A report in The New York Times today describes water shortages in Spain as a "national crisis.' Scientists say that Southern Europe and especially parts of southeast Spain are drying rapidly to near-desert conditions, a process that some experts call "Africanization' and which is accelerated by tourist resort development and water-thirsty crops. The dramatic article […]
Chad has agreed to release all former child combatants held in detention, while armed rebel groups in the Central African Republic (CAR) have also committed to freeing any children in their ranks, a top United Nations envoy announced June 2 after a six day trip to the two countries. In Chad the Government has agreed […]
The term “Article 98 agreement” refers to the provision of the Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court that prohibits the Court from prosecuting someone located within an ICC member state if doing so would cause the member state to violate the terms of other bilateral or multilateral treaties to which it may be a […]
The US State Department has reinstated the scholarships of seven Gaza Strip students. Last Thursday the students were denied exit visas. Israel's tight security makes it nearly impossible for any Gaza Strip resident to leave the territory. However, there are “humanitarian” exceptions. Israeli officials are now blaming the US for not requesting special exemptions for Fulbright scholars.
According to the pro-opposition daily As-Safir, there appears to be some anticipation over potential changes in Lebanon's security services. The paper reported on Monday that the new president Michel Suleiman called for decisions to oversee ‘balance’ within the ranks of the country's Internal Security Forces (ISF) during a meet and greet with several leaders from […]
In a stunning development, various media outlets are reporting that the NGO Reprieve has information suggestion that the Bush Administration is running prison ships to hold individuals who have been captured via a rendition program: “The United States is operating “floating prisons” to house those arrested in its war on terror, according to human rights […]
In the interest of improving America's image, someone should have banned coverage of Saturday's meeting of the Democrats’ Rules and Bylaws Committee in Washington. There were insults, snide remarks, grandstanding and pettifoggery during the six-hour meeting — and that was just the participants. The hundreds of partisan onlookers behaved much worse, yelling taunts and threats […]
In my post on August 1, 2007, UN Peacekeepers and the Abuse of Children, I reported on the failings of UN peacekeepers in the wake of recently emerging and wide spread abused in Liberia. However as I reported then then these abuses where not new in the world of the blue helmets, and nor are […]
This past Thursday, there was a deadly bomb attack in the Philippines. Three people were killed outside an Air Force base. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) , the largest Muslim rebel group in the Philippines , denied any involvement in the attack but was accused by the regional police chief. There are other Muslim […]
For well over two generations the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide continues to haunt large swathes of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In the east DRC, a campaign of rape and violence against women and children goes largely uncontested, despite a massive deployment of 17,000 UN troops (MONUC), and despite a call on all […]
I sat in on the last day of this event in New York City on Friday, hearing two fascinating panels discuss “Corporate Strategies For Carbon Reduction” (in the context of federal cap-and-trade legislation) and Clean Tech’s role in getting GHG’s down. The main sponsors of the summit were EcoSecurities, one of the world’s largest developers […]
The UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict is visiting Chad and Central African Republic (CAR) to see first-hand the situation of war-impacted children in the two countries. From May 26-31 at the invitation of the Governments of the two nations, Radhika Coomaraswamy will look into child recruitment by State and non-State actors. […]
The website for the pro-Sadrist Al-Kufa news agency posted a scanned copy of a statement apparently issued by Muqtada Al-Sadr earlier this week. In the statement, Al-Sadr voices his pleasure with fatwas that have rejected the long-term security agreement currently being negotiated between US forces and the Iraqi government. The aggreement, which seeks to maintain […]
The Washington Post reports: “More than 100 countries reached agreement Wednesday to ban cluster bombs, controversial weapons that human rights groups deplore but that the United States, which did not join the ban, calls an integral, legitimate part of its arsenal. …Advocates of the ban said they hope the agreement, which was supported by rich […]
The conservative-leaning London newsdaily the Daily Telegraph commissioned a poll on Europeans’ preferences for the next US president. The poll of 6,200 people in Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia, finds that, across all countries polled, Senator Obama received 52 percent of the popular vote, while Senator McCain received 15 percent. Senator Clinton was not included in the […]