27/12/2014
By Greenpeace USA*, 27 December, 2014 — It’s been a great year for Greenpeace and our supporters. Getting toxic chemicals out of our clothes. Putting sustainable seafood in our grocery stores. Giant internet companies breaking away from climate-denying lobbyists. We could go on (and we will). Here’s just a small sample of the victories you helped make happen this year.
Photo: Cris Toala Oliveraes/Greenpeace
Detoxing our clothing
In June, Adidas laid out its plans to be toxic-free by 2020. The company agreed to phase out 99% of all polyflourinated chemicals (PFCs) from its clothing by the end of 2017, building up to a 100% phaseout by 2020.
In November, Puma announced its commitment to eliminate hazardous chemicals from its products and supply chain. Puma will ensure 100% of all its products are PFC-free by no later than the end of 2017. The commitments came after international actions at stores, letters to the CEO and Greenpeace investigative reporting.
PFCs are used in the manufacturing of clothing and shoes to keep them dirt- and water-resistant. However, these chemicals are known to accumulate in the environment and impact human health. Some of them damage the immune and reproductive systems, and are linked to thyroid disease.
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24/12/2014
Human Wrongs Watch
By Johan Galtung*, 23 December 2014 – TRANSCEND Media Service
The immediate reaction to Obama’s Executive Order of 17 December 2014–re-establishing diplomatic relations, easing travel, swapping prisoners–was a sense of relief: finally correcting a more than 50-year old stupidity. But why now? Later. First, back to June 1960.
**Sign in front of the American interests office, Havana. Cuban addresses a threatening Uncle Sam, “Mr. Imperialists, we have absolutely no fear.” | Author: Idobi, September 2000 | Wikimedia Commons
We drove from New York to Key West, then a ferry–the captain was Norwegian–to La Habana; we wanted to drive all over, talk with everybody to understand. And the social picture was very clear: black, woman, low class overwhelmingly in favor of the revolution; white, man, middle-upper class ended up in Miami.
Why gender? US imperialism was obvious but in addition Cuba was one big brothel for “puritan” US men. And one of the first acts of the revolution was to stop that, liberate the dirt poor girls, organize vocational training–give them dignity.
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24/12/2014
Human Wrongs Watch
By Stephen Lendman*, December 2014 – TRANSCEND Media Service
At age 88, he’s Cuba’s [and Latin America’s] elder statesman. A legend in his own time and then some. Defying critics. Outwitting them. Outliving them.
Fidel Castro, Monumento a José Martí, Habana, Cuba | Photo: Agência Brasil | Wikimedia Commons
This article a snapshot of some of his achievements. Impressive by any standard.
On the 50th anniversary of his July 26, 1953 Fort Moncada attack, media scoundrels pronounced his revolution dead.
Expected collapse. Predicted free market capitalism’s return. The bad old days called good. More on Cuba under Castro below.
A previous article discussed America’s master plan for world dominance. Key is eliminating all sovereign independent governments.
By political, economic or military means. Installing puppet regimes. Convenient stooges. Subservient to Washington.
Few nations challenge US policies successfully. Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz bested 10 US administrations. From Eisenhower through George Bush.
From January 1, 1959. When his guerrilla force ousted US-backed Fulgencio Batista. To his February 2008 retirement announcement as Cuba’s president.
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24/12/2014
United Nations officials announced the entry into force of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), hailing it as a new chapter in collective efforts to bring responsibility, accountability and transparency to the global arms trade. The Treaty prohibits States from exporting conventional weapons to countries when they know those weapons will be used for genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes.
A UN peacekeeper in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) examines AK-47 magazines stored in a warehouse in Beni after they have been collected in the demobilization process in Matembo, North Kivu. UN Photo/Martine Perret
“From now on, the States Parties to this important treaty will have a legal obligation to apply the highest common standards to their international transfers of weapons and ammunition,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement issued on 23 December 2014 ahead of the instrument’s entry into force on 24 December.*
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24/12/2014
Human Wrongs Watch
Without global efforts to respond to a fungal disease affecting banana production, the $36 billion global industry, which provides a source of income or food to some 400 million people around the world, is under threat, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
A banana plant affected by the deadly Fusarium wilt disease among a field of healthy plants in the Philippines. Photo: FAO/Fazil Dusunceli
The agency and its partners on 23 December 2014 said $47 million is needed to tackle the new and deadly Tropical Race 4 (TR4) strain of Fusarium wilt disease, part of which would be used to provide swift on-the-ground assistance to countries facing new outbreaks.*
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24/12/2014
The United Nations refugee agency on 23 December 2014 voiced concern over the “deteriorating situation” facing more than 400 members of a Muslim minority group trapped by the ongoing violence fracturing the Central African Republic (CAR).
A group of internally displaced people at Yakole in Central African Republic. Photo: UNHCR/M. Dore
Adrian Edwards, spokesperson for the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told reporters in Geneva that 474 members of the Peuhl ethnic group had been trapped for several months in the town of Yaloke, 200 kilometers northwest of the capital city of Bangui, where they were now facing dire humanitarian conditions.*
Adults and children had become severely malnourished and more than 30 per cent were suffering from malaria, he noted, adding that there were also six known cases of tuberculosis. In addition, he warned, since their arrival in Yaloke in April, 42 people among the group had died, while others were becoming weaker by the day.
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23/12/2014
Human Wrongs Watch
Banda Aceh, 23 December 2014 (IRIN)* – When the earthquake struck, Irwandi Yusuf, a leader in the armed separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM), was startled in his prison bunk. He began to pack his possessions into a plastic bag. “The earthquake was strong, I thought there might be a tsunami,” he said.
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**Photo: Jefri Aries/IRIN | Aceh rebels with GAM stand guard during a jungle patrol in Jantho, Aceh Besar (File photo 2004)
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“I knew many people would run toward the main door, and the prison guard would shut the gate to stop the crowd because he didn’t know the tsunami was coming.”
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Irwandi, then 44, climbed a metal pole and punched through the asbestos ceiling and tin roof. “I don’t know where I got my strength,” he told IRIN.
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He emerged to find a city overtaken by the sea: “It looked like people were on flying carpets, riding mattresses.”
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23/12/2014
Human Wrongs Watch
By John Vibes – Mint Press News*
December 2014 – Now, over a decade later the evidence of these events are beginning to surface, but the Department of Defense is still doing their best to keep it under the radar.
Source: mintpressnews.com
According to a number of global mainstream media sources, the Pentagon is covering up a disturbing video that was never made public with the rest of the recent torture report.
According to various well respected journalists, including Seymour Hersh, the appalling video was recorded at Abu Ghraib, the notorious US torture dungeon in Iraq that made headlines roughly a decade ago, when the inhumane tactics being used at the prison were exposed.
Sadly, it seems that the evidence released years ago was only scratching the surface.
While the video has remained under wraps thus far, Hersh says it is only a matter of time before it comes out.
Giving a speech at the ACLU last week after the senate torture report was initially released, Hersh gave some insight into what was on the Pentagon’s secret tape.
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23/12/2014
A Royal Air Force British Aerospace Harrier GR.9 aircraft conducts a combat patrol over Afghanistan on 12 December 2008. | Photo: Staff Sgt. Aaron Allmon | Wikimedia Commons
This is the third consecutive year of decline in the total arms sales of the 100 largest arms producers and military services providers.*
With a decrease in sales of 2 per cent in real terms compared to 3.9 per cent in 2012, the pace of the decline has slowed slightly. This is partly attributable to significant increases in arms sales by Russian companies and other emerging suppliers.
Sales by companies headquartered in the United States and Canada have continued to moderately decrease, while sales by Russian-based companies increased by 20 per cent in 2013.
Western Europe offered a more mixed picture, with French companies increasing their sales, sales by British companies remaining stable, and Italian and Spanish arms-producing companies’ sales continuing to decline.
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22/12/2014
By Martin Kreickenbaum*, 22 December 2014, WSWS — For weeks, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere (Christian Democratic Union, CDU) has been trying to win support for his proposal to set up refugee camps that would be maintained by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (HCR) in North Africa.
Crisis in Iraq | Source: UNICEF
He thus takes up an initiative launched more than ten years ago by former British Prime Minister and Labour Party leader Tony Blair and the then-Social Democratic Party (SPD) Interior Minister Otto Schily.
In a television interview on ZDFs Morgenmagazin last month, de Maiziere explained his plans for such camps, describing them in his typically cynical manner as “welcoming and departure centres”.
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HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 