Results tagged “humanrights”

Today marks the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UHDR), adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations. The 30 articles of this declaration were written after the Second World War and represent the first global expression of human rights worldwide. The UHDR is the most translated document in the world and has inspired many international treaties and laws.

• Remember when we told you that Los Angeles tap water was the best tasting in the world? Turns out that our delicious H20 might have been sprinkled with delicious drugs. The AP found that a multitude of pharmaceuticals, like antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones, have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans including water in Southern California. Little Johnny has taken such a liking to water these days, I wonder what's gotten into him.
• On Friday, Newport Beach police were baffled when they found a fully clothed woman dead and packed in dry ice in an upscale hotel room near John Wayne Airport. The room was rented from known Cocaine dealer and the woman, whose body was well preserved, was apparently wanted on drug charges in Colorado.
• Before she was ousted for saying Hillary Clinton was a "monster" for some of the "underhanded" tactics used to defeat Barack Obama in the Ohio Primary, foreign policy adviser Samantha Powers took a few questions at LA City Beat. Nowhere in the interview does she disparage Clinton, but she does offer some pretty enlightening opinions, such as this opus on how to have a dignified foreign policy: "...if we could just sort of remember that there are individuals at stake, that the “human” in human rights is not an abstraction." On second thought, I'm glad she resigned. We can't have those sorts of hippie, drugged out commie type of relations with the world. It would be un-American!
• In other political news, a Democrat won a special election to fill a congressional seat left vacant in Illinois by outgoing Republican Speaker Dennis Hastert. Bill Foster claimed the seat partly on the strength of Obama, who campaigned for him. Obama supporters claimed this was a signal of things to come in what many observers said was a national referendum as John McCain campaigned for the Republican.
• An off-duty cop in Temecula allegedly shot 2 and killed 1 person over some sort of melee at a Mexican restaurant in Riverside. Guns don't kill people, crazy ass people with anger management problems do.
• A 21-year-old member of the San Fernando Valley Illegal Soapbox Federation died this morning when his adorable little vehicle collided with a light pole in Tarzana. Thing is, it may not have been so adorable. The motto of the local soapbox federation is, "Action, Mayhem, Destruction, Bodily Harm...All For Free". I'm sorry, it seems pretty tough to macho yourself out when riding in a little cart made for 6-year-olds.
• Andy LaRoche got some bad news this weekend. The Dodger third baseman who was expected to share time with Nomar Garciaparra at the hot corner this season is out 8-10 weeks with a ligament tear in his thumb after getting hit trying to catch an attempted pickoff at third during a pre-season game Friday against the St. Louis Cardinals. Learn this name kids: Blake Dewitt. He's been tearing up Spring Training pitching and flashing some great leather. He could get some time at third in LaRoche's absence.

Lakers 117, Timberwolves 92 - The Lakers sent a major sign to the rest of the NBA on their long road trip, finishing with a 7-2 record, acquiring Pau Gasol, and seeing Kobe pour in 29 points last night even with a dislocated finger. Against Minnesota, the Lakers got another solid performance from Gasol, who shot 9-of-11 for 19 points and blocked three shots. The team is off through the All Star game (Sunday) and will return to Staples Center next week.

While the controversy over Beijing's Olympic-themed float in Tuesday's 119th Tournament of Roses Parade has not managed to stir up LA's Chinese-American community, as New Year's Day draws near, murmurings of anti-war protests have begun to surface. The protests are linked to a group called the White Rose Coalition, and involve well-known activist Cindy Sheehan, whose soldier son was killed in Iraq. According to a press release:

Local and national pro-Impeachment and pro-Peace American citizens will stage non-violent protests and demonstrations throughout the Rose Parade in Pasadena, California, on Tuesday, January 1, 2008 beginning at 7:30 a.m. with support from Cindy Sheehan and the Camp Casey Peace Institute. The convergence of activists is called the White Rose Coalition, in honor of the resistance movement in Munich in 1942.

While hundreds of volunteers are stealthily working into the wee hours to affix flora to framework and as people begin to plan for finding space along the parade route, an unexpected battle has been waging between human rights groups and the City of Pasadena.

We heart our sister -Ists: today, SFist Editor Bock Keeling was profiled in the SF Weekly. We find out that Gus Van Sant hates SFist and a funny picture of a woman modeling in front of an oil spill crew is now being featured on the site. Pro football player Sean Taylor has died from injuries sustained in a mysterious and tragic shooting incident; he was 24 years old. Police are still searching for...

We had no good photos from last night, so enjoy a video of Chad Henne getting tackled by a goalpost. Stars 5, Ducks 0 - Dallas center Mike Modano described it as Anaheim's "Stanley Cup hangover." His team took advantage by dishing out one of the Duck's worst whoopin's in almost six years. Goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere got yanked in the third ... The Pacific Division seemed like the strongest last year, but this year...

Last Sunday, September 23rd, Dr. Jane Goodall head-lined the International Day of Peace with Roots and Shoots, a global network of youth dedicated to protecting human rights through environment-centered campaigns. Children marched with giant home-made peace puppets as environment and human rights organizations were on hand to provide information and network with locals. Goodall mingled for a while, greeting children and petting dogs before leading the Peace Dove marchers through Griffith Park. After demonstrating...

Tonight, Los Angeles will be playing host to the Democratic Presidential candidates as they square off in a forum to specifically discuss gay issues. The groundbreaking event will be televised on LOGO, and simulcast on the Internet, and will be moderated by Washington Post writer Jonathan Capeheart, Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese, and singer/friend of the trees, Melissa Etheridge. Many of the candidates will continue their courting of a specific demographic with fund-raising...

LOGO, the nation's first (and only) openly gay television network, is set to host the next Democratic presidential debate in Los Angeles on August 9. The moderators will include Joe Solmonese, the president of Human Rights Campaign, and Melissa Etheridge, the Academy Award (for her rendition of An Inconvenient Truth's "I Need to Wake Up") and two-time Grammy Award-winning rock musician and prominent gay rights activist. So what specific topics will be on the...

In support of our international blogging brothers... On February 22, Kareem Amer, a twenty-two-year old Egyptian student and blogger, was sentenced without a trial to four years in jail for "contempt of religion" and "defaming the President of Egypt" because of writings on his blog. Growing up in a fundamentalist Muslim family, Amer began to rebel against what he perceived as religious extremism at his college, Al-Azhar University, through his blog writings, and was...

The original Super Bowl ad (which Snickers has now pulled after receiving complaints from Human Rights Campaign and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) after the jump.

CNN is reporting that Arab news services are reporting that Saddam Hussein has been executed for not being Saudi, Chinese, Sudanese, or North Korean. He was killed this evening (morning in Iraq) for murdering 148 Shiites and not for wiping out tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of Kurds; once again the Bush Administration has prematurely rushed to judgment in regards to Saddam. But what's worse is, despite this being the Information...

Tod Brilliant is a self-made eco-celebrity and decided his top 10 list to share with LAist readers would be about the most critical websites that will help you learn to save our massively fucked planet.

As you might have seen, LAist has been all over this UCLA taser incident. We showed you the disturbing video as soon as it appeared on YouTube, we gave you the administration's response, we let you know how other blogs viewed it, we let you know how other California colleges thought about it, we even had a staffer stoke you a photo essay of the protest that we feel is better than the LA...

- Marc Brown always seemed a little shady to me - Defamer - Cheney doesn't think that waterboarding is torture, therefore waterboard-away fellas! - McClatchy - MVP Pujols is a surly bitch - Chicago Tribune - Human Rights group fires employee for outting child predator Foley - NTY - ABC political director agrees with Bill O'Reilly that the "media" has a "liberal bias" - ThinkProgress - Why won't Dems back Angelides - Daily Breeze...

LAPD and union organizers joined forces to script a protest march during Thursday afternoon rush hour near LAX. Hundreds of people were arrested according to plan. The arrestees, who were registered with LAPD and took a class in preparation for the event, even got t-shirts and a gift package that included a meal (put together by union organizers, not their cellmate). I’ve worried that unions have embarrassed themselves in recent years, becoming top-heavy machines...

- Now these are the friends we're talking about. Lily Allen (pictured) has a record deal with a major label in the UK, but a Beverly Hills talent agency recently signed her so they can represent the young singer in the US because, in part, because of her numerous MySpace 53,244 "friends". -YouTube has kicked the LA-based MySpace off the top rung of the Internet's popularity ladder. The controversial video-sharing site is responsible for...

April is generally the time for all things Earth--Earth Month, Earth Week, Earth Day. April 22, 1970, was the historic day that parks and streets, schools and public spaces everywhere were filled with over 20 million people demonstrating for a healthier environment. Since then, April has become a time for the whole planet to stop and reflect on the worldwide effort to protect the earth--which has also come to embody principles of social justice and human rights.

California Peace Action is an organization that honors legislators for leadership on human rights and foreign policy.

Today is not just any Thursday. It's also the opening day of the The Fellowship Of Reconciliation's 2004 National Conference--"ORGANIZING THE REAL SUPERPOWER:People of the World Choose Peace"