27/08/2012
By Ernest Corea*, IDN-InDepthNews, Washington — UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s decision to attend the sixteenth summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM16) in Tehran from August 26 to 31 follows the precedent set by his predecessors and reaffirms the interlinked relationship between the UN and NAM.
Image: 16th NAM Summit logo
NAM has been described as the largest politically-oriented body in the world, second in membership to the Group of 77 and China.
Most of NAM’s members are UN members as well. Issues explored by NAM have been and are on the UN agenda too, and in several instances the positions taken by NAM, although sometimes opposed in other forums, have prevailed at the UN.
The Secretary-General’s judgment that he should attend the summit effectively dismissed suggestions that he should not do so, because of its location – which was determined and announced three years ago when the previous NAM summit was held in Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt).
Confirming the universality of the Secretary-General’s role, and its independence from bilateral spats, the Ban’s spokesman said that he takes “seriously” his “responsibility and that of the UN to pursue diplomatic engagement with all of the world body’s Member States, in the interest of peacefully addressing vital matters of peace and security.”
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26/08/2012
The United Nations refugee agency voiced alarm about the health situation of more than 100,000 refugees spread out across two states in South Sudan.
Women return to shelters after receiving food assistance provided by WFP at Yusuf Batil refugee Camp. Photo: WFP/George Fominyen
“With the current rain and cold, we are seeing refugees suffering from respiratory tract infections, diarrhoea and malaria,” a spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Adrian Edwards, said on 24 August in Geneva.
According to the agency, there are 170,000 refugees living in camps and settlements across South Sudan’s Unity and Upper Nile states. They have arrived from Sudan’s South Kordofan and Blue Nile states after fleeing conflict and food shortages.
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Posted in Africa, Market Lords, Mother Earth, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples, War Lords |
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24/08/2012
By Peter Symonds, WSWS*, 24 August 2012 — As part of its build-up in Asia, the US military is planning an extensive ballistic missile defence system that will only exacerbate tensions throughout the region, especially with China.
**Image: USAF | Wikimedia Commons
According to the Wall Street Journal yesterday [23 August]: “The planned build-up is part of a defensive array that could cover large swathes of Asia, with a new radar in southern Japan and possibly another in Southeast Asia tied to missile-defence ships and land-based interceptors.”
North Korea is the purported reason for constructing the anti-missile system, but the real target is China.
Steven Hildreth from the US Congressional Research Service told the Wall Street Journal: “The focus of our rhetoric is North Korea. The reality is that we’re also looking longer term at the elephant in the room, which is China.”
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24/08/2012
Without healthy, thriving forests, planet Earth cannot sustain life. As much as eighty per cent of the world’s forests have been degraded or destroyed. The destruction of forests is responsible for up to a fifth of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions – more than every plane, car, truck, ship and train on the planet combined.
Photo: Greenpeace
Greenpeace reports these facts and many others as part of its worldwide campaign for zero deforestation by 2020 to protect what is left of these extraordinary ecosystems.
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24/08/2012
Marking the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition, the head of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) called for reflection on the transformation brought about by the slave trade to the world, and urged countries to protect their citizens against racism and forced labour.
Shackles used to bind slaves. UN Photo/Mark Garten
“The long series of uprisings by slaves in their quest for freedom are sources for reflection and action for protecting human rights and combating modern forms of servitude,” said UNESCO’s Director-General, Irina Bokova, in a message to mark the Day, which is observed annually on 23 August.
“The history of the slave trade and its abolition has shaped the world in which we live,” she added. “We are all heirs to this past, which has transformed the world’s map, its laws, cultures and social relations, even giving rise to new food habits – especially through the sugar trade.”
The International Day commemorates the uprising which took place on 22-23 August 1791, when slaves in Saint Domingue (present-day Haiti), launched an insurrection which ultimately led to the Haitian revolution and helped to promote the cause of human rights.
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23/08/2012
Ongoing developments in the Middle East have increased the urgency of resolving the stalemate in the Arab-Israeli peace process, the United Nations political chief said, while also noting that the prospects of regional peace were fading.
West Bank Israeli settlement of Har Gilo, located near Jerusalem. Photo: IRIN/Erica Silverman
“We are concerned that we have not yet seen the progress required for sustained negotiations that could lead to successful outcomes,” the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Jeffrey Feltman, told the Security Council on 22 August during its regular monthly meeting on the Middle East.
“While prospects for peace seem to grow dimmer, we – as the United Nations – continue to hope that leaders on both sides will recognize and seize the historic opportunity that is now before them to start seriously working toward the goal of reaching a peace agreement that meets the legitimate aspirations and fulfils the rights of the people on both sides,” Feltman stated.
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23/08/2012
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will visit Iran at the end of the month to take part in the 16th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), according to his spokesperson.
Ban with President Ahmadinejad of Iran, April 2011 | Photo: UN
“The Secretary-General looks forward to the Summit as an opportunity to work with the participating Heads of State and Government, including the host country, towards solutions on issues that are central to the global agenda including follow-up to the Rio+20 Conference on sustainable development, disarmament, conflict prevention, and support for countries in Transition,” his spokesperson told reporters on 22 August.
Taking place in the capital, Tehran, and under the chairmanship of Iran, the NAM Summit will be held on 26-31 August, and is expected to draw representatives from its 120 members, as well as from various associated observer countries.
Over recent days, there have been media reports of calls, from Israel and the US, for Ban to boycott the meeting, the UN reports.
Ban’s spokesperson said that the UN chief takes “seriously” his responsibility and that of the United Nations to pursue diplomatic engagement with all of the world body’s Member States, in the interest of peacefully addressing vital matters of peace and security.
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22/08/2012
By John Scales Avery*, TRANSCEND — Does it make sense to destroy the world for the sake of profit or personal advantage? This is exactly what our governments and business leaders are doing today. This is what very many ordinary people are doing. But does it make sense?
**Benjamin Netanyahu. Photo: zeevveez from Jerusalem, Israel.
Does it make sense to saw off the branch on which you are sitting? Does it make sense to jockey for a place at the Captain’s table on board an iceberg-struck Titanic?
Whoever contributes to the destruction of the world has to live in the world that they have destroyed.
Perhaps a short-term advantage can be gained; perhaps a small private Utopia can be created by acts that harm the general future; but all individual fates will sink like stones in a deep sea, if society as a whole sinks.
There will be no protection for anyone, if the world as a whole goes to pieces.
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22/08/2012
By Victor Kattan, Al Shabaka*, 21 August 2012 — A Freedom of Information request with the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) by Al-Shabaka has led to the release of new documents on Gaza’s gas fields, and surprising new information about the possibility of oil fields in the West Bank.
Source: Al Shabaka.
The released documents support Al-Shabaka’s previous policy brief The Gas Fields off Gaza: A Gift or a Curse?, which argued that the principal stumbling block to the development of the gas fields in Gaza is Israel’s refusal to pay market price for the gas.
The new documents reveal that, in addition, Israel may be exploiting an oil field located near Ramallah within the occupied Palestinian territories. The documents also address rumours that there may be two other oil fields near Qalqilya and another near Hebron. Al-Shabaka Program Director Victor Kattan dissects the correspondence and its implications.
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HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 