BBC News | News Front Page | World Edition
With the election in the rear view mirror, the progressive political action committee MoveOn.org wants to make sure the candidates it worked to help get into office support a truly progressive agenda.
To that end, it held more than 500 "Fired Up and Ready to Go" gatherings throughout the country Thursday night. A meeting held at the Dardanelles restaurant on Monroe Street drew 15 people, all white and over 50.
About 350 MoveOn.org members registered for get-togethers in 18 locations throughout Wisconsin, said Paul Otto, state coordinator for MoveOn.org.
BRUSSELS - Ten years after an international ban on the use of landmines was agreed, the weapons still claimed thousands of lives during 2007, a new report has calculated.
Even though only two countries -- Burma and Russia -- continue to use landmines, deaths and injuries are still being caused by those set during a large number of conflicts around the world, and that have never been deactivated.
Rich governments and corporations are triggering alarm for the poor as they buy up the rights to millions of hectares of agricultural land in developing countries in an effort to secure their own long-term food supplies.
The head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, Jacques Diouf, has warned that the controversial rise in land deals could create a form of "neo-colonialism", with poor states producing food for the rich at the expense of their own hungry people.
As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama boasted of opposing the Iraq War from the start.
But as president-elect, he has come to the rescue of surge supporter Joe Lieberman and flirted with the idea of keeping on Bush administration Defense Secretary Robert Gates - and now he seems poised to nominate war-authorizing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to serve as his secretary of state.
The sound from the left: not silence, but no howls of betrayal, either.
"Anybody who has reacted after two weeks is not a serious person," said Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.).
This year protesters commemorating a massacre may feel so jubilant that keeping a straight face for a vigil could be a challenge.
As they again mark the anniversary of the Nov. 16, 1989, killings of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her teenage daughter - gunned down by El Salvadoran soldiers, most of whom had attended what was then known as the School of the Americas - those protesting what's now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation will have something else in mind: Hope, and change.
</td></tr></table>On the evening of Tuesday 18 November Khalid al-Habeel sat surrounded by his wife, family, and other concerned fishermen. Until the early hours of the following day, they had no idea what charges were being laid against 15 fishermen, including two of al-Habeel's sons, Adham (21) and Mohammed (20), after they were nabbed from Gaza's territorial waters earlier that morning and taken to an Israeli interrogation center at Ashdod port. Nor did they know when or if their boats -- their livelihoods -- would be returned. Eva Bartlett reports.
</td></tr></table>Over the past two weeks, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have faced a sharply deteriorating humanitarian situation as Israel further tightened its closure of the border crossings. Virtually no food, medicine or other vital supplies have been allowed in to the territory that is home to 1.5 million people. Despite desperately needed medication, equipment, supplies, and spare parts, doctors continue to try to save lives and look after their patients at the European Gaza Hospital. Rami Almeghari reports from Gaza.
</td></tr></table>Text messages came from student protestors who had managed to get inside the lecture hall. They let the their fellow demonstrators outside know that their chanting could be heard inside over the voice of Israeli President Shimon Peres. There was clapping and stamping of feet and placards banged on the railings to make as much noise as possible, along with the constant "Free, free Palestine" which did not stop for a moment of the hour-long lecture. Abigail Humphries reports from Oxford.
</td></tr></table>The middle-of-the-night eviction last week of an elderly Palestinian couple from their home in East Jerusalem to make way for Jewish settlers is a demonstration of Israeli intent towards a future peace deal with the Palestinians. Mohammed and Fawziya Khurd are now on the street, living in a tent, after Israeli police enforced a court order issued in July to expel them. Jonathan Cook analyzes.
</td></tr></table>Canada's Museum of Civilization is part of Canadians' acknowledgement and atonement for the colonial ethnic cleansing of First Peoples. By providing space for the Jewish National Funds's Negev Dinner, however, the museum is aiding and abetting ethnic cleansing in Palestine and facilitating the celebration of these actions next to the exhibit of aboriginal culture in the Museum's Great Hall. This discredits our nation's understanding of its own egregious colonial past and raises questions about the sincerity of our apologies to aboriginal peoples in Canada.
Christian Science Monitor | Top Stories
Democracy Now!
Alistair Darling will make a high-risk bid to lead Britain out of recession tomorrow, when he is expected to cut VAT and entice the British people to go on a pre-Christmas spending spree.
The move by the Chancellor and Gordon Brown won the support last night of Charles Clarke, one of the Prime Minister's most high-profile critics, a sign that the economic crisis is at last uniting Labour and focusing minds on the battle against the Tories. With high-street stores slashing prices to attract customers, Darling will offer help with his pre-Christmas price cut in an attempt to limit the collateral damage from the global financial crisis.
The cut is expected to see the rate drop from its current level of 17.5 per cent for at least a year - and possibly for as long as two years.
However in an interview this morning, the Tory leader, David Cameron, warned public borrowing could top 100bn to pay for Brown's "fiscal stimulus" package to rescue the ailing economy.
'I think people are going to be shocked tomorrow when they see the extent of government borrowing,'' he told BBC1's Andrew Marr show.
'Maybe 80bn this year, before the recession's even properly started, and possibly over 100bn next year. And next year, that is over 4,000 extra for every family in the country.'
Lord Mandelson, the business secretary, acknowledged this morning that the government could not know whether the planned changes would persuade people to spend more. 'We don't, but that's not a reason for inaction,' he said.
Asked when there would be tax rises, he added: "In the medium term, the chancellor has said, and he's absolutely right to say this and he'll do so again tomorrow, that we have to get our public finances on to a sustainable basis.
'He's got to explain how he's going to do that and he will.'
Last night, as Darling put the finishing touches to the most important financial statement of Labour's 11 years in government, there was speculation that he might slash the rate to 15 per cent, a move that would cost the government about 12.5bn a year.
Such a move, certain to be interpreted as evidence that Brown is preparing for a possible election next year, is seen by the Prime Minister as essential to help the economy ride out the severest economic downturn for generations.
Darling is also expected to announce an extension of the 2.7bn giveaway announced in the summer to buy off Labour rebels opposed to the abolition of the 10p income tax rate. The original rebate, worth 120 a year to basic rate taxpayers, was due to come to an end next April, but the Chancellor is likely to carry it over for at least another year. There could also be wider changes in personal tax allowances to take many low earners out of paying tax at all, as well as plans to speed up infrastructure projects to help salvage jobs in construction.
In an interview with the Sunday Mirror, Darling today promises help for 'every household' so people can 'get through the difficult period'. He also promises support for householders with mortgages and those facing redundancy. 'Worried mortgage holders will get help and I shall do what I can to help those who lose their jobs.'
The public sector, he says, will be asked to spend less. 'In these difficult times the public sector will, like the rest of the country, be tightening its belt.'
There was also speculation that Darling could help motorists by postponing plans to increase vehicle excise duty on the most polluting cars.
With the financial markets nervously waiting to see how Brown and Darling intend to pay for the measures, the Prime Minister received a significant boost last night when Clarke, a former Home Secretary, finally buried the hatchet and lavished praise on his former political enemy over his handling of the economic crisis.
Ending one of the bitterest feuds at the top of the Labour party, and in a sign of how it is now united behind its leader, Clarke, who only in September called for Brown to shape up or quit, told The Observer that the Prime Minister had shown 'genuine economic and political leadership at a time when it was both desperately needed and difficult to do'. He said: 'It's been a real surprise to me but Gordon's economic self-confidence has made him more decisive on the political front.' The PM had listened to his critics and had 'earned the right to support'.
'I think that, since the Labour party conference, he has done really well in meeting the challenges of the world financial and economic crisis,' said Clarke. As a result, he said he felt Brown could lead Labour to a fourth consecutive general election victory.
'Winning the election, particularly in the marginal seats in the south east, remains a really tough call, but Labour is obviously back in the race and can do it.'
City economists said a VAT cut was 'psychologically attractive', as it would encourage people to spend when times were hard and could easily be withdrawn later.
The government's deficit will balloon to way above 100bn next year, but the Treasury hopes to reassure the City about the long-term health of the government's finances by announcing detailed plans to increase taxes and squeeze public spending, once the recession is over.
Britain's approach of plunging deeper into the red to pay for a short-term economic support package was echoed in the United States, when President-elect Barack Obama promised to save 2.5 million jobs with a two-year stimulus plan.
'There are no quick nor easy fixes for this crisis, which has been many years in the making, and it's likely to get worse before it gets better,' said Obama. 'But 20 January is our chance to begin anew, with a new direction, new ideas and new reforms that will create jobs and fuel long-term economic growth.'
In a speech to the CBI annual conference tomorrow, Brown will defend his own 'fiscal stimulus' plan, insisting that a 'new approach is now needed if we are to get through this unprecedented global financial recession with the least damage to Britain's long-term economic prospects'.
This weekend, the Conservative party launches a nationwide campaign aimed at highlighting its view that Brown's '100bn borrowing binge' will mean higher taxes in the long run. Poster vans warning of a 'tax bombshell' - the same phrase the Tories successfully deployed against Labour in the 1992 general election campaign - are being used in London and in busy shopping areas across the country.
George Osborne, the shadow Chancellor, last night accused the Prime Minister of conning the electorate with tax cuts that would have to be paid back. 'Only the Tories will deliver lower taxes that last,' he said.
The 5-year-old teetered on broomstick legs he weighed less than 20 pounds, even after days of drinking enriched milk.
Over 10,000 indigenous people from hundreds of Ecuadors Northern Sierra (highlands) communities gathered to present the native movements proposed Water Law.
An internal investigation by the Central Intelligence Agency has found that the agency withheld crucial information from federal investigators who spent years trying to determine whether C.I.A.
To update one of the Rev. Jesse Jackson's great phrases, "The hands that picked the cotton, and the hands that picked the lettuce, just picked the new president."
Its not The Hague, but its a start.
IPS Inter Press Service
NewsTrust - For Review (Independent)
RSS
