BAKU, Azerbaijan—The escalation of raids, arrests and deportations indicates a steady decline of human rights in Azerbaijan. One recent incident involved two women who are Jehovah's Witnesses, Gamar Alieva and Imamzade Mamedova. They were arrested for carrying out "religious propaganda." Both were released, but after being detained for two weeks, 58-year-old Mamedova was deported to Russia on August 22. The authorities did not provide her with any authorizing documentation; she is of Azerbaijani descent but is a Russian citizen who had returned to living in Azerbaijan more than six months previously. Local authorities have also organized raids on peaceful religious meetings held by Jehovah's Witnesses in private homes. In Baku, on June 3, nine of the males who were attending such a meeting were taken to the police station, where they were verbally and physically mistreated. Included in that number were two 17-year-olds and one who was not yet a member of Jehovah's Witnesses. Police told them that the religious meeting was unlawful and tried to force them to renounce their faith and to accept the teachings of Islam. The police also threatened the detainees that they would be put in prison and raped. Gradually, however, the men were released. On June 11 in a suburb of Baku, some 15 policemen carried out a raid on another meeting in the home of one of Jehovah's Witnesses. Literature and documents were confiscated and 30 persons, including children and pregnant women, were taken into custody. Eventually all were released, but only after some had been subjected to verbal and physical abuse. Since Azerbaijan is a signatory to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, Jehovah's Witnesses are entitled to protection of freedom of religion under Articles 9, 10, and 11 of the Convention. The 776 Jehovah's Witnesses in Azerbaijan, and millions of peace-loving individuals around the globe, hope that the government of Azerbaijan will abide by its obligation to ensure freedom of worship. The Office of Public Information for Jehovah's Witnesses is pleased to provide the media with broadcast versions of the VNRs shown on this page: http://www.jw-media.org/ Contact in USA: Gregory Allen, Associate General Counsel Telephone: +845-306-0711 Contact in Europe: Marcel Gillet, European Association of Jehovah's Christian Witnesses Telephone 32 2 782 0015

VELESTA, Macedonia - It was midnight on a Friday and the carnival of horrors was open for business. Maks, a swaggering pimp in this drab town notable only for its endless strip of bordellos, appeared at the hotel room door with an adolescent girl in tow. "This one is my youngest," he said. With one arm draped around 17-year-old Lena's neck, Maks' free hand found its way up her white T-shirt. He pulled it up to reveal Lena's breasts. "Look at these things!" he boasted. This is not the kind of relationship that exists between most pimps and prostitutes. Maks literally owns Lena and many other girls who service dozens of men a night at his command. With civil war threatening to break out between Macedonian Slavs and ethnic Albanians, Maks was encouraged to see prospective new customers. Business was off, and the Greeks who vacationed at nearby Lake Okhrid had failed to turn up for the summer holidays. Nobody comes to Velesta for the scenery. Only two paved roads wind past rows of hastily constructed brick buildings with shops selling produce and Chinese kitsch. Velesta's main attraction is cheap sex — performed by beautiful girls kept under lock and key. Meeting with Meti We checked into the Hotel Ekslusiv, where Velesta's sex slaves are forced to serve clients. Before we could even take our bags up to the sparsely furnished rooms, Meti came calling. Meti, another pimp and the owner of the Coca-Cola and Bela Dona bars just down the street, was eager to show us his girls. In his late 30s, with slicked-back hair, he is considered a kingpin in the Balkans sex trade. "You have to see my girls!" he said. "They are the best." We rode in Meti's car to the Coca-Cola club, where he led us to the bar — a small room with seven tables blanketed in blue and red light. Meti disappeared in the back. We could hear him bellowing at the girls to get into their lingerie and come out front. Frantically, 11 women appeared, still putting on lipstick and eyeliner. "You can have any one you want. Or all of them!" Meti said over music blasting on the stereo. Returning to the Hotel Ekslusiv, where we were left alone with the women, one — 19-year-old Olga — showed us a gruesome bite wound on her breast, inflicted by a client a month before. Throughout the night, women were herded in and out of the hotel by their pimps, who handed them over to waiting clients. The women who spoke with MSNBC.com said a night with a client was their only chance for a good meal, and they ordered hearty steaks from the hotel's ground-floor restaurant. "They only feed us macaroni," Olga said. Inside a room and away from their owners, the women spoke cautiously, turning up a television set to drown out our conversation in case the pimps were listening on the other side of the door. Speaking in Russian, Olga was able to tell her story without raising the suspicion of her "owner." 'Mama' and 'Papa' Olga told us that occasionally there were "good clients" among the thousands of men she was forced to service. I pressed her to explain what could be "good" about men who were raping her. "They are good if they don't beat you. They are good if they just have sex. Sometimes they bring me a present." Other women told how "owners" frequently treat one slave better than the others, showering her with gifts and not forcing as many clients upon her. To survive, the woman becomes the pimp's lover — and rises up in the hierarchy of Velesta's brothels. The girls call the pimp "Papa" and his mistress "Mama." "Mama" still lives with all the girls, but she's "Papa's" spy, informing on anyone who plots to escape. Sometimes a mistress will enter into business with the pimps, who pay her handsomely to return home and recruit more girls with false promises of well-paid work in Europe. Dawn raid Twenty-four hours after working undercover in the brothels, we returned to the Hotel Ekslusiv — this time with 100 members of Macedonia's crack police squad. The Macedonian interior minister, Lubje Boskovski, launched a raid on Velesta after we told him the stories of the women held as sex slaves. In a dozen armored personnel carriers, the police crashed through the doors of several clubs and the Hotel Ekslusiv, which should have been packed with clients on a weekend night. The pimps and their girls, tipped off by local police on their payrolls, were long gone. As the sun rose over the hills to the east, our Macedonian escorts began to get nervous. "We have to get out before sunup," the commander said, fearing the coming light would give the well-armed pimps an easy shot at his officers. Meti, the pimp the police had come looking for, had escaped. As the armored personnel carriers rumbled back to base, we remembered the words of Natasha, a young Moldovan once "owned" by Meti. "If I ever saw him again, I wouldn't use words (to speak to him). I would use a gun."

VELESTA, Macedonia - It was midnight on a Friday and the carnival of horrors was open for business. Maks, a swaggering pimp in this drab town notable only for its endless strip of bordellos, appeared at the hotel room door with an adolescent girl in tow. "This one is my youngest," he said. With one arm draped around 17-year-old Lena's neck, Maks' free hand found its way up her white T-shirt. He pulled it up to reveal Lena's breasts. "Look at these things!" he boasted. This is not the kind of relationship that exists between most pimps and prostitutes. Maks literally owns Lena and many other girls who service dozens of men a night at his command. With civil war threatening to break out between Macedonian Slavs and ethnic Albanians, Maks was encouraged to see prospective new customers. Business was off, and the Greeks who vacationed at nearby Lake Okhrid had failed to turn up for the summer holidays. Nobody comes to Velesta for the scenery. Only two paved roads wind past rows of hastily constructed brick buildings with shops selling produce and Chinese kitsch. Velesta's main attraction is cheap sex — performed by beautiful girls kept under lock and key. Meeting with Meti We checked into the Hotel Ekslusiv, where Velesta's sex slaves are forced to serve clients. Before we could even take our bags up to the sparsely furnished rooms, Meti came calling. Meti, another pimp and the owner of the Coca-Cola and Bela Dona bars just down the street, was eager to show us his girls. In his late 30s, with slicked-back hair, he is considered a kingpin in the Balkans sex trade. "You have to see my girls!" he said. "They are the best." We rode in Meti's car to the Coca-Cola club, where he led us to the bar — a small room with seven tables blanketed in blue and red light. Meti disappeared in the back. We could hear him bellowing at the girls to get into their lingerie and come out front. Frantically, 11 women appeared, still putting on lipstick and eyeliner. "You can have any one you want. Or all of them!" Meti said over music blasting on the stereo. Returning to the Hotel Ekslusiv, where we were left alone with the women, one — 19-year-old Olga — showed us a gruesome bite wound on her breast, inflicted by a client a month before. Throughout the night, women were herded in and out of the hotel by their pimps, who handed them over to waiting clients. The women who spoke with MSNBC.com said a night with a client was their only chance for a good meal, and they ordered hearty steaks from the hotel's ground-floor restaurant. "They only feed us macaroni," Olga said. Inside a room and away from their owners, the women spoke cautiously, turning up a television set to drown out our conversation in case the pimps were listening on the other side of the door. Speaking in Russian, Olga was able to tell her story without raising the suspicion of her "owner." 'Mama' and 'Papa' Olga told us that occasionally there were "good clients" among the thousands of men she was forced to service. I pressed her to explain what could be "good" about men who were raping her. "They are good if they don't beat you. They are good if they just have sex. Sometimes they bring me a present." Other women told how "owners" frequently treat one slave better than the others, showering her with gifts and not forcing as many clients upon her. To survive, the woman becomes the pimp's lover — and rises up in the hierarchy of Velesta's brothels. The girls call the pimp "Papa" and his mistress "Mama." "Mama" still lives with all the girls, but she's "Papa's" spy, informing on anyone who plots to escape. Sometimes a mistress will enter into business with the pimps, who pay her handsomely to return home and recruit more girls with false promises of well-paid work in Europe. Dawn raid Twenty-four hours after working undercover in the brothels, we returned to the Hotel Ekslusiv — this time with 100 members of Macedonia's crack police squad. The Macedonian interior minister, Lubje Boskovski, launched a raid on Velesta after we told him the stories of the women held as sex slaves. In a dozen armored personnel carriers, the police crashed through the doors of several clubs and the Hotel Ekslusiv, which should have been packed with clients on a weekend night. The pimps and their girls, tipped off by local police on their payrolls, were long gone. As the sun rose over the hills to the east, our Macedonian escorts began to get nervous. "We have to get out before sunup," the commander said, fearing the coming light would give the well-armed pimps an easy shot at his officers. Meti, the pimp the police had come looking for, had escaped. As the armored personnel carriers rumbled back to base, we remembered the words of Natasha, a young Moldovan once "owned" by Meti. "If I ever saw him again, I wouldn't use words (to speak to him). I would use a gun."

In time, Kruger emerged as a leader. He started as a field cornet in the commandos, eventually becoming Commandant-General of the South African Republic. He was appointed member of a commission of the Volksraad, the republican parliament that was to draw up a constitution. People began to take notice of the young man and he played a prominent part in ending the quarrel between the Transvaal leader, Stephanus Schoeman, and M.W. Pretorius. In 1873, Kruger resigned as Commandant-General, and for a time he held no office and retired to his farm, Boekenhoutfontein. However, in 1874 he was elected to the Executive Council and shortly after that became Vice-President of the Transvaal. Following the annexation of the Transvaal by Britain in 1877, Kruger became the leader of the resistance movement. During the same year, he visited Britain for the first time as leader of a deputation. In 1878, he was part of a second deputation. A highlight of his visit to Europe was when he ascended in a hot air balloon and saw Paris from the air. The First Boer War, also known as the "First War of Independence", started in 1880, and the British forces were defeated in the decisive battle at Majuba in 1881. Once again, Kruger played an important role in the negotiations with the British, which led to the restoration of the Transvaal's independence under British suzerainty. On 30 December 1880, at the age of 55, Kruger was elected President of the Transvaal. One of his first aims was the revision of the Pretoria Convention of 1881, the agreement between the Boers and the British that ended the First Boer War. Therefore, he again left for Britain in 1883, empowered to negotiate with Lord Derby. Kruger and his companions also visited the Continent and this visit became a triumph in countries such as Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Spain. In Germany, he attended an imperial banquet at which he was presented to the Emperor, Wilhelm I, and spoke at length with Bismarck. In the Transvaal, things changed rapidly after the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand. This momentous discovery was to have far-reaching political repercussions and to give rise to the uitlander, or foreigner, problem, which was eventually to cause the fall of the Republic. Kruger acknowledged in his memiors that General Joubert predicted the events that were to follow afterwards, declaring that instead of rejoicing for the discovery of gold, they should be weeping because it will "cause our land to be soaked in blood." At the end of 1895, the failed Jameson raid took place; Jameson was forced to surrender, taken to Pretoria and handed over to his British countrymen for punishment. Kruger believed that the Earth is flat; in 1897 he said to a sailor sailing round the world "You don't mean round the world, it is impossible! You mean in the world. Impossible!"[1]. In 1898, Kruger was elected President for the fourth and last time. On 11 October 1899, the Second Boer War broke out. On 7 May the following year, Kruger attended the last session of the Volksraad, and left Pretoria on 29 May as Lord Roberts was advancing on the town. For weeks he either stayed in a house at Waterval Onder or in his railway carriage at Machadodorp in the then Eastern Transvaal, now Mpumalanga. In October, he left South Africa on the Dutch warship De Gelderland, sent by the Queen of the Netherlands Wilhelmina, which had simply ignored the British naval blockade of South Africa. His wife was too ill to travel and remained in South Africa; she died on 20 July 1901. Kruger went to Marseille and stayed for a while in The Netherlands, before moving to Clarens, Switzerland, where he died on 14 July 1904. He was buried on 16 December 1904 in the Church Street cemetery, Pretoria. (source: wikipedia)

Call of Duty: World at War is a first-person shooter video game developed by Treyarch and published by Activision for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360. It is the fifth installment in the Call of Duty video game series, excluding spin-offs. The game is set in the Pacific theater and Eastern front of World War II. The game is scheduled to ship in North America on November 11, 2008. Call of Duty: World at War will feature a more mature theme than previous installments in the series. Swimming elements will be introduced to the series for the first time in single player and multiplayer. While in water, the player cannot sprint and will only move at half speed. Flamethrowers, first introduced in Call of Duty: United Offensive, will be reintroduced with new flammable environments. The game will be slightly more open-ended than previous games in the series, as there will be multiple ways to complete missions. World at War will feature cooperative gameplay with up to four players via split-screen on consoles, or four players online, for the first time in the franchise. In addition, Wii will also feature multiple players on one screen. It will also use a perk system similar to Infinity Ward's Call of Duty 4. Activision has also confirmed the presence of vehicles in multiplayer. The story mode features two campaigns, one featuring the United States Marine Corps battling the Japanese Army in the Pacific, and the other following the Soviet Red Army on the Eastern European Front near the end of the war. One part of a level entitled "Makin Raid" shows an Allied prisoner of war being tortured by the Japanese before having his throat slit by a katana. The player's character witnesses this scene and is later rescued by U.S. Marines who liberate the camp. Two other levels were later revealed by IGN: one involves the player using the machine guns on a PBY Catalina to attack a Japanese naval fleet, and the other shows the beginning of the Russian campaign. In that level, the player and a Russian sniper attack German troops under the cover of a bombing raid. World at War will have an approximately two-year long development cycle, double that of Treyarch's previous title, Call of Duty 3. The game will be powered by an enhanced version of Infinity Ward's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare engine - improvements have been made to the physics model. Environments are now more destructible and can be set on fire with the flamethrower (which features propagating fire). Bullets can also cut holes in thin wood, making a gap big enough for the player to climb through. Kiefer Sutherland and Gary Oldman have been cast as voice actors for the game, the former taking the role of the main character, Sgt. Roebuck. A full-sized replica PBY Catalina was constructed for motion capture use.

John Lennon would have been 68 on October 9, 2008. As much as I miss the music he would have created in the past 28 years, I miss his opinion and what he stood for. Happy Birthday John. http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=6166 The United States leads the world's richest nations in gun deaths -- murders, suicides, and accidental deaths due to guns - according to a study published April 17, 1998 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the International Journal of Epidemiology. The U.S. was first at 14.24 gun deaths per 100,000 people. Two other countries in the Americas came next. Brazil was second with 12.95, followed by Mexico with 12.69. Japan had the lowest rate, at 0.05 gun deaths per 100,000 (1 per 2 million people). The police in Japan actively raid homes of those suspected of having weapons. IRAQ War http://www.iraqbodycount.org/analysis/beyond/the-price-of-loss/ Analysis of the years toll from the Iraq Body Count project First published Jan 1 2008 Summary Another 22,586 - 24,159 civilian deaths have been recorded in 2007 through Iraq Body Counts extensive monitoring of media and official reports. Year Civilians Killed estimate 2003 10,077 - 12,010 2004 9,741 - 10,573 2005 13,071 - 14,324 2006 25,699 - 27,519 2007 22,586 - 24,159 As of January 1st 2008, the Iraq Body Count total for violent civilian deaths to the end of 2007 is between 81,174 - 88,585 The American military has expressed regret that civilians are hurt or killed while coalition forces search to rid Iraq of terrorism, after the 11 October killing of 15 women (one pregnant) and children in an air raid near lake Thar Thar. The civilian death toll by US fire was 96 in October, with 23 children among them, while in September US forces and contractors killed 108 Iraqi civilians, including 7 children. In August US troops killed 103 civilians, 16 of them children, and in July they killed 196. In fact, during the last five months US forces in Iraq have killed over 600 Iraqi civilians.

Call of Duty: World at War is a first-person shooter video game developed by Treyarch and published by Activision for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360. It is the fifth installment in the Call of Duty video game series, excluding spin-offs. The game is set in the Pacific theater and Eastern front of World War II. The game is scheduled to ship in North America on November 11, 2008. Call of Duty: World at War will feature a more mature theme than previous installments in the series. Swimming elements will be introduced to the series for the first time in single player and multiplayer. While in water, the player cannot sprint and will only move at half speed. Flamethrowers, first introduced in Call of Duty: United Offensive, will be reintroduced with new flammable environments. The game will be slightly more open-ended than previous games in the series, as there will be multiple ways to complete missions. World at War will feature cooperative gameplay with up to four players via split-screen on consoles, or four players online, for the first time in the franchise. In addition, Wii will also feature multiple players on one screen. It will also use a perk system similar to Infinity Ward's Call of Duty 4. Activision has also confirmed the presence of vehicles in multiplayer. The story mode features two campaigns, one featuring the United States Marine Corps battling the Japanese Army in the Pacific, and the other following the Soviet Red Army on the Eastern European Front near the end of the war. One part of a level entitled "Makin Raid" shows an Allied prisoner of war being tortured by the Japanese before having his throat slit by a katana. The player's character witnesses this scene and is later rescued by U.S. Marines who liberate the camp. Two other levels were later revealed by IGN: one involves the player using the machine guns on a PBY Catalina to attack a Japanese naval fleet, and the other shows the beginning of the Russian campaign. In that level, the player and a Russian sniper attack German troops under the cover of a bombing raid. World at War will have an approximately two-year long development cycle, double that of Treyarch's previous title, Call of Duty 3. The game will be powered by an enhanced version of Infinity Ward's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare engine - improvements have been made to the physics model. Environments are now more destructible and can be set on fire with the flamethrower (which features propagating fire). Bullets can also cut holes in thin wood, making a gap big enough for the player to climb through. Kiefer Sutherland and Gary Oldman have been cast as voice actors for the game, the former taking the role of the main character, Sgt. Roebuck. A full-sized replica PBY Catalina was constructed for motion capture use.

UPDATES ARE POSTED BELOW This video was originally posted on July 22. Since posting, the Taliban murdered 2 Korean hostages and freed the remaining hostages by Aug. 30. Thank you for keeping the hostages in your prayers! Please remember to pray for comfort for the families of Shim Sung-min and Pastor Bae Hyung-kyu. ----------------------------------------- AUG.30: (Korea Times) The remaining 7 hostages were released today. AUG. 29: (Xinhua) 12 SK hostages were released today. The Taliban stated the remaining hostages would be released Thursday. AUG. 28: (Korea Times) The Taliban agreed to release all remaining SK hostages. Taliban and Korean negotiators agreed to a deal which included withdrawal of Korean troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year, a ban on Korean Christian missionaries traveling to Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the departure of all Korean non-governmental organizations from Afghanistan. AUG.20: (Chosun) Talks continue for the release of 19 remaining hostages. AUG. 19: (UPI) The Taliban threatened to kill the hostages Monday if 8 Taliban prisoners were not released. AUG. 13: The Taliban released 2 female hostages named Kim Kyung-ja and Kim Ji-na. AUG. 11: (NY Times) Taliban and SK officials met for another day of talks. Taliban leaders said 2 female hostages would be released, "today or tomorrow." AUG. 3: About 300 friends and relatives said goodbye to Shim Sung-min at his funeral in Korea. Rev. Park said, "If we follow in Sung-min's steps of love and service, we will come to see the kind of world that he dreamed of." Sung-min's father, Shim Jin-pyo, said in tears,"My son, Sung-min! I hope your dream comes true in a bigger way there. Please pray in heaven for the safety of the remaining 21 captives together with pastor Bae." Indonesia's 2 biggest Muslim organizations called for the immediate release of SK hostages and strongly condemned the killing of 2 hostages. AUG. 2: Amnesty Int'l. called for the hostages' release, stating that holding and killing captives was a war crime. JULY 31: (AP) The murder of a 2nd SK hostage by the Taliban provoked outrage in South Korea. The mother of 1 hostage called for the US to help but urged the intervention should not be a military raid. The OIC urged the immediate release of the SK hostages and said the kidnapping goes against the principles of Islamic faith. Human Rights Watch urged the Taliban to immediately release all hostages, noting hostage-taking and summary execution of any person in custody are war crimes prohibited by the Geneva Conventions. HRW said the Taliban's attacks in 2007 have included 221 civilian deaths and at least 28 beheadings. UN chief Ban Ki-Moon condemned the 2 deaths of SK missionaries, calling their killings senseless. JULY 30: (AP) South Korean officials confirmed the Taliban executed another male hostage. The victim, Shim Sung-min, was only 29 years old when he was shot to death by the Taliban. Families of the remaining hostages are pleading for their loved ones' release. One father pleaded, "Please, please send my children back so I can hold them in my arms. Our families are the same. Your family is precious, so is mine." Qari Yousef Ahmadi said the deadline for the lives of the hostages has been extended until Aug. 1 (7:30 GMT). JULY 29: (AP) Afghan President Karzai calls the abductions "shameful" and "un-Islamic", adding, "The perpetration of this heinous act on our soil is in total contempt of our Islamic and Afghan values." SK presidential envoy Baek Jong-chun thanked Pres. Karzai and said SK will respect the Afghan govt.'s way of ending the crisis. Pope Benedict XVI called for the Taliban to "desist from the evil they have carried out and give back their victims unharmed." JULY 28: (Donga News) Medicine was delivered to the kidnappers to give to ill hostages. JULY 27: (Xinhua) No progress was made in talks on releasing the hostages. Ahmadi said the hostages' lives are "in danger". Ghazni Governor Merajudin Pathan reported the Taliban extended the Friday deadline for executing the hostages. Hundreds of SK Muslims urged the immediate release of the Christian hostages during their Friday prayers. JULY 26: (AFP) The Taliban extended the deadline to negotiate the release of 22 kidnapped South Koreans until 7:30GMT Friday (July 27). JULY 25: (AP) The Taliban murdered 1 male Korean hostage today. Pastor Bae Hyung-kyu was killed on his 42nd birthday. In South Korea, sounds of crying emerged when news came out that one of the hostages had been killed. Afghan villagers demonstrated for the Koreans to be freed. Local resident Asif Amiri said, ''We ask the Taliban to please release them without harming them,'' --------------------------------- Music by Ennio Morricone