Month: February 2010

By Mario Soares (*) LISBON, Feb (IPS) There is lively debate in the European Union about the global recession and the economic crisis in member countries, but relatively little discussion about the future of the Old Continent. We need to… Continue Reading →

By Ernest Corea IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis WASHINGTON DC (IDN) – Historians of the future will probably spend much time looking back at the year 2010 and trying to determine whether Sarah Palin was playing the goat, acting the knave, simply following… Continue Reading →

By David Cronin BRUSSELS, Feb 25, 2010 (IPS) – Arms manufacturers have been asked to advise an official European Union (EU) body on how their products can be used to stop asylum seekers entering the bloc’s territory. Frontex, the EU’s… Continue Reading →

Robert Dreyfuss* – The Nation 02/23/2010 – More huffing and puffing about war with Iran, this time from Anne Applebaum of the hawkish Washington Post, but first some words of caution from Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint… Continue Reading →

By A. D. McKenzie PARIS, Feb 24 , 2010 (IPS) – Activists continue to protest against the French government’s handling of undocumented migrants, in a bid to secure more humane laws and treatment. Earlier this month, French police expelled migrants… Continue Reading →

By Dahr Jamail* IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis ANCHORAGE, Alaska (IDN) – “Look around,” the drill sergeant said. “In a few years, or even a few months, several of you will be dead. Some of you will be severely wounded or so badly… Continue Reading →

Civil Society Open Letter to WTO Director General, Pascal Lamy Geneva, 5 February 2010 (received by Other News 22 February 2010) Dear Mr Lamy, We appreciated your speech of 13 January 2010 and willingness to engage in a discussion on… Continue Reading →

By Mark Sommer (*) ARCATA, CALIFORNIA, Feb (IPS) “Speed Kills: Slow Down and Live”. So say American road signs urging drivers to lighten their foot on the gas pedal. But little else has slowed down in the U.S. or elsewhere… Continue Reading →

By Pascal Lamy (*) GENEVA, Feb (IPS) The history of the relationship between trade and human rights is a history of suspicion, and to some extent of deliberate reciprocal ignorance. Yet, trade goes hand in hand with human rights. Trade… Continue Reading →

By Jerome Mwanda IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis DAKAR (IDN) – A gigantic wall stretching over thousands of kilometres is being erected in Africa, which has no parallels in human history except the Green Wall of China designed to hold back the Gobi… Continue Reading →

Analysis by Julio Godoy BERLIN, Feb 2010 (IPS) – The deep economic, fiscal, and trade crises of several Mediterranean countries in the euro zone that is threatening monetary stability in Europe with the possibility of contagion spreading to developing countries,… Continue Reading →

By Babukar Kashka IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis NAIROBI (IDN) – Bad news for the one billion inhabitants of the most castigated continent reeling under exploitation of its resources and the adverse impact of climate change as well as the financial crisis triggered… Continue Reading →

By Maurice Strong (*) BEIJING, Feb (IPS) The good news about the Copenhagen Summit on Climate Change (December 7-18) is that it produced universal agreement on the importance of early action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to manageable levels. It… Continue Reading →

By Fareed Zakaria* | NEWSWEEK From the magazine issue dated Feb 15, 2010 Despite the recent squall in U.S.-Chinese relations, the fact remains that both countries have powerful reasons to cooperate with one another. These have grown over the last… Continue Reading →

By Kumi Naidoo (*) AMSTERDAM, Feb (IPS) As the new Executive Director of Greenpeace International I am often asked what changes I plan to make for the organisation. The response I give is one which I believe applies to Civil… Continue Reading →

By Ernest Corea IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis WASHINGTON DC (IDN) – Religious ceremonies held one month after Haiti’s earthquake of January 12, 2010 saw a remarkable coherence among usually competing religious groups when priests representing voodoo beliefs, Roman Catholics, and evangelicals all… Continue Reading →

By Ignacio Ramonet (*) PARIS, Feb (IPS) As “natural” as it may seem, no catastrophe is natural. An earthquake of the same intensity has more victims in a poor country than in a rich industrialised one. For example, the earthquake… Continue Reading →

By Prakash Joshi IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis NEW DELHI (IDN) – The door has finally been thrown open for a free flow of nuclear exports to India. The four nuclear weapons states — USA, Russia, France and Britain — have lifted a… Continue Reading →

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic BELGRADE, Feb 12, 2010 (IPS) – The arrest of seven Wahhabis, following a police crackdown on the remote Bosnian village of Gornja Maoca, has raised concerns over the continued presence of Islamist fundamentalists who first arrived… Continue Reading →

By Clive Banerjee IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis VIENNA (IDN) – More than six million children in developing lands die of malnutrition every year. Keen to remedy this unacceptable situation, a United Nations agency has started an ambitious project.