EU Pledges Strong Support for Earth Summit

By Timothy Spence

BRUSSELS, Feb 8, 2012 (IPS) – European leaders have mapped out a bold agenda ahead of the Rio summit, vowing to transform development aid, help provide renewable electricity to the world’s neediest people, and bulk up the United Nations environment body.
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Orbán makes an exhibition of himself

Peter Morvay – SME *

Asserting national values is central to the political project of the Hungarian PM. Since the start of the year, fifteen paintings, specially commissioned for an exhibition in the Castle of Buda, have been putting this ambition on show.
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Tinkerbell Economics – The Confidence Fairy, Pixie Dust and a Sleeping Dragon

By Daniel Alpert*

While we may be hours away from a partial (and certainly a stopgap) agreement in the talks among the Greek government, the troika and private sector creditors, it is doubtful that a deal will emerge in a fully constructed fashion that will survive its application in the real economy.
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Respect Dignity of Life, Convoke Nuke Abolition Summit

By Ramesh Jaura

IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis

BERLIN | TOKYO (IDN) – In a variation of the legendary slogan “make love, not war”, an eminent Buddhist philosopher is calling for a nuclear-free world in which genuine human security, sustainable development and unwavering respect for the dignity of life do not only comprise an ideal but constitute an entrenched reality.
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Security Council Remains “Neutered” by Five Big Powers

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 6, 2012 (IPS) – Since Russia and China vetoed a key resolution critical of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s violent repression of the ongoing 11-month old civilian uprising, there has been plenty of public outrage directed at the two permanent members of the Security Council who stood defiant against an overwhelming majority.
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Israel and Iran Agreed on Nuclear Ambiguity

Analysis by Pierre Klochendler

JERUSALEM, Feb 6, 2012 (IPS) – Will Israel attack Iran’s nuclear facilities this spring? That is a question dominating the international agenda. Meanwhile, the grand project of a nuclear weapon-free Middle East is relegated to the utopian “day after” a solution is found to the Islamic republic’s atomic programme.
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Call us Nazis if it makes you happy

Bernd Ulrich – Die Zeit

“A noi Schettino, a voi Auschwitz.” So wrote the Italian newspaper Il Giornale recently: “We have Schettino, you have Auschwitz”, responding to a similarly subtle Spiegel Online criticism of the cowardly captain of the Costa Concordia, who was called a “typical Italian”. The riposte the Italian paper had in mind was: “You Germans just keep your mouths shut – you have the Holocaust to answer for!”
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Political and Economic Turmoil Threaten Women’s Progress

By Mathilde Bagneres

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 2, 2012 (IPS) – As UN Women celebrated its first birthday, its executive director Michelle Bachelet stressed that political upheveal and shrinking budgets are no excuse to push back the hard-won gains made by the women’s movement globally.
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Trade: From bicycle to snowball approach to policy

Chakravarthi Raghavan*

This year “Davos doesn’t deliver”, declared a headline over an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal Monday authored by the Journal’s money and investment editor.
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2011 – A Year of Weather Extremes, with More to Come

Analysis by Janet Larsen and Sara Rasmussen*

WASHINGTON, Feb 1, 2012 (IPS) – The global average temperature in 2011 was 14.52 degrees Celsius (58.14 degrees Fahrenheit). According to NASA scientists, this was the ninth warmest year in 132 years of recordkeeping, despite the cooling influence of the La Niña atmospheric and oceanic circulation pattern and relatively low solar irradiance.
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UN shenanigans on Syria

By Aisling Byrne* – Asia Times

“Viscous nasty business” … “aggressive pressure … by US diplomats”, “ferocious pressure on weaker non-permanent members”, the “type of pressure [that] is very, very difficult for weaker countries … to resist.”

That’s how a former British diplomat at the United Nations, Carne Ross, described last September’s UN showdown over the Palestinian Authority’s bid for recognition for statehood. [1] “This is how power works.” he said.
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After Durban: All Talked Out?

By Oscar Reyes* – ZSpace Page

If a lexicon of international climate conferences is ever written, Durban will be listed right after the words debacle, delusion, disaster and disillusionment. Even the disappointments were not surprising at the 17th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which took place in South Africa last December. Instead, they followed the usual script: two weeks of ineffectual jargon-filled bickering followed by an agreement to delay action on climate change beyond the political lifespan of most of the governments present.
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Rights Groups Denounce Duvalier Ruling, U.S. Urges Appeal

By Jim Lobe*

WASHINGTON, Jan 31, 2012 (IPS) – International and local human rights groups Tuesday strongly denounced the ruling by an investigating judge in Haiti that former dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier should not face charges for massive human rights abuses committed during his 15-year reign, from 1971 to 1986.
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IS CHINA STILL A DEVELOPING COUNTRY?

By Martin Khor (*)

GENEVA, Jan (IPS/South Centre) Is China still a developing country or has it joined the ranks of the advanced developed countries?

This has become a pressing question, especially after the US President Barack Obama reportedly told President Hu Jintao that China had to act more responsibly now that it has grown up.
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Nuke Free Middle East Meet ‘A Priority Issue’

By Ramesh Jaura

Interview with UN General Assembly President Al-Nasser

BERLIN | NEW YORK (IDN) – UN General Assembly (UNGA) President Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser is committed to convening a conference directed at establishing a nuclear-weapons-free zone in the Middle East.
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Anschluss Economics – The Germans Launch a Blitzkrieg on the Greek Debt Negotiations

By Marshall Auerback – Naked capitalism

News stories continue to suggest that Greece once again appears on the verge of reaching a deal with its private sector creditors on how much of a loss they would be willing to accept on their bond holdings. The latest numbers suggest a 70% write-down. A pretty striking comedown for what is supposed to be a “voluntary default” and, hence, not subject to the triggers of a credit default swap on Greek debt.
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WSF: Working Towards a Never-Ending Democracy

By Antonio Martins

PORTO ALEGRE, Jan 27, 2012 (IPS) – For five centuries, Europe has taken it upon itself to enlighten the world, teaching it ways to address and overcome crises, from ideas and wars to missionary work and genocides.
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Dismantling a Dictatorship – Peacefully

Analysis by Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Jan 23, 2012 (IPS) – As he dismantles a 50-year military dictatorship without a shot being fired, Burmese President Thein Sein is resorting to the political art of compromise.
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Suicidal mood

By: Patricio Navia*

And the challenges Romney faces in coming weeks

The unexpectedly weak second place for Mitt Romney in the South Carolina primaries has brought uncertainty back to the Republican presidential nomination race.
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Why We Went Black

By Tim Karr – ZSpace Page
Wikipedia and Google blacked out? Redditers in an uproar? Thousands of geeks abandoning their cubicles to take to the streets?

What’s happening here?
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