Key Changes Coming in Lebanon's Security Establishment?
June 3, 2008 2 min. read

According to the pro-opposition daily As-Safir, there appears to be some anticipation over potential changes in Lebanon's security services. The paper reported on Monday that the new president Michel Suleiman called for decisions to oversee ‘balance’ within the ranks of the country's Internal Security Forces (ISF) during a meet and greet with several leaders from […]

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Prison Ships and Rendition
June 2, 2008 1 min. read

In a stunning development, various media outlets are reporting that the NGO Reprieve has information suggestion that the Bush Administration is running prison ships to hold individuals who have been captured via a rendition program: “The United States is operating “floating prisons” to house those arrested in its war on terror, according to human rights […]

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A Fine Mess
June 2, 2008 2 min. read

In the interest of improving America's image, someone should have banned coverage of Saturday's meeting of the Democrats’ Rules and Bylaws Committee in Washington. There were insults, snide remarks, grandstanding and pettifoggery during the six-hour meeting — and that was just the participants. The hundreds of partisan onlookers behaved much worse, yelling taunts and threats […]

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Abuse by UN Peacekeepers
June 2, 2008 4 min. read

In my post on August 1, 2007, UN Peacekeepers and the Abuse of Children, I reported on the failings of UN peacekeepers in the wake of recently emerging and wide spread abused in Liberia. However as I reported then then these abuses where not new in the world of the blue helmets, and nor are […]

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Bombings versus Interfaith Dialogue in the Philippines
June 1, 2008 2 min. read

This past Thursday, there was a deadly bomb attack in the Philippines. Three people were killed outside an Air Force base. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) , the largest Muslim rebel group in the Philippines , denied any involvement in the attack but was accused by the regional police chief. There are other Muslim […]

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DRC rape charges dropped
June 1, 2008 2 min. read

For well over two generations the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide continues to haunt large swathes of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In the east DRC, a campaign of rape and violence against women and children goes largely uncontested, despite a massive deployment of 17,000 UN troops (MONUC), and despite a call on all […]

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Carbon Finance and Investment Summit
June 1, 2008 5 min. read

I sat in on the last day of this event in New York City on Friday, hearing two fascinating panels discuss “Corporate Strategies For Carbon Reduction” (in the context of federal cap-and-trade legislation) and Clean Tech’s role in getting GHG’s down. The main sponsors of the summit were EcoSecurities, one of the world’s largest developers […]

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Al-Sadr Statement Becomes Online Petition
May 31, 2008 3 min. read

The website for the pro-Sadrist Al-Kufa news agency posted a scanned copy of a statement apparently issued by Muqtada Al-Sadr earlier this week. In the statement, Al-Sadr voices his pleasure with fatwas that have rejected the long-term security agreement currently being negotiated between US forces and the Iraqi government. The aggreement, which seeks to maintain […]

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US Absent at Signing of Cluster Bomb Treaty
May 31, 2008 2 min. read

The Washington Post reports: “More than 100 countries reached agreement Wednesday to ban cluster bombs, controversial weapons that human rights groups deplore but that the United States, which did not join the ban, calls an integral, legitimate part of its arsenal. …Advocates of the ban said they hope the agreement, which was supported by rich […]

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Europeans, Weary of US, Vote Obama
May 31, 2008 9 min. read

The conservative-leaning London newsdaily the Daily Telegraph commissioned a poll on Europeans’ preferences for the next US president. The poll of 6,200 people in Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia, finds that, across all countries polled, Senator Obama received 52 percent of the popular vote, while Senator McCain received 15 percent. Senator Clinton was not included in the […]

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Gaza Strip Fulbrights denied visas
May 31, 2008 1 min. read

Higher education, according to an Israeli Defense minister is not a humanitarian concern. Within the bantustan-like confines of the Palestinian territories, seven Gaza Strip residents awarded Fulbright scholarships are coming to terms with yet another causality of the Israeli blockade. Denied visas by Israel, the US State Department has had to withdraw their grants. Inside Israel, […]

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Human Rights Abuses Continue to Plauge the Globe
May 31, 2008 3 min. read

In a new report issued by Amnesty International, the 2008 State of the Worlds Human Rights, it has painstakingly come to light that after sixty years after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that human rights still widely abused in dozens of countries. The forward of the report was entitled, “Broken Promises”, […]

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