WikiLeaks puts all its US cables online, unredacted
WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange was at the centre of another political storm yesterday after more than 251,000 US diplomatic cables were published in their original form on the internet for anyone to read.
No attempt was made to redact the cables to protect whistleblowers or other innocent people named in them, provoking fears that some lives could be endangered.
The cables were published in batches, sorted by country, including 34,687 relating to Iraq, 29,431 from China, 19,714 from Afghanistan, 13,209 from Pakistan and 6,732 from Cuba.
Their appearance was announced on Twitter, with messages encouraging followers to read the cables and share what they find. One WikiLeaks tweet declared that it was burberry outlet “shining a light on 45 years of US ‘diplomacy’.”
02 September 2011 – Leading global diamond producer Gem Diamonds Limited has found the world’s 15th largest white diamond at its Letseng Mine in Lesotho.
The London-based company said in a statement issued here that the 553-carat diamond was being analysed in Antwerp. The stone was a type II D colour diamond, the company added.
The world’s biggest certified diamond is the 3,106-carat Cullinan, found at the mine near Pretoria, in South Africa, in 1905. It was cut to form the Great Star of Africa and the Lesser Star of Africa, set in the Crown Jewels of Britain.
Gem’s mine also yielded the 603 carat Lesotho Promise. The 493 carat Letseng Legacy sold for US$10.4 million in 2007 and the 478 carat Light of Letseng went for US$18.4 million in 2008.
The day after the first demonstration, I wrote here that a new spirit had emerged. At the second demonstration, I was proud to be an Israeli, more than I had been for years. At the third demonstration, the largest ever, I felt that Israel was celebrating its renewed independence.
A wind has blown through the country in recent weeks, changing the language, agenda and tone. Instead of a bunch of cynical, cliche-reciting and deceiving politicians, we have a group of plain-speaking youngsters who have set the agenda and tone. Instead of a group of greedy, ostentatious tycoons we have humble tent-dwellers. These winds of change must blow Saturday too, but more powerfully.
All eyes will be on Kikar Hamedina Saturday, not only those yearning for success, but also the worried, frightened eyes of people fearing change in the existing order, which was so good to them. The protest’s enemies, few but powerful, will stay home hoping that the demonstration will bomb.
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