Human rights group threatens to sue Chevron
Thursday, May 8th, 2008BANGKOK, Thailand (IPS/GIN) — A nonprofit group is warning the U.S. energy giant Chevron to clean up its act in Burma or face legal proceedings, in which the multinational firm’s links to human rights violations could be exposed. There has been little relief for villagers living in the Yadana pipeline region in southern Burma since […]
Posted in International News, News | No Comments »>U.S.: Pressure mounts for reassessment of strategy in Pakistan
Friday, May 2nd, 2008WASHINGTON, (IPS/GIN) — Congressional investigators from the United States are increasingly warning that the greatest threat to the U.S. is developing in the tribal areas along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
As a result, appeals for the Bush administration to reassess its “global war on terror” and Pakistan’s place in it are gaining momentum.
President Pervez Musharraf
In particular, critics […]
U.N. Security Council makes little headway in talks on Iran
Thursday, April 24th, 2008BEIJING, (IPS/GIN) — Tehran’s defiant position on its nuclear program has prevented the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany from making any significant progress in their talks this week on Iran.
The talks were hosted by China in the financial hub of Shanghai on April 16, and they trailed Iranian President […]
Gaza: Thousands mourn for cameraman slain by Israeli missile
Thursday, April 24th, 2008GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip, (IPS/GIN) — Fadel Shana, a cameraman for the Reuters news agency, was killed April 16 while filming Israeli tanks as they fired missiles in Gaza.
It was the 23-year-old cameraman’s job to go to the scene of Israeli bombings. Shana had also been injured in August 2006 in the north of the […]
Sri Lanka’s garment traders fear EU may cut duty concessions
Friday, April 18th, 2008COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (IPS/GIN) — Members of Sri Lanka’s garment industry are worried that the duty-free access to European markets that they now enjoy will soon be cut, due to alleged human rights violations related to the country’s ethnic conflict. European Union (EU) trade concessions, known as GSP+, are ending this year and will come […]
Posted in International News, News | No Comments »>Clashes belie U.S. claims about troop surge success
Thursday, April 10th, 2008BAGHDAD (IPS/GIN) — Recent clashes between members of Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mehdi Army, the largest militia in the country, and members of the Iraqi government forces have offered yet more proof that the U.S. war in Iraq has been a massive failure.
“Mehdi army militias controlled all Shia and mixed parts of Baghdad in no time,” said […]
Afghanistan surveys reveal disillusionment with Karzai, NATO
Thursday, April 3rd, 2008 Hamid Karzai
KABUL, Afghanistan (IPS/GIN) — The Shahr-e-now park in the center of Kabul has seen better days. “It used to be really beautiful, back during the early ’90s,” Kabul resident Torialay said. “But after the Mujahidin war [a civil war between warlords and commanders in the mid-1990s that destroyed much of the city], it has […]
New biosafety rules pave way for transgenic crops
Thursday, March 27th, 2008MEXICO CITY (IPS/GIN) — Mexico is set to clear the way for legal cultivation of transgenic crops, despite resistance from environmentalists and several small farmer associations. The rules for the 2005 Biosafety Law on Genetically Modified Organisms were published March 20, and by the end of this year a national biosafety system and special guidelines […]
Posted in International News | No Comments »>Abortion limitations sought in Italy
Thursday, March 13th, 2008ROME (IPS/GIN) — Female scientists, intellectuals, and professionals in Italy are fighting for abortion rights in the face of an effort by center-right politicians and Catholic doctors associations to ban all abortions after the 12th week of pregnancy. Italy’s abortion rights law allows abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy and until the 24th […]
Posted in International News | No Comments »>Fanaticism compounds violence Gaza women endure
Thursday, March 13th, 2008GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (IPS/GIN) — Mahasen Darduna, 30, has sat day and night by her son’s hospital bed for a whole week. The 9-year-old was hit by an Israeli missile while playing football on a field at the Jabaliya refugee camp.
But she must also slip away often to see her other five children, whom […]