By Sonny Inbaraj
Bangkok
Global biodiversity is shrinking at an unprecedented rate and the prognosis given by one of the world’s leading conservation bodies, at the opening of a major environment conference here, is alarming.
Over 15,000 animal and plant species face extinction, reveals the World Conservation Union or IUCN in its ’2004 Red List of Threatened Species’.
One in three amphibians and almost half of all freshwater turtles are threatened, on top of the one in eight birds (...)
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Environment: World On Alert As Over 15,000 Species Face Extinction
18 November 2004 par (Open-Publishing)
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Margaret Hassan’s suspected execution will be seen as ’proof’ of evil
18 November 2004 par (Open-Publishing)
2 commentsBy Robert Fisk
Beirut - Who killed Margaret Hassan?
After the grief, the astonishment, heartbreak, anger and fury over the apparent murder of such a good and saintly woman, that is the question her friends - and, quite possibly, the Iraqi insurgents - will be asking.
This Anglo-Irish woman held an Iraqi passport. She had lived in Iraq for 30 years, she had dedicated her life to the welfare of Iraqis in need.
She hated the United Nations sanctions and opposed the Anglo-American (...) -
U.N. official denounces Fallujah killings
18 November 2004 par (Open-Publishing)
2 commentsBy ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS
The United Nations top human rights official on Tuesday denounced the killing of civilians and injured people in Fallujah, saying violators of international humanitarian law must be brought to justice.
Louise Arbour, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, spoke in general terms and did not specifically mention insurgents’ attacks against hostages or a U.S. military report that it is investigating the videotaped fatal shooting of a wounded man by a U.S. (...) -
U.S. Operating Secret ’Torture Flights’
18 November 2004 par (Open-Publishing)
1 commentThe Sunday Times of London is reporting that it has obtained evidence that the US government is leasing a special Gulfstream Jet to transport detained suspects to other nations that routinely use torture in their prisons. We speak with the reporter who broke the story. [includes rush transcript] The Sunday Times of London has obtained evidence that the US government is leasing a special Gulfstream Jet to transport detained suspects to other nations that routinely use torture in their (...)
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Government looking at military draft lists
18 November 2004 par (Open-Publishing)
1 commentBy ALMA WALZER
It’s taken one year, seven months and 19 days of combat in Iraq for the Lone Star State to lose 100 of its own.
Texas is the second state, after California, to lose 100 service members, according to The Associated Press.
With continuing war in Iraq and U.S. armed forces dispersed to so many other locations around the globe, Americans may be wondering if compulsory military service could begin again for the first time since the Vietnam War era.
The Selective Service (...) -
In Mourning for Margaret Hassan and for the dead of Fallujah
18 November 2004 par (Open-Publishing)
17 commentsby Tony Kevin
I never knew Margaret Hassan. But her decency shines through every photograph I have ever seen of her. Her Iraqi husband’s love and admiration for her was manifest. I grieve for her, her family and her friends.
She was the kind of rare person the world cannot afford to lose: the bridge-builders between cultures and religions, the people who live to break down barriers, the people who believe life is about helping others less lucky than ourselves.
I have known many (...) -
A War Crime in Real Time Obliterating Fallujah
18 November 2004 par (Open-Publishing)
1 commentBy FRANCIS A. BOYLE
The obliteration of Fallujah continues apace. Article 6(b) of the 1945 Nuremberg Charter defines a Nuremberg War Crime in relevant part as the ". . . wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages. . ." According to this definitive definition, the Bush Jr. administration’s destruction of Fallujah constitutes a war crime for which Nazis were tried and executed. There is nothing surprising about that.
Since the Bush Jr. administration’s installation in power by the (...) -
Powell was just a figurehead, not a player
18 November 2004 par (Open-Publishing)
3 commentsBy Nathan Guttman
During Colin Powell’s tenure as secretary of state, the adage that U.S.-Israel relations are managed by the White House and the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, with the secretary of state and foreign minister playing purely secondary roles, became even more firmly entrenched. Powell met with Israeli officials and was sent on missions to the region, but the Israeli file was always in the hands of President George W. Bush and National Security Advisor Condoleezza (...) -
Children pay price of US offensive
18 November 2004 par (Open-Publishing)
1 commentAla Barham slumps in his hospital bed and stares blankly into the air in front of him.
Twelve years old and still deeply in shock, he can barely speak.
Ala’s family had fled the Iraqi city of Falluja before last Monday’s all-out offensive began. He was happily playing with his brother in the garden of their uncle’s house in a village outside the city. Then the rocket hit.
"My uncle died. They took us to hospital," he mumbles, speaking in little more than a whisper.
His brother lies (...) -
Allawi denies, International Amnesty confirms the killing of civilians in Falluja
18 November 2004 par (Open-Publishing)
The Iraqi Interim prime minister Eyad Allawi alleged that he does not believe that there are civilians who were killed in the attack which resulted in killing 38 America soldiers and 6 Iraqi soldiers and more than 1200 gunmen. However, statements of witnesses contradicted with his statements.
Members of an Iraqi relief committee told the Qatari al-Jazeera TV that he saw 22 bodies buried under the remains in one of Golan Quarters streets in the north of Falluja on Sunday. Muhammad Farhan (...)