28/12/2012
Dubai, December (IRIN*) – Soldiers from the International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF) may be leaving Afghanistan in the coming two years, but humanitarian needs are not going to disappear any time soon and neither will the Taliban.
Photo: Abdullah Shaheen/IRIN. Engage with the Taliban, a new report tells aid workers
The coming power shift is likely to add to a trend that is already a reality for aid workers – more frequent dealings with the Taliban.
A report published today by the Overseas Development Institute highlights the challenges for aid workers needing to engage with Taliban fighters, members of an organization classed as a terrorist group by several Western countries.
“Aid agencies’ access to negotiations with the Taliban will be critical after 2014. Establishing effective engagement policies is fundamental to reaching all Afghans in need,” said Ashley Jackson, co-author of the report.
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25/12/2012
By Charles Mercieca*, Ph.D., TRANSCEND – Over the past few decades, the United States has emerged to become the most violent nation in the civilized world. This did not happen overnight. In fact, we can trace this nation’s source of violence to the draft of its Constitution, which has now emerged to become the nation’s dangerous enemy. Jesus of Nazareth described the human being as homo hominis lupus, which may be translated as man is his own worst enemy.
**The Statue of Liberty | Credit: Elcobbola | Wikimedia Commons
Enactment of US Constitution
Although the US Constitution was written in good faith, a couple of centuries later a small segment of it has become malignant and it needs now to be removed.
We know that when one develops a cancer, such a malady becomes a threat to one’s life and needs to be taken away.
The more we delay removing it the more it may spread beyond hope before we know it. The malignant tumor in the US Constitution is found in the phrase: the right to bear arms.
The Founders of the US Constitution decided to insert such a phrase because of their times. At that time there were no airplanes, no trains, no busses, no radars, no telephones, and no facilities for communication.
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25/12/2012
By IPPNW* – Nuclear weapons are the most destructive, most indiscriminate, most inhumane instruments of mass murder ever created. Their use—and even their possession—goes against every principle of international humanitarian law. In fact, it is likely that humanity could not survive a nuclear war using even a fraction of the arsenals in existence today.
Source: ICAN – International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
The term “catastrophic humanitarian consequences” defines the unique and horrifying effects of nuclear weapons.
The only natural events to which a nuclear explosion can be compared are massive earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, and similar disasters that result in thousands of casualties and cause catastrophic environmental damage.
Unlike natural disasters, however, the consequences of nuclear weapons use—including lethal harm from radiation and climate disruption to millions of people who are not party to the conflicts in which they are used—are the result of human decisions.
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23/12/2012
By Russia Today*, 23 December 2012 – The Mayan doomsday may have passed without incident, but it’s too early to relax. Astronomers have found a large asteroid heading this way. However one private firm thinks it knows how to save us.
Doomsday paranoia triggers private asteroid hunt | Russia Today
Scientists from the University of Hawaii said that the 140 meter asteroid’s will just miss Earth as the orbital trajectory of the 2011 AG5 space object will bring it within 890,000 kilometers of our planet. That’s about twice as far away as the moon.
But we could still be in for a nasty surprise in 2040, if the path of the asteroid should change due to something called the Yarkovsky effect.
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23/12/2012
Berbera, December (IRIN*) – Rusting hulks of capsized boats decorate the waters around Berbera, a port city in the self-declared republic of Somaliland. Further down Somalia’s coast, pirates raid freighters in the Gulf of Aden. Yet efforts are underway to help Somalis make better use of their 3,300km coastline – the longest on the African continent – by increasing fishing and seafood exports to lucrative markets in the Middle East and Europe.
Photo: Jason R Zalasky/US Navy
Armed security guards have led to a decline in piracy | IRIN
In 2013, the European Union will spend US$6.5 million to help Somaliland pursue its long-term goal of netting 120,000 tons of seafood each year, the sale of which could generate $1.2 billion in foreign currency.
“In Somalia, people have lived for a long time with their backs to the sea,” says Isabel Faria de Almedia, the EU development chief for Somalia. “It’s a country of agro-pastoralists with a strong nomadic tradition. We think there is a huge potential for the consumption and export of fish.”
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23/12/2012
By RT* – The Israeli prime minister has vowed to continue building settlements in the “Israeli capital of Jerusalem,” defying near-unanimous international criticism of the illegal activity in retaliation for Palestine’s upgraded UN status.
**Photo credit: zeevveez from Jerusalem, Israel | Wikimedia Commons
In an interview with Israeli Channel 2, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threw internationally-recognized boundaries to the wind, saying that the Western Wall, which lies in a part of UN-administered Jerusalem occupied by Israel in 1967, “is not occupied territory” – and that he “does not care” what the United Nations has to say about it.
Netanyahu added that all Israeli citizens live “in the Jewish state,” and that “the capital of the Jewish state, for 3,000 years, has been Jerusalem,” as cited by the Jerusalem Post.
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22/12/2012
By Jess Miller, Greenpeace* – Seven years ago, Leonardo Andrade Gomes was considered to be the single biggest forest destroyer in the Amazon. In addition to other infractions, he was found responsible for the deforestation of 12,500 hectares of Amazon forest and fined more than 18 million reais (US$8.6 million).
Amazon River in Brazil © Karla Gachet / Panos / Greenpeace. Aerial view of the Amazon River. During its first voyage to Brazil, the new Rainbow Warrior will pass through the Amazon and down the Brazilian coast, to support a campaign for a zero deforestation law.
Why is this relevant now? Because since then, the Brazilian government hasn’t been able to track him down or collect the fine. But one thing is for sure: the fines against him will be forgiven by the new Forest Code. Now, it will take very little to make this multi-million dollar debt disappear forever.
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21/12/2012
By RT* – The most powerful company on the Internet just got a whole lot creepier: a new service from Google merges offline consumer info with online intelligence, allowing advertisers to target users based on what they do at the keyboard and at the mall.
**New employees are called “Nooglers,” and are given a propeller beanie cap to wear on their first Friday | Credit: Tduk Alex Lozupone | Wikimedia Commons.
Without much fanfare, Google announced news this week of a new advertising project, Conversions API, that will let businesses build all-encompassing user profiles based off of not just what users search for on the Web, but what they purchase outside of the home.
In a blog post this week on Google’s DoubleClick Search site, the Silicon Valley giant says that targeting consumers based off online information only allows advertisers to learn so much. “Conversions,” tech-speak for the digital metric made by every action a user makes online, are incomplete until coupled with real life data, Google says.
“We understand that online advertising also fuels offline conversions,” the blog post reads. Thus, Google says, “To capture these lost conversions and bring offline into your online world, we’re announcing the open beta of our Conversions API for uploading offline conversion automatically.”
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20/12/2012
A record number of journalists are being detained in prisons around the world, according to a report by the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). In total, CPJ found 232 media professionals imprisoned worldwide, an increase of 53 compared to the same day in 2011 and the highest since the group began its survey in 1990. The number also represents an increase of 47 compared to the previous record of 185 set in 1996.
Source: CPJ
The group explained that the high number of incarcerated media workers is predominantly down to the widespread use of charges related to terrorism and anti-state laws.
Large numbers of journalists imprisoned in Turkey, Iran and China have contributed towards the international record, they noted.
CPJ executive director, Joel Simon said: “We are living in an age when anti-state charges and ‘terrorist’ labels have become the preferred means that governments use to intimidate, detain, and imprison journalists.”
“Criminalising probing coverage of inconvenient topics violates not only international law, but impedes the right of people around the world to gather, disseminate, and receive independent information,” he added.
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20/12/2012
Dr Sibylle Bauer*, SIPRI – What do cooking pots and missiles have in common? Or toothpaste and chemical weapons? In both cases, a so-called dual-use item: the same machine tool can be used in the production of both pots and certain missile parts, while fluoride compounds, industrial chemicals that are needed to manufacture the deadly nerve agent sarin are also used in common bathroom products.
**Credit: Jebulon | Wikimedia Commons
Cooking pots and toothpaste are harmless consumer products, but we want to strictly limit who can produce missiles and prevent the production of chemical weapons altogether.
No wonder dual-use goods—those with both civilian and military applications—pose so many dilemmas for policymakers, export licensing authorities and frontline customs officers.
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HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 