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POPSU.S. Wars and the Opium Trade The opium bound for the US heroin market in S.E. Asia was produced primarily in Laos, flown on the CIA’s Air America to Vietnam, where it was converted into heroin then smuggled into the States by US military couriers.(4)(5)
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POPSPhilippines braces for new storm Ketsana, with winds of up to 100km/h (60mph), hit the Philippines early last Saturday, crossing the main northern island of Luzon before heading out toward the South China Sea. Almost two million people were affected by the flooding in Manila, the worst to hit the city in 40 years. At one point, 80% of the city was submerged. Tens of thousands of people were left homeless. Ketsana went on to hit the mainland of South-East Asia where it is now confirmed to have killed 99 people in Vietnam, 16 in Laos and 14 in Cambodia. Most of the people have died in flooding or landslides caused by the sudden, heavy rain.
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POPSTyphoon Ketsana blasts Cambodia In the Philippines, the government said it now believed 246 people had died after the storm struck on Saturday, a figure that is expected to rise as mud is cleared from the worst affected areas. Almost two million people were affected by the flooding in Manila, the worst to hit the city in 40 years. At one point, 80% of the city was submerged. Ketsana, with winds of up to 100km/h (60mph), hit the Philippines early on Saturday, crossing the main northern Luzon island before heading out toward the South China Sea. Officials say more than 40cm (16in) of rain fell on Manila within 12 hours, exceeding the average for the whole month of September. Meanwhile forecasters said a new storm forming in the Pacific Ocean was likely to enter Philippine waters on Thursday and make landfall later on the northern island of Luzon.
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POPSYikes! Snakes! Why did it have to be Snakes? These damn things sacred the hell out of me the first month I was there, after that I just learned to stay out of their way if possible, My dog saved my life! This is part of the result of spraying agent orange all over everything, we will pay for many years to come.
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POPS"WOMEN ARE HEROES" post it LARGE "Women Are Heroes" is done by a 25 year-old artist who goes by JR. He photographs women across the world, in countries like Sudan, Sierra Leone, Cambodia and Laos, as well as Brazil. Then he prints extreme enlargements of the images, and wallpapers the sides of buildings in the neighborhoods of the women he documents… but then also posts them in a very large format in Western cities. In Brazil, thousands of killings by police are going largely unpunished because of public approval for a perceived crackdown on crime, reports the U.N. envoy, Philip Alston. Clashes with police killed a record 1,260 civilians in Rio de Janeiro state last year. JK's previous project, "Face2Face" made portraits of Palestinians and Israelis doing the same job and posted them face to face, in huge formats, in unavoidable places, on the Israeli and the Palestinian sides. "Face to face" is necessary. Within a few years, JR will come back for "Hand in hand".
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POPSTop 10 train trips #10 is The Ghan In the 1800's, emigrant Afghans on camelback sparked development in Aussie's remote desert Outback, acting as guides on expeditions and starting construction on a dream transcontinental railway. That dream has since been realized in the form of The Ghan, an 1850-mile, 2-night train ride operated by Australia’s Great Southern Railway, and fashioned from the tracks of those pioneer cameleers. Travel from the wine capital of historic Adelaide, brushing north past red sandstone cliffs, gorges, waterholes, and rock formations, keeping watch for wild camels, dingoes, brumbies (wild horses), and kangaroos along the way – an overall landscape that’ll have you exclaiming “There’s no place like Oz”!
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POPSNew species discovered in Greater Mekong Discovering new species all the time! Among the most bizarre to be discovered was a hot-pink, spiny dragon millipede, Desmoxytes purpurosea.. The millipedes have glands that produce cyanide to protect them from predators. Scientists believe that the shocking-pink colouration is a warning that they would make a fatal snack. "They would do well to heed this warning," concluded a WWF report on the Greater Mekong discoveries.
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POPSNot Good News As Lunar New Year Approaches The desire for ducks, geese, chickens and pigs with which to celebrate Lunar New Year, brings millions upon millions of poultry and swine to market for the next two months and raises the potnetial for spread of new flu variants, as well as avian flu!
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POPS100 nations sign cluster-bomb ban US does not, along with Russia and China, all of which are manufacturers of them. Between 1964 and 1973, over Laos, the US air force dropped the equivalent of a fully-loaded B-52 bomber's payload of cluster bombs every 8 minutes for 9 years. Children still find them.
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POPSPoll finds worldwide support for Obama
This speaks for itself doesn't it? It's a real good feeling knowing that the majority of the world also see how much better Obama would be. Thanks for all that support. Unfortunately the real red-necks,red-necks red-necks might try to use this AGAINST Obama their political 'modus operandi' being always trying to divide people and spread hate and fear. So the majority of the people in Europe liking Obama, would be used by these Republican neocon neofascist as another reason why Obama is "anti-America." Basically, warmongers and folks like that try to get power by insulting everybody else and putting them down. Fortunately -- for us all -- their days appear numbered. If Obama supporters just keep working and advocating and those who go door-to-door keep going door-to-door and those who make telephone calls keep making telephone calls, etc....winning this election in less than two weeks will be a 'Slam Dunk' (certain to happen). Elections do matter; this one more than m
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POPSReport: McCain suppressed info on POWs left behind Vast evidence concerning prisoners held in Vietnam and Laos - confirmed under oath by two Secretaries of Defense - has been hidden from the public, largely through the efforts of John McCain, says Pulitzer Prize winner Sydney Schanberg. McCain also acted to remove criminal penalties from laws concerning illegal suppression of evidence about MIAs.
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POPSFilm Reveals CIA's 'Most Secret Place on Earth'
This film's analysis sets it apart from other books and documentaries on the subject, most of which justify the conflict, lauding the CIA operatives and their Air America pilots as heroes. The reality, as Alfred McCoy says towards the end of the film, was very different. "We destroyed a whole civilisation, we wiped it off the map. We incinerated, atomised human remains in this air war and what happened in the end? We lost." The covert nature of the conflict meant that U.S. forces were able to ignore virtually all the rules of engagement operating in Vietnam. Every building was a potential target and the civilian toll was huge. The situation grew worse in 1970 when U.S. President Nixon authorised massive B-52 bombing strikes on Laos, which remained classified information until many years later. American planes dropped an average of one planeload of bombs on targets in Laos every eight minutes, 24 hours a day for nine years, making it the most heavily bombed country on earth
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