23/01/2013
The United Nations refugee agency reported that the number of people fleeing the fighting in Mali is increasing, amidst reports of growing food shortages.
Abdullah and his family now live in a room normally used for storage. They fled from the town of Diabaly. Photo: UNHCR/H. Caux
“New arrivals continue to tell us they left their homes because of air strikes and fighting, as well as fears over the application of Sharia law; they also speak of increasing shortages of food and fuel, with traditional markets unable to operate,” a spokesperson for the Office of the UN high Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Adrian Edwards, told a news briefing in Geneva on 22 January.
“A lack of cereal is pushing breeders to either kill some of their animals as they have nothing else to eat, or to try to sell them. Some refugees are travelling by private car or by truck, while others have arrived from Mali on foot or by donkey,” he added. “Many newly arrived refugees are expecting additional members of their families to join them in the next days from Mali.”
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23/01/2013
By EurActiv*, 22 January 2013 — Airlines profited up to €1.36 billion last year by passing “imaginary” costs from the EU’s Emissions Trading System (ETS) onto consumers, says a study by a Dutch environmental consultancy published today (22 January).
Airline industry: over the moon? | EurActiv
EU airlines stood to gain the most from the carbon trading scheme – some €758 million or almost twice their estimated returns of €400 million in 2011 – says the CE Delft study.
Under the ETS, the EU’s market-based measure to curb greenhouse gas emissions, airlines are given a certain number of free carbon allowances. The rest they have to purchase on a ‘carbon market’.
The free allowances covered some 85% of the sector’s emissions in 2010. The remaining 15%, plus any allowances to cover any emissions increases since 2010, needed to be purchased, with airlines recovering their costs through higher air fares in 2012, according to the environmental campaign group Transport & Environment, which commissioned the study.
Aoife O’Leary, an aviation advisor at T&E, told EurActiv that airlines were passing on the “imaginary costs” of the free ETS allowances onto customers, generating huge profits.
“Evidence suggests that airlines have not only been raising ticket prices to fund the permits they need to purchase, but they have also been passing on much of the ‘cost’ of the 85% free allowances to customers, and consequently, generating windfall profits,” said a statement by T&E.
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22/01/2013
The United Nations humanitarian chief announced* the allocation of some $100 million from an emergency account to boost operations in 12 poorly- funded crises ranging from Afghanistan to Yemen.
Children in Thea Chaung IDP Camp, Rakhine State, Myanmar. Photo: OCHA
“Millions of people continue to need help around the world after the media spotlight fades,” said Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos.
“These allocations are about saving lives. I hope that governments and others will provide more funds to help those caught in these hidden emergencies.”
The UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) selected Afghanistan, Algeria, Burundi, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Haiti, Liberia, Sudan, Uganda and Yemen on the basis of the severity of humanitarian need and an analysis of funding levels.
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22/01/2013
By Russia Today (RT)*, 21 January 2013 – With more western countries getting indirectly involved in the conflict in Mali, there’s increasing speculation about their motives. Journalist and broadcaster Neil Clark told RT, that the intervention has ‘only economic reasons’.
**North of Africa. Author: Connormah | Wikimedia Commons
Several western countries have already offered France, which is to boost its force to 2,500 soldiers next week, aid in Mali.
The UK is providing logistical air assistance, while the United States is providing surveillance and other intelligence help.
Washington also announced it will supply transport planes for French forces and consider sending refueling tankers for French warplanes.
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22/01/2013
By Johan Galtung*, TRANSCEND – A century ago humanity, particularly in the West, was at the beginning of a major revolution, from horse culture to car culture. Today there are still (FAO-UN Food and Agriculture Organization, 2008) 59 million horses, but (2010) more than 1 billion cars (in 1986 only half of that). In other parts of the world, like Japan and China, there was a revolution to cars, but from bicycles–Beijing went from 6 million bicycles to 4 million cars over a period of 20 years, only from 1990. Japan had an intermediate scooter stage–like in India, Southeast Asia–less so in China.
**Photo: Mikel Ortega from Errenteria, Basque Country, Spain, with a retouche by Richard Bartz.
Imagine 19th century in the West: horses everywhere. A fantastic animal: domestic-able, reproducible–by putting two horses together, cars cannot do that–life expectancy 25-30 years, far beyond cars, ideal for transport of persons and goods, and as tractors for plows, and so on.
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21/01/2013
Global unemployment rose in 2012 amid continuing economic insecurity and insufficient policies stifling overall hiring, a new report by the United Nations labour agency has warned*, adding that the world’s youth were most vulnerable to the growing job scarcity.
Young people have protested around the world for more jobs and equality | UN
In its annual Global Employment Trends report, released today, the International Labour Organization (ILO) notes that despite the positive trend of falling unemployment over the past two years, the number of unemployed worldwide rose by 4.2 million in 2012 with gloomy expectations of a further increase in 2013.
“An uncertain economic outlook, and the inadequacy of policy to counter this, has weakened aggregate demand, holding back investment and hiring,” Guy Ryder, the ILO Director-General, announced in a news release accompanying the report.
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21/01/2013
Torture remains a serious concern in numerous detention facilities across the U.S. and allies ‘liberated’ Afghanistan, despite significant efforts by the Government and international partners to address the problem, according to a new United Nations report*.
Afghan National Police in training in Kabul. Photo: UNAMA/Eric Kanalstein
The report by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) states that more than half of 635 conflict-related detainees interviewed experienced ill-treatment and torture, particularly in 34 facilities of the Afghan National Police (ANP) and the National Directorate of Security (NDS) between October 2011 and October 2012.
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21/01/2013
By Aaron Gray-Block, Greenpeace — The world’s journalists have been jostling and vying with each other to describe and witness the stunning, but also deadly, extreme weather that has gripped the planet in recent months.
The focus has often been the tumbling of records: 2012 was the hottest year on record in the United States, the UK had its second wettest year on record and Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology added extra colour to its temperature maps.
This caused quite a stir – and rightly so. In fact, it’s about time.
The U.N.’s climate panel, IPCC, has been fairly consistent since 1990 in describing the cause and risk of climate change and the need to respond. The scientific evidence since then, however, has often been shouted down by climate deniers.
But the record-breaking heatwave that has sparked Australia’s bushfires should be seen as part of a global warming trend, IPCC head Rajendra Pachauri stresses.
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19/01/2013
By Russia Today (RT)*, 19 January 2013 – As French soldiers pour into Mali in the fight to push back the advancing Islamist militants, questions have been raised as to the motives behind the intervention. Author William Engdahl told RT the US was using France as a scapegoat to save face.
William Engdahl
RT: At a time when France and the rest of the Eurozone are trying to weather the economic crisis, what’s Paris seeking to gain by getting involved in another conflict overseas?
William Engdahl: Well, I think the intervention in Mali is another follow-up to the French role in other destabilizations that we’ve seen, especially in Libya last year with the toppling of the Gadhafi regime. In a sense this is French neocolonialism in action.
But, interestingly enough, I think behind the French intervention is the very strong hand of the US Pentagon which has been preparing this partitioning of Mali, which it is now looming to be, between northern Mali, where al-Qaeda and other terrorists are supposedly the cause for French military intervention, andsouthern Mali, which is a more agricultural region. […]
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19/01/2013
By Rene Wadlow*, TRANSCEND – Since March 2012, Mali has been effectively divided into two roughly equal halves. The northern half is under the control of two rival Tuareg groups with additional non-Turareg fighters coming from other Sahel countries and perhaps from beyond.
**Photo: A Bozo girl in Bamako | Credit: Ferdinand Reus from Arnhem, Holland | Wikimedia Commons
The larger Turareg faction is the Mouvement national de liberation de l’Azawand (MNLA). It is larger than its rivals but less well armed.
Its main aim is to create an independent State, Azawad, and the leaders of the MNLA have already declared the formal independence of the Tuareg cultural zone of northern Mali as the State of Azawad.
One Tuareg rival is the Ansar Dine “defenders of the faith” led by Iyad Ag Ghaly. Ansar Dine is an Islamist group which says that it wants to apply Islamic law to all of Mali.
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HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 