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Women's Day hears voice of "comfort women", WWII survivors/victims, for justice, compensation, apology. Japanese Gov denies all
Former “comfort woman” Lee Yong-Soo (L) stands beside her supporters holding portraits of Philippine, South Korean and Chinese comfort women who were sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during World War II, at a protest held in front of the Japanese parliament in Tokyo. Japan on 27 June 2007 brushed aside calls from US lawmakers for a fresh apology to wartime sex slaves, even as the former “comfort women” renewed their demands for Tokyo to acknowledge their plight. Japan said the US move to pass a resolution calling for an “unambiguous” apology from Japan for the coercion of women into army brothels during World War II would not damage relations between the two allies. Inset: Recruitment advertisements for comfort women in the Japanese Imperial Army.
Top: Former comfort women want Japan to do more to apologize. Bottom right: Rangoon, Burma. August 8, 1945. A woman who was in one of the Imperial Japanese Army’s “comfort battalions” is interviewed by an Allied officer.
Former Filipino “comfort woman” Piedad Nobleza, 86, at a demonstration outside the Japanese Embassy in suburban Manila. Elderly Filipino women and their supporters demanded Tokyo’s clear-cut apology and compensation for wartime sexual slavery by Japanese troops. read more »
Holidays may well cherish modern Robin Hood, German banker who helped poor from losing homes at cost of her own
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A German bank manager who secretly transferred millions of pounds from rich clients to debt-ridden customers has been spared jail.
The 62-year-old, dubbed the "Robin Hood banker", was found guilty of moving a total of 7.6 million euros (£6.85m) between 2003 and 2005. The bank's rich clients reportedly hadn't touched their accounts in years. She carried out 117 separate transfers to try and stop people's accounts closing due to lack of funds.
As a rule, the banker - whose name was not reported under German media conventions - moved the money back when the indebted clients were solvent again. But 1.1 million euros (£991,000) was lost when certain customers were unable to pay their debts. The banker has begun reimbursing the bank through her pension. read more »
Sicko: Michael Moore's documentary film on health care & to rescue rescuers - 9/11 heroes
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Fox News: "Filmmaker Michael Moore’s brilliant and uplifting new documentary, “Sicko,” deals with the failings of the U.S. health care system, both real and perceived. But this time around, the controversial documentarian seems to be letting the subject matter do the talking, and in the process shows a new maturity."
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True stories: dolphin answers whales' SOS call; pod of dolphins save severely-injured surfer from becoming shark's bait
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Surfer Todd Endris needed a miracle. The shark - a monster great white that came out of nowhere - had hit him three times, peeling the skin off his back and mauling his right leg to the bone. That’s when a pod of bottlenose dolphins intervened, forming a protective ring around Endris, allowing him to get to shore, where quick first aid provided by a friend saved his life. “Truly a miracle,” Endris told TODAY’s Natalie Morales on Thursday.
Dolphin answers whales' SOS call read more »
First shot of WWII Sept 1st: trumpet call in Poland; Sept 3, 1939, torpedo sank British ship: passenger survivor's ordeal
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70 years on, wartime rifts still run deep
Trumpet call in Poland: Around dawn, as the morning light pushed the darkness away from the city of Gdansk, a company of Polish sailors stood at attention as a trumpet call rang out. At 4:45am, 70 years to the minute after the first shots of WWII were fired, Poland's prime minister & president bowed their heads in remembrance. In a day of high emotion for Poland &, heads of state & dignitaries from around the world gathered at Westerplatte, the tiny peninsula overlooking Gdansk's harbor where battle first commenced, to remember the start of a conflict that would engulf the world & claim 60 million lives. At 4:45am on 1 Sept. 1939, the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein – on a "friendly visit" to Danzig – trained its sights on the vulnerable outpost & opened fire.
World's tallest animal: Rarest endangered Rothschild giraffes join family breakfast; unlikely bond with short goat at 1st sight
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Eight endangered Rothschild giraffes, the rarest (only a few hundred left in the wild) on earth second only to the Niger Giraffe, are free to roam their 140-acre estate and are regular visitors at their English-style manor built in the colonial era. Back in 1794, the grandson of a Scottish earl, Jock Leslie Melville, and his American wife Betty bought the stately home. Later that year they moved two highly endangered Rothschild giraffe into the estate. The ones at the site grow up to more than 16ft tall, weigh two tons & have a life expectancy of up to 30 years. Every day shortly before 9am, the mammoth beasts stroll up to the house and poke their heads through the windows and doors in search of morning treats. Now, married owners Tanya & Mikey Carr-Hartley literally share their dining table with them.
Beauty & diplomacy, charm & compassion for refugee. Joanne Herring, Charlie Wilson, Avrakotos: trio ended Afghan war
History won’t forget each one who deploys diplomacy rather than weaponry to end war which inevitably imposes tremendous suffering on humanity. History remembers that a team of three once did the impossible, ending the Afghan war, ending misery of refugees due to war. The trio also won "Charlie Wilson's War" (a movie based on the true story stars Tom Hanks (Charlie Wilson), Julia Roberts (Joanne Herring) and Philip Seymour Hoffman (Gust Avrakotos).
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Miracle: in diapers, no lifejacket, toddler on 3rd bday navigates toy truck for 2 hrs, 12km downriver till rescued
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Before being saved on Sunday morning (July 12), a missing baby boy was "navigating" his battery-powered toy truck in a wild ride down B.C.'s Peace River for 12 kilometers over 2 hours on his 3rd birthday. When spotted, the toddler was kneeling on all fours on top of the overturned car, sitting in about three meters of water, according to Fort St. John RCMP. "He was wet from his knees down, and his hands were wet, but this torso was okay". Rescued from the swirling 10ft deep water, the boy was insisting that he wanted to get back on his “boat”, and he “had made his truck into a boat and rode down the river.” The baby navigator was in good shape except for needing a diaper change.
The boy was not wearing a lifejacket, just a diaper and T-shirt at the time. He went missing from his family's campsite in the Peace Island Park just after 7 a.m. Sunday. Campers joined Fort St. John RCMP in a full-scale search of the park to find him. Don Loewen spotted the boy more than two hours after he went missing while searching the river with four other men in his boat. read more »
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