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•
Sandy Hook solution?
December 27,12
THE response was to be expected, a timely
entrepreneurial one, meant to reap profit and create
a ‘need’ to consume: buy a bulletproof backpack for
your little one. Good businessmen don’t miss an
opportunity.
•
Germany facing up to
diversity
December 27,12
IN a context of constant discrimination toward
foreigners, gastarbeiter (guest workers) and
people of Arab, Asian and African descent, Germany
is facing an urgent need to think about its
ambivalent management of population diversity.
•
U.S. to send
military missions to more than 35 African countries
in 2013
December 27,12
THE Pentagon has announced that it
is to send small Army teams to 35-plus African
countries in 2013. Initially,
the objectives of the U.S. military teams will be
confined to training and equipping national armies.
They could participate in military operations,
although this would require a special order from the
Defense Department, according to General David
Rodríguez, Commander in Chief of the U.S. Army.
•
Clouds on the neoliberal
horizon
December 20,12
I spent a pleasant weekend in the company of
Buenaventura de Sousa Santos and other friends. In a
fruitful reflection, the Portuguese social scientist
noted the heavy clouds over the current global
panorama.
•
International opinion
being prepared for invasion of Syria
December 20,12
DESPITE the fact that Syria has
assured that it would never use chemical weapons
against its own citizens, alarmist Western
statements on the issue are a constant. Political
analyst Miguel Guaglianone believes that the Western
powers are preparing international public opinion
for a possible invasion.
•
Community and
religious leaders demand more effective government
aid for Sandy victims
December 13,12
LA JORNADA, December 5.—More than a month after the
passing of Superstorm Sandy, the basic needs of
thousands of people in the most vulnerable
communities of New York City remain unresolved.
•
CLOSE TO 50 YEARS AFTER HIS ASSASSINATION
Kennedy’s dream
November
29,12
BARACK Obama is the only aspirant that can make my
father’s dreams come true, affirmed John F.
Kennedy’s daughter during the 2008 U.S. primaries.
•
Social
discontent erupts in Europe
November
22,12
A Europe diminished by debt crisis, unemployment and
poverty has irremediably assaulted the media, given
social protests by millions of Europeans, who took
to the streets last November 14 to express their
profound indignation at the harsh...
•
Cuba
demands urgent reform of the UN Security Council
November
16,12
UNITED NATIONS.—Cuba has called for an urgent and
profound reform of the Security Council to eliminate
the lack of transparency, democracy and
effectiveness of this principal UN body responsible
for peace and international security.
•
Closure of 18th National
Congress of Chinese Communist Party
November
15,12
BEIJING, November 14.—
More than 2,000 delegates participating in the 18th
National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CCP),
today elected members of the new Central Committee
and the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection,
during the final day of the Congress, which met in
the capital.
•
SIP appoints Cuban
mercenary
November
15,12
THE Inter-American Press Society (SIP-IAPA) – the
CIA commercial press cartel whose Miami headquarters
bears the name of agent Jules Dubois, has appointed
cyber-mercenary Yoani Sánchez its representative in
Cuba, thus confirming its partnership with U.S.
intelligence.
•
Drones in the Persian
Gulf and memories of Tonkin
November
15,12
IN 1964, Lyndon Baines Johnson
inherited the U.S. presidency from the assassinated
John F. Kennedy and the intention to initiate a
conflict which Washington was sure of winning.
•
Forward with change?
November
15,12
BARACK Obama’s reelection in the
United States has come as a relief to more than a
few, given that the greater fear came from the
conservative and ultra-conservative wing which would
have been installed in the White House if Mitt
Romney had been elected. Four years more and "forward,"
the Democrat slogan, once again places before the
President’s eyes a large number of promises of "change"
to be met, that is, if he has the will to. Also
hanging over him are a number of headaches in
domestic and international policy.
•
United Nations Day is
everyone’s day
November
2,12
THE United Nations
(UN) celebrated its 67th anniversary on October 24
immersed in development projects. With a current
membership of 193 states, it is the largest world
organization, created with the fundamental
objectives of promoting international cooperation
and defending human rights, peace, international
security and economic development.
•
State of malaise
in Europe
November
2,12
IF anyone was in any doubt as to the programmed
demolition of the welfare state in Europe, recent
information concerning a community budget to help
people in the greatest need confirms that the
current economic crisis has provided a perfect
excuse to return to the situation of ‘save yourself
if you can’ on the continent.
•
Austerity pact: fatal
for France?
November
2,12
THE French National Assembly has
ratified the European austerity pact and passed a
law to ensure its strict fulfillment in a
paradoxical action executed against the will of
large sectors of the population. This move not only
violates the demand by these sectors to convene a
referendum on the issue, which affects national
sovereignty, but also contradicts some of President
François Hollande’s principal campaign promises.
•
Most EU Nuclear Power Plants ‘Unsafe’
October
25,12
THE so-called ‘stress tests’ on nuclear power plants
in the European Union (EU) have confirmed
environmental and energy activists’ worst fears:
most European nuclear facilities do not meet minimum
security standards.
•
Who goes
to jail?
October
18,12
SPAIN has the most overcrowded prisons in Europe.
This was documented in a report from the 30th
Conference of European Justice Ministers, held in
Istanbul. In Spain, there are 162 prisoners for
every 100,000 inhabitants, while in Germany there
are 95, in France 85 and In Portugal 121. Too many
are incarcerated in Spain, more than in any other
period in recent history, except for the first years
of the Franco dictatorship.
•
The wrong reasons
for a Nobel
October
18,12
The 2012 Nobel Peace Prize was
awarded to the European Union (EU), for six decades
of reconciliation on a continent which emerged from
the ruins of the Second World War, as the Nobel
Committee stated.
•
Nobel Prizes
Just
recognition of important scientific advances
October
18,12
THE growing influence of
scientific and technological advances in terms of
humanity’s progress has been highlighted with the
awarding of the 2012 Nobel Prize in the specialties
of Physiology or Medicine, Physics and Chemistry.
•
U.S. and UK
ammunition cause birth defects in Iraq
October
15,12
U.S. and UK weapons
ammunition are linked to heart defects, brain
dysfunctions and malformed limbs, according to a
recent study.
The report revealed a shocking rise in birth defects
in Iraqi children conceived after the U.S. invasion.
•
Spain Hit by Epidemic of
Despair
October
11,12
MALAGA, Spain, Aug 29 2012 (IPS) - Rising rates of
depression and suicide are among the most obvious
signs of the increase in mental illness resulting
from the economic crisis in Spain.
•
It is illusory to
believe that Syria can be broken
October
5,12
IN the midst of
disinformation campaigns on the crisis in Syria –
largely based on nameless witnesses giving
indeterminate figures – Ammar Bagdach, general
secretary of the Syrian Communist Party, shared with
Granma a reality at a far remove from many of the
biased media versions.
•
Islam and freedom of
expression
October
4,12
THE Innocence of
Muslims is the title of a U.S. film directed by one
Sam Bacile, which defames the prophet Mohammad and
offends all those who subscribe to this faith.
•
"I was
utilized to instill fear"
September 27, 12
"I don’t believe my principles have changed over all
these years. Nor my political commitment," affirmed
Angela Davis, one of the most famous political
activists of the 1960’s and ‘70s, an iconic figure
for her strongly revolutionary discourse and
membership in the Black Panthers. She was attending
the Toronto International Film Festival for the
premiere of the documentary Free Angela and all
Political Prisoners.
•
U.S. blocks
passengers traveling from Spanish airports
September 26, 12
MADRID, September 24.—
The United States has access to information about
passengers attempting to travel from Spain to Cuba,
Mexico or Canada, and has the prerogative of
blocking their boarding passes, according to the
Spanish newspaper El País.
•
Presidential debates
underway in UN General Assembly
September 26, 12
UNITED NATIONS,
September 25.—With Syria, Palestine, the Middle East
and provocations against religions as key issues,
more than 100 heads of state and government
initiated 10 days of debate in the UN General
Assembly.
•
Spain
A hot autumn
September 20, 12
AS if the summer vacations were a cloak of oblivion
to dissipate the brutality of the economic crisis,
the media have attempted to distract us with the
European Football Cup, the Olympics and the summer
adventures of the famous, in order to forget that a
new round of cuts is approaching and the second
rescue of Spain will be more damaging socially. But
they have not achieved the goal, among other reasons,
because the audacious blows of Juan Manuel Sánchez
Gordillo and the Andalusian Workers Syndicate (SAT)
have broken the spell and maintained the social
alert. Autumn is going to be hot.
•
The war in
Afghanistan
September 13, 12
THE war in Afghanistan has the strange property of
frequently disappearing from the headlines, despite
being the longest waged by the United States and, to
date, having cost half a trillion dollars, the lives
of 2,000 U.S. soldiers and close to 1,000 of the
accompanying coalition forces. And the lives of tens
of thousands or more of Afghanis, combatants and
civilians.
•
U.S. colonial
expansion in the Pacific
September 13, 12
THE United
States has created a vast and purely colonial empire
in the Pacific Basin, primarily for military
purposes, although this fact has not been widely
reported in the media.
•
Iranian President receives Machado Ventura
September 6, 12
PRESIDENT Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of the
Islamic Republic of Iran received on August 31 Vice President José Ramón Machado
Ventura, who headed the Cuban delegation to the 16th Non-Aligned Movement Summit
in Tehran.
•
Non-Aligned
Movement to work for justice and dignity
September 6, 12
TEHRAN.—Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad expressed his confidence in "working hand in hand for justice and
the protection of countries’ dignity," during the closing session of the 16th
Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit, which took place in the Iranian capital.
•
The
Movement today is more necessary than ever
September 3, 12
Speech given by José Ramón Machado Ventura, First
Vice President of the Councils of State and
Ministers, at the 16th Non-Aligned Movement Summit,
Tehran, August 30, 2012
•
Obama turns back the clock on Guantánamo
August 30,12
NEW rules from the Obama Justice
Department threaten to return Guantánamo Bay to the
legal black hole it was in during the early days of
the George W. Bush administration. The rules, which
began trickling out in May, are to be reviewed
Friday in a hearing before a federal judge in
Washington.
•
Greece hanging by a thread
August 30,12
AFTER five years in recession, a
stream of social spending cuts and two financial
rescues, clouds are still hanging over the future of
Greece, in the midst of European skepticism as to
its ability to meet the commitments acquired in
exchange for economic aid.
•
How
much more can citizens take?
August 30,12
FIFTEEN years
ago, in his article Disarming the Markets, Ignacio
Ramonet warned of the need to establish financial
controls in order to stop markets imposing their own
law. Today, he insists that the crisis is a
consequence of inactive politics, and cites "scandals"
like that of Bankia, criticizes policies of cuts and
asks how much more can citizens take.
•
Non-Aligned Movement
Summit vital for solving regional conflicts
August 30,12
TEHRAN, August 29
First Vice President José Ramón Machado Ventura
emphasized today the importance of the Non- Aligned
Movement (NAM) Summit, taking place in this capital,
in terms of addressing current complicated global
problems.
•
France, another power heading for recession
August 23,12
THE French economy, a
collateral victim of the Eurozone crisis, is set to
enter moderate recession in the third quarter of the
year, according to an initial Central Bank of France
forecast.
•
Coups d’état?
August 23,12
WASHINGTON – The super-rich in
the United States and their counterparts in other
parts of the world have committed what could only be
described as an attempted coup d’état. They are not
only controlling the economy, especially the
financial sector, but are also seeking to take
control of political processes.
•
Assasination
nation
August 16,12
AN essay published in
Counterpunch bearing this title describes as
surprising the official acknowledgement that the
United States has had a program of selective
assassinations for more than 50 years, drawing more
attention now with the unprecedented use of drones,
unpiloted remote-controlled warplanes, to attack
different targets around the planet.
•
In Hiroshima's
Shadow
August 16,12
AUGUST 6, the anniversary of
Hiroshima, should be a day of somber reflection, not
only on the terrible events of that day in 1945, but
also on what they revealed: that humans, in their
dedicated quest to extend their capacities for
destruction, had finally found a way to approach the
ultimate limit.
•
Battling for sovereignty
August 9,12
ON July 20, the UN Security Council agreed to extend
its observer mission in Syria for a final 30 days.
The decision was made amid calls, from France and
the UK in particular, for further sanctions against
the Bashar al Assad government under Chapter 7 of
the UN Charter which also allows for the use of
force, and U.S. insistence on a rapid regime change
there.
•
Balance sheet on U.S. diplomacy
August 9,12
OVER the last 12 years, neoconservatives, realists
and, to call them something, idealists have gotten
their hands into U.S. foreign policy making. If
George W. Bush gave free rein to Rumsfeld, Cheney
and Wolfowitz during his...
•
Libya: Washington
imposed "stability"
August 2,12
ARMED militias have
taken control of Libya. After legislative elections
– the first attempt to formally share out power
since the overthrow and assassination of Muammar al
Gaddafi, armed groups are still committing all kinds
of violations, torture, theft and killings, while
the transition government is doing little about it.
•
No news
about Iceland
August 2,12
FOR four years interesting and
innovative events have been taking place in Iceland,
this glacial island of barely 300,000 inhabitants in
the middle of the North Atlantic. Events which are
not reflected in the Western corporate media,
confirming the inexorable manipulation to which
humanity is subjected through the control of the
press by the superpower and oligarchies associated
with it.
•
Illicit funds behind French politics
July 19.12
POLICE agents searched the residence
and office of former French President Nicolas
Sarkozy just two weeks after he lost his
presidential immunity, and did so in an
intentionally visible manner.
•
We feel
the 50th anniversary of the Algerian people’s
independence as our own
June 12.12
FIFTY years ago on July 5, 1962,
Algeria won its independence after a bloody national
liberation struggle which cost the lives of more
than one and a half million of its people.
•
Miami
travel agency attack: a few blurry photos after a
six-week investigation
June 21.12
SIX weeks after a travel agency
specializing in travel to Cuba, Airline Brokers, was
destroyed by a terrorist attack, without the
slightest indication that a serious investigation
was underway, the FBI released to the press several
blurry photos, taken by a nearby security camera, of
a suspicious vehicle passing the building.
•
U.S. elections: You
could die laughing
June 21.12
THE right wing in this country
is so unhinged that, if you ignore for one moment
the devastating consequences, you could die of
laughter.
•
RESCUING SPAIN
The money of discord
June21.12
THE rumor circulating in the
corridors of the European Commission (EC) and
secretly within the Moncloa Palace has been
confirmed. Spain asked the Eurogroup for a rescue
package of 100 billion euros in order to clean up
its banks, hard hit by many years of speculation.
•
The
challenges of Río+20
June14.12
BRAZIL is hosting, June 20-22, the
United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development,
also called Río+20, given that it is being held 20
years after the first great Earth Summit of 1992.
Attending are 80 heads of state and discussion will
focus on two central issues: 1) a "green economy" in
the context of...
•
The decline of
the European Union
June14.12
EUROPE is experiencing a
period of great upheaval, given that the financial
crisis is making even more difficult the process of
European construction essential for its
competitiveness as a world power.
•
Cuba
rejects intervention in Syria
June8.12
UNITED NATIONS, June
7.—Cuba today reiterated in the UN its rejection of
any form of direct or indirect foreign intervention
in Syria, and condemned support for irregular armed
groups operating in the country.Oscar León González,
Cuba’s alternating permanent representative at the
UN, ...
•
Promoters of democracy
June7.12
WHEN the United Arab
Emirates monarchy ordered the closing of the
National Democratic Institute’s offices in Abu Dhabi
in April, The New York Times reported that certain
forces in the United States were surprised, given
their view of the NDI as a respectable non-profit
agency devoted to promoting democracy around the
world.
• CANADA
Youth facing bankruptcy
June7.12
THE last three months
have witnessed what is being described as the
largest student strike movement in the history of
Canada. More than 170,000 students are on strike in
the Francophone province of Quebec, half of them
prepared to remain so indefinitely, until they win
their demands.
•
Fernando González to a
prison in Arizona
June
4.12
FERNANDO
González, one of the Cuban Five unjustly imprisoned
in the United States, was transferred May 31 to a
prison in Arizona, according to an announcement made
by the International Committee for the Freedom of
the Five.
More information...
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