24/03/2012
Tackling agricultural water pollution across highly industrialised countries costs taxpayers billions of dollars annually. In addition to the expense of removing pollutants from drinking water and of paying farmers, for example, to help them store manure safely or create contamination buffers, there are wider costs to society and to the environment of contaminating rivers, lakes and coastal waters.
*Soil erosion. By Philip Halling - Source: geograph.org.uk | Wikimedia Commons
This is what the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development says in a report, adding that OECD governments “have made little overall progress in reducing water contamination from farming over the past decade… Not only are pollutant levels high in many areas but sources of contamination are often spread widely across the landscape, making measurement and control difficult.”
OECD groups 34 countries spanning the globe, from North and South America to Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.
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23/03/2012
Around 70 per cent of the world’s water resources are used for agriculture and by 2025 two-thirds of the population could struggle to get access to this resource. In fact, nearly one billion people suffer currently from hunger and some 800 million still lack a safe supply of freshwater.
*A young resident of Maslakh camp (Afghanistan) takes a drink of water. UN Photo/E. Debebe
These estimates, which were announced by the United Nations International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), should be enough to illustrate how bleak is the future of humankind abusing of water consumption, polluting this very resource of life, and trading with it to make more and more financial benefits.
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22/03/2012
Rome, 22 March – Urgent action is required to control a major outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease and prevent its spread throughout North Africa and the Middle East, which could have serious implications for food security in the region, FAO warned today.
Credit:UN
Foot-and-mouth disease affects all cloven-hoofed animals, including sheep, goats, cattle, buffalo and pigs. It causes serious production losses and can be lethal, particularly to younger animals.
Meat and milk from sick animals are unsafe for consumption, not because FMD affects humans, but because foodstuffs entering the food chain should only come from animals that are known to be healthy. Foot-and-mouth disease is not a direct threat to humans.
In Egypt 40 222 cases of the disease are suspected, according to official estimates, and 4 658 animals, mostly calves, have already died.
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22/03/2012
“Racism and racial discrimination have been used as weapons to engender fear and hatred. In extreme cases, ruthless leaders instigate prejudice to incite genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
Credit: UN
With these words, UN secretary general marked this year’s International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which focuses on the theme of racism and conflict.
On 21 March each year, the UN marks the day in 1960 when dozens of peaceful protesters were gunned down by police in the South African township of Sharpeville as they demonstrated against apartheid. “Racism undermines peace, security, justice and social progress,” Ban Ki-moon added. “It is a violation of human rights that tears at individuals and rips apart the social fabric.”
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21/03/2012
By Sandy Boyer, Radio Free Eireann, Socialist Worker*, March 21 – Hana Shalabi, a Palestinian political prisoner on hunger strike since February 16, was transferred to an Israeli military hospital as she clung to life by a thread. The transfer took place on March 18, the 34th day of her hunger strike, according to CNN.
**Protesters marching in a solidarity demonstration for Hana Shalabi | Socialist Worker
According to Jawad Bulos, one of Shalabi’s lawyers, “The prosecution and defense teams…met with the military judge Tuesday [20 March] to look into an appeal, [and a] decision could come as early as next week to either accept the defense appeal for her immediate release or to keep the detention order.”
Shalabi is one of approximately 300 Palestinians held under what Israel calls “administrative detention,” which means imprisonment orders that can be renewed indefinitely without charges and without the right to a trial. Prior to her transfer to the military hospital, Shalabi had been held in solitary confinement–not even her parents were allowed to visit her.
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21/03/2012
By Peter Symonds, WSWS* , 21 March – Details of a recent Pentagon war game, leaked yesterday [20 March] in the New York Times, underscore the advanced character and recklessness of the Obama administration’s preparations for war against Iran.
**Photo: Iran Air Force. Source | Wikimedia Commons
Nominally premised on an attack by Israel on Iran, the conclusion from the exercise was that “the strike would lead to a wider regional war which could draw in the United States and leave hundreds of Americans dead.”
The two-week war game was carried out by US Central Command to test communication and coordination between its headquarters in Tampa, Florida and US forces in the Persian Gulf.
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20/03/2012
Brussels – The United Nations agency assisting Palestinian refugees unveiled 10 commitments through which it will strengthen support to and better engage young refugees.
*Palestinian refugees | UNRWA
“These 10 commitments are quite concrete. They are also urgent and cannot wait,” said Filippo Grandi, the Commissioner-General of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
The commitments include enhanced vocational training and micro-finance opportunities, fundraising for scholarships, expanding a successful skills programme for young refugees first piloted in Syria, and advocacy on issues of special concern to youth, according to a UN report on March 20.
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20/03/2012
By Abeer S. Abusaud* from Amman, March 20 – Most countries celebrated UN Women’s day on March 8, and many Arab countries are expected to celebrate the Mother’s Day on March 21 with flowers and gifts. This is not the case, however, for Palestinian women; nor it is for Palestinian mothers who loose a child everyday under Gaza siege or raids, and more discreetly under Israeli detention.
**Demonstrating for Hana
Palestinian prisoner Hana Shalaby –who has been on a hunger strike for 34 days now– was admitted on March 20 to hospital following a dramatic deterioration in her health.
Hana Shalaby (30 years), started her strike in protest against being re-arrested by the Israeli occupying forces following her release in October last year after spending more than two years in administrative detention.
She was re-arrested on 16 February 2012 and was issued a six-month administrative detention order on 23 February, but has not been charged. An Israeli Army spokesman commented that Shalabi was “a global jihad-affiliated operative” that “posed a threat to the area” and that she assaulted the soldiers who arrested her.
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19/03/2012
By Daniel Plaut – Think Africa Press* – After 20 years, Kenyan officials are talking of closing down the world’s largest refugee camp, but to those who call it home, would repatriation be another form of exile?
Aerial view of Dadaab refugee complex. Photo by Andy Hall.
This year, Dadaab, the world’s largest refugee complex, turns 20 years old.
Established in Kenya in 1991, as a response to the influx of Somalis fleeing their homes in midst of civil war, Dadaab was originally designed to host 90,000 people. As of this month, it holds around 450,000, according to the UNHCR.
With climate specialists now predicting a return of last year’s drought conditions to the region, this number is expected to rise substantially within the next six months.
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19/03/2012
A massive vaccination campaign, launched by the UN, is under way in Yemen, where a new outbreak of measles has killed at least 126 children under the age of five.
*Children in Al-Mazrak IDP camp in Haradh, northern Yemen. Photo: OCHA
The campaign, supported by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO), targets an estimated eight million children under the age of ten following the most recent outbreak of the disease which has already caused a reported 3,600 cases, according to a UN report.
“This situation is unacceptable,” said UNICEF Representative Geert Cappelaere in a press statement released on 10 March. “Measles is a preventable disease and Yemen was close to being declared measles free in 2010 with zero deaths,” he added.
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HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 
