Archive for August 29th, 2012

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29/08/2012

No Prosecution of US Troops for Defiling Afghan Corpses, Burning Korans

Human Wrongs Watch

By Bill Van Auken, WSWS*  – Three US Marines and six soldiers have escaped criminal prosecution in connection with the videotaped urination on the corpses of slain Afghans and the burning of copies of the Koran in two separate incidents that provoked bloody unrest earlier this year.

**2001 War in Afghanistan collage. Derivative work: Wackywace | Wikimedia Commons.

Other Marines still face separate charges in connection with the videotape that surfaced last January, showing four members of a sniper unit laughing and making sarcastic comments while urinating on the battered corpses of three Afghan men.

Army and Marine officials announced separately on Monday [27 August] that the nine soldiers had been given only administrative penalties, while refusing to name those involved.

This form of punishment normally includes measures such as forfeiture of rank or pay, confinement to base or the issuing of letters of reprimand.

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Posted in Africa, Middle East, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples, War Lords | Leave a Comment »

29/08/2012

European Recession, U.S. Slowdown Hit Developing Countries

Human Wrongs Watch

By Martin Khor*

Developing countries are increasingly being adversely affected by the economic recession in Europe and the slowdown in the United States.

**Singapore, the top country in the Enabling Trade Index, embraced globalization. Credit: chensiyuan | Wikimedia Commons.

The hope that major emerging economies like China, India and Brazil would continue to have robust growth, de-coupling from Western economies and becoming an alternative engine of global growth has been dashed by recent data showing that they are themselves weakening.

Just as during the 2008-2010 global crisis, a decline in exports caused by falling Western demand is the main way in which the developing countries are being hit.

The inflows of capital into developing countries have also slowed down, and a reversal to a new outflow situation may well take place. The lending conditions of banks in emerging economies have also deteriorated, according to a banking industry survey.

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Posted in Africa, Asia, Latin America & Caribbean, Market Lords, Middle East, Mother Earth, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples | Leave a Comment »

29/08/2012

Melting Arctic in a ‘Death Spiral’ – Oil Rush, Industrial Fishing, Conflicts

Human Wrongs Watch

In the last 30 years, we’ve lost as much as three-quarters of the floating ice cap at the top of the world. The volume of that sea ice measured by satellites in the summer, when it reaches its smallest, has shrunk so fast that scientists say it’s now in a ‘death spiral’, Greenpeace reports.

A Greenpeace activist holds an oiled bird found on a beach severely affected by an oil spill.

“For over 800,000 years, ice has been a permanent feature of the Arctic ocean. It’s melting because of our use of dirty fossil fuel energy, and in the near future it could be ice free for the first time since humans walked the Earth.”

This would be not only devastating for the people, polar bears, narwhals, walruses and other species that live there – but for the rest of us too, Greenpeace alerts in its Save the Arctic campaign.

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Posted in Market Lords, Mother Earth, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples, War Lords | Leave a Comment »

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