Ancestry.co.uk is putting online a collection of slave records.  The archive which will eventually cover three million slaves in South Africa, Sri Lanka and the Caribbean.

Simon Harper of ancestry.co.uk said: "As few records exist which document the lives of individual slaves, the Former British Colonial Dependencies' Slave Register Collection, 1812-1834 will for many be the only record of their ancestor ever having existed and so represents a vital resource for everyone with or interested in researching slave ancestry.

"With few relevant collections online, it has not been easy for those with ancestors from former British colonies or territories to research their black family history, however ancestry.co.uk's new collection will help bridge major historical gaps for many people."

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From CNN: 74 killed in attack on Ethiopia oil field

Gunmen raided a Chinese-run oil field in eastern Ethiopia on Tuesday, killing 65 Ethiopians and nine Chinese workers, an official of the Chinese company said.

Seven Chinese workers were kidnapped in the morning attack at the oil installation in a disputed region near the Somali border, Xu Shuang, the general manager of Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau, said.

From another source:

About 200 unidentified gunmen launched a sudden attack about 6 a.m. local time on Tuesday at the working field, which is located in Abole, a small town about 120 km away from the state's capital Jijiga, Xu told Xinhua.

The gunmen briefly took control of the working field after an exchange of fire with over 100 soldiers protecting the field, Xu said. The attack lasted about 50 minutes.

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This summer in Iraq is looking like it will be a very bad time for some people. Especially among children and the elderly.

Why? There is no easy access to clean water...

"But we can’t forget that children could also drink dirty water from rivers to quench their thirst, and with the contaminated water, they can be susceptible to diseases like cholera and diarrhoea," he said. "These children have no access to ventilators and air coolers and with temperatures sometimes reaching 48 to 50 degrees Celsius, it could be disastrous for them."

Hotter weather will also greatly impact on the health of the elderly, according to Dr Fareed Jaboury, a geriatrician at Medical City Hospital. Many of Iraq’s elderly already suffer from dehydration caused by a lack of a balanced diet, he said. The displaced elderly, in particular, show symptoms of skin disorders caused by low water consumption.

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From today's Washington Post: Guards Go on Strike at Nuclear Weapons Plant

More than 500 security guards at the nation's only nuclear weapons assembly plant walked off the job just after midnight yesterday to protest what they said is a steep deterioration in job and retirement security since the government changed fitness standards for weapons-plant guards in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The contractor at the plant, BWXT Pantex in Carson County, Tex., replaced the striking guards with a contingency force that it says will secure the plant's weapons, nuclear materials and explosives as long as necessary. The issue is not confined to Pantex because guard union leaders at other weapons plants also are raising concerns about the new security requirements, which they say will force many older guards out of their jobs.

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MRE's or "meals ready to eat" are supposed to provide US troops with a field ration. However, especially in Afghanistan, that field ration is NOT very good.

"The MRE doesn't provide enough calories," Moore said in a telephone interview from the Mountain Warfare Training Center in Bridgeport, Calif. "If you're in the mountains, you need 4,500 calories a day. Even if a soldier eats everything in the MRE, which they rarely do, they're going to be running deficient of calories, and over a period of time they're going to lose weight."

A MRE provides about 1200-1300 calories per-meal. 3 meals a day is only 3600-3900 calories...

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Europol, the European Union's law enforcement organization, released a comprehensive report on terrorism in the European Union on Tuesday. In that that report 498 terror attacks were, repeat were, committed in Europe during 2006. Only 1, repeat ONE, of those attacks were committed by a Islamic terror group.

The full 44 page PDF is: First Terrorism Situation and Trend Report of Europol released

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The stability of North Korea is important for the world. So, unexplained changes in it's government is a cause for concern. Sooo....when North Korea replaces its prime minister

North Korea replaced its prime minister Wednesday during a session of its rubber-stamp parliament, the country's state media reported.

Pak Pong Ju was relieved of the premiership and replaced by Kim Yong Il, the official Korean Central News Agency reported, without giving any reasons for the shuffle.

That is important news...

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Hospitals, in addition to healing the sick, also produce massive amounts of waste. Those waste products are dangerous. They include sharp items, deadly chemicals, disease laden objects... Normally they are disposed off by burning them.

But in Iraq, the normal does NOT occur. In Iraq, that waste is dumped in fields. In Iraq, due to the poverty, these waste dumps are used by people. People dig through them for items that they can sell for food.

Ali Hassan, a 9-year-old resident of Sadr City, is a regular at the hospital’s waste dump.

"We find very nice things to play with in the hospital rubbish. We find syringes, cotton and empty bottles. Once we found a fetus - that was amazing! We play like we’re doctors. My mother always tells me to train well because one day I could be a good doctor," said Ali.

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The war in Iraq has destroyed basic healthcare in Iraq. This destruction is killing people today and, even in the best case scenario, will kill people for years in the future.

In the 1970-1980's Iraq had, arguably, the best healthcare system in the Arab world. Now, it is the worse.

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Diego Garcia is one of the most important and most secretive US bases. It sits in the middle of the Indian Ocean. In 1971 the British government removed all the civilians from the islands, so only military personnel are on site.

The base serves as a naval refuelling and support station. It also serves as the home to Maritime Prepositioning Ship Squadron Two, the naval unit responsible for the readiness of the ships in Military Sealift Command Prepositioning Program in the Indian Ocean, a vital strategic asset to the United States. Diego Garcia also has an airbase that supports the largest of modern aircraft. B-52s, other bombers, and aerial refueling tanker aircraft have been deployed to Diego Garcia to execute missions to Iraq in support of the Iraq War and the 1991 Gulf War, and also to Afghanistan during what the U.S. government termed Operation Enduring Freedom, and to Iraq again during the 2003 invasion. High-tech portable shelters to support the B-2 bomber were built on the island before the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

And now a new submarine base will be built on the islands.

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The Iraqi government, with very strong US backing, is trying to change the national oil laws. The Iraqi Parliament is 'discussing' the law now, and is trying to pass it.

Currently, the oil infrastructure in Iraq is controlled by state-owned businesses and the equipment is run by members of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions. The new law would transfer the day-to-day operations to multi-national oil companies.

Those companies would, of course, bring in their own workers.

So, the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions is voicing it's displeasure about the new law.

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China's government might, just might, be starting to pay attention to worker's rights. They are, at least, talking about labor rights, rather than profits. And, the targets are: McDonald's, KFC under fire for labor rights violations

American fast-food giants McDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) are being bombarded for their work contracts which offer their part-time Chinese employees just four yuan per hour, well under the state requirement, state media reported.

An employee is entitled to no less than 4.3 yuan per work hour, said a rule released by the Guangzhou city government last November. The hourly pay averages 7.5 yuan in the city.

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The Asian Women’s Fund is Japan's unofficial fund to help 'Comfort Women' from WWII. On March 31, 2007 it ended funding any projects.

A semiofficial relief organization for former World War II sex slaves is to be disbanded at the end of this month after disbursing some 1.7 billion yen in total -- 565 million yen from individual donors and 1.12 billion yen from state coffers -- to support the women, euphemistically called ''comfort women'' in Japan.

This fund was founded in 1995, it is privately funded and operated, but, it was the closest thing that Japan, officially, has done to help surviving 'comfort women'.

Back grounder on Comfort Women by Amnesty International

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During the summer of 2006, right around the time that North Korea was staging it's rocket show, some of the silo's that house the US missile defense were flooded. 25% of the silo's needed repair, luckily none of these silo's had the intercepter missiles in place at the time. It will take 4 months to 14 months to repair them (from a 7/20/2006 report)

One had 63 FEET of water in it.

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In early March, Janet Rogan (title: Britain's consul general in Tel Aviv) was part of an economic British delegation led by Ed Balls, the British economic secretary to the Treasury. This delegation arrived at the Jerusalem office of the prime minister, Ehud Olmert, when they arrived, She, Janet Rogan, was ordered to undergo a "physical search".

Even though she has full diplomatic immunity... the guards strip searched her.

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Poppy growing/Opium production is, at least, 50% of Afghanistan's economy. Last year 6,100 tons of opium were harvested. $3 Billion dollars were generated in Afghanistan from it's sale. 90% of the world's illegal opium supplies come from that harvest.

Something must be done about it, right? Something like preventing the poppies from being planted, right?

Well... there's major problems with that type of plan. To the farmers of Afghanistan, poppies are a way of life and if you try to stop them from planting the crop, they will resist that action. With Force.

So, is there some other plan?

Well, maybe... Let's try to use that opium in a legal way?

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One of the common themes about the corruption in Iraq is Oil Smuggling.

"I would say probably between 200,000 and 500,000 barrels a day is probably unaccounted for in Iraq," Mikel Morris, who worked for the Iraq Reconstruction Management Organization (IRMO) at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, told KTVT, a Texas television station.

How, given the violence and chaos in Iraq, do you smuggle that much oil? The oil tanker trucks/rigs that you see on the highway hold approx 4,000-5,000 gallons. A barrel of oil is 42 gallons, so, 200,000 barrels of oil is approx 2,000 tanker trucks worth of oil.

How do you hide that much oil?

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On 25 March 1807, the Abolition of Slave Trade 1807 was passed.

Chile in 1823 ended slavery there. (The first European ruled country to do so.) Britain in 1834. The US in 1865. Brazil in 1888. Saudi Arabia in 1962. Mauritania in 1981 (The last nation in the world to outlaw slavery.)

So slavery does NOT exist, right?

No.

Stories like this still exist:

"I was born a slave" - Matalla tells his story from March 21, 2007.

I was born a slave.

"My masters were a warrior group of Arabs, the Reguibat. I worked as a shepherd of camels. When I was little, I looked after goats. I also made charcoal.

"As far as I know ... all my family, all my ancestors were slaves of that group ... My aunt, my brothers are still slaves with them. I've had no contact with them (since I escaped).

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