11/01/2012
At the dawn of the 21st century a new political regime has transformed Canada from global hero – once standing up for peace, people, and nature – to global criminal, plunging into war, eroding civil rights, and destroying environments, says journalist, ecologist and historian Rex Weyler.
**Image: At dawn on the opening day of the UN climate summit in Durban, South Africa, Greenpeace take to Parliament Hill to brand the Harper government 'CLIMATE FAIL' of epic proportions. Credit: Eye in the sky/Greenpeace
What happened to Canada? Oil. And not just any oil, but the world’s dirtiest, most destructive oil. Canada’s betrayal at the Durban climate talks – abandoning its Kyoto Accord commitments – is the direct effect of becoming a petro-state, adds Weyler, author of several books.
By the late 20th century, oil companies knew that the world’s conventional oil fields were in decline and oil production would soon peak, which it did in 2005. These companies, including sovereign oil powers such as PetroChina, turned their attention to low-grade hydrocarbon deposits in shale gas, deep offshore fields, and Canada’s Alberta tar sands, he wrote in his column, published by Greenpeace International.
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10/01/2012
By James Cogan – World Socialist Web Site* 10 Jan.- The crisis besetting the US/NATO occupation of Afghanistan has been deepened over recent days. Its own puppet government, headed by President Hamid Karzai, has publicly accused the American military of torture and arbitrary detention at the largest US-run prison in the country.
**Photo: Harald Dettenborn. Source | Wikimedia Commons
Karzai made the allegations last Thursday, reportedly with no prior warning to the Obama administration or US and NATO commanders in Afghanistan. He claimed that an investigation by an Afghan government commission had found “many cases” of abuse at the Parwan detention centre at Bagram Air Base, to the north of Kabul.
He declared the situation was an affront to “Afghan sovereignty” and demanded that Parwan, along with all other detention centres being operated by foreign forces, be turned over to Afghan control within one month.
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Posted in Asia, The Peoples, War Lords |
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10/01/2012
Geneva – Two years after the devastating earthquake that flattened Haiti, the country remains “a fragile State, beset by chronic poverty and under-development. Its weak institutions leave children vulnerable to shocks and the impact of disaster”.
Credit:UN
Haiti’s children are slowly experiencing improvements in their living standards despite continuing challenges, according to a United Nations’ report. However, the report also warned that with over four million Haitian children under the age of 18, many of them still struggle for survival, development and protection amid glaring institutional weaknesses.
“There is evidence of little victories everywhere, although serious gaps and inadequacies in Haiti’s basic governance structures remain,” said Françoise Gruloss-Ackermans, the representative in Haiti of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), of her agency’s report, which was released on Jan. 9.
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08/01/2012
By James Green* – Think Africa Press – Since the creation of the world’s newest state in July of last year, many have followed South Sudan’s prospects for a peaceful future with trepidation.
Chinese engineers join a UN peacekeeping force in Darfur in 2008 | Think Africa Press
Despite the near unanimous result of the referendum to secede from Sudan, and the North’s apparent acquiescence at the South’s departure, the lack of agreement over how to divide the country’s vast oil wealth seemed an inevitable flashpoint.
However, as the issue drove relations to their nadir in November and talks collapsed, a seemingly unusual candidate for mediation appeared as China intervened to keep both the negotiations and the oil flowing.
After years of criticism in the West for its apparent political inactivity over the crisis in Darfur – Sudan’s conflict-ridden Western region – how significant a change is this for China’s African foreign policy? And how well is China positioned to make a difference to the on-going peace process?.
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08/01/2012
Geneva – A massive humanitarian operation to bring succour to people affected by inter-ethnic violence in South Sudan’s state of Jonglei is under way with United Nations having carried out relief needs assessments in most of the affected areas, a UN official said.
Mothers and their children displaced by ethnic tensions | Credit:UN
Assessments have been carried in Pibor, Likuangole, Boma and Walgak, according to Elisabeth Byrs, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), who said on Jan. 6 in Geneva that more evaluations would be carried out in Fertait and Bilait.
UN agencies and the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) reported significant humanitarian needs in all areas assessed and they believe that a similar situation prevails in areas yet to be visited, according to Byrs. Around 50,000 people are thought to be in need of help.
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07/01/2012
By Devinder Kumar – IDN-InDepthNews*
New Delhi – Indian-owned companies have joined the race with China, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, South Korea and the European Union in acquiring farmlands in Africa “at throwaway prices, indulging in environmental damage and exporting the food while locals continue to starve,” says a new research report.
**Photo: McKay Savage | Wikimedia Commons
“These atrocities . . . are shockingly similar to what India used to blame rich western countries for,” avers the report titled ‘India’s Role in the New Global Farmland Grab’ and written by Rick Rowden, which has been published by ‘GOI Monitor Desk‘, a non-profit magazine dedicated to the cause of monitoring the functioning of Centre and State governments in India.
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Posted in Africa, Asia, Market Lords, Mother Earth, The Peoples |
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07/01/2012
Geneva – In a move that seemingly does not apply to the cases of death sentence in the U.S., the United Nations has now relaunched its campaign against this capital punishment, expressing “alarm” at the increase of death penalties in Saudi Arabia.
Credit:UN
Rupert Colville, spokes-person for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) expressed on Jan. 6 the UN human rights body’s “alarm at the significant increase in Saudi Arabia’s use of capital punishment in the past year.”
According to OHCHR, the number of executions in the Gulf country “almost tripled” last year compared with 2010. Last October, OHCHR wrote that at least 20 of the 58 people reportedly executed in Saudi Arabia in 2011 were migrant workers.
“We call on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to respect international standards guaranteeing due process and the protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty, to progressively restrict the use of the death penalty and to reduce the number of offences for which it may be imposed,” OHCHR Colville said in Geneva.
Saudi Arabia –a key ally of the United Sates in the Arab region– applies the death penalty for a wide range of offences, including the charge of sorcery and witchcraft, for which a woman was executed last month.
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06/01/2012
PressTV*, Jan. 6 – Commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) naval forces says the world cannot last 24 hours without Persian Gulf oil, stressing that Tehran is fully capable of closing the Strait of Hormuz.
**Photo: An Iranian navy boat fires a missile during the Velayat 90 drills in the Persian Gulf on December 30, 2011 | PressTV
“Today, out of the 1,300 billion barrels of oil in the world, 800 billion barrels are in the Persian Gulf,” Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi said on Friday, adding that it is impossible to imagine a world without the energy produced in the Persian Gulf region.
The Strait of Hormuz lies between Iran and Oman and is a narrow shipping channel that leads in and out of the Persian Gulf.
Statistic-wise, the strait is one of the world’s most important waterways, with a daily flow of about 15 million barrels of oil, which accounts for 90 percent of Persian Gulf exports and 40 percent of global consumption.
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Posted in Africa |
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06/01/2012
By Peter Symonds* – World Socialist Web Site
The European Union’s (EU) in-principle decision on Wednesday [4 Jan.] to impose an embargo on oil imports from Iran has further escalated the danger of military conflict in the Persian Gulf.
**Xavier Häpe | Wikimedia Common
The EU move dovetails with President Obama’s signing on Saturday [Dec. 31, 2011] of US legislation designed to cripple the Iranian banking system and cut the country’s oil exports.
The US and EU threats have already provoked a sharp reaction from Tehran, which has warned that it would respond to an oil embargo by blocking the Strait of Hormuz—a strategic waterway into the Persian Gulf through which about 20 percent of global oil trade passes.
As Economy Minister Shamseddin Hosseini said yesterday [Jan. 5], Iran confronts “an economic war.” Oil and gas exports account for some 80 percent of the country’s hard currency earnings and provide about half of government revenue. The Iranian rial has already plunged by 11 percent this week against the US dollar, compounding already high levels of inflation.
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06/01/2012
Russia Today* – Without much media attention, thousands of American troops are being deployed to Israel, and Iranian officials believe that this is the latest and most blatant warning that the US will soon be attacking Tehran.
Netanyahu
Tensions between nations have been high in recent months and have only worsened in the weeks since early December when Iran hijacked and recovered an American drone aircraft. Many have speculated that a back-and-forth between the two countries will soon escalate Iran and the US into an all-out war, and that event might occur sooner than thought.
Under the Austere Challenge 12 drill scheduled for an undisclosed time during the next few weeks, the Israeli military will together with America host the largest-ever joint missile drill by the two countries.
Following the installation of American troops near Iran’s neighboring Strait of Hormuz and the reinforcing of nearby nations with US weapons, Tehran authorities are considering this not a test but the start of something much bigger.
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HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 