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09 December, 2004

US Rejects Climate Policy Attacks
By Tim Hirsch

The US has been defending its decision not to take part in the Kyoto Protocol, just two months before the international agreement to cut greenhouse gases comes into force. Senior US negotiator Harlan Watson attacked the treaty as being politically motivated rather than based on science

Kyoto Will Not Work, Warns Expert
By Michael McCarthy

The struggle by developed countries to cut back their emissions of carbon dioxide will always be overtaken by the rising new emissions of the developing nations, led by China and India, who are not parties to the Kyoto treaty

Fallujah's Refugees
By Dahr Jamail

With over 300,000 homeless residents of Fallujah scattered about central Iraq, daily life for these refugees is a reality filled with searching for food, medical attention, warmth and clean water

Is Marwan Barghouti Right To Run?
By Hasan Abu Nimah & Ali Abunimah

Barghouti's candidacy has provoked some very negative reactions that cast serious doubt on the sincerity of those who have long been calling on the Palestinians to speed up democratization and reform as a way to advance the peace proces

How The Gods Fall
By S. Anand

Cold-blooded murders, allegations of child abuse, sexual harassment. The killing of Sankararaman is one, the closets of the Kanchi math seem to be full of gory stuff

07 December, 2004

"Jude Finisterra" Interviewed
By Democracy Now!

Interview with "Jude Finisterra", a member of the political action group "Yes Men" who in a masterpiece of subversive journalistic deception forced Dow Chmicals, the present owner of Union Carbide which caused the worst industrial disaster in Bhopal, to take responsibility

The Story Behind The "Yes Men" Breakthrough
By Yes Men

Chronicle of the events that led to the Dow/BBC fiasco

Nader Attacks The Liberals
By Julian Borger

"We called them viral liberals - liberals whose brain closes down to any kind of tactics, strategies and alternative ways of defeating Bush other than letting the Democrats decide. It was an absolute brain-closing - a state of being a political zombie."

Fallujah As A “Model City”
By Dahr Jamail

The goal of crushing the resistance and creating stability by destroying Fallujah has gone so well that resistance fighters here roamed freely about Haifa street today hunting for Iraqis collaborating with US forces

Dalits Ask For Justice In West Bengal
By V.B.Rawat

Unlike other states and municipalities where officially scavenging is prohibited, in progressive Bengal, the Municipal Corporation feel it is its duty to get the manual scavenging done from the migrant Balmikis

06 December, 2004

War & 0.9 Billion Under - 5 Infant Mortality
By Gideon Polya

At the end of each year at Christmas the World gives special reverence to Mother and Child. But how have infants been treated globally since 1950?

America's Imperial Wizard Visits Canada
By John Chuckman

In Ottawa, thousands of demonstrators outside were kept away from Bush's sight, a practice followed wherever the Imperial Wizard travels

Kinsey: You Never Know Where
The Visionaries Will Appear
By T. Patrick Donovan

The recent film about Dr. Alfred Kinsey could not have arrived at a more perfect poltical moment.The heart of the movie "Kinsey" lies in the powerful cultural-poltical confrontation between the good doctor and his research institute and the forces of reactionary moral values and conservative renormalization

Why Gandhi Lost And Ambedkar Won
By Shivam Vij

Mayawati, Mulayam and Laloo symbolise political empowerment of 'low' castes, without which you would have had, by now, a million Naxalite mutinies in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. But economic empowerment continues to elude large masses of Dalits

The Rs 300-Billion Club
By Chandrabhan Prasad

Thanks to reservation, there is a Dalit middle class in India which is a discerning customer of goods and services. Whatever they earn from the State, they spend on India's private sector. So, purely from a business angle, shouldn't the private sector come forward to confront the Rs 300 billion question an embrace reservations for Dalits!

04 December, 2004

Refugees Tell Of Life And Death In Fallujah
By Dahr Jamail

Journalists and residents who have fled Fallujah share accounts of US troops killing unarmed and wounded people; Dahr Jamail continues interviewing survivors as images of a city under US assault further emerge

Coporate Responsibility: Finisterra's Lesson
By Binu Mathew

Jude Finisterra's subversive appearance on BBC interview on the 20th anniversary of Bhopal gas tragedy created a lot of embarssment for Dow chemicals, the present owner of Union Carbide and the major news media around the world. It also reminded the world the lessons of corporate responsibility and natural justice

The Creation Of “Democratic” Opposition
By Justus Leicht

If one were to believe the Western media, one would conclude that the Ukrainian opposition movement developed independently as the result of a spontaneous popular movement for liberty and democracy against a corrupt regime. But a closer look contradicts the assumption

The Quiet Of Destruction And Death
By Dahr Jamail

“I need another heart and eyes to bear it because my own are not enough to bear what I saw. Nothing justifies what was done to this city. I didn’t see a house or mosque that wasn’t destroyed.”

Lives Torn Apart In Ramallah
By Charles Stratford

The Israeli Defence Force are in town again. They've been here all night arresting men suspected of involvement with armed resistance groups. They bang on doors and pull young Palestinians into the back of waiting jeeps. They come and go as they please

10 Minutes In A Life
By S Anand

The Shankaracharya's confessions run the whole gamut, from murder to math funds Updates

02 December, 2004

Living Dead Of Bhopal Gas Disaster
By Jeremy Lovell

Two decades after a leak sent clouds of lethal gas into the homes of hundreds of thousands of poor Indians, the world has failed to either help the victims or punish the culprits

Bhopal: A Living Legacy Of Corporate Greed
By Justin Huggler

The Union Carbide factory has never been cleaned up. It is still poisoning Bhopal. Recent tests showed the chemicals still at the factory site have contaminated the ground water.There is mercury lying on the ground inside the site

Deadly Hot Summers To Become The Norm
By Steve Connor

Blisteringly hot summers similar to the one in 2003 when thousands of people in continental Europe died of heatstroke will become commonplace because of climate change

'Improved' Napalm For Falluja
With 'Improved' Effect
By Mike Whitney

The United States is using napalm in Falluja. So far, the military has denied the allegations, but the proof is mounting

Why They Love Mahmoud Abbas
By Hasan Abu Nimah

Perhaps Mahmoud Abbas has little choice but to repeat old clichés about violence and peace. This will no doubt improve his image and enhance his acceptability as a player in the international peace process industry, but, again, it will not bring peace any closer

The Brandt Report
By Mohammed Mesbahi

The Brandt Report was well publicized, read and discussed, but twenty years later none of Brandt’s recommendations have been put into practice. The third world has been plunged deeper and deeper into poverty, hunger and degradation

Injustice At Indira Sagar Dam
A Report

Independent people's commission's report of the present situation of displacement, resettlement, relief and rehabilitation, in the villages and towns affected and submerged as a result of the the Narmada Sagar Dam in western India, and those that are due to submerge in the future

01 December, 2004

Neglect Follows Siege Of Fallujah
By Dahr Jamail

The Iraqi ministry of health is failing to provide enough support to hundreds of thousands who fled Fallujah, and doctors in Baghdad are perplexed

Low Crime Rate In Fallujah
By Dahr Jamail

Allawi continues to insist that violence in Iraq is decreasing since the siege of Fallujah

Iraq's Health Care Under US Occupation
By Ghali Hassan

Since the US military invasion and occupation of Iraq, Iraq's health care system has deteriorated as a result of deliberate destruction by the US administration. The most vulnerable victims of this destruction are the Iraqi children, particularly children under the age of five

Covering Up US War Crimes
By James Petras

The US mass media “reports”, the style, content and especially the language, echo their Nazi predecessors of 70 years ago to an uncanny degree. Coincidence?

What Do Yushchenko And
Yanukovich Stand For?
By Patrick Richter

Neither of the two official factions fighting for power in Ukraine—the group led by opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko and that led by the current prime minister, Viktor Yanukovich—represents the interests of the broad masses of the population

Saffronization, Hinduization Or Brahminization?
By Dr. K. Jamanadas

Neither Safronization nor Hinduization denotes the true concepts the R.S.S. The proper word must be Brahminization

30 November, 2004

Dollar Worries
By Nick Beams

As the dollar contiues to fall against all the major currencies, the onset of a global financial crisis looks imminent

“The Pianist” Of Palestine
By Omar Barghouti

I wonder when the time will come when a glamorous, award-winning director braves predictable intellectual terror and intimidation tactics to expose the venomous Israeli cocktail of racism and impunity by making a Palestinian version of “The Pianist.”

Tired In Baghdad...
By Baghdad Burning

There's a collective exhaustion that seems to have settled on Baghdad... it feels almost like an epidemic sometimes

'Unusual Weapons' Used In Fallujah
By Dahr Jamail

Eye witnesses testify that the U.S. military has used poison gas and other non-conventional weapons against civilians in Fallujah

Living A Disaster In Iraq
By Dahr Jamail

The cold winter winds sweep over Baghdad, with fuel shortages, gun battles, mortar attacks and suicide bombings, life in Baghdad is a disaster

Kashmir- A Step Forward
By Beena Sarwar

It is unrealistic to expect any overnight solution or success in the ongoing dialogue process - which is a process and not an end in itself. But if we keep our sights fixed firmly on a solution as the ultimate goal, and include Kashmiris in the process, we will move towards it

26 November, 2004

Climate Change: Asia's Nightmare
By David Fogarty

The weather predictions for Asia in 2050 read like a script from a doomsday movie. In the decades to come Asia, home to more than half the world's 6.3 billion people, will lurch from one climate extreme to another, with impoverished farmers battling droughts, floods, disease, food shortages and rising sea levels

Child Malnutrition Almost Doubles
After US Invasion
By Rick Kelly

A study conducted by the Fafo Institute for Applied Social Science found that acute malnutrition among Iraqi children between the ages of six months and five years has increased from 4 percent to 7.7 percent since the US-led invasion in March last year

Smoking While Iraq Burns
By Naomi Klein

Its idolisation of 'the face of Falluja' shows how numb the US is to everyone's pain but its own

Falluja's Health Damage
By Miles Schuman

While the North American news media have focused on the military triumph of US Marines in Falluja, little attention has been paid to reports that US armed forces killed scores of patients in an attack on a Falluja health center and have deprived civilians of medical care, food and water

Nearly 21,000 US casualties In Iraq
By Aljazeera

US military's Stars and Stripes European edition newspaper reports that nearly 21,000 wounded US troops have been treated at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Centre from injuries received in Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom

Police And Communal Riots
By Vibhuti Narain Rai & Yoginder Sikand

In a normal situation an average Hindu does not necessarily see the police as friendly or helpful but during communal riots he looks upon the police as a helper and protector. On the other hand, Muslim riot victims do not generally feel that they would get any protection from the police, even when their lives and property are under threat

25 November, 2004

Ukraine Erupts In Great Power Rivalries
By Peter Schwarz

The vehemence with which the interests of Russia and the Western powers collide in the Ukraine recalls the darkest days of the Cold War. It shows the how strained and explosive relations between the great powers have become

Eye Witness Account
Farewell To Falluja
By Fadhil Badrani

An Iraqi journalist describes how he escaped from Falluja which became literally a ghost city under the relentless US assault

A History Lesson On Fallujah
By Rashid Khalidi

Fallujah embodies the interrelated tribal, religious and national aspects of Iraq’s history.The Bush administration is not creating the world anew in the Middle East. It is waging a war in a place where history really matters

Global Warming Fight To Get Harder From 2012
By Alister Doyle

Fighting global warming will get tougher once the Kyoto protocol ends in 2012 and the world must try to get Washington involved in the long term

Water Wars
By Mohammed Mesbahi

In the year 2000 private water corporations operated in 100 countries and 10% of the world’s water was privatised.In May 2000 Fortune Magazine predicted that water would become “one of the world’s biggest business opportunities”

Bush And Sharon After Arafat
By Uri Avnery

Let no one have any illusions: Sharon will use every means, overt and covert, in order to destroy any "moderate" Palestinian leadership. His natural ally is Hamas, which opposes any negotiations with Israel. As of now, Abu-Mazen is Enemy No. 1

24 November, 2004

Killing A 13 Year Old
By Chris McGreal

An Israeli army officer who repeatedly shot a 13-year-old Palestinian girl in Gaza dismissed a warning from another soldier that she was a child by saying he would have killed her even if she was three years old

The Arabs Of Israel: Citizens
Without Citizenship
By Am Johal

While the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are in the news every day with stories of the Occupation, the Arab citizens of Israel are mired in a similar but different struggle

Allawi's Dictatorship
By Dahr Jamail

The rule of Ayad Allawi, the U.S. appointed interim prime minister of Iraq, is now more in the style of the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein than a leader of a supposedly democratic state

Fallujah And The Laws Of War
By Richard Hoffman

Even as US forces launch new offensives against Iraqi cities, the flow of reports of serious war crimes committed by the American military in the assault on Fallujah continues

The Life And Mysterious Murder
Of Margaret Hassan
By Ghali Hassan

Many people called for the release of Margaret Hassan. However, some voices are conspicuous by their absence: the White House and the Allawi puppet government. Neither has said a word. The British Prime Minister Tony Blair was ready to attack the Iraqi Resistance, but did nothing to free Margaret Hassan

Election Questions Build Toward Recount
By Greg Guma

Charges of voting irregularities during the U.S. presidential election continue to snowball. As pressure builds for a recount in Ohio, the voting rights group Election Verification Project claims that the record use of electronic voting machines led to hundreds of anomalies

Consuming The World's Fossil Fuels
By Mohammed Mesbahi

If we do not switch to renewable energy sources – sun, wind, wave, geothermal and hydro, demand for fossil fuel will increase, in tandem with a decline in supplies, resulting in global economic chaos and an uncontrollable runaway greenhouse effect. Our world could be reduced to a hot, Venus-like desert within the lifetime of our grand children

Trespass Against Us
By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman

Twenty Things to Know About Dow Chemical on the 20th Anniversary of Bhopal

Big Winner In Indian Elections
Remains Best Kept Secret
By Thomas C. Mountain

The BSP increased the percentage of the national vote total it recieved in 2004 to 5.35% from 4.17% in 1999, over 25%, continuing a trend by increasing its percentage of the popular vote by nearly 50% since the 1996 election

23 November, 2004

Hollow Victory In Falluja
By Scott Taylor

In reporting that six police stations in Mosul had been overrun, no explanation was given as to how 5000 American-paid Iraqi police could have been "overwhelmed" without a single casualty on either side. Such collusion between police and fighters was evident in a number of other cities within the rebellious Sunni triangle

Iraqi Critics Speak Out On Occupation, Elections
By Dahr Jamail

While debate continues in the United States about how best to manage the occupation and nation building of Iraq, the ideas of Iraqis on the matter of what is to happen in their country have been all but completely muted in the West

SHOUT OUT, "NO MORE!"
By Ted Bohne

How many more BILLIONS of dollars will we give to a feckless thug and his mob before we SHOUT OUT, "NO MORE!" Or will we continue to mumble and write because we want someone else to do it

Missing Arafat
By Uri Avnery & Ari Shavit

Uri Avnery speaks about a world with and without Yasser Arafat

Biofuels Would Be A Disaster
By George Monbiot

The adoption of biofuels would be a humanitarian and environmental disaster

Swami And Fiends
By S. Anand

Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati's arrest for murder brings other ungodly affairs to the fore

India’s Foreign Policy In The Gutter
By S.Faizi

As the mercilessly unipolar world desperately wishes for a balancing world player India is just not there where it should have been-as a moderating global force, on the strength of its democratic resilience, cultural diversity, relative economic autonomy and sheer immensity

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