Rupert Murdoch’s Management and Standards Committee has given Scotland Yard access to an enormous reservoir of material from News International’s central computer servers. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images On Saturday morning, the police arrested four journalists who have worked for Rupert Murdoch. For a while, it looked as though these were yet more arrests of people related to the News [...]
. Greek PM Lucas Papademos has been holding talks with private investors to clinch debt-swap deal [Reuters] European leaders are set to meet in Brussels, the Belgian capital and de facto capital of the European Union, for a fresh round of talks aimed at tackling the eurozone debt crisis, with Greece‘s precarious financial future at the top of [...]
The Present Stands No Chance Against the Past By Robert Fisk January 28, 2012 “The Independent” – -The Palestinians are not only, it seems, an “invented people” – courtesy of Newt Gingrich – but the only Arabs on the Mediterranean not to enjoy a Spring or [...]
The Santa María II belongs to Lota Protein, owned by the Koppernaes Group in Norway, which has waged a 21-month legal war with eight powerful groups that own rights to 87 percent of jack mackerel in Chilean waters. Juan Pablo Figueroa Lasch/ICIJ With government backing, a handful of powerful Chilean families have [...]
After years of intensive fishing, jack mackerel stocks in the southern Pacific have declined dramatically. Some experts say the only way to save the fishery is to impose a total ban for five years. Periódico El Ciudadano Jack mackerel, down 90 percent in 20 years in once-rich southern seas, foretells wider global calamity; world’s [...]
Parasites Lost by Doug Harvey I once asked a Native American if he thought whether North America was in any way in a post-colonial period. His response was, “Have they left yet?” Of the New World republics that came about as a result of colonization, the United States is going to have [...]
We Can Now See the True Cost of Globalization The worldwide public realizes there is something deeply wrong with today’s world economic system Sunday Observer Editorial When Karl Marx called for the workers of the world to unite, it seems unlikely he had in mind an iPhone boycott. But suggestions for just such a campaign [...]
Restaurants in Istanbul are translating their menus into Arabic to entice Arab diners. Photograph: Atlantide Phototravel/Corbis In the Turkish restaurants around Taksim Square in Istanbul, the menus are getting a new look. It’s not so much the food that is changing but the languages, as more and more restaurateurs choose to include Arabic. Erkan Ali Karabulut, manager of [...]
. Sarkozy to Speed French Pullout, Urges NATO to Step Up End of Afghan War Sarkozy, Karzai Agree to Push 2013 ‘Handover,’ But for Very Different Reasons by Jason Ditz, January 27, 2012 | Print This | Share This | Antiwar Forum In a move that was probably inevitable after they [...]
King Abdullah (R) meets with Khaled Meshaal (L) and Sheikh Tamim at the Royal Palace in Amman [Reuters] Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal is in Jordan on his first official visit since he was forced to leave in 1999 for what authorities called “illicit and harmful” activities. The trip on Sunday by Meshaal, who was accompanied by Qatar‘s [...]
Pentagon Requests Mightier Bomb to Attack Iran The 30,000-pound bunker-busters are designed to penetrate Iran’s underground nuclear facilities by John Glaser, January 28, 2012 | Print This | Share This | Antiwar Forum The Pentagon has decided that its largest conventional bomb isn’t capable of destroying Iran’s underground nuclear enrichment facilities and has ordered efforts to make it more powerful. The 30,000-pound [...]
Ireland’s Deputy Prime Minister Eamon Gilmore (MaanImages/HO) GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Ireland’s Deputy Prime Minister Eamon Gilmore visited the Gaza Strip on Friday, where he slammed Israel‘s blockade on the coastal enclave. Gilmore, who is also Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, told reporters: “Ireland is completely opposed to the blockade … It is [...]
Members from Arab League observers delegation walk in a government building during their visit Deraa city southern Syria, Dec. 29, 2011, in this handout photograph released by Syria’s national news agency. (Reuters/Sana/HO) By Erika Solomon and Alistair Lyon BEIRUT (Reuters) — The Arab League said on Saturday it had suspended its monitoring mission in [...]
A rally in support of President Bashar al-Assad, whose cousin at the centre of an investigation into a large shipment of cigarettes has been accused of financing pro-government demonstrations. Photograph: Stringer/AFP/Getty Images A tobacco giant behind three of the UK’s leading brands is under investigation after millions of its cigarettes were shipped to a firm [...]
y Davos concern: Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund, addressing the World Economic Forum. Photograph: Laurent Gillieron/EPA Plans to commit €22bn to tackling the scourge of youth unemployment across Europe will be considered by EU leaders on Monday as international pressure mounts for action to help young people chart a way through [...]
Arizona’s laws have become increasingly discriminatory [EPA] Leeds, United Kingdom - When students attending Tucson schools returned to the classroom after Martin Luther King Day, they were in for a shock. They arrived to find out that their Mexican-American studies program had been dismantled and that many books they had used in class were now banned. Among [...]
An ordinance expert pictured searching for mines.(MaanImages/file) BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — The founder of humanitarian organization Roots of Peace said Friday that the group has demanded that Israel works to remove landmines from the Palestinian territories. Heidi Kühn told Voice of Palestine radio that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his government would help to remove [...]
Not a Peep About the President’s Praise for War Laura Flanders on January 25, 2012 – 11:54pm ET The grades for the president’s State of the Union are in and the critics have been kind. In fact, it’s chilling to see just how few hits the president takes for couching his entire [...]
In a little over 2 years the number of posts at this site has passed 9,000. I hope that this material has given you or led you to more material to conduct your own independent assessment of happenings around the world. The fact that my own thoughts [...]
Israeli soldiers sit atop tanks near Kibbutz Nir Am, just outside the northern Gaza Strip, on Jan. 18, 2012. (REUTERS/Amir Cohen) GAZA CITY GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — An Israeli army tank fired an artillery shell at a Palestinian home east of Gaza City on Saturday morning, causing damage but no injuries, locals said. The shell [...]
Hekmatyar’s whereabouts remain uknown after he was expelled from Iran in 2002 [AP] The year was 1985. In the heat of the CIA-backed Afghan jihad against the Soviet Union, a delegation of Afghan resistance leaders met with US President Ronald Reagan in the White House, where they were declared the “moral equivalent” to the founding fathers of the United [...]
A study of countries that implemented ‘austerity plans’ showed they often weaken the economy [GALLO/GETTY] In an unequal economic situation totally geared to placing the maximum profits and assets of society into the hands of the elite austerity is a quick fix to maintain that very system and to place the burden for recovery on [...]
The Arab League says around 100 observers will remain in country but will not undertake new missions [Reuters] The Arab League has suspended its monitoring mission in Syria due to what it called the escalation of violence and “critical deterioration of the situation” in the country. Nabil Elaraby, the secretary-general of the Arab League, announced the decision in a statement on Saturday. “It [...]
Scott Horton Interviews Pepe Escobar Scott Horton, January 24, 2012 Print This | Share This | Comment | Antiwar Forum Globetrotting journalist Pepe Escobar discusses his article “Sinking the Petrodollar in the Persian Gulf;” the increasingly divergent US and Israeli “red lines” on Iran’s nuclear program; proposed pipelines [...]
by Jason Ditz, January 27, 2012 | Print This | Share This | Antiwar Forum Such public displays have been incredibly common in recent years, but US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Martin Dempsey’s emergency visit to Israel last week may well have had a sense of genuine urgency not often seen. [...]
Remember the catch dry from the Israeli Zionists was always, “take what you can you will never have to give it back.” With that as a fundamental position and strategy there can never be meaningful negotiations from the Israeli fascist, apartheid regime. No matter what propositions they are [...]
In May 2010, all 189 signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty – including Iran – tacitly agreed to a nuclear weapons-free zone in the Middle East and called for a conference in 2012 in Finland. But Israel has refused to support a nuclear weapons-free zone for the region, reluctant to give up its own. Israel [...]
Workers unload oil palm fruit in Kertajaya, Banten Province, Indonesia. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images There are good biofuels and bad biofuels: the trick is telling one from the other. That’s particularly difficult when trying to take account of the natural forests and wetlands that can destroyed in the drive to grow some biofuel crops. But we’re [...]
The assembled brainpower at the 2012 World Economic Forum in Davos failed to see the real threats on the big themes that dominated the meeting. Photograph: Laurent Gillieron/EPA Larry Elliott, economics editor guardian.co.uk, Friday 27 January 2012 19.51 GMT Article history Three big themes have dominated this year’s Davos: Europe, jobs and inequality. While it would be comforting [...]
KAM Workshops (CC-BY-SA) This article concerns what happens when you have taken in the capitalist delusion, hook, line and sinker. You develop a complete trust in the fact that the only way out is to take orders from above. It is a lot like what you could a Good King Wenceslas syndrome. All we need [...]
US to Reestablish Military Presence in Philippines The move is part of a broader imperial plan to counter China‘s influence in Asia-Pacific by John Glaser, January 26, 2012 | Print This | Share This | Antiwar Forum The U.S. is in talks with the government of the Philippines about re-establishing a military presence in the country about two decades after the [...]
Giving up alcohol is hard without the help of loved ones, and organisations such as Alcoholics Anonymous. Photograph: Johnny Green/PA ‘For 40 years I’ve planned booze into my diary, making sure it would be there before, after and usually during any significant event. Only very rarely have I excluded it.’ Andy Mayer, The Guardian, 20.10.01. When [...]
A Gaza school following an Israeli bombing raid. (UNRWA) By Jennifer LoewensteinAt night I could not get to sleep. My body was trembling all over and no matter what I did to try to calm myself, I could not stop this trembling. I know now that baba was terribly worried about me, but then I [...]
Howard Zinn dedicated his life to decency, democracy and civil disobedience; to grassroots movements and ‘unknown people’ [GALLO/GETTY] Editor’s note: Today, January 27, is the second anniversary of the death of Howard Zinn. An active participant in the Civil Rights movement, he was dismissed in 1963 from his position as a tenured professor at Spelman College in [...]
A protester holds a Palestinian flag next to extreme right wing Jewish settlers during a weekly protest in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem on Dec. 30, 2011. (Reuters/Ammar Awad) BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — PLO meetings with Israeli envoys have not been able to restart negotiations, a Palestinian presidential spokesman said Friday, after Israel said [...]
Dalia Hashad – Avaaz.org avaaz@avaaz.org 11:17 PM (47 minutes ago) to me Dear friends, A new global treaty could allow corporations to police everything that we do on the Internet. Last week 3 million of us successfully pushed back the US censorship bills – if we act now, we can get the EU Parliament to [...]
ACTA: The Corporate Usurpation of the Internet Written by Nile Bowie In the wake of a public outcry against internet regulation bills such as SOPA and PIPA, representatives of the EU have signed a new and far more threatening legislation yesterday in Tokyo. Spearheaded by the governments [...]
The iPhone wouldn’t exist without all that government R&D that created computers and the internet [GALLO/GETTY] Austin, TX - A central doctrine of evangelicals for the “free market” is its capacity for innovation: New ideas, new technologies, new gadgets – all flow not from governments, but from individuals and businesses, allowed to flourish in the market, we [...]
It is very important to realise that the capitalist system runs on inequality and the oppression and dispossession of the vast mass of the people. Through this process the assets and wealth created by the people are simply diverted to the pockets and the bank accounts of the elites. To secure this result the propaganda [...]
“A State of the Union address, with the entire military leadership staring at you from the floor of the Congress, is not the easiest place for a President to speak truth to power,” writes LeVine [GALLO/GETTY] Irvine, CA - How do you judge a State of the Union speech that begins with a lie? There was any number [...]
Instead, Steinitz called for the international community to impose a full naval and aerial blockade across all of Iran so that “no one can even go out[sic].” This is the only option with any chance of success, he said. Steinitz said a good [...]
Kenneth Roth, executive director Follow on twitter @kenroth © 2010 Sarah Shatz World Report 2012 By Kenneth RothThe sad truth is that the dominant Western policy toward the Arab people traditionally has been one of containment. Today many applaud as the people of the region take to the streets to claim their [...]
Download The World Report 2012 [PDF, 4 MB] This 22nd annual World Report summarizes human rights conditions in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide in 2011. It reflects extensive investigative work that Human Rights Watchstaff has undertaken during the year, often in close partnership with domestic human rights activists.The introductory essay examines the [...]
Christian Parenti, Big Storms Require Big Government Posted by Christian Parenti at 9:11am, January 26, 2012. At some basic level, climate change shouldn’t be hard to grasp. Fossil-fuel burning — the essence of our civilization since the industrial revolution — dumps prodigious amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) [...]
Asian, European and Latin American fleets havedevastated fish stocks in the southern Pacific, once among the world’s richest waters, a new investigation by the Center’s International Consortium of Investigative Journalists has found. Governments with the power to stop the plunder have stalled for years, and no binding rules are in place. The result: stocks of [...]
State of the Apple (Rotten) by JEFF BALLINGER President Barack Obama blew a kiss to Apple in the State of the Union speech, praising the entrepreneurial spirit of its founder, the late Steve Jobs, as the cameras panned to his widow in the audience. Obama’s timing couldn’t be weirder. In [...]
US Boots in Libya? 21 January 2012 link to article http://www.abdelbariatwan.com/USBootsinLibya.htm The US Administration has not denied reports that it dispatched 12,000 soldiers to Malta as a prelude to moving them to Libya in an attempt to put the deteriorating situation there under control. Arab satellite channel televisions have [...]
I Israel snaps at Iran 21 January 2012 http://www.abdelbariatwan.com/IsraelSnapsatIran.htm ‘Israel is going to hit Iran’. No, ‘Israel wavers on Iran Strike’. ‘US Army Chief in Tel Aviv to prevent Iran Strike’. ‘Obama warns Netanyahu: No Strike without US’. These are the kind of headlines that have dominated front pages [...]
AP Merkel delivers the opening address at the World Economic Forum on Jan. 25. link to article http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,811607,00.html As fears mount that the euro crisis could trigger a global recession, all eyes are on Germany to take an even stronger lead in the rescue efforts. But Chancellor Angela Merkel has disappointed these expectations, warning against placing [...]
AP Iran is the fifth largest producers of oil in the world. link to article http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,811507,00.html The European Union embargo on Iranian oil will only come into effect in six months, but the leadership in Tehran wants to act first: Exports to Europe are set to be halted immediately. It is a move which could mean added [...]
