12/04/2013
By Roberto Savio*
Rome, 12 April — The flood of elegiac articles on former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is in itself a good measure of how we have all become Thatcherites without realising it. Only those who are not graced by a young age can see how the world and politics have changed so deeply since her days that it is correct to call her a “great revolutionary”.
**Thatcher in 1990 | Credit: Jay Galvin | Wikipedia Commons
Let us recall something that has been completely forgotten. Immediately after the end of the World War II, two other major events took place.
One was the end of colonies and the creation of the Third World, the other was the creation of a powerful and strong socialist bloc, led by the Soviet Union, but with offshoots in Africa, Latin America and Asia, from Angola to Cuba and China, for example.
Both events had a sobering effect on the political and philosophical sectors based on capitalism, and led to an era of social democracy.
Those two events gave rise to the attempt to create an international order based on cooperation and social justice at national and international level.
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12/04/2013
By Johannes Stern, WSWS*, 12 April 2013 – Over the past week, at least seven people have been killed in sectarian clashes in Egypt. Violence erupted last Friday in the town of Al-Khosous, north of the capital, Cairo, when five Copts (Egypt’s minority Christians) and one Muslim were killed.
**Credit: Gigi Ibrahim from Cairo, Egypt | Wikimedia Commons
Violence continued on Sunday, when assailants attacked Christian mourners at the funeral for the Coptic victims at St Mark’s Cathedral in the Abbasia district of Cairo.
Media reports and eye-witnesses accuse the ruling Muslim Brotherhood (MB) and US-backed Islamist President Mohamed Mursi for being either responsible for the clashes or even for being directly behind the violence.
Mursi and the ruling Islamists are deeply unpopular, and the regime is seeking to channel rising social and political discontent in a reactionary, sectarian direction.
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06/04/2013
The United Nations human rights chief on 5 April 2013 urged all branches of the United States Government to work together to close the Guantánamo detention centre, stressing that the indefinite incarceration of detainees is a clear breach of international law.
**Detainees upon arrival at Camp X-Ray, January 2002 | Shane T. McCoy, U.S. Navy | public domain | Wikimedia Commons
“I am deeply disappointed that the US Government has not been able to close Guantánamo Bay, despite repeatedly committing itself to do so,” said the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay.
According to Pillay’s office (OHCHR), around half of the 166 detainees in the centre have been cleared for transfer to their home countries or third countries for resettlement. However, they have remained there, while others have reportedly been designated for indefinite detention.
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05/04/2013
Nairobi, 4 April 2013 (IRIN*) – Official Development Assistance (ODA) has continued to fall as wealthy countries battle an ongoing global financial crisis and a struggling Eurozone, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) latest report.
**Photo: Paul Paladin/Shutterstock. Less money in the global aid kitty | Source: IRIN
Aid decreased by 4 percent in 2012 compared to 2011, which had already experienced a 2 percent decline on the previous year, the report found. This is the first time since 1996-1997 that aid has fallen in two successive years.
Most assistance – approximately US$125.6 billion in 2012 – still comes from members of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC), but emerging donors such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) are becoming increasingly important to humanitarian aid.
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05/04/2013
“On this year’s International Day for Mine Awareness, we are “lending our legs” in a campaign to show support and compassion for survivors,” said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon ins his message for the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action, 4 April 2012.
Image: UN
This year, Ban reiterated the importance of eliminating the threat of mines and explosive remnants of war as a crucial endeavour that advances peace, enables development, supports nations in transition and saves lives.
“Lend Your Leg” is a campaign that encourages people worldwide by a simple but symbolic gesture of rolling up a pant leg or sleeve to stop the damage landmines still cause while showing solidarity with all survivors of landmines and other explosive remnants of war.”
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03/04/2013
Russain Ambassador speaks out | EurActiv
Chizhov – who previously worked in Cyprus as a diplomat (1985-1992) and Russian special representative (1997-2000) said that the Cyprus bailout – known as a “haircut” for larger depositors – is tantamount to a ‘scalping’.
Portraying the large number of Russians residing on the island as oligarchs was “a big misperception in the Western media,” he added.
Oligarchs may hold money in Cyprus, he said, “but those Russians resident there are either representatives of SMEs or retirees.”
In a provocative move, the Russian ambassador said that the Cyprus bailout should be assessed against “the EU’s lofty words about values”.
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03/04/2013
The euro area1 (EA17) seasonally-adjusted2 unemployment rate3 was 12.0% in February 2013, stable compared with January4. The EU271 unemployment rate was 10.9%, up from 10.8% in the previous month4. In both zones, rates have risen markedly compared with February 2012, when they were 10.9% and 10.2% respectively. These figures have been published* on 2 April 2013 by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.
An unemployed youth. Photo: ILO
Eurostat estimates that 26.338 million men and women in the EU 27 member countries, of whom 19.071 million were in the euro area, were unemployed in February 2013.
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03/04/2013
By SIRPI*, Stockholm – China has become the fifth largest exporter of major conventional arms worldwide, according to new data on international arms transfers published today by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). This is the first time China has been in the top five arms exporters since the end of the cold war. Overall, the volume of international transfers of major conventional weapons grew by 17 per cent between 2003–2007 and 2008–12.
World’s top 20 arms exporters for the period 2008–2012. | SIPRI
The five largest suppliers of major conventional weapons during the five-year period 2008–12 were the United States (30 per cent of global arms exports), Russia (26 per cent), Germany (7 per cent), France (6 per cent) and China (5 per cent).
This is the first time that the UK has not been in the top five since at least 1950, the earliest year covered by SIPRI data. China’s displacement of the UK is the first change in the composition of the top five exporters in 20 years.
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02/04/2013
New York, 2 April 2013 – The United Nations General Assembly has approved a global arms trade treaty that failed to achieve unanimous support last week but which garnered the support of a majority of Member States when put to a vote today*.
The poorly regulated trade in arms has adverse humanitarian, human rights and development consequences. Photo: OCHA/ Jihan El Alaily
The resolution containing the text of the treaty, which regulates the international trade in conventional arms, received 154 votes in favour. Three Member States – Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), Iran and Syria – voted against the decision, while 23 countries abstained.
Today’s action follows the failure of the Final UN Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) last Thursday to reach an agreement among all 193 Member States on a treaty text at the conclusion of its two-week session.
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02/04/2013
By Roberto Savio*
Rome, April 2013 – The story of Cyprus story is an excellent example of how inadequate media coverage has now become. Very few will have understood what has really happened, and what its implications are. Following events, without any background or placing them in their contexts, is one of the main reasons for the decline of media as windows on the world, and for having informed and therefore active citizens.
**Location of Cyprus (dark green) | Author: NuclearVacuum | Wikimedia Commons
To explain what has happened and what is likely to happen now requires three angles of analysis: how the Cyprus crisis came about, how it stands in the context of the banking sector worldwide, and what its implications for Europe are.
Let us start from Cyprus and, more precisely with the Republic of Cyprus. In fact, when speaking about the Cyprus of the banking crisis, we are referring to three-fifths of the island of Cyprus, the Greek part. The other two-fifths are a separate political entity, the Turkish Cyprus that only Turkey recognises.
When Greek Cypriot nationalists and elements of the Greek military junta declared the union of the island with Greece in 1974, the Turkish army invaded the northern part of the island to protect the Turkish population, a substantial minority. The result was a serious blow to the island’s economic development.
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HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 