Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Woodstock ’99 concert ends on a jarring note
GRIFFIS AIR FORCE BASE (NEW YORK): Peace and love turned to burning and looting as hundreds of revellers of Woodstock ’99 created a violent finale to the three-day concert. Concert-goers set fire to 12 tractor trailers, looted booths and toppled stage lights and speakers late Sunday as the festival ended, authorities said. Riot police were called in to contain the chaos, pushing the vandals into camping area, and had stabilised the situation by Monday according to police, who said seven people were arrested and five injured in the melee. Promoters conceded it was an unhappy denouement in what had been billed as a reprise of the 1969 Summer of Love’ — a 1990s version of the music epic that defined counterculture generation. In contrast to the 1969 event the weekend’s concerts in New York state near the site of the original Woodstock festival were marked by rowdiness and belligerence. “I can’t give you an explanation,” said promoter Johnscher during apress conference late Sunday. “I guess they were kids blowing off some steam and it got out of hand,” he said.
JERUSALEM: Ultra-orthodox Jewish leaders have attacked the latest Tarzan movie, warning that posters for the film should show the skimpily-clad king of the jungle in a more modest light, the Israeli press reported on Tuesday. A group calling itself the National Committee for Public Decency said it was shocked by the 300 posters emblazoned across Israel for the Disney cartoon feature that display Tarzan with his manhood covered by a mere string thong. In a protest letter to Maximedia, the Israeli promoter of Tarzan, the group warned it would boycott the movie unless the primitive star were more primly attired. Maximedia boss Avi Lent retreated before the firepower of one of Israel’s most powerful lobbies, promising to dress the famous apeman in trousers “to avoid offence and end the harassment.”
Cuba celebrates survival ofCastro revolution
HAVANA: Cuba celebrated one of the most important dates on its political calendar on Tuesday by reminding the world that President Fidel Castro’s revolutionary government has defied detractors to survive considerably longer than expected. An editorial in the state newspaper Trabajadores (Workers) crowed over incorrect predictions by “the imperialists” that Castro’s government, like other communist states in the former Soviet bloc, would collapse in the 1990s. “The decade is about to end, and here we are celebrating this new anniversary of the Moncada assault… looking toward the 21st century, confident that our revolution will continue existing,” the editorial said.
Aquarium fish soothe Alzheimer’s patients
CHICAGO: Alzheimer’s patients are calmer, sharper and have better appetites when exposed to tanks of colourful, gliding fish, according to researchers. “I think the combination of movement, colour and sounds provides a stimulating experience for thepatients,” said Nancy Edwards, a nursing professor at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, on Monday. “It was just really amazing how it got them to calm down and focus.” Edwards’ research team placed two five-foot-high by three-foot-wide aquariums, each containing six to 10 silver and gold fish, in three Indiana nursing homes housing 60 Alzheimer’s patients. The researchers found when the patients were in close proximity to an aquarium, episodes of wandering, pacing and physical aggression associated with Alzheimer’s disease decreased and the patients’ food consumption was up 17 per cent.
1,30,000 Rwandan kids under 5 are HIV-positive
KIGALI: Some 1,30,000 Rwandan children under five are carriers of the HIV virus that causes AIDS, the director of the Rwandan National Programme for Combating AIDS (PNLS), has said. “In this age group, nearly 37,000 are orphans because of AIDS and 30 per cent of pregnant women carry the disease and can transmit it to their children at birth,” anofficial said on Monday. “The AIDS orphans are infected with the virus at birth or during early, unprotected sexual relations,” the official said, adding: “The young generations are paying a heavy toll for the epidemic.” Since 1981, some 55,000 children have died of AIDS in Rwanda. According to PNLS projections, without an effective prevention programme the number of children with the HIV virus will triple by 2012.
