Friday 9 December 2011

Obama welcomes ratification of CTBT by his home country Indonesia, vows to follow suit & UN to investigate US voter disenfranchisment

Mark Twain quotes: 10 favorites on his birthday
... "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."...
Presidents to meet for world conference
6 December 2011
APA News Service
Vienna - International dignitaries including several heads of state will congregate in Vienna at the end of this week for a "World Policy Conference" at the invitation of the French think-tank "Institut Francais des Relations Internationales" (IFRI).
Statements on Monday said the main theme between Friday and Sunday would be a global approach to current problems and international crises.
Among the approximately 150 participants would be EU Council President Herman van Rompuy, Presidents Abdullah Gul (Turkey), Danilo Turk (Slovenia) and Boris Tadic (Serbia), Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I. of Constantinople, Austrian president Heinz Fischer, and Amr Moussa, former general secretary of the Arab League, and Egyptian presidential candidate.
Also saying they would come were Kenyan Premier Raila Odinga, Emir of Qatar, Scheich Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, Estonian president Toomas Hendrik Ilves, as well as Israel's defence minister und ex-premier Ehud Barak, and Nobel Peace prize laureate and former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari.
The 4th World Policy Conference would be in Vienna for the first time. In the Hofburg Palace, topics would range from the Arab Spring, natural catastrophes, the debts crisis in Europe, and democratization in Africa, to the future of the elite groups of nations G-8 and G-20.
Previously, the conference was held once in Evian in France, and twice in Marrakesh in Morocco.
Too Many Old White Men at COP17, Says One - Video
COP 17 delegate and UK Climate and Health Council co-chair Dr Robin Stott thinks the conference is top-heavy with old white men.
UN Constructing Green Schools in Gaza
Self-sufficient buildings will be environmentally sustainable
NAACP warns black and Hispanic Americans could lose right to vote
Civil rights group petitions UN over 'massive voter suppression' after apparent effort to disenfranchise black and Hispanic people
U.N. Envoy: U.S. Isn't Protecting Occupy Protesters' Rights
UCSB Professor Says Global Revolt is Underway
A global revolt is underway, according to William I. Robinson, a professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and it has shifted the whole political landscape in terms of discourse. The only viable solution is a massive redistribution of wealth and power downward towards the poor majority, he writes.
Obama, Clinton praise Indonesia over nuclear treaty
US President Barack Obama on Tuesday praised Indonesia for ratifying the nuclear test ban treaty CTBT, a move which brought the pact one step closer to coming into force.

Official Trailer Film Obama Anak Menteng (Little Obama)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYsNI2uiGt0&feature=related

UN chief urges countries to ratify CTBT
UN chief urges countries to ratify CTBT United Nations: Referring to countries like India, China and Pakistan, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has called on nations to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) saying he is counting upon the "engaged leadership" of the remaining countries to bring the treaty into force.
Ban's remarks came as he welcomed Indonesia's ratification of the CTBT, encouraging the remaining countries that have not yet done so to sign and ratify the instrument to advance its entry into force.
Indonesien ratifizierte Atomteststoppvertrag
USA, China, Indien, Pakistan, der Iran, Nordkorea, Israel, und Ägypten haben Vertrag weiterhin nicht unterzeichnet
Real cost of gas at Afghan bases: $400/gal.
Kumi Naidoo: 'I hope sanity will prevail with climate change, just as it did with apartheid'
Greenpeace International's director says the struggle for climate justice is similar to the fight against apartheid
Fed Considers Bailout for Eurozone to Quell Crisis
The Federal Reserve, along with the 17 eurozone national central banks, may help provide the International Monetary Fund with funds that could be used to aid debt-ridden states, a German newspaper reported.
Die Welt cited sources close to the negotiations as saying the eurozone central banks could pay at least $134.2 billion into a special fund that could be used for programs for nations struggling to control their debts.
Foreigners want America’s public assets
It seems like foreign governments and corporations are craving U.S. public assets like toll roads, electrical grids and railways. In the case of our largest creditor, the Chinese government, they don’t want any more U.S. Treasuries, but they do want to own the hard assets that comprise our nation’s infrastructure.
Jeffrey Sachs: 'The institutions of Europe are not really functioning' - video
As chaos in the European markets continues, Jeffrey Sachs, a former special adviser to the United Nations secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, and one of the leading international economic thinkers of his generation, talks to Madeleine Bunting about the eurozone crisis
Why is the west funding Iran's deadly war on drugs?
Iran's counter-narcotics programme results in hundreds of executions each year, yet western powers still support it
African traffickers settling here: UN
African organised-crime groups are setting up shop in Cambodia as a centre for trafficking methamphetamines in Southeast Asia, the UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime has said.
In its 2011 report on patterns and trends of amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS), released on Wednesday, UNODC notes the rapid rise of production and use in Southeast Asia.
The Economic Crisis in the Palestinian Authority
In recent years, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has enjoyed economic growth in the West Bank. However, this appears to have been only short-term growth based on foreign aid, and not on private sector activity or investment. Reduced foreign aid sparked an economic crisis in the PA, manifested in liquidity problems and difficulty in paying salaries. The crisis undermined statements by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad regarding the PA's readiness to establish a Palestinian state. The delay in the transfer of PA funds that Israel collects for it could exacerbate the crisis, prompting PA leaders to call for replacing the Paris Agreement, which regulates the economic relationship between Israel and the PA, with another agreement that would lessen the Palestinian economy's dependence on Israel.
Journalists Should Be Government Mouthpieces, Chinese Media Leader Says
The new president of China’s largest television network, the state-run organization known CCTV, drew fire over the weekend from Chinese press advocates and others online over comments urging journalists to drop their pretensions of professionalism and submit to being mouthpieces of the government.
North Korea making missile able to hit U.S.
Republicans press Pentagon for long-range interceptors
Sunnis and Shiites Head Toward a Showdown in Iraq
With U.S. troops set to leave Baghdad, Sunnis and Shiites race toward a bloody showdown.
Did We Have Music, Art, and Books before the UN?
And would we have music, art, and books without the UN? The great jazz pianist Herbie Hancock suggests in a Washington Post op-ed that our cultural life would be barren without UNESCO:
Energy companies have lent more than 50 staff to government departments
Oil and nuclear industries' presence throughout Whitehall exposed by Green MP, who warns of undue influence on policy
Occupy Foreign Affairs
WASHINGTON, Dec 5, 2011 (IPS) - It's not the topic of George Packer's latest essay that's particularly surprising. Inequality, he writes, is undermining democracy. Progressives have been hammering home this message for years if not decades.
Urban Agriculture
Industrial-Sized Rooftop Farm Planned for Berlin
It is hardly a logical spot for a farm, but three Berliners have earmarked a massive former factory roof for an unusual urban agriculture venture. The sustainable set-up will produce both vegetables and fish for local residents and could be a model for future city farms as the world continues to urbanize.
Trickle-Down Economics
There’s a free-market solution to the world’s water crisis. Make people pay by the drop.
The new philanthropists: Rich with a social conscience
While many rich people are driven to become ever richer, others are discovering the joys of philanthropy and giving their wealth away.
Zakaria: Don't fear political Islam - yet
By Fareed Zakaria, CNN
Tom Friedman recently wrote a sharp op-ed on "The Arab Awakening and Israel" in which he quoted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking before the Knesset in late November. Netanyahu said the Arab awakening was moving the Arab world "backward" and turning into an "Islamic, anti-Western, anti-liberal, anti-Israeli, undemocratic wave."

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