Month: January 2007

Dalia Acosta HAVANA, Jan 31 (IPS) – A new “surprise” visit by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez to Cuba served as a pretext to show images of his friend and host, Fidel Castro, up and about.

Jason Yossef Ben-Meir | January 2007 Editor: John Feffer, IRC Foreign Policy In Focus www.fpif.org The new strategy of the United States in Iraq does not include an extensive overhaul of reconstruction efforts at this critical time. Very little money… Continue Reading →

Leonardo Boff Theologian Earthcharter Commission This year, 2007, marks 800 years since the birth of Jalal ud-Din ar-Rumi, (1207-1273), the greatest of the Islamic mystics, an extraordinary poet of love. He was born in Afghanistan, spent time in Iran, and… Continue Reading →

Analysis by Gareth Porter* WASHINGTON, Jan 30 (IPS) – When Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared last week at the Herzliya conference that Israel could not risk another “existential threat” such as the Nazi holocaust, he was repeating what has… Continue Reading →

Mark Weisenmiller TAMPA, Florida, Jan 29 (IPS) – The author of a best-selling “biography” of cod and a world history of salt has taken on the weighty theme of nonviolence movements in his latest book — why some thrive and… Continue Reading →

“The fuel for a fire is in place”. By Colonel Sam Gardiner Global Research, January 2007 The Left Coaster Editorial Note The following text by Colonel Sam Gardiner (USAF, Retired) confirms our worst fears. The US is in an advanced… Continue Reading →

Joyce Mulama NAIROBI, Jan 25 (IPS) – As the World Social Forum (WSF) draws to a close in the Kenyan capital Thursday, calls on international finance institutions to cancel debts owed to them by poor countries have grown ever louder.

What It Would Take to Stop It By VIRGINIA TILLEY Johannesburg, South Africa From its inception, the US occupation was a lose-lose proposition. Simply rolling into Iraq — a society of which the Bush neocons had so distorted a conception… Continue Reading →

JOHN CHERIAN With the endgame nearing and the sectarian divide deepening, insurgent groups are making all-out efforts to take control of the capital.

D. Ravi Kanth DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 24 (IPS) – The high-profile Davos meeting of the international political, business, economic and academic elite began Wednesday on the sombre note that globalisation is facing major threats due to worsening climate change, growing… Continue Reading →

By Gideon Rachman President George W. Bush’s decision to send more troops to Iraq demonstrates the remarkable durability of neo-conservative foreign policy. Just a couple of months ago, the neo-cons were being written off. The Baker-Hamilton report on Iraq was… Continue Reading →

Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS, Jan 23 (IPS) – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has taken the initial step towards a significant restructuring of the United Nations Secretariat by realigning the organisation’s peacekeeping operations and bringing disarmament directly under his wing.

By George McGovern The Nation January 2007 I’m glad to be back at the National Press Club. Indeed, at the age of eighty-four, I’m glad to be anywhere. In my younger years when the subject of aging came up, trying… Continue Reading →

Stefania Milan VICENZA, Italy, Jan. 22 (IPS) – The old airport Dal Molin is about the only green area left in the densely populated industrial district of Vicenza in Northern Italy. Soon the 450,000 square-metre area will be converted into… Continue Reading →

What $1.2 Trillion Can Buy By DAVID LEONHARDT http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/01/16/cost-of-iraq-war-12-tr_n_38842.html http://nytimes.com The human mind isn’t very well equipped to make sense of a figure like $1.2 trillion. We don’t deal with a trillion of anything in our daily lives, and so… Continue Reading →

Analysis by Jim Lobe WASHINGTON, Jan (IPS) – The Project for the New American Century (PNAC) may have effectively closed up shop two years ago and its key neo-conservative allies in the administration, such as Scooter Libby and Douglas Feith,… Continue Reading →

AIJAZ AHMAD After West Asia and the Caspian Sea Basin, Horn of Africa is the next Great Game. THE hastily confected judicial assassination of Saddam Hussein, the last President of independent Iraq, was part of an extraordinary three-month-long offensive that… Continue Reading →

Ann De Ron BRUSSELS, Jan. 18 (IPS) – Most migrants from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union would prefer to spend shorter periods abroad and then return home, says a new World Bank report.

Raúl Zibechi South American social movements face an unprecedented panorama: the majority of governments on the continent define themselves as progressive or on the left. This is a reality which these same movements contributed to shaping and which can either… Continue Reading →

Moyiga Nduru JOHANNESBURG, Jan 17 (IPS) – From Iraq to Nigeria, multinational corporations are ignoring human rights, entrenching a culture of abuse and impunity that is difficult to eradicate, a leading anti-apartheid activist warns.