I am risking going overboard today.
The sheer volume of bad news from across the world is just overwhelming - from state oppression in China, to heart-wrenching climate events across the world; to civil unrest and terrible behaviour amongst school children; to the ever worsening state of the world economy....
I am speechless.
The sheer volume of bad news from across the world is just overwhelming - from state oppression in China, to heart-wrenching climate events across the world; to civil unrest and terrible behaviour amongst school children; to the ever worsening state of the world economy....
I am speechless.
Pakistan: Energy woes plunge capital into darkness
Capital Development Authority shuts down street lights to save money
ISLAMABAD - In a bid to reduce the mounting electricity bills the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has adopted an anti-public way of saving money by turning the capital’s street lights off every evening. Moreover, city managers delayed a project of introducing Light-Emitting Diodes (LED).
The civic body introduced the solar street lights project three years ago, but could not meet the task due to a shortage of funds. The CDA also held talks with various companies for the execution of the project, however, various factors, including the city planners’ inaction, put the project on hold.
Sources in the CDA told Pakistan Today that after facing many problems due to the non-payment of electricity bills worth millions of rupees, the city administration was thinking of switching over to LED lights. The official said the estimated cost of the project was Rs five billion to Rs six billion and the summary for its approval had already been submitted to the Central Development Working Party (CDWP).
For article GO HERE
Iran says makes new military push against Kurds
The Kurds have always copped it from everyone - from the Turks, to Saddam Hussein - and now Iran.
Yet another flashpoint in a volatile region.
TEHRAN, Sep. 3, 2011 (Reuters)
Iran has begun a new military push against Kurdish rebels on the border with Iraq, state television IRIB reported Saturday, days after Turkey said its air strikes had killed up to 160 militants inside Iraqi territory.
Ground troops of Iran's Revolutionary Guards were carrying out the offensive after what IRIB said was a one-month grace period during Ramadan offered to the rebels to withdraw from the country's northwestern border areas.
For article GO HERE
More than half of Somalis now face starvation
Yet another nation faces extinction .... Yawn - let's watch the rugby world cup.
4 September 2011
The famine in Somalia has spread to new regions, the UN will announce tomorrow, with the food crisis yet to reach its peak. The new front is expected to be in the Bay region in south-central Somalia.
Some four million people – more than 50 per cent of the population – are now in crisis, and the famine is expected to spread further in the coming months. In total almost 13 million people are facing starvation in the Horn of Africa, aid agencies estimate.
American diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks show that the UN was lobbying for help to avert catastrophe in Somalia as long ago as 2008, but official reaction to the disaster was exceedingly sluggish until recently. Now, if the rains do not come in October, the future for the millions still trapped without food amid the civil war in southern Somalia looks even more uncertain.
For article GO HERE
China announces plans to boost secret detention powers
How could the Chinese regime ever be more repressive than it already is?!
BEIJING (Reuters) - China wants to cement in law police powers to hold dissidents and other suspects of state security crimes in secret locations without telling their families, under draft legislation released on Tuesday that has been decried by rights advocates.
The critics said the proposed amendments to China's Criminal Procedure Code could embolden authorities to go further with the kind of shadowy detentions that swept up human rights lawyers, veteran protesters and the prominent artist-dissident, Ai Weiwei, earlier this year.
For article GO HERE
Supercommittee Pits Lobbying Firms’ Clients Against One Another
2 September, 2011
The bipartisan congressional supercommittee charged with finding $1.5 trillion in budget savings is leaving Washington lobbying firms in a quandary, seeing their clients pitted against one another in a competition for government cash.
Major defense contractors such as Boeing Co. (BA) and Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT) have a dozen or more lobbying firms working for them, many of whom also represent the health-care industry, another likely target of budget cuts. While firms often deal with conflicts of interest, the supercommittee represents an unusual challenge, said Clyde Wilcox, a government professor at Georgetown University in Washington.
For article GO HERE
Fed's Likely Response to Bad Jobs Report: Operation Twist
2 September, 2011
The Federal Reserve will respond to Friday’s brutal jobs report by announcing a so-called Operation Twist—the purchase of longer-dated Treasurys and simultaneous sale of short-dated Treasurys—after its next policy meeting, economists from Goldman Sachs and other firms said.
A third round of the politically stigmatized quantitative easing is likely still off the table for the two-day meeting ending Sept 21, but a ‘QE3’ could be put in place in November, the economists said.
For article GO HERE
The Most Brutal Layoffs Yet: Bank Of America Could Slash Up To 30,000 Jobs
2 September, 2011
Bank of America might lay off up to 30,000 people in the coming years, according to a report in the Charlotte Observer.
That means it could cut over 10% of its 288,000 employees worldwide, making BofA the bank with the most brutal layoff plans we've heard yet, second only to HSBC's plans to layoff 30,000 of its 300,000 strong workforce.
For article GO HERE
India: Hazare-Government Tensions can Cause Political Turbulence Again
I have not been covering this major movement in India on the priciple “you can’t be everywhere at the same time”
"First they ignore you. Then they fight you. Then you win." -- Gandhi
"First they ignore you. Then they fight you. Then you win." -- Gandhi
New Delhi, Sep 4 (IANS): As tensions between the Anna Hazare-led civil society and the government escalate, several political observers fear the developments can delay the much-awaited Lokpal bill and cause fresh political turbulence.
For article GO HERE
Far-right protesters ignore UK ban on marches
3 September, 2011
Ignoring a government ban on marches in London, hundreds of far-right activists held a protest in the capital on Saturday and some clashed with police.
It was the first large-scale protest in London since a wave of looting and riots shook it and other major British cities in early August. London was worst hit city during that four-night rampage, with hundreds of stores vandalized and buildings set on fire.
Police have been on high alert for street violence ever since, and Home Secretary Theresa May has imposed a 30-day ban on marches in six parts of the capital, including Tower Hamlets, where the English Defense League protested Saturday.
For article GO HERE
UK: One-in-five teachers 'physically attacked' at school
I don’’t know what the stastistics are here in New Zealand - same phenomenon. NZ has the highest youth suicide rate in the OECD.
2 September, 2011
Some 20 per cent of staff working in schools said they had been attacked by pupils or parents during the 2010/11 academic year, figures show.
A further two-thirds of teachers reported being verbally abused and 18 per cent said they had been subjected to slurs from pupils on social networking websites such as Twitter and Facebook.
For article GO HERE
Call To Staff British Schools With Soldiers
Plans to bring in schools staffed with teachers who have served in the military are being put forward as a way of disciplining Britain's unruly youth.
In response to the recent riots in England and to the growing numbers of young people getting involved in gangs, the Centre for Policy Studies has published a report examining the feasibility of a free school run by former military personnel.
For article GO HERE
Fear of getting it wrong stops most people learning first aid
4 September, 2011
Lives are being put at risk because people are avoiding learning first aid for fear of getting it wrong, a leading charity warns today.
A British Red Cross poll of more than 2,000 adults across the UK found that nearly two-thirds of respondents thought people avoid learning first aid because of the responsibility it carries.
For article GO HERE
Disasters in US: An extreme and exhausting year
All this was due to what I call the law of infinite coincidence.
3 September, 2011
WASHINGTON - Nature is pummeling the United States this year with extremes.
Unprecedented triple-digit (38-plus degree Celsius) heat and devastating drought. Deadly tornadoes leveling towns. Massive rivers overflowing. A billion-dollar blizzard. And now, unusual hurricane-caused flooding in Vermont.
If what's falling from the sky isn't enough, the ground shook in places that normally seem stable: Colorado and the entire East Coast. On Friday, a strong quake triggered brief tsunami warnings in Alaska. Arizona and New Mexico have broken records for wildfires.
Total weather losses top $35 billion, and that's not counting Hurricane Irene, according to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration. There have been more than 700 U.S. disaster and weather deaths, most from the tornado outbreaks this spring.
Last year, the world seemed to go wild with natural disasters in the deadliest year in a generation. But 2010 was bad globally, and the United States mostly was spared.
For article GO HERE
World Bank's Zoellick: "World Economy Is Entering A New Danger Zone"
What brilliance! We really needed this guy to tell us something that we’ve long known!
3 September, 2011
World Bank president Robert Zoellick warned of "a new danger zone" at a conference today in Beijing, with threats including record food prices, volatility in commodity markets, and debt crises in the developed world.
Zoellick says the world needs China as an engine for growth over the next two decades and beyond. To do this the country will have to avoid the middle income trap.
For article GO HERE
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