The animal equivalent of Abu Ghraib has been unearthed by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Those finger licking chicken kicking folk from KFC and their suppliers have been shown in their true light this week with PETA releasing a video of hens being kicked, stomped and thrown against a wall by employees of a key supplier Pilgrim’s Pride at its plant in Virginia. Colonel Sanders would have been delighted at the boot camp conditions he helped foster.

PETA sent an open letter to the chicken factory as well as Yum! Brands, the Louisville-based parent company of KFC, stating how workers were routinely: “ripping birds’ beaks off, spray painting their faces, twisting their heads off, spitting tobacco into their mouths and eyes, and breaking them in half — all while the birds are still alive.”

The animal rights organisation called for local authorities to prosecute the plants managers and employees, filing a suit in Virginia.

PETA sued KFC last year, demanding more humane treatment of its animals. The organization has already won some concessions from other fast food chains including McDonald’s and Burger King.

PETA warned that the treatment of KFC destined chickens was grim across the world with plants in England, Germany, Australia and India all mistreating their animals.

PETA has yet to gain access to Chinese chicken plants which are thought to be particularly horrific. China is the second largest market for KFC after the US with more than 1,000 branches.

Horrified at the prospect of KFC infiltrating the last part of the China area it has yet to enter, the Dalai Lama wrote last month to the head of Yum! Brands pleading with him not to open up in Tibet, because of the cruel treatment to animals, something that is diametrically opposed by Buddhists.

KFC has been eyeing Tibet for a while.

“It is quite natural for me to support those who are currently protesting the introduction of industrial food practices into Tibet that will perpetuate the suffering of huge numbers of chickens,” wrote the Dalai Lama.

The nasty treatment of animals by KFC “violates Tibetan values” the spiritual leader said.

PETA’s recommended animal welfare program for those chickens being raised for food advocates replacing electrical stunning and throat slicing with contained-atmosphere stunning-to-kill. KFC’s current method is to snap chickens’ legs into metal shackles and slice their throats open, often while they are still conscious.

PETA demands that camera are installed throughout the plants to ensure standards.

The organisation also calls for a stop in forcing rapid growth and feeding chickens drugs as well as allowing the animals more space.

The only good news that the little red email can get out of this whole debacle for beleaguered KFC is that at least we know have on video that they actually do use chickens. The company was forced to rebrand a few years ago from Kentucky Fried Chicken to KFC because the name was deemed to be misleading.

Saddam is Allawi, Allawi is Saddam. That’s the feeling we’re getting, following the recent exclusive carried by the Sydney Morning Herald that the new Iraqi prime minister executed six prisoners just prior to taking power.

Around June 19 — three weeks after Dr Iyad Allawi had been named as Prime Minister and one week before the handover, America’s second choice as leader is alleged to have shot seven prisoners in the head, with one possibly surviving at a police station in southwestern Baghdad. He is said to have executed the foreign Muslim fighters as a demonstration to the police on how to deal with insurgents.

The story was written by the Australian newspaper’s award winning journalist, Paul McGeough, who cited two eyewitnesses as sources. Allawi has since denied the report and noticeably the British and the American mainstream media have shied away from delving into the story.

Dr Allawi sure does have similarities with ol’ Saddam. Like the former ruler he starts off as America’s bitch.

In just three weeks in power, Iraq’s unelected leader has assumed the authority to impose martial law, ban demonstrations and monitor citizens’ phones and email. He has praised US airstrikes on Fallujah and threatened to crush the country’s armed resistance.

We wonder how long till we hear appalling tales of Kurdish mistreatment.

Some interesting numbers out of China this week show the divergent two track economy is not exactly as golden as international economists would have you believe. Reading of annual GDP growth of 10% year in year out is very misleading. The coastal areas of this vast country continue to power ahead while the inland areas fail to catch up. Now for the first time in 25 years the government has admitted poverty has increased year-on-year. The number of farmers living in poverty grew by 800,000 last year, causing acute concern for Beijing which is trying to minimise the huge gap between the urban and rural populations. It is clear that the money generated on the coast does not really trickle inland.

According to the Poverty Alleviation Office, the government’s poverty taskforce, the rise means that more than 85 million — one in 11 rural residents — subsist on less than 637 yuan (US$77) a year.

Corruption is hampering efforts to develop inland areas. The National Audit Association recently estimated that a tenth of the 48.8bn yuan spent on government poverty alleviation schemes was embezzled.

Moreover the gap between city and country incomes is 3.1 times now, equivalent to Zimbabwe, according to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

And the bad numbers also eked out into the national press on demonstrations which are on the rise.

The state-run Outlook Weekly, says that there were about 58,500 incidents of protest, most of which were related to the “private economy” last year. This is a veiled reference to the massive gaps in income seen across the country.

The newspaper cited statistics from the Communist Party’s law commission which reveal that “mass incidents, or social unrest” increased by 14.4 per cent last year compared with 2002, while the numbers of people involved rose by 6.6 per cent.

Now these are official figures. The reality is likely to b e far higher. Dissatisfaction with the ruling elite is widespread. Unshackling the constraints of the ruling Chinese Communist Party will be very difficult though. Still, at least the cracks are emerging. Now it is up to us and others to inform the 1.3 billion population that unrest is taking place across China.

How’s your swimming? You and your kids might well need it in the coming few decades. The Tokyo-based United Nations University says two billion people are likely to have been displaced by viscous floods by 2050 as global temperatures rise. One billion currently stand in the flood path.

Asia is likely to be hit hardest, accounting for as much as 40% of the disasters. Currently floods affect more than 520 million people a year with 25,000 deaths and countless lost homes, crop losses, and diseases.

According to the UN the cost of floods each year between $50 and $60 billion is roughly what the world spends in foreign aid annually.

The serious problem is that the attractive places to work and live in the world are, by and large, likely to be deluged or submerged by water in the coming 46 years, the study reports.

For every $100 in aid money spent on flood relief, $1 is spent is spent on getting prepared for possible floods. Herein lies part of the problem. The source of the impending catastrophe is the increasing deforestation, urbanization and overpopulation in booming population centres across the world.

Meanwhile the UK government’s chief scientific adviser Sir David King warns that the current levels of carbon dioxide, the highest for 55 million years, is enough to melt all the ice on Earth and submerge cities including London, New York and New Orleans.

With rising water levels, the scientist suggests to the Guardian: “You might think it is not wise, since we are currently melting ice so fast, to have built our big cities on the edge of the sea where it is now obvious they cannot remain.

When the Arctic and Antarctic melts the sea level, rising already at record speed, will rise 117 metres.

“I am sure that climate change is the biggest problem that civilisation has had to face in 5,000 years,” Sir David concluded.

Gloria Arroyo might be many things, but dumb she is not. By agreeing to take her miniscule contingent of troops out of Iraq earlier than the prearranged August 20 deadline she ensures revenues will continue to flow to her impoverished country.

The 54 soldiers cost money. The more than 3,000 workers in Iraq contribute money back to the Philippines. Brokering their safety and hopefully by extension the safety of thousands of Filipinos in the region, as well as currying favour back home is the sensible move, given the big picture: the country is reliant on money being remitted by overseas workers. In Saudi Arabia there are more than 900,000 workers.

Arroyo knows first and foremost that their livelihoods account for more revenue that what Dubya is coughing up to Manila for its contribution in the War on Terror™. Whether this move will be followed by further kidnappings of Filipino workers in Iraq is much more of a gamble.

And talking of working in the desert, Human Rights Watch has just released a shocking report on the abuses meted out to foreign workers in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. One third of the country’s population or 8.8 million people are foreign.

Human Rights Watch documented how foreigners detained in Saudi Arabia have been denied consular visits and forced to sign confessions that they could not read. The report includes cases of beheading in which the embassies and families of the condemned men were not informed of the executions until after they were carried out.

“Saudi Arabia’s troubles run much deeper than the terror attacks that are claiming the lives of innocent civilians,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa Division. “The abuses we found against foreign workers demonstrate appalling flaws in the kingdom’s criminal justice system as a whole. If the Saudi government is serious about reform, this would be a good place to start.”

“We found men and women in conditions resembling slavery,” said Whitson. “Case after case demonstrates that the Saudis are turning a blind eye to systematic abuses against foreign workers.”

The widespread practice of forced, around-the-clock confinement of women in unsafe conditions is also described.

“The pervasive gender discrimination in Saudi Arabia’s legal system, coupled with law enforcement officials’ indifference to women’s complaints, places them at great risk,” said Whitson. “Add forced confinement to this mix, and the danger of sexual violence is only heightened.”