IS THIS A BANKSY?

RE Diana Inquest

If Diana and Dodi were assasinated it would have been most likely carried out by Black Ops (see prevous blog) - eg Hollywood version would be Jason Bourne or a Private Security Operative who been hired by Mafia or the such.

If it was a Black Op it will be almost impossible to find out about them - the connection between any secret services would be impossible to prove.

Riots in Egypt over Low Wages and High Price Increases

The center of this normally bustling, overcrowded, traffic-clogged city was largely quiet Sunday, the roads nearly empty, many of the stores shuttered, as the riot police came out in force to prevent a general strike aimed at signaling widespread discontent with President Hosni Mubarak and his government.

Egypt has virtually no organized political opposition, except the Muslim Brotherhood, which is banned and barred from politics.

But events Sunday underscored the rise of a potentially more dangerous challenge to the government's monopoly on power: Widespread public outrage and a growing willingness by workers and professionals to press their demands by striking.

The main complaint is economic, driven by rising food prices, depressed salaries and what opposition leaders say is an unprecedented gap between rich and poor. It is hard to say if the streets were empty Sunday because people stayed home for fear of getting caught in the crossfire between protesters and police, or because of the call to stay home as a form of protest.

Either way, the government took the threat of a mass mobilization so seriously that it issued a warning to potential strikers, saying it would "take necessary and resolute measures toward any attempt to demonstrate, impede traffic, hamper work in public facilities or to incite any of this."

In Cairo, riot police officers massed in Tahrir Square, the center of the city. They stood in formation outside the lawyers', doctors' and journalists' syndicates. State security agents had visited government workers in advance and ordered them to attend work on Sunday, some workers said. At the lawyers' syndicate, a few hundred protesters stood on the roof and on a balcony chanting "Down, down Hosni Mubarak."

Hundreds of students demonstrated at three universities in Cairo.

In Mahalla al-Kobra, the center of Egypt's textile industry north of Cairo, a melee broke out late in the day as the riot police fired tear gas and workers threw stones. Officials said there were more than 200 arrests around the country, including at least seven people arrested for their efforts to use the Internet to promote the call for a day of unrest.

"I am not about to claim that the Egyptian people are finally rebelling," said Abdel Ahab El Meseery, an organizer with Kifaya, an opposition movement, who once served as the Arab League's cultural attaché to the United Nations. "The element of fear is there. The people are afraid of the government, but the government is as afraid of the people."

Under Mubarak and his governing National Democratic Party, officials have succeeded in stunting the growth and influence of political opposition. The only opposition group with a broad network and a core constituency is the Muslim Brotherhood, which has little ability to effect political change because its members are routinely arrested and jailed. Local elections are scheduled for Tuesday, and the government has arrested hundreds of Brotherhood members and supporters in advance.

The Brotherhood, struggling to regain its footing after the intense and persistent police pressure, distanced itself from the call to strike and said it would not participate.

Since September 2007 the government itself has scrambled to keep pace with the growing reliance on strikes as a tool to press worker demands. Textile workers, tax clerks and university professors have all held strikes or threatened to strike.

Doctors have also threatened to strike, complaining that physicians with 20 years experience, for example, often make no more than 450 Egyptian pounds a month, the equivalent of about $80.

"What made us take more confrontational measures is that we saw other groups doing so and making their demands," said Hamdy El Sayyid, longtime chairman of the doctors' syndicate.

But what has turned the demands of individual workers into a potential mass movement, officials and political analysts said, has been inflation on food products, mostly bread and cooking oil. The rising cost of wheat, coupled with widespread corruption in the production and distribution of subsidized bread, has prompted the president to order a resolution to the problem.

But that has done little to calm public outrage, or lower bread prices.

On Adly Street, a broad thoroughfare in central Cairo, many more stores than usual were shuttered Sunday, according to street vendors and local residents. It was a windy day, with a sandstorm and rain showers, which may have offered people added encouragement to stay off the streets.

"People are staying at home today," said Ashraf, a clerk in a luggage store on Adly Street. He was afraid to give his last name, for fear of arrest, but he said he kept his children home from school and dressed in all black as signs of support for the protest. "Because of the prices, because we can't get food," he said explaining the reason for the strike.

Brown defiant over 10p tax rate abolition

Gordon Brown's troubles mounted today as the "shop steward" of Labour MPs joined protests at the tax raid on the low-paid.

Tony Lloyd, the chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party, urged Mr Brown not to brush aside the rebellion against the effective doubling of the 10p tax band to 20p.

He dismissed arguments that there were no significant losers and said protests were "real and deeply felt". Mr Lloyd added: "I deeply feel them myself because I represent people who will lose in this."

The former minister also questioned Mr Brown's political strategy, saying the government needed to "clarify what it's there for".

"Gordon has got to reflect on the fact that we have not got across to the public what this Labour government is for," he said

A Labour-dominated Commons committee accused him of making "unreasonable" demands on hard-pressed households.

Sweeping changes to the tax code will leave more than five million people worse off just as they face soaring household bills.

The abolition of the 10p starting rate of tax, announced in Mr Brown's final Budget last year, means people on low incomes will see their tax bill double.

The influential Treasury Select Committee found that working couples with children on less than £8,000 a year could lose up to £446, while a single earner childless couple on less than £8,000 could lose £232.

Chinese Olympics - London Protests

RE ZIMBABWE

If David Milliband is correct in saying that they support the Zimbabwean People then why didnt they have a war and get rid of Mugabe like they did with Saddam Hussein in Iraq?

It s nothing to do with people - its to do with what the country has to offer in natural resources - Why cant they stop bullshitting us?

RICE SHORTAGE HITS PHILLIPINO POOR

MANILA, 27 March 2008 (IRIN) - Like many poor Filipino families, Boyet and Milagros Navarro and their five children get by on just over US$2 a day. Boyet works as a welder in Baguio City on the northern island of Luzon and his wife is a part-time farm helper.

According to the 2006 Family Income and Expenditure Survey, the latest conducted by the country's National Statistics Office, 68 million of the country's 90 million inhabitants live on or under US$2 a day.

The same survey shows that for every $2.40 in daily earnings, more than a third goes towards food expenses, while the rest is spent on medicine, clothing, education and other expenditures.

The Navarro family told IRIN they spend roughly US$1 a day on food, mostly rice, vegetables, some fish and occasionally meat, and because of their lean budget, they often skip a meal.

Hunger may become a regular fixture in their lives as rice prices continue to rise - this year alone, the average price of rice has increased by up to 17 US cents and Filipino families are bracing themselves for more belt-tightening measures.

"No more fish and meat"

"We're reduced to eating rice and vegetables. No more fish and meat," Milagros said. "My husband and I can survive on that, but what about the children?"

Already, the average retail price of rice is 72 US cents a kilo, from 60 US cents in 2007. And there is no sign that prices are going to stabilise soon, as global prices continue to soar.

The Navarros' dilemma is common to many other families in the Philippines.

On the southern part of Luzon, in the Albay province of Bicol region, Mayor Noel Rosal of Legazpi City said many families there could no longer take regular meals because of high prices and the lack of supplies.

"This is not a joke. At 30 pesos per kilo (72 US cents), numerous families suffer from starvation," Rosal said.

The staple food for the majority of Filipinos, rice, is considered a political commodity and the looming shortage and price increases could spell trouble for the government, some critics have said.

"The government has been hounded by political uncertainty, from allegations of graft and corruption, and a food crisis could stoke further unrest," said Rafael Mariano, chairman of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), a militant peasant group.

Social unrest looming?

Opposition senator Loren Legarda, chair of the senate economic affairs committee, warned that a big surge in the staple's price "is bound to spur social unrest and political instability going forward".

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has called on Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung to guarantee some 1.5 million metric tons of rice this year.

Arroyo has also approved a US$68.5 million incremental budget to boost rice production, according to agriculture secretary Arthur Yap.

On 25 March, the president ordered a crackdown on rice hoarders, calling on Yap to ensure that cheap government rice would reach those who needed it most.

Other measures are also being proposed to address the problem, including an appeal to fast-food outlets throughout the country to offer half-portions of rice to patrons to prevent wastage, with fast-food owners agreeing to the proposal.

The social welfare and development department said it is preparing to issue rice