January 2009
Former President Jimmy Carter Supports Call For New 9/11 Investigation
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has become the latest, and perhaps most prominent, public figure to express support for a new investigation into the 9/11 attacks. We Are Change Ohio attended a book signing by the former President in Chicago. Despite the best efforts of secret service personnel to abduct the person recording the conversation, [...]
Spanish Court to Investigate War Crimes Committed by IOF in Gaza
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) welcomes the decision by the National Court of Spain to launch an investigation into seven Israeli former senior Israeli military officials suspected of having committed war crimes in the Gaza Strip. The decision issued by the Spanish National Court, the highest Spanish judicial council, on Thursday, 29 January, [...]
More Aussie heatwaves on horizon without climate action
As south-eastern Australia swelters through another day with the mercury above 40 degrees the Australian Conservation Foundation is warning heatwaves will become much more common if our Government does not get tougher on climate change. “Adelaide and Melbourne are copping it this week with several days well over 40 degrees and we will experience many [...]
SRI LANKA: Government and Tamil Tigers violating laws of war
Reports emerging from Sri Lanka suggest that government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are violating the laws of war by targeting civilians and preventing them from escaping to safety. Amnesty International has received information that the LTTE has, in at least one instance, prevented injured civilians from moving to safer areas [...]
Hungary to defy European Commission call to scrap ban on GMO crops
Hungary will keep its ban on GMO (genetically modified organisms) maize imports and the planting of GMO seeds, Agriculture Ministry undersecretary Zoltán Gőgös announced. The European Commission recently called on Hungary to entirely lift its GMO ban. Last week the EU’s executive arm backed proposals that would grant standard ten-year licences for the two GMO [...]
Putting soya impacts in Brazil on the map
Brazil - Monitoring the effects of deforestation on the Amazon is a difficult undertaking. The Amazon is huge and it’s extremely difficult to keep tabs on what’s happening in the remote fringes of the rainforest. News of illegal logging and the spread of soya plantations can take a long time - if ever - to [...]
Organic pigs - the gold standard for animal welfare
This week Jamie Oliver launches his new campaign to highlight the plight of pigs and how our food labelling system is leaving customers confused. [1] The Soil Association believes the current voluntary labelling schemes are misleading. In fact, did you know that there is no legal definition of ‘free-range’ when it comes to pork? Pork [...]
WWF to closely monitor outcomes of Guiana gold mining agreement
WWF, long a campaigner against gold mining impacts in the Amazon and Guiana shield, has committed itself to closely watching the outcome of a historic agreement on control of illegal gold miners.
The agreement, signed in Rio on 23 December last month by presidents Sarkozy of France and Lula of Brazil, promises French aid in efforts [...]
Cattle ranching biggest driver of Amazon deforestation
Belém, Brazil - At the World Social Forum in Belém in the heart of the Amazon we’ve released evidence confirming cattle ranching to be the biggest driver of Amazon deforestation. Greenpeace Brazil has produced a series of maps which show in greater detail than ever before the direct links between cattle ranching and forest destruction [...]
Amnesty International Photograph Shows Remains of U.S. Missile That Hit Paramedics in Gaza
Amnesty International researchers in Gaza have photographed the remains of a U.S.-made missile that killed three paramedics and a child on Jan. 4. The human rights organization said the paramedics were killed on their way to rescue wounded and the incident was one example among others in which medical teams came under fire while carrying [...]
Obama and 9/11 Part 2
Imagine yourself within the mind of Barack Obama, the first African American president of the United States of America. You are a man who knows how “the system” works.
This knowledge has been accrued at hard struggle, and by a remarkable and unique ability to adapt to any environment because you spent a lifetime as an [...]
Obama and 9/11
Although I was as happy as most Americans that Barack Obama took the oath of office last week, rather than his Republican alternative, there is a major reason that he did not get my vote in November, which went instead to Cynthia McKinney: Obama is unlikely to re-open an investigation into what really happened on [...]
US: Grant Rights Groups Full Access to Guantanamo
(New York) - Four leading human rights and civil liberties organizations today sent a letter to President Barack Obama asking that they be granted full access to the Guantanamo Bay detention center so that they can review the conditions of confinement and make recommendations for revising US detention policies.
The American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International [...]
Reject whale plan, Greenpeace tells leaders
Auckland, New Zealand - Greenpeace says leaders from New Zealand, the United States, Australia and other International Whaling Commission members must listen to their people and reject proposals that could see whaling increase. The call comes amid revelations of United States involvement in behind-the-scenes negotiations that could see increased whaling off the coast of Japan [...]
European Union Failing its Obligations to Protect Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) demands that European Union (EU) immediately take action in order to protect human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The EU is currently failing in its obligations to effectively intervene in order to protect the lives of civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), especially civilians in the [...]
Rewriting the Genetic Text in Human Brain Development
How adaptive epigenetic changes that can rewrite genes contribute to human brain development and evolution. The brains of higher animals become increasingly complex in the course of evolution, reaching a pinnacle in primates and the human species. And among the most tantalizing discoveries since the sequencing of the human and other genomes are the genetic [...]
LOHAFEX Update: Dump Underway
ETC Group joined the chorus of voices, including the German Environment Ministry, expressing its deep regret at the decision of the German Minister of Research to re-authorize the controversial LOHAFEX ocean fertilization expedition. Researchers on board the German vessel RV Polarstern have now begun dumping 6 tons of iron sulphate over 300 square kilometers of [...]
Nine Brutal Disappointments For US Obama Fans
I Would rather like to point out Obama mistakes as one still hopeful for better future Obama executive orders and leadership, than to complain. Closing Guantanamo, ending torture policies, restoring Executive Order 12667, directing federal regulators to grant states the right to set strict automobile emissions and fuel efficiency standards, are all positives.
As the news [...]
Total Reform of Global Food System Urged
Hundreds of millions more people may yet fall victim to hunger due to a global food system badly in need of repair, said international humanitarian groups at a high-level conference on the food crisis this week in Madrid. As officials from about 100 countries gathered for the UN-sponsored meeting, groups representing small farmers and providing [...]
“No” to LOHAFEX’s Large-Scale Ocean Fertilization Project
A large-scale ocean fertilisation experiment led by a German-Indian joint venture1 has been approved by the German Research Ministry and is starting to take place in the Southern Ocean, despite protests from environmental groups and opposition from the German Environment Ministry (BMU). Although the documentation provided earlier indicated the fertilisation area would be at 50 [...]
Global Food Crisis Will Worsen: Oxfam
Urgent action is needed to prevent hundreds of millions more people slipping into hunger as a result of volatile food prices and increasing energy and water scarcity, said international agency Oxfam today. Decades of underinvestment in agriculture coupled with the increasing threat of climate change mean that despite recent price falls, future food security is [...]
Killing of Human Rights Activist in Northeast Brazil Underscores Government’s Failure to Combat Death Squads, Police Corruption
Amnesty International said today that the assassination of a human rights activist who had campaigned against the spread of death squads, police corruption and violence in northeast Brazil highlights the government’s failure to confront and stop the violence.
On Saturday, Jan. 24, two hooded men broke into Manoel Mattos’ house and shot him in the chest [...]
Closed-door meeting could lift whaling ban
(Sydney, Australia) - Negotiations at a meeting taking place behind closed doors in England this week could jeopardise the worldwide ban on commercial whaling, according to IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare). The International Whaling Commission (IWC) is holding a three-day Small Working Group meeting in Cambridge from today with delegates from around 24 countries [...]
Betraying the Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King Day in 2009 precedes the dawn of the historic inauguration of America’s first African American President. This inauguration is lauded as the realization of Dr. King’s dream, a defining moment in the cultural paradigm, a tectonic shift in race relations and a beacon of real change for the plight of the poor [...]
A Time to Break Silence By Rev. Martin Luther King
I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience leaves me no other choice. I join with you in this meeting because I am in deepest agreement with the aims and work of the organization which has brought us together: Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam. The recent statement of your executive [...]
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