Ian Bunn | Political & Popular Culture Arts

Bernardo De Bernardinis the deputy technical head of Italy’s Civil Protection official has been caught up in uniquely unusually trial that is scheduled for September of this year resulting from his comments in the week leading up an earthquake that struck the city of L’Aquila killing 309 people. After meeting with a group of six Italian seismologists to assess the risk related to increases in seismic activity in the area, De Bernardinis held a press conference where he overly optimistically informed the city occupants they were not in danger. The public prosecutor of L’Aquila has now pressed manslaughter charges against all the participants in the meeting for falsely reassuring the public, describing the group’s risk assessment “superficial and generic”, resulting in “incomplete, imprecise and contradictory public information”.

Inspired by Adrian Chen ow.ly/5aNSg image source laquilanuova ow.ly/5aO3S

Akihito the 77 year old 125th Emperor of Japan in an unprecedented and somber six minute address relayed throughout Japanese television stations where normal coverage was interrupted for the broadcast, described his deep hurt at the tens of thousands dead and missing victims of the earthquake and subsequent tsunami, along with the grievous situation in the affected areas of the damaged nuclear reactors. Authorities are battling to prevent a nuclear catastrophe of unprecedented scale, potentially the worst since the end of the Second World War that required massive rebuilding from the devastating defeat. Akihito called on his people to hand in hand treat each other with compassion and overcome these difficult times. Many Japanese revere their emperor or at least have a fond affection.

Inspired by Elaine Kurtenbach ow.ly/4kvEC image source Shawnc ow.ly/4kvZl

Jean-Claude Duvalier the 59 year old former Haitian dictator nicknamed “Baby Doc” overthrown by a popular uprising 24 years ago returns on the 1st anniversary of the earthquake. Duvalier had made his fortune from drug trade and selling body parts from dead Haitians. Living a notoriously lavish lifestyle while hundreds of thousands of Haitians fled to exile, thousands were tortured or killed, leaving poverty among the remaining worst of any country in the Americas. Duvalier has now been arrested by Haitian police and charged initially with corruption, theft, and misappropriation of funds. Duvalier claims he did not return for the politics, but had returned for the reconstruction of Haiti, a thorn surely for the current president René Préval accused of a fix in the Nation’s recent elections.

Inspired by Jonathan Katz ow.ly/3GkQb image source CNN ow.ly/3GkQP