Major airline refuses to help with forcible removal of immigrants

An important part of the Government's immigration policy has suffered a serious blow after a leading airline announced it would no longer carry failed asylum-seekers who were being forcibly removed from the United Kingdom.

XL Airways, which has a fleet of 24 aircraft, said it was opposed to the policy because it had "sympathy for all dispossessed people in the world".

Robert Verkaik

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Pakistan enters political limbo

Pakistan has entered a period of political limbo, caught between Gen. Pervez Musharraf's presidential election win and a future Supreme Court ruling on whether he was even eligible to run.

Musharraf scored an overwhelming victory Saturday in a vote by lawmakers that was boycotted by much of the opposition in protest against the U.S.-allied military leader.

The country must now wait at least 10 days for the Supreme Court to either confirm the result or disqualify Musharraf because he ran for re-election while retaining his position as army chief, which the constitution prohibits.

Sadaqat Jan

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The power behind the robe

The Buddha said: “When the ruler of a country is just and good, the ministers become just and good; when the ministers are just and good, the higher officials become just and good; when the higher officials are just and good, the rank and file become just and good; when the rank and file become just and good, the people become just and good.”

If these admonitions are followed by the large community of monks—the Sangha—in predominantly Buddhist Burma, the lingering “love lost” relationship between the country’s military rulers and its monks should be no surprise.

Aung Zaw

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The Armenia thing.

ANKARA-Reuters

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has told U.S. President George W. Bush that ties between the two countries will be hurt if the U.S. Congress passes a bill on the Armenian genocide, Turkish television reported Friday.

Erdoğan, who issued a similar warning earlier this year, made the comment in a telephone call to Bush, news channels CNN Türk and NTV reported. Erdoğan also called Israeli President Shimon Peres to secure Israel's support for Turkey's position. Peres, in return, reiterated that Israel will continue to support Turkey's position according to the news channel NTV.

The Bush administration opposes the resolution on the events in 1915 as the Ottoman Empire broke apart, but the U.S. Congress is now dominated by the Democratic Party and has become more influenced by the Armenian Diaspora.

Turkey is a key NATO ally of Washington and a moderate Muslim country whose support it needs in the region as it fights Iraqi insurgents and confronts Iran over its nuclear program.

A senior Turkish lawmaker has also warned previously that Ankara could consider restricting the U.S. military's use of Incirlik air base, a logistics hub for the Middle East, if the bill is passed.

Turkey has already sent delegations to the United States in a bid to halt the resolution.

Afghanistan...

Testimony by Mark L. Schneider, Senior Vice President, International Crisis Group to the House Foreign Affairs Committee on “Counternarcotics and Police Training” in Afghanistan, 4 October 2007

...poppy cultivation is directly linked to insecurity and “inversely related to the degree of government control”. That report shows that from virtually no opium cultivation in the final year of the Taliban regime in 2001, today Afghanistan produces 93% of the world’s opium, cultivated on 193,000 hectares or 500,000 acres of land, a 17% increase after last year’s 59% increase. Afghanistan opium poppy now grows on land equal to nearly the size of the state of Rhode Island. Equally worrisome is that potential opium production in 2007 probably hit a world record at 8200 metric tons, a rise of 34%.

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Afghan deaths up 55 percent

...Azimi said Pakistan last spring expelled foreigners – such as fighters from Uzbekistan - from its tribal region, a move that has had a negative impact on Afghanistan.

"When they said that all foreigners must leave Pakistan, where did they go? They came to Afghanistan," Azimi said. "They joined with the enemy and started fighting against Afghan forces here."

Afghanistan's security forces have also been hit hard, with more than 600 police killed already this year, said Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary, a higher figure than the AP count, which shows a total of 600 police and army soldiers killed this year.

Rahim Faiez

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Yet another tradition becomes a crime

The tradition of keeping the hand on the horn and traveling as a wedding convoy with dozens of cars continues even though it has become a threat to traffic safety and a primary cause of noise pollution. But another tradition, that of stopping the wedding convoy and asking for money, now faces extinction due to increasing wedding costs in the modern world and the fact that people have even less of a reason to hand out money.

Doðan News Agency

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The Revision of Ancient History - A Perspective.

Ancient History as taught today is a disaster area. Nothing fits convincingly together. The development of the arts, cultures and technologies from earliest times shows inexplicable incongruities. Art historians and archaeologists are in disarray. Why? Because the chronology of the first and second millennium BC is badly wrong. How did this disaster happen? As accident investigators well know, the sequence of events leading up to major disasters is invariably a sequence of highly unlikely and unexpected happenings and coincidences.

John Crowe

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SEPTEMBER 2007 TRENDS

Eleven actual or potential conflict situations around the world deteriorated in September 2007, according to the new issue of CrisisWatch, released today.

Deteriorated Situations
Algeria, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia/Eritrea, Fiji, Lebanon, Myanmar/Burma, Nepal, North Caucasus (non-Chechnya), Somaliland (Somalia), Sudan

Improved Situations
Chad, Liberia, Sierra Leone

Unchanged Situations
Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Basque Country (Spain), Belarus, Bolivia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Central African Republic, Chechnya (Russia), Colombia, Comoros Islands, Côte d’Ivoire, Cyprus, Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, Georgia, Guinea, Guatemala, Haiti, India (non-Kashmir), Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel/Occupied Territories, Kashmir, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Maldives, Mali, Morocco, Nagorno-Karabakh (Azerbaijan), Niger, Nigeria, Northern Ireland (UK), North Korea, Pakistan, Philippines, Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Serbia, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Syria, Taiwan Strait, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Western Sahara, Yemen, Zimbabwe

conflict history - Iran

Head of State: President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, June 2005-
Chief of State: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 1989- (appointed for life by Assembly of Experts)

With world's second-largest oil reserves, Iran served as western anchor in Middle East under Western-installed Shah regime from 1953 until 1979 Islamic revolution. The Shah had grown increasingly repressive in 1970s, relying on detention of political opponents, widespread torture, and martial law imposed in 1978. Various groups jockeyed for power after Shah’s departure, including communists, secular nationalists and Islamic socialists. Islamists loyal to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini eventually consolidated power and Iran became Islamic republic 1 April 1979. Khomeini soon assumed title "Supreme Leader", criticising West and secular Arab dictators alike and promising benevolent political Islam. U.S. Embassy hostage crisis in 1979 and failed rescue mission secured mutual enmity and further weakened American public image in the Middle East.

Western-backed Iraq invaded Iran in 1980 to take advantage of Iran's weakness, change disputed border on Shatt al-Arab waterway, and claim regional dominance. The war reached standstill in 1988 with estimated 800,000 to 1 million deaths. Iran supported militant Muslim groups in Middle East through 1980s and 1990s, including Hezbollah in Lebanon. U.S. Iran-Contra scandal saw illegal U.S. arms sales to Iran in effort to free hostages in Beirut, with proceeds used to support Contras in Nicaragua.

Following Ayatollah Khomeini’s death in 1989 and his replacement with former president Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s relations with West improved somewhat – mainly with Europe – despite fatwa issued against writer Salman Rushdie. Iran remained neutral in 1990 Gulf War and 2001 Afghanistan war, being enemy of both Iraq and Taliban. Iran maintained this stance again in 2003 Iraq war. Nevertheless, suspected support of militant groups in Lebanon and Palestine earned Iran U.S. sanctions in 1995 and Bush Administration’s label of "axis of evil" in 2002.

Khatami’s 1997 election brought about greater cooperation with neighbouring Arab countries and increased political and economic ties with Europe. Iran continued its civilian nuclear program, despite growing international concerns about its professed peaceful intentions. Internal tension in Iran between reformist Khatami and conservative chief of state caused deadlock in decision-making and political polarisation. President Khatami’s mandate (77 per cent of 2001 vote) did not lead to promised reforms and public disenchantment grew. Disqualification of reformist candidates by Council of Guardians led to conservative victory in February 2004 parliamentary elections. From 1999 to 2003, Iranian authorities continued to suppress student protests as internal dissent among large youth population increased.

Economic dissatisfaction led to surprise election of President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad in June 2005, defeating centrist former President Hashemi Rafsanjani running on platform of economic populism, to become Iran’s first non-cleric president in twenty-four years. Ahmadi-Nejad’s harsh pronouncements against Israel and uncompromising tone have significantly strained relations between West and Iran. In November 2005, Iranian Ambassadors to UK, Germany, France, and UN’s Geneva and Vienna offices were relieved of their posts. Supreme Leader Khameni appointed Rafsanjani as Chairman of Iran’s Expediency Discernment council as a check on Ahmadi-Nejad’s power, but the result of this has been inconclusive.

Also uncertain is the state of negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program. In October 2003, IAEA passed resolution that acknowledged Iran’s right to acquire nuclear technology for civilian energy use. In return, Iran agreed to voluntarily suspend uranium enrichment and allow additional IAEA protocol inspections. But since August 2005, Iran has broken off nuclear negotiations with the West, removed IAEA seals at certain research plants, and restarted uranium enrichment in Natanz. IAEA Board of Governors officially reported Iran to UN Security Council in February 2006. So far Iran has refused Russia’s proposal to host enrichment sites for its nuclear program on Russian territory, and UN Security Council is to debate utility of economic sanctions.

Updated March 2006

International crisis group

The enough project

Our mission is to stop and prevent genocide and mass atrocities by promoting Peace, providing Protection, and Punishing the perpetrators. We use field and policy analysis and strong policy advocacy to empower a growing activist movement for change.

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El Parlamento quiere que el Gobierno de Canadá detenga el apoyo a proyectos mineros destructivos en el exterior

Organizaciones de Canadá y el mundo han estado trabajando para generar consciencia sobre las devastadoras consecuencias sociales y ambientales asociadas con frecuencia a las operaciones de las compañías de explotación minera canadienses en otros países. Un reciente informe parlamentario invita al gobiernom a:

1) parar de usar el dinero del contribuyente para apoyar proyectos mineros canadienses destructivos en el exterior;

2) considerar a las compañías de explotación minera canadienses legalmente responsables de las violaciones de los derechos ambientales y humanos en otros países, y;

3) forzar al Banco Mundial a respetar estándares internacionales de los derechos humanos.

Al gobierno le quedan cerca de 60 días para responder, pero no quisiera nada más que barrer el informe debajo de la alfombra. La acción es necesaria para presionar al gobierno a adoptar las recomendaciones del Parlamento y para tratar inmediatamente los escándalos internacionales en curso asociados a la industria de explotación minera canadiense.

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Another miner bites the dust

11th April 2007

The world's biggest pension fund has - for the second time - disinvested from a mining company on the grounds that its investment poses an "unacceptable risk of contributing to [the company's] severe environmental damages."

Norway's Government Pension Fund-Global kicked Freeport McMoran Copper and Gold off its list last year, due to continuing and continual pollution caused by the Grasberg mine in West Papua (in which it is partnered by Rio Tinto).

Now it has done the same to DRD whose operations - in particular riverine waste disposal from its Tolukumua Gold mine in Papua New Guinea - are in breach of international norms.

Pension fund stake in Barrick Gold spurs controversy

by Aftenposten (Norway)

23rd July 2007

Norway's much-vaunted pension fund, which has a stated policy of ethical investments, owns stock in a Canadian mining company accused of polluting an island in the Philippines and causing severe health problems among its residents.

Miinister of Finance, Kristin Halvorsen, said the pension fund's stake in Barrick would be evaluated.

Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) reported on its national newscast Sunday evening that the pension fund created by oil revenues has NOK 862 million (about USD 145 million) invested in Barrick Gold, which is blamed for illness and even death among the population of the island. Toronto-based Barrick Gold took over a company, Placer Dome, that mined copper, silver and gold on the island of Marinduque in the Philippines. The company also spewed mine waste that polluted local waters, not least with mercury and lead.

Studies have shown high concentrations of the poisonous metals in the bay at Marinduque. Philippine health authorities have also found high concentrations of lead in children and adults living in the island's fishing villages.

One resident interviewed by NorWatch, the business news service for environmental group Future in Our Hands, had lost a leg to metal poisoning, suffered a variety of other ailments and was barely able to support his family any longer.

The Philippine authorities want to move the community away from the polluted bay, but lack funding to do so. They're suing Barrick, seeking compensation for the environmental damage done to the island. Barrick has said it will vigorously oppose the claims against it. NorWatch said a Barrick spokesman declined comment pending resolution of the lawsuits.

A statement on the company's website claimed that Barrick "believes that anything short of best management is unacceptable. Environmental excellence is a strategic business objective. Barrick is committed to protecting the environment wherever the Company is exploring for new resources, or developing, operating or closing mines."

The ethical guidelines for Norway's pension fund raise serious questions about its investment in Barrick, yet the fund has boosted its stake over the past several years. Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen said on national TV that the stake would be investigated, acknowledging that the circumstances around Barrick on Marinduque are "serious."

Latin America: Native leaders half-heartedly embrace historic declaration

MEXICO CITY, Sept 14 (IPS) - While governments and the representatives of international agencies celebrated the approval of the Universal Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples after more than two decades of negotiations, some native leaders and experts in Latin America were less enthusiastic.

In their criticism of the document, indigenous leaders Manuel Castro of Ecuador and Luis Andrade of Colombia, as well as the former director of the Inter-American Indigenous Institute, Jose del Val, pointed out to IPS that it is non-binding, and that parts of it were negotiated with little participation by the representatives of its presumptive beneficiaries.

A slightly different stance was taken by the spokesman for the Rigoberto Menchu Foundation, Elmer Erazo, who said the Declaration could be considered a stride forward "to the extent that indigenous people make use of it."

But, he told IPS, "it's nothing to jump up and down about."

Diego Cevallos

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New postings for week beginning 24th September 2007

In an unprecedented judgment for Canada's First Nations and environmental protection, a government panel has resoundingly rejected a plan to dump mine wastes into a lake.

New York's Attorney General has subpoenaed five companies - including Peabody Energy, the world's biggest coal strip miner - to divulge their greenhouse gas liabilities to shareholders. Another utility has been dealt a record penalty for its contributions to generating acid rain.

Yet, at the same time, increased coal consumption has been given a boost by the United Nations. And a commission has failed to resolve burning conflicts over Bangladesh's own coal policy.

China is now the world's biggest producer of steel, but it's a role the government doesn't relish, citing pollution and unsustainable economic development as reasons for cutting back. Meanwhile the regime is providing a massive boost to mining in Africa, particularly DR Congo.

There's doubt in Kyrgyzstan about benefits which will accrue from a reorganisation of the government's share in central Asia's biggest gold mine. Nor are some South American organisations completely convinced by the recent UN vote on the Declaration of Indigenous Peoples' rights.

What does seem undeniable, however, is that a top Newmont employee is living in cloud cuckoo land.

Mines and communities

Behind Crew mining are all the major Norwegian companies and the Norwegian state.

The following is a position paper of groups on the island of Mindoro in the Philippines against the March 2004 claims of the Canadian/Norwegian mining Company Crew Development Corp concerning their plans to mine the lands of the Mangyan Peoples of Mindoro.

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mass ignorance and mass apathy

The vast changes taking place in our civilization have had one thing in common. They have often seemed to reduce the efforts of the individual citizen to insignificance. For this is certainly the age of the mass market, the mass media, the mass civilization. Out of this age, two great dangers have arisen - mass ignorance and mass apathy.

As the industrial era has accelerated, it has been the specialist - the market analyst, the computer systems designer, the neurosurgeon, the nuclear scientist - in short, the expert - who has become important. Experts are indeed necessary. But with their increasing importance, we too often are tempted to say, when considering matters of public policy, "What do I know about it? I'm no expert."

I say to you that the individual, despite indications to the contrary, is more important than ever, and that the ability of our citizens to influence public policy is also more important than ever.

In our system, it is how much the ordinary citizen knows - and even more important, how much he cares - that will determine the outcome of large issues. Experts of course are necessary, and their advice should be heard, but in the end, it is often the non-expert who must make the decisions.

An active Citizen in our democracy must hold forthright opinions. But if his opinion is to be of significant value to his country, three thinngs are required:

He must have derived that opinion from a reasonable understanding of the facts, and not from mere prejudice.

Second, he must care about the issue, whatever it may be.

And third, he must do something about it.


Even if all he does is talk to his neighbor, a purpose will have been served, but in a nation like ours - where only a small fraction of the population takes an active part in election campaigns beyond the act of voting - the latitude for effective political action, if one cares to take the trouble, is extremely broad.

A Citizen of the United States has a greater duty than merely to register an uninformed personal preference at the polls, and the college graduate, in particular, has a responsibility to commit himself to some larger cause than the mere pursuit of an ever-higher standard of living for himself and his family.

The facts are available. They are given to us every day by newspapers, magazines, radio, and television. But to many of us, the public business often appears to be too complicated to make interesting reading. Because we cannot foresee the outcome of the disarmament talks, or because we cannot fully comprehend the complexity of tax problems - or, most often, because we feel no personal involvement - we skip to the sports page or to the fashion column.

This public apathy, in my opinion, may well be the greatest single danger we face today. It gives rise to an automatic process in which blind prejudice is substituted for reason - and thus all problems become over-simplified. Out of such reactions have grown both the hysterical right and the hysterical left. One contends that the real danger in the world today is subversion within our country and within our government. The other maintains that our whole society is manipulated by a small clique of businessmen, military leaders, and power-hungry politicians.

Both views are, of course, nonsense. Power in this country rests today more than ever with the people. The problem is that they use their power too seldom...

Clarence Douglas Dillon

Show us the money

Again, according to Lehman Brothers, the 18th century saw 11 banking and financial crashes and the 19th another 18, including American banking crises in (to keep things brief) 1819, 1837, 1847, 1857, 1873, 1884, 1890 and 1896. There were a healthy 33 such storms in the 20th century, chief among them the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the Japanese financial turmoil of the 1990s. All, to varying degrees, have caused considerable distress to investors and savers large and small. Stuffing the lot under your mattress may not be such a crazy notion after all.

Jon Henley

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Empires have different profiles.

The US Empire has a complete configuration, articulated in a statement by a Pentagon planner: "The de facto role of the United States Armed Forces will be to keep the world safe for our economy and open to our cultural assault. To those ends, we will do a fair amount of killing".

Blum's list of interventions up to the year 2000 covers 67 cases since 1945 (Grossman has 56, the criteria differ somewhat):

China 45-51, France 47, Marshall Islands 46-58, Italy 47-70s, Greece 47-49, Philippines 45-53, Korea 45-53, Albania 49-53, Eastern Europe 48-56, Germany 50s, Iran 53, Guatemala 53-90s, Costa Rica 50s, 70-71, Middle East 56-58, Indonesia 57-58, Haiti 59, Western Europe 50s-60s, British Guiana 53-64, Iraq 58-63, Soviet Union 40s-60s, Vietnam 45-73, Cambodia 55-73, Laos 57-73, Thailand 65-73, Ecuador 60-63, Congo-Zaire 77-78, France-Algeria 60s, Brazil 61-63, Peru 65, Dominican Republic 63-65, Cuba 59-, Indonesia 65, Ghana 66, Uruguay 69-72, Chile 64-73, Greece 67-74, South Africa 60s-80s, Bolivia 64-75, Australia 72-75, Iraq 72-75, Portugal 74-76, East Timor 75-99, Angola 75-80s, Jamaica 76, Honduras 80s, Nicaragua 78-90s, Philippines 70s, Seychelles 79-81, South Yemen 79-84, South Korea 80, Chad 81-2, Grenada 79-83, Suriname 82-84, Libya 81-89, Fiji 87, Panama 89, Afghanistan 79-92, El Salvador 80-92, Haiti 87-94, Bulgaria 90-91, Albania 91-92, Somalia 93, Iraq 90s, Peru 90s, Mexico 90s, Colombia 90s, Yugoslavia 95-99.

There was bombing in 25 cases (for details, read the book):China 45-46, Korea/China 50-53, Guatemala 54, Indonesia 58, Cuba 60-61, Guatemala 60, Vietnam 61-73, Congo 64, Peru 65, Laos 64-73, Cambodia 69-70, Guatemala 67-69, Grenada 83, Lebanon-Syria 83-84, Libya 86, El Salvador 80s, Nicaragua 80s, Iran 87, Panama 89, Iraq 91-, Kuwait 91, Somalia 93, Sudan 98, Afghanistan 98, Yugoslavia 99. Assassination of foreign leaders, among them heads of state, was attempted in 35 countries, and assistance with torture in 11 countries: Greece, Iran, Germany, Vietnam, Bolivia, Uruguay, Brazil, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama
On top of this come 23 countries where the United States has intervened in elections or has prevented elections: Italy 48-70s, Lebanon 50s, Indonesia 55, Vietnam 55, Guayana 53-64, Japan 58-70s, Nepal 59, Laos 60, Brazil 62, Dominican Republic 62, Guatemala 63, Bolivia 66, Chile 64-70, Portugal 74-5, Australia 74-5, Jamaica 76, Panama 84, 89, Nicaragua 84,90, Haiti 87-88, Bulgaria 91-92, Russia 96, Mongolia 96, Bosnia 98.

35 (attempted) assassinations + 11 countries with torture + 25 bombings + 67 interventions + 23 interferences with other people's elections give 161 forms of aggravated political violence only since the Second World War.

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Why Did Senator John Kerry Stand Idly By?

Naïve Americans who think they live in a free society should watch the video filmed by students at a John Kerry speech September 17, Constitution Day, at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/index.php?filmID=601

Iran : la présidence tumultueuse d’Ahmadinejad

Bien que, depuis la victoire électorale de Mahmoud Ahmadinejad en juin 2005, l’attention se soit surtout portée sur sa politique étrangère, le destin de sa présidence dépend au moins tout autant de sa performance au niveau national. Élu sur une plateforme promettant la justice économique et un « gouvernement propre », il sera essentiellement jugé sur ses résultats dans ces domaines. Jusqu’à présent, les résultats sont mitigés. Des prix du pétrole élevés ont permis de consacrer davantage aux programmes sociaux. Mais, dans l’ensemble, le président n’a pas été capable de tenir ses promesses et son mandat, encore loin d’être fini, a été marqué par des conflits répétés avec les autres institutions et centres de pouvoirs. La raclée qu’ont subi le président et ses alliés lors des élections de décembre 2006 pour les conseils municipaux et l’Assemblée des experts trahit l’existence de problèmes sérieux tant dans le camp conservateur qu’au sein du public en général et suggère que la pression nationale plutôt qu’internationale reste le meilleur moyen de pousser au changement en Iran.

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The American Conundrum

In the 111 years between 1890 (the brutal murder of the Dakota Indians) and 2001 (the punitive expedition to Afghanistan after 9/11), there have been throughout the world 133 interventions by the U.S. (direct military, or hatched by the C.I.A. with local collaborators) which resulted between 12 million to 16 million people losing their lives. 70 of those interventions took place after the Second World War.

Johan Galtung

The scale of suffering for animals in the world today is unprecedented.

1. Around 60 billion farm animals are used each year globally to produce meat, milk and eggs. The majority are raised in industrial farming systems where their welfare needs are not met.
2. Globally, there are some 600 million dogs, and a similar number of cats, of which an estimated 80% are stray or unwanted.
3. The illegal and often inhumane trade in wildlife and wildlife parts is a soaring black market worth $10 billion a year, exceeded only by arms and drug smuggling. Millions of wild animals are killed, captured or traded inhumanely in this shady business.
4. An estimated 80% of power input on farms in developing countries is supplied by draught animals, however the resources made available are often woefully inadequate, leading to significant welfare issues.
5. Animals are also affected on a huge scale by natural disasters, though seldom considered.

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The Deadliest Item at Your Grocery Store?

Somewhere in the northern Pacific floats a non-biodegradable petrochemical blob that's twice the size of Texas. Much of this deadly mess originated when someone innocently took home their shopping in a plastic bag.In the U.S. alone, we throw away 100 billion plastic bags each year -- the equivalent of 12 million barrels of oil. Yikes! What can you do?

Tune in to Orli Cotel's Sierra Club Radio interview with Katherine Mieszkowski, of Salon, to find out.

FOX's "balanced" analysis of the Petraeus hearings

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Meteorito que cayó en Puno afecta salud de comuneros

(AFP) Un meteorito que cayó a tierra el fin de semana en Puno (sudeste) en medio de una fuerte explosión, ha provocado náuseas y dolores de cabeza a los pobladores de una comunidad cercana, informaron autoridades regionales.

Siete policías que llegaron al lugar de la caída, cerca a la frontera con Bolivia, sufrieron náuseas, vómitos y dolores de cabeza debido a un extraño olor que emana del lugar e inunda la zona, dijo en declaraciones a RPP el médico Jorge López, director de Salud de Puno.

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Greenspan admits Iraq was about oil, as deaths put at 1.2m

The man once regarded as the world's most powerful banker has bluntly declared that the Iraq war was 'largely' about oil.

Greenspan's damning comments about the war come as a survey of Iraqis, which was released last week, claims that up to 1.2 million people may have died because of the conflict in Iraq - lending weight to a 2006 survey in the Lancet that reported similarly high levels.

Peter Beaumont and Joanna Walters

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Greenspan, Kissinger: Oil Drives U.S. in Iraq, Iran

Alan Greenspan had acknowledged what is blindingly obvious to those who live in the reality-based world: the Iraq War was largely about oil.

Meanwhile, Henry Kissinger says in an op-ed in Sunday's Washington Post that control over oil is the key issue that should determine whether the U.S. undertakes military action against Iran.

These statements would not be remarkable, but for the effort of a broad swath of the U.S. political establishment to deny the central role of oil in U.S. involvement in the Middle East.

Greenspan's remarks, appearing first in his just-published memoirs, are eyebrow-raising for their directness:

Robert Wiessman

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A 10 años de la masacre de Acteal, ni verdad ni castigo

El 22 de diciembre de 1997 a las 11:30 de la mañana 33 mujeres -14 de ellas niñas- y 12 hombres -4 de ellos niños- tzotziles fueron masacrados en Acteal, municipio de San Pedro Chenalhó, como resultado de la incursión militar en la zona zapatista de los Altos de Chiapas.

Los atacantes, que fueron reconocidos como miembros del grupo paramilitar priista Máscara Roja estaban armados con fusiles AK-47 y M-16 y utilizaron balas expansivas contra las y los indígenas tzotziles que se encontraban rezando en una iglesia en la comunidad de Acteal, según un comunicado de prensa del Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN).

Hypatia Velasco Ramírez

Les mer:

Irán sigue siendo el principal objetivo militar de Estados Unidos

¿Qué pasó con el inminente ataque militar contra Irán? Ataque al que incluso distintas fuentes llegaron a dar fecha y hora. ¿Es posible que la dupla belicista EEUU/Israel haya desistido o aplazado el ataque? ¿Realmente existe el plan de ataque? O, ¿Sólo es una conjetura? Como aseveran algunos comentarios suspicaces. Estos son algunos de los interrogantes que comúnmente surgen con relación a la crisis iraní.

Víctor Wilches

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Earth summit

Thousands of indigenous peoples from 24 countries gathered in Guatemala on 26 March 2007 for the Third Continental Summit of Indigenous Peoples and Nationalities of Abya Yala, reports Upside Down World. The week-long summit was held in Iximché, a sacred Maya site and main city of the Kaqchikel Maya people.

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The white curse

On the first day of this year, freedom in this world turned 200. But no-one noticed, or almost no-one. A few days later the country where this birth occurred, Haiti, found itself in the media spotlight. Not for the anniversary of universal freedom but because there had been a bloodbath that culminated in the ousting of President Aristide.

Eduardo Galeano

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Durban's perfume rods, plastic covers and

Sajida Khan is a soft-spoken, dignified but intense Durban resident who opposes the World Bank's methane-to-electricity project at the Bisasar Road Landfill. Her passion is fighting - and almost palpably winning, now - against awesome forces, including environmental racism, global warming and international economic power.
It is a story that needs telling. But not before another - more personal - story, one which merges seamlessly with the history of the municipal dump whose closure Khan has been fighting for years.

Trusha Reddy

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Svalbard's glaciers thinning at an accelerated rate say researchers

The findings of the Natural Environment Research Council-funded project confirm climate change experts' fears – indicating a number of glaciers in western Svalbard, ranging in size from 5-1000km², are melting and losing mass at an accelerating rate.

The Swansea team, comprising Dr Tim James, Professor Tavi Murray, Dr Adrian Luckman, and PhD student Nick Barrand of the School of Environment and Society, has been carrying out the research with colleagues from the Norwegian Polar Institute in Tromsø since 2003.

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The happiness conspiracy

What does it mean to be happy in a modern consumer society? John F Schumaker argues that the elusive state has more to do with culture than genetics.

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Sick of promises

The conflict in this western region of Sudan is explained away by the Sudanese Government as a spot of local bother: ancient rivalries and competition for resources, exacerbated by drought and famine, have led nomadic Arab herders to start driving black African farmers off their land.
In reality, Darfur is no local ethnic conflagration – though underlying tensions, historically dealt with at community level and sharpened by climate change, have certainly been inflamed and exaggerated.

‘My baby boy was thrown on the fire in front of me. My daughter was older. They thought she was a boy so they slaughtered her too’

The bloodshed began in 2003 when Darfurian rebel groups took up arms against the Government.

Jess Worth

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Brain surgery :

A British doctor says "Science in my country is so advanced that we can take a brain out of one man, put it in another and have him looking for work in six weeks."

A German doctor says, "That's nothing, we can take a brain out of one person, put it in another and have him preparing for war in four weeks."

The American doctor, not to be outdone, says, "You guys are way behind, we took a man with no brain out of Texas, put him in the White House, and now half the country is looking for work, and the other half preparing for war."

Window to Prevent Catastrophic Climate Change Closing; EU Should Press for Immediate U.S. Action

Washington, D.C.—Consumption of energy and many other critical resources is consistently breaking records, disrupting the climate and undermining life on the planet, according to the latest Worldwatch Institute report, Vital Signs 2007-2008.

• Meat production hit a record 276 million tons (43 kg per person) in 2006.
  

Meat consumption is one of several factors driving soybean demand. Rapid South American expansion of soybean plantations could displace 22 million hectares of tropical forest and savanna in the next 20 years.

The rise in global seafood consumption comes even as many fish species become scarcer: in 2004, 156 million tons of seafood was eaten, an average of three times as much seafood per person than in 1950.

1. The expanding world population’s appetite for everything from everyday items such as eggs to major consumer goods such as automobiles is helping to drive climate change, which is endangering organisms on the land and in the sea:
2. The warming climate is undermining biodiversity by accelerating habitat loss, altering the timing of animal migrations and plant flowerings, and shifting some species towards the poles and to higher altitudes.
3. The oceans have absorbed about half of the carbon dioxide emitted by humans in the last 200 years. Climate change is altering fish migration routes, pushing up sea levels, intensifying coastal erosion, raising ocean acidity, and interfering with currents that move vital nutrients upward from the deep sea.
4. Despite a relatively calm hurricane season in the U.S. in 2006, the world experienced more weather-related disasters than in any of the previous three years. Nearly 100 million people were affected.

Worldwatch Institute

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Mexico's Prophets of Climate Change: Women Forest Defenders

women's environmental organization in rural Mexico is defending their threatened backyard despite the dangers of activism in the region, and spotty support from the government.

Kent Paterson

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Mutabaruka

The temple of the most high begins with the human body, which houses our life, essence of our existence.

Spirituality is not theology or ideology. It is simple a way of life, pure and original as was given by the most high. Spirituality is a network linking us to the most high, the universe and each other.

Breaking the law of life

THE BRAVE NEW frontier of genetic engineering is extending humanity's reach over the forces of nature as no other technology has ever done. Scientists can now isolate, snip, insert, recombine, rearrange, edit, programme, and produce biological and genetic material. In fact, scientists for the first time have the potential to become the architects of life itself, the authors of a technological evolution designed to create new species of microbe, plant and animal that are more profitable for agriculture, industry, biomass energy production, and research than the ones nature gave us.

This biotechnology boom in the industrialized world has massively increased corporate demand for an unconventional form of natural resources: not the minerals and fossil fuels of the industrial age, but rather living materials found primarily in the Southern Hemisphere.

Andrew Kimbrell

"The way we steal genetic materials from theThird World is nothing but modern-day biopiracy."

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Community entrepreneurs transform Karachi slum.

Orangi, an unauthorized settlement in Karachi, Pakistan, extending over 8,000 hectares, is home to over a million people. Most people built their own houses, receiving no official help in doing so, and as a result sanitation was haphazard and insufficient. Bucket latrines were emptied onto the unpaved lanes running between houses, while self-made sewage pipes poured into nearby creeks. Local residents were fully aware that poor sanitation was ruining their health and their property, but had given up on official promises to install a sewage system. The cost of installing a conventional system themselves was too high, and they didn’t have the technical and organizational skills to use alternative options.

Source: New Scientist, May 2000 and City Press, Karachi.

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Putin, Chechnya, and Politkovskaya

Among those few Russian journalists who dared write the truth about the second Chechen war, Anna Politkovskaya is number one. That is, she was number one. It's still almost impossible to fully understand and accept that Anna is no more. She was travelling to the armed conflict-zone for so many years, wrote about such burning issues, took such tremendous risks that at some point many of us thought that she had already transcended the danger.

Tanya Lokshina

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Energy poverty and political vision

Around 2.64 billion people, 40% of the world's population, lack modern fuels for cooking and heating. 1.6 billion have no access to electricity, three-quarters of them living in rural areas. As decision-makers in Europe and north America wonder how to reduce energy consumption, massive regions of the developing world remain literally in the dark. Populations in the energy-poverty trap - covering vast areas of south Asia and sub-Saharan Africa - are nowhere likely to influence the accountability of the energy policies of their governments.

Alejandro Litovsky

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Torture, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment.

Torture is a serious violation of human rights and is strictly prohibited by international law. As the use of torture strikes at the very heart of civil and political freedoms, it was one of the first issues dealt with by the United Nations (UN) in its development of human rights standards. One of its earliest measures was to abolitish corporal punishment in colonial territories in 1949.

International law prohibits torture and other forms of inhuman and degrading treatment, which cannot be accepted under any circumstances.Despite being stringently outlawed, torture continues to be practiced in a majority of countries round the world. A 2001 report by Amnesty International highlighted the use of torture by 140 states between 1997 and 2001, and found that every year thousands of perpetrators beat, rape and electrocute other human beings.

Learn more about torture:

Step up.

With hundreds of thousands killed, 4 million homeless, and massive ethnic cleansing, Iraq is not just a political disaster-- it is now the greatest humanitarian crisis in the world. But this week, incredibly, US President Bush and General Petraeus will claim their approach is working, and refuse to change their devastating course. It's time for the world to step in.

Take action now:

More Yahoo news.

WASHINGTON - A political group supporting President Bush's Iraq war strategy with a multimillion-dollar ad campaign is airing a new TV ad denouncing a liberal group's sharp criticism of Gen. David Petraeus.

The campaign is the second rollout of ads by the group, Freedom's Watch, and capitalizes on Democratic Party unease over a newspaper ad run this week by MoveOn.org, one of the leading anti-war voices among liberal activists.

Bradley A. Blakeman, president of Freedom's Watch, said MoveOn was employing "outrageous tactics."

"To question the character and patriotism of brave men and women who combat terrorism everyday is too much, it's in poor taste and it will not go unchallenged," he said.

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From Yahoo news.

"We are at a significant tipping point," said Geri Brewster, a nutritionist at Northern Westchester Hospital in New York, who was not connected to the study.

"If people knew that they were threatening the environment by eating more meat, they might think twice before ordering a burger," Brewster said.

Other ways of reducing greenhouse gases from farming practices, like feeding animals higher-quality grains, would only have a limited impact on cutting emissions. Gases from animals destined for dinner plates account for nearly a quarter of all emissions worldwide.

"That leaves reducing demand for meat as the only real option," said Dr. John Powles, a public health expert at Cambridge University, one of the study's authors.

As a society, we are overconsuming protein," Brewster said. "If we ate less red meat, it would also help stop the obesity epidemic."

Maria Cheng

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Israel/Lebanon: Israeli Indiscriminate Attacks Killed Most Civilians

Israel’s indiscriminate airstrikes, not Hezbollah’s shielding as claimed by Israeli officials, caused most of the approximately 900 civilian deaths in Lebanon during the July-August 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Human Rights Watch investigated more than 500 of the deaths.

Israel wrongfully acted as if all civilians had heeded its warnings to evacuate southern Lebanon when it knew they had not, disregarding its continuing legal duty to distinguish between military targets and civilians. Issuing warnings doesn’t make indiscriminate attacks lawful.
Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch

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