It took decades for the conditions for revolt to ripen in Egypt. A range of widely noted books offer clues to the country’s accumulated discontents and thwarted desires.

Link:
ArtsBeat: A Reading List for the Egypt Crisis

Anti-slavery campaigners criticise the conditions some of Dubai’s immigrants work in.

Visit link:
Conditions tough for Dubai workers

As many as 129 million Americans under age 65 have medical problems that are red flags for health insurers, according to an analysis that marks the government’s first attempt to quantify the number of people at risk of being rejected by insurance companies or paying more for coverage.

Visit link:
Study: 129 million have preexisting conditions

Weather conditions force Sri Lanka’s president to abandon a visit to areas affected by severe flooding which has displaced nearly 200,000 people and killed 18 others in the last fortnight.

Here is the original post:
Floods ground Sri Lanka president

Sainsbury’s reports its “best ever” Christmas sales despite the “challenging” weather conditions in December.

See original here:
Sainsbury’s sees ‘record’ sales

The Scottish Ambulance Service invests in new ambulances and equipment to cope with adverse weather conditions.

Read the rest here:
New ambulances equipped for snow

Heavy flooding has left at least 50 people dead and hundreds homeless in South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province as residents continue to battle adverse weather conditions that have plagued the country since mid-December, authorities said Friday.

Follow this link:
South Africa flooding leaves 50 dead

All Scotland’s council agree to meet the conditions in the Scottish government’s draft budget for next year, including a council tax freeze.

See the original post:
All councils accept funding deal

Europe’s busiest airports are cancelling hundreds of flights Sunday in the face of “freak weather conditions” after several inches of snow were dumped on the continent over the weekend.

Read this article:
Freak weather creates havoc in Europe

David Coombs, the attorney for Private Bradley Manning, who stands accused of supplying confidential documents to WikiLeaks, has given new clarity to the circumstances of his client’s imprisonment. After days of piecemeal reports on the conditions of…

Visit link:
Manning’s Lawyer Sets Record Straight

The match has been postponed due to “freak weather conditions in the town”, according to Wigan’s club website.

See more here:
Wigan P-P Aston Villa

Severe weather conditions are continuing to affect many parts of Northern Ireland with more snow falling overnight.

View post:
Severe weather continuing in NI

A motorist injured in a collision in East Sussex dies after the ambulance he is being treated in crashes in poor weather conditions.

Read this article:
Driver dies after ambulance crash

Bradley Manning is apparently being kept in long-term solitary confinement.  Let me second what Matt Yglesias said : So as best I can tell Manning is, in fact, guilty of serious crimes. And unlike the nutty and dangerous effort to legally sanction Julian Assange for publishing leaks, I have no problem with the government punishing people who violate the terms of their classification status. But Manning hasn’t had a trial and hasn’t been convicted. Somewhat punitive post-arrest pre-trial measures are kind of a necessary evil, but the prolonged confinement of Manning under cruel conditions go well beyond the necessary into the straightforward evil. Incidentally, I assume the majority of humanity, including many of the officials responsible for the conditions of Manning’s detention, haven’t read Atul Gawande’s brilliant March 2009 article  on solitary confinement . But absolutely everybody should. It utterly transformed my conception of what it meant to hold someone in isolation like this, and makes the idea of doing it to someone who hasn’t even had his day in court seem completely outrageous. The way our society treats prisoners is shocking, and to me, frankly un-American. Extended solitary confinement,  prison rape –we tolerate things that we would never allow if we thought there was any chance that they might happen to us.  But since prisoners come from a different social class, and are often members of a racial minority, we ignore it.  In fact, we joke about it.  America wouldn’t treat stray dogs the way it treats the millions of human beings it has incarcerated.  This is not just a problem for them, though it is, horrifically so. It turns us into torturers and rapists, because we are the ones who pay for the system, and implicitly endorse its terrorizing prisoners.

View original post here:
Manning Should Be Removed from Solitary

Finance Secretary John Swinney tells the Transport Committee it is unrealistic to expect Scotland’s roads to be kept open in all weather conditions.

Here is the original post:
Swinney details plans for severe weather