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When we last saw Jack Bauer, his life was hanging in the balance. But, true to form, the hardest man in television is back for another heart stopping, action-packed series of the award-winning US drama series 24. With relocation to New York, the return of CTU and new exciting cast additions, this season looks set to follow Day 7 in being one of the best yet when it returns on Sunday 24 January.

At the start of 24’s new, eighth season, Bauer is hoping for a quiet life with his daughter Kim (Elisha Cuthbert, Captivity) and his granddaughter. However, a group of terrorists have other plans and an assassination plot against a visiting Middle Eastern leader Omar Hassan (Anil Kapoor, Slumdog Millionaire) is uncovered. It’s not long before Bauer is called upon to help prevent Hassan’s murder.

CTU is back in action and based in New York, headed up by Special Agent Brian Hastings (Mykelti Williamson, Forrest Gump). He is joined by brainy bombshell Dana Walsh (Katee Sackhoff, Battlestar Galactica) and her fiancé, head of field operation Cole Ortiz (Freddie Prinze Jr, I Know What You Did Last Summer).

Returning for Day 8 are CTU devotee Chloe O’Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub, Little Miss Sunshine), Renee Walker (Annie Wersching, General Hospital) and President Allison Taylor played by Cherry Jones (Ocean’s Twelve) fresh from her Emmy win for her work on Day 7. Plus, villainous ex-president Charles Logan (Gregory Itzin, The Mentalist) is set to return when Taylor enlists him to assist with an escalating crisis.

24 Day 8 looks set to add another enthralling, shock-filled chapter to the series when it launches with a double bill on January 24 at 9pm. I surely can't wait!!!

Adapted from Prime Time UK.

We are really proud of the work we have done, so much that we are now costantly writing and strange (and amazing) things are starting to come out, even more intriguing sounds than what you've heard so far so... Stick around!

Stefano

Hey there,

We have a new demo cd, new songs, new members, everything is fine :)

I see this Vox thing didn't get much further, I'll look around and see what happened.

Next: upload :)

Take care,

Stefano

With or without support in Uganda, one can win an election as for the case of 2001 and 2006 as long as you have what it takes. Vote rigging does not only take place at polling station and as some commentators have noted, it starts right from Kampala and such deals are masterminded even a year before an election - this therefore means that labs are already open and final results for 2011 might be out soon.

The Electoral Commission in Kampala is always packed with government supporters and henchmen with no independent and partial decisions to make but merely to conspire and take orders from specific sections of the ruling NRM. These same officials ensure that their representatives at District Level are furnished with appropriate orders and their recruitment is believed to be on recommendation of elements within state house or other security agencies with local knowledge on each candidates political affiliations.

The District Returning Officers are responsible for recruiting lower level officers that man polling stations where the actual voting takes place. Recruitment of these officers is a crucial task and everything is always checked. Recruitment is usually done at County Headquarters and information regarding recruitment days is most times passed on by word of mouth thus going to candidates that are often regarded as sympathetic to the government.

Prior to these interviews, GISOs - Internal Security Officers based at Sub Counties are often asked to send names of 'appropriate' candidates and LC III Chairpersons who are mostly Movement Chairpersons at LC III level are often part of the panel approving such candidates [this is for the case of Ruhaama County in Ntungamo district] and such people are then introduced to the rest of the 'ballot stuffing teams' and further training is provided plus back-up security at polling stations.

In cases where there's close scrutiny at polling stations, excess ballots are always made available and ticked accordingly with their respective tallying sheets and spare ballot boxes. After what happens at polling stations, the returning officers then meet their accomplices, break the authentic ballot box, discard the opponents  ballots, fill their own declaration sheet , counter sign it and proceed to their local tallying stations that are usually at Sub County Level before the Sub County Returning Officers declare their results to the District Returning Officers.

To win an election therefore, one has two options; one it to be part of the system which every peace loving Ugandan should denounce, while the second option is to try as much as possible to challenge the system at every level, which might be risky in some cases but indeed the only option to venture into.

The challenge the system therefore, one needs to have evidence of the declaration sheet at the polling station. The only option here is to have a digital copy by using either a digital camera or mobile phone camera. One needs also to ensure that what is Returning Officer submits is crosschecked against the original signed copy from the polling station. This becomes a complicated approach as it involves a certain kind of legislation to enforce that results are published at LC III levels accessible to locals such that they can easily identify whether there are any irregularities in reporting. Despite these complexities, this is inevitably the best approach.

The other methods of vote rigging like ballot stuffing can be checked by use of transparent ballot boxes, setting up electoral officials desks in strategic locations such that overseers and monitors can ascertain that every voter gets one ballot paper and ensuring that all parties are present before commencement and throughout the exercise.

Some candidates or particular parties have had access to resources and have had the capacity to distribute sugar, salt, pieces of soap, alcohol, matchboxes, other household items and cash to voters in a bid to influence their choice of candidates. I believe it is only legislation that can change this. A law can be made prohibiting this exercise and measures to deal with the culprits should be made clear - automatic disqualification. When this is done, cadres can be put on the ground to monitor suspects and to gather as much evidence as possible.

As it appears, the current opposition must have learnt a lot from the last two elections but unless they move ahead to rectify laws related with elections and fighting for the independence of the Electoral Commission, we will yet go through another stage-managed election where the NRM will merely waste taxpayers money and continue plundering the country and driving to a destination they only know.

On the 8th of October 2008, The Guardian in collaboration with a number of music scholars, producers and artists hosted an event in Kings Cross, London to deliberate on the role of music in development with specific cases drawn from Katine, Northern Uganda, where the paper teamed up with AMREF and the local community based associations or organizations a year ago to implement a range of development projects.
It was attended by high ranking officials from the paper, music Professors working on a music project in Uganda and was beautified by music with local instruments from the country.
Most important at the show was the discussion that followed which can be accessed in a report from the event which captures excellently well what transpired including audio clips of some contributions made that night.
However, much as Mrs Grace Mukasa the Head of Programmes and Advocacy at AMREF discussed well the role of music in Uganda considering her local experience, I still have a feeling that many more stones were left untouched thus not satisfying the expectations of more than 200 foreigners that attended the show.
In my contribution, which one of my friends dubbed "a keynote of the evening", I reminded Mrs Mukasa and the audience of the 2006 incident where particular songs she had noted as being challenging to the government thus setting a tone for democracy were banned on radio stations and the artist had to be quizzed by the Police for hours.
This was indeed contrary to what all the presenters had hinted on and as it turned out, the audience was more interested in gaining insights into realities on the ground other than 'the one-sided' stories that more or less appeared to be a recital of the traditional roles of music!
After the show, I was asked by The Guardian to give an interview in relation to the views I had expressed during the discussion, which I willingly accepted. Most disappointing however, is that the audio clip for my interview was ditched at press time!!
This is also a manifestation that like any other foreign development-oriented bodies, The Guardian does not want to involve herself into the major problem facing Uganda as a whole as long as they're meeting their own targets. Everyone out there knows where the problem is but they want to leave it untouched because it does not affect their activities. This is thus verifies the fact that if we believe that the outside world will come to our rescue, then we're dreaming and waiting to also have a share of what the innocent Zimbabweans are experiencing.

Our problems are ours and we need not to look at our friends and alliances outside to help us overcome them. We need to confront them ourselves in a bid to create an enabling atmosphere for The Pearl of Africa we want to live in.

The time is now and all willing Ugandans need each other...we all have to be part of the change we expect.