunciations on fraud.

(Shitty translation by Google)