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What are your thoughts when you see this DVD on sale?? Well, i’m not sure if it is something considered normal in Australia but it definitely has been a booming industry in Japan. Below is an article about elder porn from TIME.

Besides his glowing complexion, Shigeo Tokuda looks like any other 74-year-old man in Japan. Despite suffering a heart attack three years ago, the lifelong salaryman now feels healthier, and lives happily with his wife and a daughter in downtown Tokyo. He is, of course, more physically active than most retirees, but that’s because he’s kept his part-time job — as a porn star.

Shigeo Tokuda is, in fact, his screen name. He prefers not to disclose his real name because, he insists, his wife and daughter have no idea that he has appeared in about 350 films over the past 14 years. And in his double life, Tokuda arguably embodies the contemporary state of Japan’s sexuality: in surveys conducted by organizations ranging from the World Health Organization (WHO) to the condom-maker Durex, Japan is repeatedly found to be one of the most sexless societies in the industrialized world. A WHO report released in March found that 1 in 4 married couples in Japan had not made love in the previous year, while 38% of couples in their 50s no longer have sex at all. Those figures were attributed to the stresses of Japanese working life. Yet at the same time, the country has seen a surge in demand for pornography that has turned adult videos into a billion-dollar industry, with “elder porn” one of its fastest-growing genres.

Tokuda is rare among Japanese porn stars in that his name has become a brand. The Shigeo Tokuda series he has just completed portray him as a tactful elderly gentleman who instructs women of different ages in the erotic arts, and he boasts a body of work far more impressive than most actors in their prime.

Tokuda’s exploits have proved to be a goldmine for Glory Quest, which first launched an “old man” series, Maniac Training of Lolitas, in December 2004. Its popularity led the company to follow up with Tokuda starring in Forbidden Elderly Care in August 2006. Other series followed, and soon elder porn had revealed itself as a sustainable new revenue stream for the industry. “The adult-video industry is very competitive,” says Glory Quest p.r. representative Kayoko Iimura. “If we only make standard fare, we cannot beat other studios. There were already adult videos with Lolitas or themes of incest, so we wanted to make something new. A relationship between wife and an old father-in-law has enough twist to create an atmosphere of mystery and captivate viewers’ hearts.”

Director Gaichi Kono says the eroticism of elders is captivating to younger viewers. “I think that, as a subject, there is this something that only an older generation has and the young people do not possess. It is because they lived that much more. We should respect them and learn from them,” says Kono passionately.

But Tokuda stresses the appeal of his work to an audience of his peers: “Elderly people don’t identify with school dramas,” he says. “It’s easier for them to relate to older-men-and-daughters-in-law series, so they tend to watch adult videos with older people in them.” The veteran porn star plans to keep working until he’s 80 — or older, as long as the industry will cast him. Given the bullish market for his work, he’s unlikely to go without work.

“People of my age generally have shame, so they are very hesitant to show their private parts,” Tokuda says. “But I am proud of myself doing something they cannot.” Still, he says, laughing, “That doesn’t mean that I can tell them about my old-age pensioner job.”

Japan’s adult-video industry is believed to be worth as much as $1 billion a year, according to industry insiders, with the largest video-store chain Tsutaya releasing about 1,000 new titles monthly, while the mega adult mail-order site DMM releases about 2,000 titles each month. Although films featuring women in their teens and 20s are the mainstay of the industry, a trend toward “mature women” has become evident over the past five years. Currently, about 300 of the 1,000 adult videos on offer at Tsutaya, and 400 out of the 2,000 at DMM, are “mature women” films.

Ryuichi Kadowaki, director of Ruby Inc., which specializes in mature-women titles, says that when the company started offering the genre a few years ago, the term referred to actresses in their late 20s, and that last year it was expanded to those in their 70s. The company believes the advantage of mature titles is their enduring appeal. “Adult videos with young actresses sell well only in the first three months after the release,” Kadowaki explains. “On the other hand, mature-women films enjoy a steady, long-term popularity, which after 10 years or so might lead to a best seller.” And then there are the cost savings. A popular young actress can earn up to $100,000 per film, while a mature actress is paid only $2,000.

The market for elder porn has doubled over the past decade, according to Kadowaki. “In view of [Japan's] aging society,” he adds, “I think that in the future, we will see a steady increase in demand.”

A QANTAS flight bound for Melbourne was forced to make an emergency landing last night after a door reportedly opened mid-flight.

The flight, believed to be QF692, took off from Adelaide at 6.08pm but turned around 10 minutes later and landed safely.

There was confusion over what caused the emergency.

Passengers said a door opened mid-flight, causing “chaos” in the cabin.

But airline sources said the doors covering the wheel bay did not close properly after take-off.

The aircraft turned around near Murray Bridge, about 80km from Adelaide, and landed safely at 6.45pm.

A Boeing 737-800 usually flies the Adelaide to Melbourne leg.

The aircraft remained at Adelaide Airport while passengers were transferred to another Melbourne-bound flight.

A Qantas spokesperson refused to comment beyond confirming an incident had occurred on the flight.

The drama comes just three days after a mid-air emergency aboard a Qantas 747 on Friday.

A ruptured oxygen bottle is believed to have ripped a 3m hole in the side of QF30 from Hong Kong to Melbourne, forcing it to make an emergency landing in Manila.

Yesterday it was revealed a piece of metal from the bottle sliced into the cabin of the jet, just missing passengers.

Qantas boss Geoff Dixon, who announced his retirement yesterday, said of the near-disaster: “Incidents do happen. This is a tremendously bad one and it’s one we regret.”

Mr Dixon said Qantas had 225 aircraft flying around the world almost at any given time and the planes were handled in different countries by a range of people.

“We don’t know and we can’t speculate on what did happen to this aircraft,” he said.

Source: news.com.au

Senator John Warner — elected in 1978 — recently expressed interest in the idea of a national speed limit to conserve gasoline. Warner, who is not running for re-election this year, wrote to U.S. Secretary of Energy Sam Bodman, asking “at what speed is the typical vehicle traveling on America’s highways today most fuel efficient?”

Warner told TIME his concern is for “the many millions and millions [of Americans] of limited means, sitting around their kitchen table trying to figure out how to make ends meet.” Unlike long-term alternative energy sources, Warner says, a speed limit would work to bring down gas prices immediately. “Maybe some guy’s got a better idea,” he says. “But I haven’t seen it.”

The National Maximum Speed Limit of 55 mph was created in 1974, when Richard Nixon signed the Emergency Energy Highway Conservation Act. Prior to that, states had been free to set their own speed limits, but the new law threatened to strip Federal highway funding from any state straying above the national standard. The ostensible purpose of this limit was to keep down gas prices, which had been driven through the roof by an OPEC embargo touched off by the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. And with gas-prices once again sky-high, Warner isn’t alone in talking up a cap on speeding.

Jackie Speier, a first-term Democratic congresswoman from California, is already on the case. Earlier this month, she introduced a bill that would cap highway speed limits at 60 mph — 65 in rural areas. It’s currently awaiting a hearing before the House Committee on Transportation. Warner says he hasn’t contacted Speier, but adds that he’d be willing to “stroll out on the floor” in favor of a speed-limit bill. He has yet to propose a similar bill in the Senate.

The thinking behind Warner and Speier’s speed-limit proposals is simple. At a certain speed, a car’s gas mileage begins to drop; the faster you go, the more fuel your burn. Ergo, slow down and save gas. According to fueleconomy.gov, a website run by the Department of Energy, “each 5 mph you drive over 60 mph is like paying an additional $0.30 per gallon for gas.” Warner approvingly cites a congressional study showing that “the law resulted in reduced consumption of 167,000 barrels of petroleum a day.” With millions of more cars on the road now than there were in 1974, the volume saved could be even greater.

Then there’s the issue of safety. Tim Castleman, founder of the pro-limit group Drive 55 Conservation Groups, notes: “When they instituted [a national speed limit] in 1974, it was a one-year deal, but after one year they found highway deaths had dropped by 4,000.” This unexpected side benefit, Castleman says, led Congress to make what had been a temporary measure permanent.

Some opponents of the speed limit question the numbers tossed around by Warner, Castleman, and others. Indeed, the safety argument looks a bit flimsy on closer examination. Since the 55-mph limit was repealed in 1995, the number of fatal motor vehicle crashes has increased by little more than 1,000, while deaths per 100,000 licensed drivers dipped over the same period.

In a 1999 study for the libertarian Cato institute, economist Stephen Moore noted that the number of auto crashes actually fell by 66,000 after the 55 mph limit was lifted. Moore also points out that a lower speed limit means more time wasted idling in traffic: “The most valuable resource on this earth is not oil, its human time.”

A law only works when it’s obeyed — and it’s an open question how many motorists would comply. The 1974 law was considered a joke by the many drivers, who violated it with impunity. “Real compliance out on the interstate was somewhere around twenty percent,” says Jim Baxter, president of the National Motorists Association. “Eighty percent of the population was exceeding the 55 mile-per-hour speed limit!”

Some groups would meet the return of the speed limit with a yawn rather than a groan. Instead of waiting for the government to step in, they’ve chosen to self-regulate. A number of trucking companies have mandated that their fleets stay at or below 65 mph. Douglas Stotlar, CEO of Con-way Inc., says his company’s decision to lower their limit to 62 was driven both by environmental concerns and because “fuel prices were going to unprecedented levels.” Exactly, say foes of a national speed limit; people can be trusted to slow down and conserve gas without the government leaning over their shoulder.

But Warner insists the government has got to do something, and do it now. Though he favors drilling offshore, he also says “That’s five, six, seven years out. The pain is tonight, tomorrow night, and the night after that. I’m just sensitive to people’s pain. Who’s got the courage to do something like this?” Warner, who arrived on the national political scene in the oil-starved ’70s, thinks that era might just hold the solution to our current energy crisis.

Senator John Warner (R-VA) — elected in 1978 — recently expressed interest in the idea of a national speed limit to conserve gasoline. Warner, who is not running for re-election this year, wrote to U.S. Secretary of Energy Sam Bodman, asking “at what speed is the typical vehicle traveling on America’s highways today most fuel efficient?”

Warner told TIME his concern is for “the many millions and millions [of Americans] of limited means, sitting around their kitchen table trying to figure out how to make ends meet.” Unlike long-term alternative energy sources, Warner says, a speed limit would work to bring down gas prices immediately. “Maybe some guy’s got a better idea,” he says. “But I haven’t seen it.”

The National Maximum Speed Limit of 55 mph was created in 1974, when Richard Nixon signed the Emergency Energy Highway Conservation Act. Prior to that, states had been free to set their own speed limits, but the new law threatened to strip Federal highway funding from any state straying above the national standard. The ostensible purpose of this limit was to keep down gas prices, which had been driven through the roof by an OPEC embargo touched off by the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. And with gas-prices once again sky-high, Warner isn’t alone in talking up a cap on speeding.

Jackie Speier, a first-term Democratic congresswoman from California, is already on the case. Earlier this month, she introduced a bill that would cap highway speed limits at 60 mph — 65 in rural areas. It’s currently awaiting a hearing before the House Committee on Transportation. Warner says he hasn’t contacted Speier, but adds that he’d be willing to “stroll out on the floor” in favor of a speed-limit bill. He has yet to propose a similar bill in the Senate.

The thinking behind Warner and Speier’s speed-limit proposals is simple. At a certain speed, a car’s gas mileage begins to drop; the faster you go, the more fuel your burn. Ergo, slow down and save gas. According to fueleconomy.gov, a website run by the Department of Energy, “each 5 mph you drive over 60 mph is like paying an additional $0.30 per gallon for gas.” Warner approvingly cites a congressional study showing that “the law resulted in reduced consumption of 167,000 barrels of petroleum a day.” With millions of more cars on the road now than there were in 1974, the volume saved could be even greater.

Then there’s the issue of safety. Tim Castleman, founder of the pro-limit group Drive 55 Conservation Groups, notes: “When they instituted [a national speed limit] in 1974, it was a one-year deal, but after one year they found highway deaths had dropped by 4,000.” This unexpected side benefit, Castleman says, led Congress to make what had been a temporary measure permanent.

Some opponents of the speed limit question the numbers tossed around by Warner, Castleman, and others. Indeed, the safety argument looks a bit flimsy on closer examination. Since the 55-mph limit was repealed in 1995, the number of fatal motor vehicle crashes has increased by little more than 1,000, while deaths per 100,000 licensed drivers dipped over the same period.

In a 1999 study for the libertarian Cato institute, economist Stephen Moore noted that the number of auto crashes actually fell by 66,000 after the 55 mph limit was lifted. Moore also points out that a lower speed limit means more time wasted idling in traffic: “The most valuable resource on this earth is not oil, its human time.”

A law only works when it’s obeyed — and it’s an open question how many motorists would comply. The 1974 law was considered a joke by the many drivers, who violated it with impunity. “Real compliance out on the interstate was somewhere around twenty percent,” says Jim Baxter, president of the National Motorists Association. “Eighty percent of the population was exceeding the 55 mile-per-hour speed limit!”

Some groups would meet the return of the speed limit with a yawn rather than a groan. Instead of waiting for the government to step in, they’ve chosen to self-regulate. A number of trucking companies have mandated that their fleets stay at or below 65 mph. Douglas Stotlar, CEO of Con-way Inc., says his company’s decision to lower their limit to 62 was driven both by environmental concerns and because “fuel prices were going to unprecedented levels.” Exactly, say foes of a national speed limit; people can be trusted to slow down and conserve gas without the government leaning over their shoulder.

But Warner insists the government has got to do something, and do it now. Though he favors drilling offshore, he also says “That’s five, six, seven years out. The pain is tonight, tomorrow night, and the night after that. I’m just sensitive to people’s pain. Who’s got the courage to do something like this?” Warner, who arrived on the national political scene in the oil-starved ’70s, thinks that era might just hold the solution to our current energy crisis.

Source: Time

It’s been a heck of a year for Facebook, everyone’s favorite social network. That was obvious when founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the stage at F8, the annual developers’ conference in San Francisco on Wednesday.

With a series of slides that looked like text-book examples of “hockey stick” growth, Zuckerberg showed how quickly his network has taken off. A little over a year ago, Facebook had 24 million users. Today? Zuckerberg claimed that 90 million folks — two thirds of whom are from outside the U.S. — use the network. He pretty much guaranteed that the number of active users would hit 100 million by year’s end. Some 200,000 programmers are making applications for Facebook, and have attracted more than $200 million in investment. That’s a lot of users and developers, and a spectacular amount of dough. Zuckerberg and his team ought to feel pretty great about what they’ve built in a relatively short period of time.

“Movement”. That’s what Zuckerberg called Facebook throughout his hour-long presentation yesterday: A movement. As in “Last year at F8, everyone here together at the San Francisco Design Center started a movement!”

OK, it was cute when he did it at the first F8 last year. It got your attention. It was exciting. Especially coming from the tech world’s Doogie Howser. But now?

Zuckerberg may want his users to think of Facebook as a movement, but to the grown-ups it’s a business — and one that’s working very hard to be profitable. But it’s got a ways to go before it’s in the money, and all this “movement” talk makes me suspicious — like Zuckerberg’s putting something over on me. I’m not saying he is. I’m just saying.

Yesterday, while he talked about the movement, and how Facebook’s goal was to be a place that promotes sharing and connecting, I couldn’t help thinking about Beacon. You might recall that Beacon, an advertising play, was intended to broadcast Facebook users’ purchases from external websites. Initially, it was forced on users; there was no opting out. But that turned out to be a nightmare for the young company. Zuckerberg had to apologize and retreat. “We made a lot of mistakes during the past year,” he admitted yesterday. Clearly, explaining to your users how advertising works on a social network was one of them.

And so at the developer’s conference yesterday, we saw a kinder, gentler Zuck who, though he embraced “transparency” as a laudable goal, was charmingly opaque.

“When we talk about the movement we’re a part of, it’s important for us to have a very clear sense of our mission and the purpose behind what we’re all doing,” the new, “What, Me Beacon?” Zuckerberg told the assembled. Then he launched into a story about how he and the team were trying to come up with a mission statement for the movement about six months ago, when he had to go on vacation to Istanbul right in the middle of it. One night, he had dinner with a local entrepreneur there and had a terrific time, he felt a powerful connection to this person. After dinner he had an epiphany about what Facebook should be: “I really want to see us build a product that allows you to really feel a person and understand what’s really going on with them and feel present with them.”

That became part of the new mission statement for Facebook: “Giving people the power to share, in order to make the world more open and connected.”

“Sharing” here refers to the new features that Facebook unveiled this week in its redesigned user profile pages which make it even easier for me to broadcast the stuff I like. “News feeds” (a Facebook term I’ve always found vaguely offensive since it trivializes actual news) are now simpler to manage. When you read a “story” on your news feed and find out a friend has just really enjoyed a Big Mac, you can comment on it (”OMG! Me too!!!”), right in the feed. And FacebookConnect, which will start showing up on finer websites and blogs everywhere in the fall, is an ID system that let’s you log into places — for commenting, say, or Digging stories — with your Facebook ID.

All of this makes it easy to publish and discuss all the things you do, the books you read, the clothes you bought, the movies you saw, on Facebook and off. All these things you “share” help connect you to your friends, yes, but more importantly, they connect you, TO ADVERTISERS. That’s not a bad thing, necessarily. But you need to be aware of it.

Advertising is the essence of Facebook’s business, it’s the great and shining hope of that company and social media in general. Maybe even all media. But so far, it’s not exactly justifying valuations. There’s been loads of investment coming in, but not much real, sustainable revenue coming out. That’s why the company is working so hard to add all new sharing/connecting/movement features: To make advertising work the way it should on a social network.

At Fortune’s Brainstorm Conference earlier this week, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said that the privately held company isn’t feeling any pressure from its investors to produce profits yet, but pointed out the obvious: that Facebook’s real potential was in the “unusual and extraordinary opportunity” afforded by advertising. What she’s talking about, is inserting brand advertising into the shared experiences of Facebook’s users. And the only kind of movement that is, is the movement of money.

Pittsburgh woman Kia Johnson, 18, was bound and gagged and her near-full term baby cut from her stomach last week.

Andrea Curry-Demus, 38, had been charged with homicide, unlawful restraint and kidnapping, the Associated Press reports.

The baby is “apparently doing well”, although there had been problems initially with a low heart rate and low temperature, a doctor involved in the case said.

Ms Curry-Demus allegedly took the baby boy, with the umbilical cord still attached, to a Pittsburgh hospital on Thursday and said it was hers. Tests showed she had not been pregnant, AP said.

She said she bought the baby for $US1000 ($1030) from the baby’s mother.

Assistant Superintendent James Morton said police were trying to verify that Ms Johnson was the mother of that baby.

The body of Ms Johnson was found bound and cut open in Ms Curry-Demus’s apartment in Pennsylvania on Friday after neighbours noticed a bad odour coming from the unit.

She appeared to have been dead for about two days, said medical examiner Karl Williams, who identified Ms Johnson using dental records.

Her hands and feet were bound with duct tape and her face was covered with plastic and duct tape.

She had been pregnant and her body showed “evidence that there had been a partial evisceration - her abdomen had been opened with a sharp weapon and the uterus had been opened”, Dr Williams said.

Ms Johnson was reportedly due to give birth on July 30.

The women apparently met at Allegheny County Jail on Tuesday when they were visiting different inmates, court papers said.

Video surveillance showed Ms Curry-Demus talking to Ms Johnson for several minutes,  police said.

Ms Johnson was wearing the same clothes in the video as she was when her body was found on Friday.

Allegheny County Police Superintendent Charles Moffatt said the jail was the last time Ms Johnson was seen alive.

Source: Daily Telegraph

QANTAS is expected to announce a range of job cuts as early as tomorrow as it seeks to cut costs in a bid to offset skyrocketing fuel prices.

Following an internal email issued to Qantas staff this week, reports by News Ltd today tipped that the job cuts could be as high as 3000, or about 8 per cent of the 36,000 strong workforce.

The airline is also expected to announce cuts to loss-making flight routes from both domestic and international schedules.

Asked today if there will be job cuts, a Qantas spokesman said “yes” but added that no official announcement had been made.

“Yes there are … there is … and there is no announcement that has been made today or will be made today,” he told AAP.

“It will either be tomorrow or next week. We just need to finalise timing for that.”

Asked how many jobs would be cut, the spokesman said: “We haven’t named a figure or made any announcement today.”

In the internal message Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon told staff the way the airline does business has changed forever, with price of oil staying above $US140 barrel.

“The continuing increase in the price of oil has necessitated a further in-depth review of all aspects of the Qantas group, particularly how our flying business will operate in this new cost environment,” Mr Dixon wrote.

“We undertake this review with some reluctance - knowing full well the effort put in and the changes accepted by all of us at Qantas over the past 10 years.”

Mr Dixon also wrote that he agreed with the comments of Emirates airline president Tim Clark, who said “this is the greatest crisis in aviation history” and that “the overall view of our industry is dire”.

In some relief to airlines around the world, oil prices settled lower on Wednesday, falling $US4.14 to $US134.60 a barrel in New York after a $US6.44 sell-off Tuesday.

The two-day slide of $US10.58 a barrel marks a dramatic turnaround in crude prices, which as recently as last Friday traded at record highs above $US147 a barrel.

But even with this week’s sell-off, prices remain about 80 per cent above where they were a year ago.

Investment firm JP Morgan said in a report this week that in the past six months, 24 airlines had either declared bankruptcy or stopped operating due to climbing fuel costs and a slowing global economy.

Qantas recently pruned about 100 staff and cut back its capacity by 5 per cent.

Qantas has said its fuel bill will increase by more than $2 billion in 2008/09, representing around 35 per cent of the company’s total expenditure.

Smaller rival Virgin Blue is expected to announce tomorrow a second tranche of restructuring to cope with the fuel challenge.

Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) executive chairman Peter Harbison said Mr Dixon’s message suggests the airline will focus more on its low cost offshoot Jetstar.

“I think the natural progression is to rely much more heavily on the lower cost-base Jetstar in this new environment.”

Meanwhile, Qantas said today it has reached an in-principle agreement with unions on a new wages deal for its long haul pilots.

The agreement with the Australian International Pilots Association (AIPA) allows for a three per cent a year wage rise until 2013, and follows 18 months of negotiations.

As well, all Qantas pilots will now have part of their remuneration linked to the company’s performance.

The agreement comes into effect when it is voted on by the Qantas pilots.

THE MOTHER of a young woman raped by a TV actor has reacted with anger and disbelief at the length of his jail term.

Michael McLindon, 30, was yesterday warned by a judge to expect a significant jail term for spiking a woman’s drink and then raping her.

A jury found that McLindon, who appeared on Home and Away and played a trooper in the most recent Ned Kelly film with Heath Ledger, raped his victim at her Thornbury home early on February 16, 2006.

Today, he was sentenced to a maximum of six years in jail, but will be eligible for parole after he has served three-and-a-half years.

McLindon has already served eight months in remand.

Outside the court, the victim’s mother said she and her family had been expecting a sentence of at least nine or 10 years for a crime that had had a devastating effect on her daughter and family.

She said the sentence was an “injustice”.

“It’s a total outrage. We can’t understand it. And none of the legal people who have been supporting (my daughter) can understand it.”

The mother said she hoped state prosecutors would appeal against the sentence.

And another family member said the victim had endured nightmarish reminders of what had happened to her throughout the course of McLindons’ trial.

“She’s been raped for the last two years every time she’s had to come to court, every time she’s woken up,” a male relative of the victim said.

“And a six year sentence, three-and-a-half he’ll be out … it’s just woefully inadequate.”

In a victim impact statement read to the County Court, the woman, 21, said it was telling that McLindon did not even close the front door when he left her naked.

“He saw me as nothing - I was not even worth shutting the door for.”

She said the rape had made her very angry.

“Sometimes I hated the world so much I wanted to die. He took away my dignity. I can’t understand how one human being could do that to another,” she said.

“Since being raped I have been fighting an uphill battle just to get my life back on track.”

Prosecutor Tim Walsh said McLindon or an accomplice gave the woman a drug or drug cocktail that made her feel tired and disoriented and probably rendered her incapable of resistance.

Blood analysis later found traces of morphine.

The woman had met McLindon and his cousins at the Northcote Social Club and went with them to a series of bars, ending up at a Crown casino bar.

She began to feel drowsy and asked to go home. The court heard that in the taxi she felt “really weird and out of it” and, on reaching home, went to bed.

Mr Walsh said she later woke and could see McLindon on top of her.

McLindon, of Torquay, pleaded not guilty to rape and administering a drug to enable sexual penetration.

**Did he got received an inadequate jail term due to the fact that he is a celebrity or would that be consider a fair justice? hmmm

Source: Herald Sun

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has filed genocide charges against Sudan’s president for a five-year campaign of violence in Darfur.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo on Monday urged a three-judge panel to issue an arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to prevent the deaths of about 2.5 million people forced from their homes in the war-torn region of Darfur and who are still under attack from government-backed Janjaweed militia.

The five charges against al-Bashir include masterminding attempts to wipe out African tribes in the war-torn region with a campaign of murder, rape and deportation.

In an exclusive interview with CNN’s Nic Robertson in the Dutch city of The Hague, the prosecutor said: “After three years I have strong evidence that al-Bashir is committing a genocide. I cannot be blackmailed, I cannot yield. Silence never helped the victims. Silence helped the perpetrators. The prosecutor should not be silent.”

The judges must now decide whether to issue the warrant, although they have approved all 11 of Moreno-Ocampo’s previous submissions to the court.

If issued, the warrant would make al-Bashir the first sitting president to be indicted by the ICC for genocide.

At a news conference Monday in Khartoum, Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Mohammed Taha rejected the authority of the ICC, saying Sudan was not a signatory to the court’s creation.

“Hence there is no legal obligation or power over Sudan, whether Sudanese organizations or citizens,” he said.

Taha also called the charges an attempt to “paralyze” his country. And Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad, Sudan’s ambassador to the United Nations, said his government would respond through legal, political and “other means.”

“The limit is the sky for our retaliation,” he said.

He said the country is not mobilizing its military, but has been organizing demonstrations in support of al-Bashir.

The United Nations said Monday it is evacuating non-essential staff from Darfur “due to the recent deteriorating security situation,” but the joint African Union-U.N. peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID) vowed to maintain its operations.

In his request, Moreno-Ocampo says there are reasonable grounds to believe al-Bashir bears criminal responsibility for five counts of genocide, two counts of crimes against humanity, and two counts of war crimes.

The alleged crimes stem from a brutal counter-insurgency campaign the Sudanese government conducted after rebels began an uprising in 2003. The United States and much of the world has already characterized the campaign as genocide.

The authorities armed and cooperated with Arab militias that went from village to village in Darfur, killing, torturing and raping residents there, according to the United Nations, western governments and human rights organizations. The militias targeted civilian members of tribes from which the rebels draw strength.

About 300,000 people have died in Darfur, the United Nations estimates, and 2.5 million have been forced from their homes.

But Mohamad said the prosecutor’s move could hurt the United Nations, which will still have to deal with Sudan’s government on issues related to Darfur and in the peace process in the country’s south, where a long-running civil war ended in 2005.

“It will put the chief negotiator in a very awkward situation. How is he going to deal with an indicted president,” the ambassador said. “How is the secretary-general going to do business regarding UNAMID with an indicted president?”

Moreno-Ocampo says al-Bashir targeted three ethnic groups living in the region — including the Fur group, for whom Darfur is named — solely on account of their ethnicity.

Al-Bashir bears responsibility, Moreno-Ocampo says, because he sat at the apex of the government.

“For such crimes to be committed over a period of five years and throughout Darfur, al-Bashir had to mobilize and keep mobilized the whole state apparatus; he had to control and direct perpetrators; and he had to rely on a genocidal plan,” Moreno-Ocampo wrote as background for arrest warrant request.

In Khartoum, a crowd of about 2,000 people greeted al-Bashir, who seized power in a 1989 coup, when he arrived for an emergency meeting of his Cabinet Sunday to discuss the charges.

When he saw the crowd, al-Bashir climbed onto a pickup truck and pumped his fist in the air, whipping the group into a frenzy.

Some held signs saying, “You are joking… Ocamp-who?” and “Death to America.”

A high-ranking ambassador at the presidential palace called the possible prosecution stupid and malicious, and warned that the Sudanese people would see it as proof of a larger conspiracy against the country.

In 2005, the Security Council cleared the way for possible war crimes prosecutions related to Darfur by the ICC, a permanent tribunal set up to handle prosecutions related to genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The court is based on a treaty signed by 106 nations — excluding Sudan.

The attacks in Darfur over the past five years have followed a common pattern, according to Moreno-Ocampo.

Members of Sudan’s armed forces, often acting together with the militias and under al-Bashir’s command, singled out villages and towns inhabited by tribal groups. Troops and militia members shot and killed civilians, and sometimes the Sudanese air force was called in to bomb villages and towns in support of the ground forces, the prosecutor’s evidence says.

Residents who fled were often chased and attacked or left to fend for themselves in the wilderness, the evidence says.

The attacks, it says, undermined the ability of the targeted groups to survive in Darfur. The destruction of their homes scattered entire communities, and the pervasive rape and sexual violence against girls and women — who are often targeted when they are out collecting firewood or water — has torn families apart.

“They are raping women, raping girls, raping in groups — raping to destroy the communities,” Moreno-Ocampo told CNN. “Rape is a tool in the genocide — the most important tool today.”

The ICC has already indicted two men for Darfur crimes — Ahmad Harun, Sudan’s former minister of the interior who is now in charge of humanitarian affairs for the Sudanese government and militia leader Ali Kushayb — but neither has been brought to justice.

Once the ICC indicts someone, authorities in that person’s native country — or the country in which the indicted person is located — have the power to detain the indicted person for trial at the Hague.

Kushayb and Harun both remain in Sudan where they enjoy the protection of al-Bashir, Moreno-Ocampo said. Since they have not been arrested, the prosecutor says, it is unlikely al-Bashir will be — and he says it will probably take a U.N. Security Council resolution for al-Bashir to be brought to justice.

Senior Sudanese government leaders have previously told CNN that reports of atrocities in Darfur are exaggerated.

“Yes, there has been a war and some people have died, but it’s not like what has been reflected in the media,” Interior Minister Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamid said last month.

Source: CNN

  Life for the millions of people in Darfur’s aid camps is a living hell. Women are often raped while out collecting firewood and security is so bad aid trucks can’t get through, resulting in food handouts being halved.

A United Nations peacekeeping force with the power to shoot back if attacked has been deployed in Darfur in recent months, but despite being the largest ever sanctioned by the U.N. it is undermanned and under-equipped. The troops say there is no peace to keep and their troops are being attacked.

Recently 60 militiamen on horseback raided a peacekeeping patrol, stealing soldiers’ weapons, ammunition, money and even their cell phones.

The crisis in Darfur first began when rebels who are mostly ethnic African farmers attacked government outposts in 2002 because they wanted power.

The Sudanese government repressed the insurgency, bombing villages and arming nomadic Arab herdsmen, Janjaweed, who have a history of land disputes with the farmers.

In five years of war the U.N. says more than four million people have been affected: Two-and-a-half million people forced from their homes and more than 300,000 killed.

Sudanese officials dispute those numbers claiming only 10,000 have died — a number they say is normal for five years of war.

Source: CNN