And the Rest of It

Well, communist countries will do those sorts of things:

Human Rights Watch has accused Vietnamese authorities of harassing and detaining more than 170 activists in the past two decades, in a new report.

Many were barred from leaving their homes by police, and some even saw their door locks superglued shut.

The rights group called for an end to the "systematic restriction" of the activists' freedom of movement.

Vietnam's one-party Communist state does not tolerate dissent, and frequently jails critics.

 

Just like Canada!

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The UN is will ask North Korea whether 21 South Koreans who were kidnapped in a bizarre campaign in the 1970s and 80s are still alive.

Tomás Ojea Quintana, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, meets staff of the UN Human Rights Office in Seoul and the families of South Koreans kidnapped by the North on Thursday.

Quintana will be briefed on the findings of an activist group for abduction victims and the UN Human Rights Office "about 21 South Korean abductees whose existence has been confirmed from a register of Pyongyang citizens," Choi Sung-yong of the group told the Chosun Ilbo.

"It'll be the first time that the UN tries to confirm the whereabouts of South Koreans kidnapped to the North."

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Why worry?:

North Korea has reactivated a uranium-enrichment plant and a 5-megawatt plutonium-producing reactor at the Yongbyon nuclear complex, according to Voice of America on Monday.

The North has gone through a flurry of missile tests this year and now seems to be producing nuclear materials for their warheads.

Olli Heinonen, formerly of the International Atomic Energy Agency, came to the conclusion based on satellite images from Feb. 1.

It shows that snow has melted on a section of the sprawling complex that "contains the control room and stations for feeding and withdrawing uranium hexafluoride from the enrichment halls," according to Heinonen.

 

 

Dude, we've seen Disney screw up beloved characters and not even Canadians watch the crap we produce.

 

But this is not about a revised "Anne of Green Gables" and not one of you has the intestinal fortitude to scrap the CRTC.

It's more like muffling the political taste-makers:

Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez says he would be willing to amend his Online Streaming Act over concerns the legislation is too broad and puts too much power in the hands of the CRTC.

“Of course we’ll listen to the experts,” he said in an interview. “We think that we got the right balance. If there’s anything that we have to do to make it more clear, I’m open to the idea.”

Rodriguez introduced C-11, a new version of the controversial Bill C-10 from last Parliament, earlier this month. C-10 drew a wave of controversy last spring after the government removed an exemption for user-generated content, putting social media content under the regulatory authority of the CRTC.

Critics said that threatened freedom of expression, and after weeks of pushback from experts and the opposition — and then-Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault’s refusal to put the user-generated content exemption back into the bill — C-10 died on the order paper after the federal election was called.

Rodriguez’s new bill brings back that exemption for most user-generated content, but attempts to differentiate between professional and non-professional content. Critics have said the bill is not specific enough and gives too much power to the CRTC to decide what content can be regulated. ...

“With money leaving traditional broadcasters, day after day, to go to these platforms, this is putting our creators, our industry, our jobs and even our culture at risk. We have to act,” he said in the House of Commons.

 

Once this bill has passed, we will not be able to criticise the crappy content the CBC puts out, right?

As sound as the energy plans you can guys draw up.

And now for something completely different:

The photos are as astonishing as they are sad.

As a prolonged drought continues to choke northwestern Spain, a ghost village has been revealed at the bottom of the Alto Lindoso reservoir.

The former village of Aceredo, which sits on the Spanish-Portugal border, was submerged three decades ago when a hydropower dam flooded the valley to create the reservoir.

And, according the The Associated Press, the remaining rooftops of some buildings are sometimes spotted when the water supply dips.

But now, area residents can see the whole town — a snapshot of life in 1992.