26/03/2015
.
OXFORD, 26 March 2015 (IRIN)* – 2014 was a year of records for asylum claims, according to an annual round-up released today by UNHCR, which noted that 866,000 claims were made in the world’s industrialized nations, double the figure for 2013.
.
**Photo: Alfredo D’Amato/UNHCR | Rescued migrants sleep after being plucked from a boat off the coast of Italy in summer 2014. Most boat arrivals in 2014 were asylum seekers from Syria, Eritrea and elsewhere.
That figure will undoubtedly grab headlines, but the report reveals many other important trends. IRIN has highlighted a few of them:
• For the fourth year running, Germany was the largest recipient of new asylum claims (with 434,000) among this group of industrialised countries.
Over the same period, Sweden registered the largest number relative to its population size – 24.4 applicants per 1,000 inhabitants.
The United States, although the second largest recipient of new asylum seekers, averaged only 1.3 applicants per 1,000 nationals.
read more »
Posted in Africa, Asia, Market Lords, Middle East, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples, War Lords |
Leave a Comment »
26/03/2015
26 March 2015 (Middle East Eye)* — Saudi Arabia and a coalition of regional allies launched a series of airstrikes in Yemen on Wednesday night against the Houthi militia, which the movement’s spokesman has called a “declaration of war”.
.
Middle East Eye
At least 17 civilians have been killed in the capital Sanaa during the overnight offensive, although local medical sources have said that this number could yet rise.
The airstrikes also targeted al-Daylami airbase and the adjacent international airport in north Sanaa, as well as the presidential complex seized by the rebels in January, military sources told AFP.
Witnesses said residents were helping civil defense officials to search for any more victims under the rubble of the houses damaged in the raids.
The homes are located in a neighbourhood adjacent to the international airport and an air base targeted in the raids, said local residents.
read more »
Posted in Market Lords, Middle East, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples, War Lords |
1 Comment »
26/03/2015
26 March 2015 (RT)* — A coalition of 10 Sunni Arab states is on a military offensive against Shiite Houthi militants in Yemen, recently proclaimed by America’s president as a brilliant example of war on terror, but now catapulting the Middle East into the inferno of battle.
.
Source: RT
Saudi Arabia has initiated an international military operation in Yemen that many experts are already calling a proxy war against Iran, since Houthi fighters are believed to have strategic backup from Tehran.
The internal Yemeni conflict has the potential to transform into a military standoff based on religious background between the Sunni monarchies of the Persian Gulf on one side and Shiites of the region supported by Iran on the other.
US President Barack Obama has authorized “logistical and intelligence support.”
The coalition is bombing a country that used to have heavy American presence for years, since Washington used to station a fleet of assault UAVs in Yemen, waging drone warfare against militants of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
read more »
Posted in Market Lords, Middle East, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples, War Lords |
Leave a Comment »
26/03/2015
25 March 2015 – With criminal groups transforming into ever more sophisticated networks, and their ability to operate across borders increasing, the need for greater information sharing and cooperation is urgent.*
Source: UNODC
To meet this need, UNODC (UN Office on Drugs and Crime) has developed SHERLOC: an online knowledge management portal for Sharing Electronic Resources and Laws on Crime and disseminating information on how States implement the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC).
SHERLOC aims to promote communication between States, police enforcement agencies, civil society and other organizations, and has been developed to easily provide access to legal cases related to countries’ implementation of the Convention.
Since its creation a year ago, SHERLOC has grown to include information on over 1,800 individual cases and 2,100 instances of legislation concerning national laws.
SHERLOC has been developed with a wide user base in mind: Governments, judicial agencies, law enforcement officials, legal practitioners, academics and more.
It includes information on a range of criminal activities such as cybercrime, human trafficking, money laundering, piracy, and wildlife and forest crime.
read more »
Posted in Africa, Asia, Latin America & Caribbean, Market Lords, Middle East, Mother Earth, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples, War Lords |
1 Comment »
26/03/2015
By Arielle Denis and Daniela Varano*
25 March 2015 – Media outlets in Japan and Norway report that the United States has become more assertive in its opposition to the humanitarian initiative, issuing “demarcates” to its allies to refrain from backing a Pledge announced by the Austrian government at the conclusion of the Third Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons.
Source: ICAN
Prompted by the comprehensive evidence generated by the Vienna Conference and its two predecessors, the Pledge is a call to action to “fill the legal gap for the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons”.
Amidst calls for a nuclear weapons free world the US has decided to show its hand and reveal that it intends to do everything it can to control the debate on nuclear disarmament and isn’t interested in anyone else pushing it out of its comfort zone.
The five nuclear weapons states of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) have been quite suspicious of the so-called “humanitarian initiative”.
read more »
Posted in Market Lords, Middle East, Mother Earth, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples, War Lords |
1 Comment »
26/03/2015
This year’s commemoration of the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade will have particular significance at United Nations Headquarters in New York, where six years of work to establish a permanent memorial to honor the victims pays off with the unveiling on 25 March 2015.
Rodney Leon, architect and designer of the Permanent Memorial to the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. UN Photo/Devra Berkowitz
Designed by Rodney Leon, an American architect of Haitian descent who was chosen in 2013 as the winner of an international competition attracting a total of 310 entries from 83 countries, ‘The Ark of Return’ honours the memories of the estimated 15 million men, women and children who were victims of the largest forced migration in history.
“It makes me feel extremely proud that I can play a role and a part in the commemoration of such an important and historic day,” Mr. Leon says in an interview.
“I feel really proud that we have a physical marker and a place of remembrance for this annual celebration to take place moving forward.”
Having also been chosen to design the African Burial Ground National Monument in lower Manhattan, erected on a spot where 15,000 people of African origin were buried over a period of around 100 years from the 1690s until 1794, Mr. Leon is familiar with art relating to slavery and the African experience in the Americas.
read more »
Posted in Africa, Market Lords, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples |
Leave a Comment »
26/03/2015
EDIRNE, 25 March 2015 (IRIN)* – Thousands of asylum seekers, many of them from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, are being denied entry to the European Union via Turkey’s border with Bulgaria. According to testimonies from asylum seekers, they are not only denied the opportunity to apply for asylum, but turned back by Bulgarian border police and, in many cases, beaten.
**Photo: Jodi Hilton/IRIN | A group of Afghan men walk past the Turkish village of Uzgac after reportedly being pushed back from the border by Bulgarian police.
The pattern of systematic pushbacks and beatings was highlighted by a Human Rights Watch report in 2014, but evidence that they have continued came to light this month with the deaths of two Yazidi Iraqis who attempted to cross the border.
Click here to see IRIN’s photo feature on how they died and evidence that a Bulgarian government policy introduced in 2013 may be behind the numerous documented cases of pushbacks and abuse of asylum seekers at the Turkish border.
read more »
Posted in Africa, Asia, Middle East, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples, War Lords |
Leave a Comment »
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 