Dear Kitty. Some blog

From BirdLife:

Birdfair awards for endangered species

04-08-2006

Each summer the Birdfair is held at Rutland Water in the UK (this year the event will be held from 18-20 August).

The event, the largest of its kind in the world, raises funds for a different major international bird conservation project each year.

In addition, funds are also raised in conjunction with the RSPB (BirdLife in the UK) for a number of smaller schemes, to support research projects on any birds listed by IUCN as Endangered or Critically Endangered.

The 2005-06 round of the Birdfair/RSPB Research Fund for Endangered Species attracted a record number of qualifying applications.

Thanks to substantial input from the RSPB’s International Division’s small grants schemes (and some co-funding from other organisations), a record 20 projects were funded (up from 16 in 2004-05):

$1,894 for Nickson Otieno (National Museums of Kenya) to undertake surveys of the critically endangered Taita Thrush (Kenya).

$1,500 for Nsagabasani Claudien (BirdLife in Rwanda) to undertake analyses of seasonal patterns of distribution of Grauer’s Rush Warbler (EN) in Volcanoes National Park (Rwanda). Funded by International Division’s Africa Small Grants.

$2,000 for A Rocha Kenya and National Museums of Kenya to survey Dakatcha woodland north of the Sabaki River (Kenya) for Sokoke Scops Owl and Clarke’s Weaver (both EN).

$1,780 for Ghebre Medhani (University of Asmara) to search for wintering Northern Bald Ibis (CR) in Eritrea.

$970 for Mauritian Wildlife Foundation to undertake research on the nesting success of the critically endangered Mauritius Olive White-eye.

$1,136 for Ndong Bass Innocent (Bamenda Highlands Forest Project) to undertake surveys of Bannerman’s Turaco and Banded Wattle-eye (both EN) in Cameroon.

$1,950 for Wetlands International and the Ministry of the Environment of São Tomé to aid research and conservation of Dwarf Olive Ibis (CR) in São Tomé. Funded by International Division.

$1,000 to Birds Korea for monitoring migrating waterfowl, including Spoon-billed Sandpiper and Nordmann’s Greenshank (both EN) at the critically threatened Saemangeum wetland in Korea.

$1,250 to Azerbaijan Ornithological Society for surveys of Sociable Lapwing (CR) and the White-headed Duck (EN) in Azerbaijan.

$1,500 for Remko Hofland for surveys of wintering populations of the critically endangered Sociable Lapwing in Syria. Funded through a Darwin Initiative award to RSPB.

$1,750 to Mochamad Indrawan for attempts to rediscover the critically endangered Banggai Crow in Indonesia. Funded by International Division’s Asia Small Grants.

$1,280 to Jonathan Walker and BirdLife Indonesia for surveys of the endangered Wetar Ground-dove in Indonesia. Funded by International Division’s Asia Small Grants.

$1,000 to the Beijing Birdwatching Society for surveys of the critically endangered Chinese Crested Tern along the Shandong Coast, China. Funded by International Division’s Asia Small Grants.

$1,000 to Cagayan Valley Programme on Environment and Development (CVPED), Isabela State University (Philippines) and Leiden University (Netherlands) for surveys of an unexplored area in the Sierra Madre, Philippines, of the critically endangered Philippine Eagle and the endangered Isabela Oriole.

$1,000 to Muhammad Iqbal (Kelompok Pengamat Burung Spirit of South Sumatra) for surveys of White-winged Duck (EN) in southern Sumatra. Funded by International Division’s Asia Small Grants.

$1,930 to Sadashib Nath Sen (Nature’s Foster) for surveys of the White-bellied Heron (EN) in lowland wetlands in Assam. Funded by International Division’s Asia Small Grants.

$900 to Nguyen Tran Vy (Institure of Tropical Biology, Vietnam) for research on Orange-necked Hill Partridge and Germain’s Peacock Pheasant (both EN) in Vietnam. Funded by International Division’s Asia Small Grants, co-funded by the World Pheasant Association.

$1,200 to BirdLife Bolivia for surveys of the recently rediscovered Cone-billed Tanager (CR) in Bolivia.

$1,500 to Universidad Distrital “Francisco José de Caldas” (Colombia) for surveys of Chestnut-bellied Hummingbird and Niceforo’s Wren (both CR) in Colombia.

$1,250 to University of Brasilia for surveys of Brazilian Merganser (CR) in the Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park, Brazil.

Birdwatching in Tanzania: here.

Rare buff-breasted sandpiper in Scotland: here.

Of Tony Blair’s Labour Party in Britain, less than half of the original membership are still members now, not having left in disgust about Blair, voting with their feet, like more than half did in the past years.

The membership now, less than half in numbers than when Blair took office in 1997, have given Blair a slap in the face, electing the Hitler holocaust survivor, whom Blair’s hired thugs manhandled when he was a party conference delegate, Walter Wolfgang, to the party executive.

From British daily The Independent:

Peace activist Wolfgang is elected on to Labour NEC committee

By Nigel Morris, Home Affairs Correspondent

Published: 04 August 2006

Walter Wolfgang, the veteran peace activist ejected from the Labour conference last year for heckling the Foreign Secretary over Iraq, has been elected to the party’s ruling body.

Activists voted him on to the National Executive Committee in one of the six places reserved for constituency members.

He will be entitled to sit alongside Tony Blair at NEC meetings and sit on the platform at the conference in Manchester next month.

Mr Wolfgang, 83, a Labour member for 58 years, said he would argue for immediate withdrawal of British troops from Iraq and against replacing the Trident nuclear weapon system.

He also denounced the Government for failing to demand a ceasefire in Lebanon.

He promised to champion ordinary party members who felt sidelined by the “control-freakery” of the Labour leadership.

He said: “Democracy has been deliberately eroded by the Blairites.

But grassroots members are very much aware this Government’s foreign policy has gone wrong and supporters in the country feel the Labour Government isn’t on their side.”

Mr Wolfgang called for the Prime Minister’s resignation and doubted whether Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, was the right man to replace him.

He said he would support a left-wing contender for the leadership such as Michael Meacher or John McDonnell.

Stewards manhandled Mr Wolfgang from the Brighton conference in September last year after he shouted “nonsense” during a speech by Jack Straw, then Foreign Secretary.

He was later detained by police under anti-terrorism powers when he tried to walk back into the conference.

Congratulations, Mr Wolfgang!

Please, give Blair and his gang of war criminals and cash for peerages con artists hell.

British MP Michael Meacher suggests Security Services are shielding July 7 bomb plotters: here.

From British daily The Independent:

Most people in Britain oppose the replacement of the Trident nuclear weapons system, a report shows.

A survey of 1,000 adults for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) revealed that almost two out of three were against a new generation of nuclear missiles.

CND said the result was a 5 per cent increase in public opposition to Trident replacement since a similar poll almost a year ago.

A 50,000-signature petition was handed in to 10 Downing Street yesterday as part of a campaign against Britain developing new nuclear weapons.

Opposition to Trident replacement has prompted a 300 per cent increase in membership of CND, with Chancellor Gordon Brown’s declaration of support for replacing the missile system accounting for a substantial rise in new membership requests.

Britain: nuclear power: here.

From Business Day in South Africa:

04 August 2006

Parliament rejects UK plea on mercenary bill

Wyndham Hartley

CAPE TOWN — Parliament’s defence committee has rejected a plea from British high commissioner Paul Boateng for South Africans serving in the British armed forces to be exempted from the anti-mercenary bill.

This may raise some diplomatic heat.

Boateng made a plea for the more than 700 South Africans in British uniforms to be exempted from having to apply for authority to join the armed services of another country in an unprecedented address to the committee on Tuesday.

ANC MPs said they would “sleep on the matter” but yesterday rejected the request.

Ex Apartheid thugs now as mercenaries in Iraq: here.

From Israeli daily Haaretz:

Auschwitz council of survivors appeals for peace in the Middle East

By Reuters

Survivors of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz appealed Thursday for peace in the Middle East, saying the fighting creates hate and “threatens humanity.”

The International Auschwitz Council, which includes Holocaust survivors, scholars and religious leaders, appealed to international leaders to launch peace initiatives, “insignificant though they may appear to be, with the view to overcome the hateful antagonisms while promoting dialogue and cooperation.” …

“The war in the Middle East kills people, destroys their homes, roads and bridges, as well as their hopes for normal life and development,” the council said in a statement.

“It awakens despair and hate … and threatens humanity.”

The Nazis killed up to 1.5 million people, mostly Jews, at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp.

The council was set up in 1990 to oversee preservation and educational efforts at the site.

See also the Jerusalem Post.

Auschwitz portraits: here.

Nazi persecution of Jews in occupied Belgium: here.