March 19, 2010 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
A prominent muslim scholar and cleric has issued a 600-page fatwa, or religious edict, drawing from authoritative historical sources and scripture, to rule that true Islam bars any form of bloodshed. Dr. Tahir ul-Qadri, a muslim theologian from Pakistan, who lives and teaches in Britain, said an honest examination of the teachings and doctrines of Islam demonstrates an absolute prohibition on the shedding of blood for political or religious purposes.
More on page 6169
January 4, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
En mesa redonda, en el programa 59 segundos de la TVE, un panel de periodistas y analistas políticos debaten los méritos y desafíos del primer año del mandato de Barack Obama, presidente de Estados Unidos. Entre las complicaciones, debaten las expectativas, tal vez más globales y desafiantes que las que encontró ningún otro presidente al llegar al poder, y la agresiva resistencia de sus contrincantes políticos a la ética del diálogo y de la política colaborativa.
More on page 5725
December 21, 2009 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
(1) [W]e shall, recognizing the scientific view that the increase in global temperature should be below 2 degrees Celsius, on the basis ofequity and in the context of sustainable development, enhance our long-term cooperative action to combat climate change. … (2) We agree that deep cuts in global emissions are required according to science, and as documented by the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report with a view to reduce global emissions so as to hold the increase in global temperature below 2 degrees Celsius … (10) We decide that the Copenhagen Green Climate Fund shall be established as an operating entity of the financial mechanism of the Convention to support projects, programme, policies and other activities in developing countries related to mitigation including REDD-plus, adaptation, capacity-building, technology development and transfer….
More on page 5584
December 19, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
When Pres. Obama and Pres. Medvedev meet, their agenda will reach beyond carbon emissions and climate change negotiations, however.They are expected to discuss ongoing negotiations on a new nuclear arms reduction treaty. US and Russian negotiations have been meeting in Geneva, holding talks described as “intense”, in the interests of mutual nuclear disarmament. The plan will be a second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (StART 2), aimed at moving the world closer to Pres. Obama’s vision of “a world without nuclear weapons”.
More on page 5494
December 18, 2009 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
The above video highlights the Danish city of Frederikshavn’s ongoing comprehensive plan to achieve 100% carbon neutral status by 2015, by focusing on wind and other renewable resources to produce its entire municipal energy supply. Mikael Kau, the director of the Frederikshavn energy project explains that other, larger cities in Denmark could adopt similar plans and from the local level help Denmark achieve 100% energy independence and carbon neutrality by 2015.
More on page 5520
December 18, 2009 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
Gordon Brown plans “plan b” 2nd round of talks if Copenhagen conference fails to achieve global pact. The plan would call for a smaller number of nations to meet to agree to concrete steps to curb emissions and move their contribution to the world economy toward a green energy future.
More on page 5518
December 18, 2009 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
Good morning. It’s an honor to for me to join this distinguished group of leaders from nations around the world. We come together here in Copenhagen because climate change poses a grave and growing danger to our people. You would not be here unless you —like me— were convinced that this danger is real. This is not fiction, this is science. Unchecked, climate change will pose unacceptable risks to our security, our economies, and our planet. That much we know.
More on page 5513
December 10, 2009 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
I believe that peace is unstable where citizens are denied the right to speak freely or worship as they please; choose their own leaders or assemble without fear. Pent-up grievances fester, and the suppression of tribal and religious identity can lead to violence. We also know that the opposite is true. Only when Europe became free did it finally find peace. America has never fought a war against a democracy, and our closest friends are governments that protect the rights of their citizens. No matter how callously defined, neither America’s interests — nor the world’s — are served by the denial of human aspirations.
More on page 5377
December 7, 2009 :: staff :: One Comment
The Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change opened today, with 192 nations in attendance, making it the most significant event ever staged to bring governments together to fashion a global response to climate destabilization. 15,000 participants representing governments and the fields of science, economics and public policy research, are gathered to try to reach agreement on the first true global protocol for curbing emissions and countering the threat of comprehensive climate destabilization.
More on page 5297
December 6, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
A prominent Russian journalist, Olga Kotovskaya, has been killed in a mysterious fall from a building in Kaliningrad, under circumstances press rights groups believe suggest yet another attack on press freedom by shadowy individuals linked to the government. Kotovskaya had just won an important court victory over the government and should have been allowed to take back control of a TV network she had founded.
More on page 5290
December 5, 2009 :: staff :: One Comment
Amanda Knox, an American student whose British roommate Meredith Kercher died in violent circumstances, in Perugia, Italy, has been convicted for murder, in a case legal analysts say was deeply flawed, had little to no evidence of involvement, let alone guilt. There are serious concerns about the fairness of the trial process, and people in both Italy and the United States have come to her defense, assailing the legitimacy of the prosecution, even as Italian popular culture rages against “the devil with an angel’s face”.
More on page 5268
November 29, 2009 :: Mirya Dunaeva :: No Comment Yet
The Nevsky Express train from Moscow to St. Petersburg, carrying 661 passengers, yesterday suffered a serious impact or explosion, derailing several cars and killing at least 26 people, near the village of Uglovka. A small crater found near the tracks and an engineer’s testimony that an explosion had occurred have led investigators to suspect a bomb attack as the cause for the tragedy.
More on page 5195
November 20, 2009 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
Despite months, even years, of speculation the job would go to the former 2.5-term British prime minister, Tony Blair, the European Union has named Belgium’s new multilingual, largely unknown Flemish prime minister, Herman Van Rompuy, its first full-time president. Van Rompuy’s role will be daunting and complex, as he will be the public face of a 27-nation bloc whose “unity” sometimes seems more a matter of legal technicality than of fact.
More on page 5144
November 13, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has called for sweeping political and economic reforms, designed to make Russia a modern, advanced democratic society. In his state of the nation address, Pres. Medvedev said Russia needs to evolve from being a “primitive” economy based on raw materials and natural resources to an advanced economy based on unique innovative human knowledge. He also said the new Russia needs to be one of “intelligent, free and responsible people”, not one where political bosses dictate policy.
More on page 5102
November 10, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
The Berlin Wall separated East and West Berlin, ensuring that capitalist and democratic West Berlin remained surrounded on all sides by the communist German Democratic Republic, where a permanent state of martial law kept millions prisoner for decades. West Germany was forced to move its seat of government to Bonn, to protect against a potential hostile siege from the East German regime, strongly backed by the Soviet Union. But on 9 November 1989, a spreading movement of ground-up resistance and reform climaxed in what seemed like the sudden unraveling of an empire that covered half the continent.
More on page 5072
November 9, 2009 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
This video shows the emotional exuberance of the massive crowds of millions that flooded the streets of Berlin around the places where the wall was being dismantled and the checkpoints where cars were being allowed through. The iconic East German Trebant cars were symbolic of the people’s urge to peek through the barrier and glimpse life on the other side. They brought East Germans into the streets packed with revelers, who welcomed their newly free neighbors. The atmosphere is one of joy and celebration as families and communities are reunited.
More on page 5068
November 9, 2009 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
his video is in German, with English subtitles. It shows the convergence of thousands at the Bornholmer Strasse border crossing, as news of the opening of the wall began to spread. The wall is slowly opened as the border guards begin to understand the scope of what is taking place. The political order has shifted so quickly, it takes time for the information to filter through that they are not to use force to stop the tens of thousands seeking to cross into West Germany.
More on page 5066
November 9, 2009 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
This video shows original video footage from 12 November 1989, taken at various sites both before sunrise and later that morning. The video focuses on Potsdamer Platz and records the tearing down of the Berlin Wall and the jubilation of those who flocked to the historic celebration.
More on page 5064
November 9, 2009 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
This video shows an ABC News report on the fall of the Berlin Wall and the process of reform and political change that rapidly swept across eastern Europe in the months surrounding that event. The report cites the efforts of mass movements of ordinary people to overthrow hardline totalitarian regimes through peaceful mass protest.
More on page 5062
October 28, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
The European Union is expected to soon establish a full-term presidency for the European Council of heads of state, separating that post from the presidency of the Council of the European Union, replacing the current six-month rotation between member states, once the Czech president, Vačlav Klaus, signs the Lisbon Treaty. The change will mark a major transition for the multinational bloc, which has been gradually building up a stronger common government since the founding of the European Economic Community after World War II.
More on page 4972
October 9, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 2 Comments
Pres. Barack Obama, in office just under 9 months, has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The award announcement has sent a ripple through world opinion, as critics and supporters clash over whether the award is premature, or whether Obama’s collaborative diplomatic method has achieved important gains for world peace. The prize could signal an endorsement of Obama’s work on comprehensive nuclear disarmament or on achieving climate consensus this fall, or it could be oriented toward affirming the gains made in international cooperation.
More on page 4816
September 26, 2009 :: Mirya Dunaeva :: No Comment Yet
The government of Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has been hard to characterize, seeming one day to be a mouthpiece for the bellicose policies of his predecessor, now PM, Vladimir Putin, and another day to be the first Russian leader ever to express interest in a uniform standard of global governance and cooperation, rooted in democratic principles. Now, Mr. Medvedev’s political stock has gained, as ongoing nuclear negotiations with the US, at Pres. Obama’s urging, have resulted in a unanimous Security Council counter-proliferation vote.
More on page 4742
September 22, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
The UN General Assembly, which brings together every head of government in the world, to offer their country’s position on issues, their country’s demands regarding trade and conflict negotiations, their country’s hopes for a more harmonious world, this year truly grapples with issues of global consensus. Economic recovery, for many parts of the world, will require an unprecedented expansion of women’s rights and sustained attention to responsible environmental stewardship.
More on page 4498
August 24, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
Outrage ensued when it was announced that Europe could extract electricity from the Grand Inga dam project, in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, deep in sub-Saharan Africa. At present, less than 30% of the African population has access to electricity, and in some countries, the figure is below 10%. The World Bank has found that the diversion of electricity to wealthier customers in Europe may be necessary to fund the project.
More on page 4153
August 17, 2009 :: Mirya Dunaeva :: No Comment Yet
During his presidency, now Prime Minister Vladimir Putin consistently enforced a brutal policy of confronting any and all activities of separatist groups in the north Caucasus, specifically Chechnya, as issues of warfare with high national security stakes for the Russian Federation. Atrocities committed in Chechnya, both during and after the war, and including recent political killings, have yet to be fully investigated, and violence is now spreading across the north Caucasus region into other republics.
More on page 4095
August 16, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
Zarema Sadulayeva and her husband Alik Dzhabrailov were abducted from the headquarters of the children’s charity Save the Generation on Monday, 10 August, and found dead the following day, their bodies riddled with bullets and stuffed in the trunk of their car. The gruesome murder is the latest in a long string of killings of rights workers and activists investigating or with access to evidence about atrocities and human rights abuses in Chechnya.
More on page 4083
August 15, 2009 :: Denver Lessing :: No Comment Yet
The British government has ordered the UK-appointed governor of Turks and Caicos to suspend the ministerial government and assembly and institute direct rule, after an investigation turned up evidence of systemic official corruption. The order of direct rule will also suspend the right to jury trial in the Turks and Caicos, and the UK says the imposed rule could last up to 2 years.
More on page 4059
August 13, 2009 :: staff :: One Comment
Pres. Barack Obama yesterday hosted 16 new Medal of Freedom recipients at the White House, honoring their lifelong contributions to the expansion of human understanding and the promotion of individual liberty and human dignity. Among the recipients were scientists and activists, soldiers and political leaders, preachers and athletes, native Americans, African Americans, Latin Americans, Africans and Asians. The 16 laureates exemplify not only rare talent and indomitable spirit, but also a devotion to human dignity and understanding.
More on page 4029
August 5, 2009 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
The north Caucasus region, Sudan’s Darfur, eastern DR Congo, Sri Lanka, Iraq and North Korea, are just an example of the range of physical risks journalists are facing. How can governments and news agencies work together to ensure greater freedom and better guarantees of protection for journalists doing the most necessary and most perilous work?
More on page 3905
July 24, 2009 :: Riga Listin :: 2 Comments
Natalya Estemirova was a seasoned journalist and well-known human rights activist and researcher. She was one of the leading sources of information about human rights abuses and major atrocities committed in Chechnya, and was considered a leading voice against authoritarian leader Ramzan Kadyrov.
More on page 3774
July 19, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
The Khmer Rouge sought to establish a red Khmer empire in Cambodia, with some ambitions of expansion beyond the nation’s borders, by stamping out any human life or mind that varied from the project, as narrowly conceived by Pol Pot and his murderous regime. The “killing fields” that ensued, with the mass slaughter of an estimated 1.5 million people, were an attempt to establish a new break in time, the time before and the time after the purification —as the regime proposed— of all Cambodia.
More on page 3682
July 19, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: No Comment Yet
Sami al-Haj, a reporter working for TV news network al-Jazeera, was jailed for six years at the Guantánamo Bay prison camp, before being cleared and released. He is now setting up a team to file suit against former Pres. George W. Bush and other officials within his administration for damages related to his imprisonment.
More on page 3679
July 17, 2009 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
Dear President Obama, As you are about to visit Russia at President Dmitri Medvedev’s invitation, the international press freedom organisation Reporters Without Borders would like to draw your attention to the frequency of crimes of violence against journalists in Russia and the prevailing impunity for those responsible.
More on page 3632
July 16, 2009 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
The Labour party government of the United Kingdom has announced plans to establish an aggressive overhaul of national energy markets, shifting to 40% low-carbon energy sourcing, across all industries, by 2020. The energy secretary, Ed Milliband, will be given control of allocation of electricity across the energy grid, in an effort to speed the green-energy revolution to allow the UK to meet its legally-binding agreed emissions cuts of 34% by 2020.
More on page 3616
July 15, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 4 Comments
Natalya Estemirova, from the Russian human rights organization, the Memorial Human Rights Center, was kidnapped today while leaving her home in Grozny, the Chechen capital, and later found dead. She reportedly shouted to bystanders “This is a kidnapping!” No one was able to intervene, as four armed men grabbed her and put her into a white automobile.
More on page 3599
July 11, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
Biodiesel is a controversial area of energy sourcing. Many believe it is a poor choice for breaking human dependence on carbon-based fuels, since it is essentially, yet another way of burning carbon to produce energy. But others say it is a healthy, incremental step, which can burn cleaner than petroleum fuels and will help diversify the scope of recycling and related inputs to the energy economy. Now chocolate is making its way into the biodiesel game.
More on page 3531
July 10, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
The Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute (GCCSI) was announced in L’Aquila by Australia’s premier Kevin Rudd. The GCCSI amounts to a global intergovernmental effort to produce state of the art carbon capture projects to sequester and store carbon produced by industry in the period leading up to a zero-emissions energy infrastructure. Rudd unveiled the project at the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, convened by US president Barack Obama alongside the G8 summit of leading world economies.
More on page 3514
July 10, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 2 Comments
US president Barack Obama convened a G8-parallel Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, comprised of 17 nations representing over 80% of the world’s industrial and consumer greenhouse gas emissions. The goal was to push governments to move their emissions and energy strategies closer to consensus for meeting bold targets for carbon emissions reductions, in anticipation of the September G20 summit in Pittsburgh and the UN climate summit at Copenhagen in December.
More on page 3508
July 8, 2009 :: Denver Lessing :: One Comment
Developing nations have failed to deliver the collaborative consensus sought by US president Obama and other G8 leaders in anticipation of the Copenhagen Climate Conference scheduled for later this year. While G8 leaders agreed global climate policy should be oriented toward avoiding any increase in global average temperatures of more than 3º Fahrenheit, they did not reach agreement on how to cap or reduce emissions to set levels by 2050.
More on page 3491
July 8, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
When Pres. Barack Obama met with his Russian counterpart, Dmitri Medvedev, the tone was optimistic, visionary, encouraging: the heads of state of the two former Cold War enemies were agreeing to historic legally binding reductions in their respective nuclear arsenals, and shifting their vocabulary toward something more akin to a consensus position on defensive weapons innovations, namely a missile shield.
More on page 3473
July 8, 2009 :: staff :: One Comment
The Hot Spring Network has opened a discussion, in collaboration with Café Sentido, on the need to diversify the global wheat crop in order to prevent an evolved crop fungus, Ug99, from destroying as much as 80% of the global wheat harvest.
More on page 3468
July 6, 2009 :: staff :: 2 Comments
Pres. Obama has arrived in Moscow to negotiate with Russian leaders a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (StART). He faces a complex process of navigating the politics of a nuclear superpower with two leaders. Some expect Obama to work with Pres. Medvedev, keeping PM Vladimir Putin more to the sidelines, or to proffer an arms control center-ground, rooted in pragmatism, which neither of Russia’s political leaders could walk away from.
More on page 3448
July 5, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 2 Comments
Barack Obama has been observing, researching and critiquing nuclear weapons policy for three decades. He seeks to put in motion the most ambitious global denuclearization effort ever conceived, grounding his approach in a hard pragmatist awareness of what drives the build-up of ever more destructive weapons arsenals. He has said throughout this year that his plans would never remove the US nuclear deterrent capability while any nuclear threat remains in the world. Now, he goes to Russia to seek a bilateral strategic arms reduction treaty.
More on page 3437
July 1, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
The British government is planning to move ahead with the establishment of a national identity database, to which they will add the personal information of anyone applying for a new or renewed passport, starting in 2011. Despite majority opposition to establishing a biometric national ID-card system, the government appears to be using the passport registry idea to implement the national ID-card scheme “through the back door”.
More on page 3365
June 30, 2009 :: staff :: One Comment
A military coup that ousted democratically elected Honduran president Manuel Zelaya has come under increasing criticism across the world. The US administration of Pres. Barack Obama said the coup was illegal and called for the democratically elected president to be reinstated. Thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets of the capital Tegucigalpa, demanding Zelaya’s return, only to be confronted by heavily armed military and police deployments.
More on page 3342
June 28, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 3 Comments
Iranian authorities have reportedly detained at least 8 employees of the British embassy in Tehran, saying they had been “playing major parts” in stirring up anti-Ahmedinejad sentiments. The government of Pres. Mahmoud Ahmedinejad has taken an extreme hard line on the issue of dissent over the election, accusing unarmed demonstrators of “terrorism” and calling the US president Barack Obama’s criticism of the shooting of demonstrators “unconventional, abnormal and discourteous”.
More on page 3279
June 24, 2009 :: staff :: 6 Comments
After a few days of relative calm, opposition demonstrators again sought to organize a rally to demand a full accounting of all ballots cast in the 12 June presidential election. Sporadic reports from the capital, Tehran, say demonstrators were confronted by a heavy security presence when trying to assemble for a pro-democracy rally. An eyewitness has reportedly said security forces were beating people like “animals”.
More on page 3207
June 23, 2009 :: Riga Listin :: No Comment Yet
The French parliament has formed an investigative panel to explore banning the wearing of a full-body veil, or burqa, in France. The move comes after Pres. Nicolas Sarkozy announced in a state of the nation address at the Palace of Versailles that “The burka is not a sign of religion, it is a sign of subservience”, adding that “It will not be welcome on the territory of the French republic”.
More on page 3187
June 16, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
A coalition of German firms has answered a call to study making an investment of 400 billion € in solar energy across North Africa. The plan, initiated by the Club of Rome, which has been promoting sustainable development and sustainable economic growth practices, since 1972.
More on page 3045
June 8, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
Conservative and extreme right-wing parties gained significantly in this month’s elections for the European Parliament. Britain’s governing Labour party suffered its worst electoral performance since 1910, finishing 3rd behind the opposition Conservatives, and the hard-line anti-Europe UKIP.
More on page 2950
CafeSentido Partner Sites: