Poland's anti-gay President Lech Kaczyński, wife and top members of Polish government killed in plane crash

Site of this morning's crash of the plane carrying the Polish President and his wife, and high ranking members of Poland's society. They were traveling to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre of some 20,000 Polish officers by Stalin's secret police, when their plane crashed in the fog outside the town of Pechorsk, in Russia's western Smolensk region. Katyn is near Russia's border with Belarus.

Hmmm.... Highly unusual. The thought occured to me, that if it hadn't have been for the ego between the governments of Poland and Belarus, Kaczyński's pilot might not have refused landing in Minsk, and the Polish government members would still be alive. But I'm also suspicious. This crash could be very beneficial to the governments of Belarus and Russia.

And, it's no secret that Kaczyński, former mayor of Warsaw, was a an anti-gay bigot who contributed to the misery and isolation of Poland's LGBT community. Nevertheless, I'm sorry for the grief of their family members, for the Polish people, and for the good people who were aboard the plane, and I hope it turns out that this tragedy has a good side to it. ~M.R.

From Charter97.org News from Belarus

About 100 persons including the President of Poland Lech Kaczyński and his wife were on the plane Tu-154 which crashed in Smolensk oblast.

“Interfax” was informed about that by the spokesperson of the Russian Prosecutor General's Investigations Committee. "President Kaczynski's Tu-154 airplane crashed when landing near the town of Pechorsk, Smolensk region, in heavy fog. There were 132 people on board the plane, including the president and his spouse."

As said by him, on Saturday, April 10 at about 10:50 a.m. Tu-154 tried to land at “Severnyj” military airport not far from the town of Pechyorsk. The plane fell in the wooded area near Smolensk, in Kutuzov Street, Severnyj microdistrict....

For the rest of the story with video continue here:
Polish President’s plane crashed near Smolensk (photo, video) (charter97.org)

Related news:
Katyn Becomes Synonymous with Poland's Two National Tragedies (blogs.wsj.com)
Putin and Tusk Remember Katyn Massacre (youtube.com)
Poland Mourns Death of Antigay President (advocate.com)
Russia: Kaczynski's pilot ignored ground command (kyivpost.com)
Polish leader, 96 others dead in Russia jet crash (news.yahoo.com)
President Kaczynski, Wife and Polish Delegation Killed in Plane Crash (english.pravda.ru)
Russians not to Blame for Katyn Massacre-Putin (en.rian.ru)

Video report about Katyn Massacre (youtube.com)

Urgent international appeal for Anwar Basim Saleh

PRESS STATEMENT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

6 April 2010

Urgent appeal for Anwar

Iraqi LGBT is appealing for help from people in Paris, France or people with contacts in France for Anwar Basim Saleh.

Anwar is a 21-year old Iraqi gay activist from Baghdad who was the coordinator of a safe house for LGBT people for the Iraqi LGBT organisation.

He has been ordered to leave Holland, where he had applied for asylum and been detained, for France.

Anwar was arrested in February 2009 by members of the Iraqi Interior Ministry (Badr Corps) for his role in Iraqi LGBT. He was badly beaten up, tortured and he suffered a serious trauma after the long period of detention and the abuse he was subjected to.

He was put under investigation and interrogated over and over again about his role as an LGBT activist and his involvement in the running of the safe house.

During his detention he met five other members of Iraqi LGBT who have been sentenced to death for the same reason. During a visit to the jail by an Iraqi LGBT volunteer, Anwar handed over a letter with a desperate appeal: “save me from the death penalty".

Iraqi LGBT immediately paid the authorities 5,000 dollars in bail to obtain Anwar's release.

As soon as he was released from jail on 14 April 2009 Anwar immediately got on a plane to Lebanon and then to Paris fearing an unjust trial and being sentenced to death.

After a few months without any help from the French institutions, associations and authorities (while begging on the streets and living as a tramp), Anwar (who speaks no other languages than Arabic) left France, and on 22 June entered Dutch territory.

He approached the police authorities in Rotterdam of his own accord and, after telling them his story, they sent him to the local refugee office which gave him shelter at Terabil asylum centre on 24 June.

On 2 September 2009 Anwar was sent for by the Justice Ministry to discuss his asylum application and was informed that according to the EU's Dublin Regulation regarding asylum it is up to France to decide whether or not to grant him refugee status.

Anwar begged them to reconsider his application in the Netherlands (where he knew he had support) to avoid having to make yet another traumatic move and long wait before he learns his fate.

Anwar now has to go back to France.

Iraqi LGBT is appealing for support or housing in Paris, France for this brave and heroic man.

If you can help please call Iraqi LGBT on ++44 (0) 7981 9594 53 or email iraqilgbt@gmail.com

Welcome to Fatville (Huntington), West Virginia, the fattest city in the U.S.A.

Welcome to Fatville: Burgers as big as dustbin lids, coffins that need cranes, and obese children having heart attacks - it is the super-sized U.S. town in West Virginia causing Jamie Oliver such despair

Enough to share:
Jane Fryer peers
over her 3 1/2 lb burger
at Hillbilly Hotdogs

Photos: Copyright David Howells



By Jane Fryer

Huntington, West Virginia, is a small city nestled along the bank of the Ohio River. It has five parks, a famous college football team, dozens of churches, countless fast-food restaurants, a population of 49,000 and a mayor, Kim Wolfe, who rides a horse and delivered all of his eight children himself.

It has also been recently crowned the fattest city in the U.S., which is the developed world’s most unhealthy country.

Everywhere you look in Huntington, there are oversized people — in the cinema complex, outside Starbucks, squeezing into booths at Buddy’s All American Bar-B-Que.

A few are just large, but more are properly obese — bulging out in all the wrong places and too big to run, jog, ride a bike or even walk without wheezing in pain.

It isn’t just grown-ups. Grossly overweight children waddle about clutching huge bags of crisps, their legs chafing at the tops and their tummies straining beneath stretched T-shirts.

Huge teenagers slope about on street corners, smoking and drinking fizzy drinks from enormous containers. More shocking, though, is that no one’s staring. Not even covertly. Because fat is normal here. Almost half the population is clinically obese.

More...

• Jamie Oliver's healthy school dinners 'boost SATs results'
• Too fat to lock up: 43 stone man avoids jail for food scam
• Jamie Oliver's healthy eating crusade for America gets a ratings boost after he appears on Oprah

Which is why Jamie Oliver chose it as the setting for his controversial new TV series, Jamie’s Food Revolution — currently causing a stir in America — in which he tackles the city’s dire eating habits by changing school meals, educating parents and setting up a ‘non-profit cooking education centre’ to teach people how to shop for and cook healthy meals.

He has adopted a similar approach to Jamie’s School Dinners — the 2006 UK series, which saw furious Rotherham mums delivering burgers and chips to their children through the school fence after he replaced Turkey Twizzlers and chicken dinosaurs with Mexican bean wraps and salad.

But if things were tough in Rotherham, they were much worse in America. When he turned up last October, many of Huntington’s six-year-olds were unable to identify a tomato. Or a potato, a cauliflower, a pea, a carrot, an aubergine, a beetroot or even an onion.

They weren’t stupid — they’d just never seen fresh vegetables.

They had been brought up on a diet of chicken nuggets, hamburgers, hotdogs, chips and pizza (schools even served pizza for breakfast). Some children didn’t know that chips came from potatoes.

And while from the off some residents hailed Oliver as ‘St Jamie — sent from God’, the welcome wasn’t entirely warm, with locals already smarting at their new ‘fattest city’ status, courtesy of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

‘I don’t know where they got these statistics,’ moans Chris, 43, who weighs 300lb — over 21st. ‘Or how they determined them. No one does...

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1263142/Burgers-big-dustbin-lids-coffins-need-cranes-obese-children-having-heart-attacks--supersized-US-town-causing-Jamie-Oliver-despair.html#ixzz0k5bG3cSe

*For Huntington's best source for health and wellness for the past 20 years, visit and become a Fan of New Earth Resource Company on Facebook.