Demonstrators protest against government austerity measures outside the Greek Parliament in Athens last month. (Photo: CNN)Greece’s situation is not an isolated event, but a bellwether for the industrial world and beyond. The fallout from the 2008 global crisis hasn’t reached bottom yet, and the depths will be dug deeper as the Euro crisis spreads — [...]
Humpback whale, Wilhelmina Bay, western Antarctic Peninsula. December 2010. (WWF / Michael Harte)”Commercial over-exploitation of the world’s fish stocks is severe,” he continued. “Many species have been hunted to fractions of their original populations. More than half of global fisheries are exhausted, and a further third are depleted. Between 30 and 35 per cent of critical marine [...]
Assange talking to Occupy LSX. (photo: Matthew Taylor) Assange Fate to Be Determined Next Week UK Supreme Court to announce May 30 if Assange is to be extradicted to Sweden – Common Dreams staff link http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/05/23-1 Julian Assange will find out next Wednesday whether he will be extradited to Sweden to face sex crime [...]
. It won’t be a pleasant world she lives in. Cities and countries will be locked in an expensive battle with rapidly rising seas; but after spending trillions of dollars, most of the world’s ports will have been abandoned anyway. Up to seventy percent of the planet’s species will be wiped out. Gone. Vanished. Kaput. [...]
Young girl waiting at a cash grant distribution by Oxfam GB in Al Hodeidah governorate, district of Al-Jarrahi, Yemen in March 2012. (photo: Wolfgang Gressmann/Oxfam, March 2012)The aid groups, including Oxfam, Save the Children and CARE, report that 10 million people, 44 percent of the population, don’t have enough to eat and say that the [...]
Concerns Grow Over Stability of Fukushima Fuel Pool 4 Next strong earthquake could cause release of far more radiation than the initial meltdown – Common Dreams staff link http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/05/23-8 Whether the spent fuel pool at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant Unit 4 can withstand another strong earthquake has become a growing concern around the world. Fukushima’s [...]
“The single biggest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history.” http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/05/23-5 ‘Biggest Act of Civil Disobedience in Canadian History’ Marchers defy Bill 78; Neighborhoods fill with sound of banging pots and pans – Common Dreams staff That’s how yesterday’s Montreal protest is being described today. Hundreds of thousands red-shirted demonstrators defied Quebec‘s new “anti-protest” law [...]
Palestinian history is now evolving in two opposing directions. (Activestills) Palestine’s Future in Safe Hands By Ramzy Baroud The commemoration of the Nakba needs to be more than a ritualistic event; the remembrance should be integrated into a clear and comprehensive national project aimed at offsetting the harm wrought to generations of Palestinians. There [...]
Egyptians lineup to choose their president on May 23, 2012. (Aljazeera) By Hasan Afif El-Hasan Arab people are demanding democracy after living for decades under authoritarian regimes suffering systematic violations of their natural rights where injustice, impunity, police torture, battering and excessive use of deadly force were the norm. Ramzy Baroud put it [...]
Photo by Reuters I’ve just returned home from the NATO summit and I can’t stop focusing on all that we don’t know after dozens of world leaders met for two days. I have to wonder if the Obama Administration is disappointed in the results. At the end of all of those hours of talking, the [...]
Piers Morgan told me how to hack a phone, says Jeremy Paxman Presenter tells Leveson inquiry former Mirror editor teased Ulrika Jonsson about private conversations she had Dan Sabbagh and Lisa O’Carroll guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 23 May 2012 16.15 BST Jeremy Paxman at the Leveson inquiry: Piers Morgan knew how to hack phones. Source: ITN Link [...]
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said the site was going public ‘for our employees and our investors’. Photograph: Kimihiro Hoshino/AFP/Getty Images Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg sees stock tumble amid IPO lawsuits Now they call it Fadebook – shareholders call in lawyers as stock price tumbles and regulators are not far behind Facebook’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, has gone [...]
Eurozone leaders Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande talk ahead of the latest Brussels summit. Photograph: Lionel Bonaventure/AFP/Getty Images Eurozone crisis: Germany and France clash over eurobonds at summit French president François Hollande marks his Brussels debut by challenging chancellor Angela Merkel over bailout Ian Traynor in Brussels and Patrick Wintour guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 23 May 2012 20.37 BST European [...]
Why Even Failed Activism Succeeds By David Swanson http://warisacrime.org/content/why-even-failed-activism-succeeds I enjoy reading histories of past activism, including memoirs by long-time activists, such as Lawrence Wittner’s new book, Working for Peace and Justice. Almost every such account includes belated discoveries of the extent to which a government was been spying on [...]
Sectarian war back in Lebanon 21 May 2012 Lebanon is currently going through an unprecedented level of sectarian tension which has not been seen since the signing of the Taef Agreement in 1989 that ended 16 years of bloody conflicts of the Lebanese civil war. Shortly after the deadly clashes [...]
Evidence Continues to Mount for Ticking ‘Methane Time Bomb’ – Common Dreams staff New research that utilized both ground-based measurements and aerial surveys in specific sub-arctic regions in Alaska and Greenland has discovered approximately 150,000 ‘methane seeps’ – a phenomenon where methane gas previously held in the frozen permafrost beneath tundras or under arctic sea [...]
When West Bank settlers shoot at unarmed Palestinians while Israeli soldiers look on without intervening, that’s a story–especially when one of the Palestinians suffers a head wound. So it’s natural that this weekend’s conflict near the Palestinian village of Asira al-Qibliya has been covered widely–in 972, the Guardian, theWashington Post, Haaretz, the Daily Dish, and elsewhere. Still, it’s important [...]
, May 22, 2012 Print This | Share This Following in the rich history of fake endings to wars during the Obama Administration’s first term, the US and other NATO member nations are loudly hyping their endorsement of a transition pact, which is being presented as an “irreversible pullout” of occupation forces. [...]
To get their searing point across, a new educational and fundraising campaign by the UK-basedFreedom From Torture, which gives medical care to survivors of torture, features help-wanted“ads” in mainstream papers. “The government of a Middle Eastern state is recruiting a senior torturer to work in a well-equipped prison. Our ideal candidate would be prepared to inflict extreme pain [...]
A bulldozer dumps a load of trash into a burn pit just 300 yards from the runway at Bagram Airfield, January 2012. An Army memo from 2011 found the burn pit is associated with “long-term” health effects on soldiers at Bagram.Photo: U.S. Army Leaked Memo: Afghan ‘Burn Pit’ Could Wreck Troops’ Hearts, Lungs By Spencer [...]
You may be finding it interesting to read the ‘solutions’ being pushed to the economic ills of various ountries. Austerity once all the rage seems to be getting replaced by a rapid expansion in money supply an alleged parallel increase in jobs and credit and the stage is set for [...]
Invoices seen by the Guardian purport to show how a private investigation firm made payments in return for confidential information. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA link http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/may/22/metropolitan-police-anti-corruption-allegations Scotland Yard is investigating allegations that detectives working for its anti-corruption unit have been paid thousands of pounds by a firm of private investigators. A parliamentary inquiry was told today that [...]
Occupy Wall Street protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge on October 1, 2011. (Photo: JSsocal) The Occupy Movement and the Politics of Educated Hope Friday, 18 May 2012 14:46By Henry A. Giroux, Truthout | Op-Ed “To be truly radical is to make hope possible rather than despair inevitable.” -Raymond Williams American society has lost its claim on democracy. One indication of [...]
Kenny MacAskill said an inquiry is a matter for the courts. Picture: Jane Barlow By GARETH ROSE Published on Wednesday 23 May 2012 00:00 A SERIES of high-profile figures have backed calls for an inquiry into the conviction of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi for the Lockerbie bombing. War correspondent Kate Adie, social [...]
Seepage and Suffering: Obama’s Civil War Scenario for Afghanistan WRITTEN BY CHRIS FLOYD TUESDAY, 22 MAY 2012 16:37 “The winds in Chicago Have torn me to shreds; Reality has always Had too many heads.” – Bob Dylan, “Cold Irons Bound” So now we know the grand plan of the Peace [...]
Greek Leftist Leader Alexis Tsipras: ‘It’s a War Between People and Capitalism’ Greece‘s eurozone fate may now be in the hands of the 37-year-old political firebrand and his Syriza party By Helena Smith in Athens May 22, 2012 “The Guardian‘ – – “I don’t believe in heroes or saviours,” says [...]
Julian Assange Interviews President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa Ecuador’s Fight Against Its Media Vultures link to article and video http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article31397.htm Video Posted May 22, 2012 In 2010 Correa was taken hostage in an attempted coup d’etat. After the attempt he launched a controversial counter-offensive Ecuador’s media, which he blames for the coup [...]
