(Picture courtesy of mhaithaca at flickr.com.)

In continuing tribute to the Diner tradition of Southern Dragon, today we look at media and news outside the U.S.

A scene of horror was created in Southeast London’s Woolwich neighborhood just outside an army barracks when two men hacked a soldier to death then actively publicized their own crime.   They announced to passersby that they were returning a murder there for the deaths of their fellows abroad at British hands.

One was pictured holding a knife and speaking to a woman at the scene….According to the paper, Cub Scout leader Ingrid Loyau-Kennett asked him: “Would you like to give me what you have in your hands?”

“He was covered with blood,” she said. “I thought I had better talk to him before he starts attacking somebody else.”

She says the suspect told her the dead man was a British soldier, adding: “I killed him because he kills Muslims over there and I am fed up that people kill Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Comparisons were being made to the recent atrocity at Boston’s Marathon.

In Egypt’s Sinai region hostages have been taken and the Morsi government is struggling to recapture them from tribes that are in revolt against officials who have failed to give even basic services in that area.

More importantly, there are no indications that authorities even know the whereabouts of the hostages. The presidency says it is not talking to the hostage takers, but there are mediation efforts under way, and it does not seem that these men could be released without some sort of dialogue.

Tribal leaders have been key in talks with assailants in previous hostage situations involving tourists or members of the security forces. There have been claims over the past year that President Morsi had also been resorting to so-called Jihadists to mediate with armed groups in Sinai, which, if true, can be quite risky.

The government is, once again, between a rock and a hard place, but it is arguably a position they could have avoided if a genuine, transparent and wide-reaching dialogue and programme was set to develop the Sinai.

The economic slump in the European Union has ameliorated among signs that the worst part of the decline is over.

“There are signs the rate of decline is easing, which does suggest we may be moving into a period of stabilisation, but it’s taking a lot longer than most people anticipated,” said Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit.

“It’s looking more like the end of the year (until) we’re going to see the numbers start to show signs of stabilising.”

The new orders services index fell to 45.3 from 46.2, meaning a big upturn in the PMI next month looks unlikely.

Williamson said there were signs that the rate of decline eased this month in the “peripheral” euro zone countries outside Germany and France.

“But against that we’ve seen a worrying steep deterioration in service sector expectations for the year ahead.”

The easing of deficit levels in the U.S. has eased pressure here as well, erasing a major factor cited by opponents of public services to erase such basic support systems as social security and medicare.

Never.Give.Up.

(Picture courtesy of mhaithaca at flickr.com.)

In continuing tribute to Southern Dragon’s practice of keeping us informed of what is going on in a wider world, today we take a look at media from outside the usual sources in the U.S.

The small Central American country of Belize has lost an irrecoverable treasure as local construction crews raided a Mayan temple dating from 300 B.C. or earlier for rock to make gravel.

All of Belize’s ancient Maya sites are protected by law. The Institute of Archaeology plans to investigate the destruction and take those responsible to court, Morris said.

“This Maya site is well known to the local community, who have worked on various projects at the site,” he said. “The Institute of Archaeology is going to use this opportunity to really embark on a national awareness campaign for the preservation and protection of the country.”

Though the site of Nohmul had not yet been developed for tourism, it had been excavated off and on since the early 1900s after first being recorded as a site in 1897.

Bangladesh mourned, and retailers using their laborers for products signed an agreement to improve working conditions, as yet another factory collapsed, killing workers, in Cambodia.   Some retailers, including WalMart and The Gap, failed to sign on to the agreement.

The accord on fire and building safety in Bangladesh, which has been signed by H&M, Primark, C&A, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Zara andTesco, aims to compel retailers to pay for rigorous and independent public inspections and blacklist any factories unwilling to comply.

Last night a handful of other retailers did sign up before the deadline, including Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s, New Look and N Brown, a mail order and online retailer whose brands include High & Mighty, Marisota and figleaves.com.

The decision by the handful of retailers not to sign up was criticised by campaigners, who said it undermined any ethical initiatives the companies may have.

Sam Maher from Labour Behind the Label said: “I think they are running out of excuses. No company can say they have the interests of their workers at heart if they can’t sign up.

The continuing depradation of natural resources that loss of rainforest represents is threatening the ability to produce hydroelectric power.   Studies recently show that contrary to previous speculations, rainforest presence contributes to water flow into streams and rivers,

Deforestation in the Amazon region could significantly reduce the amount of electricity produced from hydropower, says a new study.

Scientists say the rainforest is critical in generating the streams and rivers that ultimately turn turbines.

The drought in Brazil continued, making its effect felt in diminishing sources for energy as well as a threat to agricultural output needed.   The new studies that show rainforest protection is needed for energy output constitutes a surprising benefit from the attention that drought has brought to combating water loss.

Never.Give.Up.

Over Easy

(Picture courtesy of mhaithaca at flickr.com.)

Thursdays the foreign media and news emphasis begun by Southern Dragon, that tradition Over Easy is continuation of, is the main feature that I follow. This past week North Korea’s new leader kept  on with his continuing defiance of the west. He closed off a shared industrial zone to South Korean workers, and ramped up hostilities. The U.S. sent off antimissile weaponry to Guam.

North Korea appears to have moved a medium range missile capable of hitting targets in South Korea and Japan to its east coast, the South’s Yonhap news agency reported today.

The movement was detected by both South Korean and US intelligence, Yonhap said, citing military and government sources.

Today the prospects of opening new realms of discovery is the aim of improvements and enhancements to the abilities of the Hadron Collider. Particle physics is the intended recipient of this upgrade, but many other realms stand to gain from the work.

Scientists believe the upgrade will enable them to discover new particles which will lead to a more complete theory of how the Universe works.

A project leader with the LHC’s Atlas experiment, Dr Pippa Wells, told BBC News that there was much more to come from the LHC.

“The past two years have been the most exciting in my time as a particle physicist. People are absolutely fired up. They’ve made one new discovery (the Higgs) and they want to make more discoveries with the new high energies that the upgrade will give us. We could find a new realm of particle physics.”

Feminism as another tool of elites, instead of international issues about working women’s subjugation, concerns watchers of a struggle between prominent authors Slaughter and Sandberg – who direct attention to high level executives.

Figures show, for example, that in 2009, 27.5 percent of African-American women, 27.4 percent of Hispanic women and 13.5 percent of white women in the US were living below the poverty line. Moreover, 35.1 percent of households headed by single moms were food insecure at some point in 2010, meaning that they did not have enough food at all times for an active, healthy life.

Many working mothers in the US are working double shifts, night shifts or two to three jobs just in order to provide for their families.

Given these blatant class and race-biases, there is something profoundly illiberal – and fundamentally incongruous – in the re-envisioning of liberated womanhood as a reorientation of affect and as a better balancing act. US women do not need to change their attitude; they need, first, job security, good childcare, livable wages for the work they do, and physical security.

Agriculture that incorporates biologically engineered crops was promoted by a recent conference in Egypt. Shortly before the conference convened, reports that the country had destroyed unauthorized genetically altered plantings were contradicted by figures on the existence of 1,000 hectares of genetically modified maise there. Controversy developed that the conference tried to refute.

Another potential threat is the impact of genetically modified crops on biodiversity. Biotech companies flood the market with uniform seeds, devoid of previous traits that made them adaptable to specific soils and environments. By being uniform, crops become much more vulnerable to disease.

Last but not least, some studies have suggested that genetically engineered foods are not safe for consumers, arguing that they did not undergo long-term safety assessments before being introduced to the US market and the rest of the world.

Various experiments on lab rats conducted in Egypt and abroad to evaluate the rats’ physiological reactions to a diet of genetically modified crops reached the same conclusions. These rodents had reproductive problems, weaker immune systems, accelerating aging, high cholesterol, organ damage and gastrointestinal problems.

In preparation for withdrawal of large portions of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, ‘expeditionary’ conditions will be returned for occupation troops there. Lobster is expected to go missing from menus where they have been provided for purposes of MWR (morale, welfare and recreation).

Among the other things to go in the shift to expeditionary living will be franchises such as Popeye’s at Bagram airbase and TGIF at Kandahar. The PX shops for soldiers will also shrink, cutting back on stocks of goods including computers and high-end sunglasses to concentrate on toiletries and necessities.

“Franchise food, coffee and merchandise vendors will also close when expeditionary standards are implemented,” Hawk said. “There will be less MWR-led events.”

Medical services will not be affected, so anyone injured in battlefield can be taken to top-level hospitals within the “golden hour” vital for saving lives. And wireless internet will be switched on until bases close, allowing soldiers to stay in touch with friends and families back home.

The End is Near is good news in this respect, that the wars begun by criminal misconduct in the previous administration are finally being ended. Never.Give.Up.

Over Easy

(Picture courtesy of mhaithaca at flickr.com.)

The weekly view of foreign news and media I have been taking on in memory of Southern Dragon at Lakeside Diner is dominated this week by accounts of the President’s trip to Israel.  After meeting with newly installed Prime Minister Netanyahu, today there will be talks with Palestinian Authority President Assad.   While much accord was reached, the President still was not in agreement with Israel on negotiations with Iran.

Mr Netanyahu mentioned it in his first sentence and again and again. He also reminded us more than once that Israel has the right to self-determination and to defend itself. The obvious implication there is that he thinks President Obama still holds out hope for a diplomatic solution which will prevent Iran obtaining nuclear weapons.

The Parliament of Cyprus will receive ‘Plan B’ for bailing out its economy, in which reports are that Russian aid will be included, though as yet the form is unspecified.

Mr Anastasiades will put a proposal to a meeting of political party leaders meeting at 09:30 (07:30 GMT). It is then expected to go before parliament in the afternoon, according to CNA.

State TV said the plan might include a levy on bank deposits over 100,000 euros.

(snip)

One offer of help has come from Cyprus’s Orthodox Church, which is a major shareholder in the third-largest domestic lender, the Hellenic Bank.

Archbishop Chrysostomos I said on Wednesday the Church was willing to mortgage its assets to invest in government bonds

The establishment of a “bad bank” which would take on risky assets held by Cypriot banks has also been mentioned by officials.

Charges of using chemical weapons were brought against each other by both sides in the Syrian conflict.

Bashar Jaafari, Syria’s UN ambassador, announced on Wednesday that he had asked the UN to ”form a specialised, independent and neutral technical mission” to investigate the use of chemical weapons by the opposition in the attack in the town of Khan al-Assal near northern city of Aleppo.

The attack, which killed 26 people on Tuesday, if confirmed, would be the first use of chemical weapons in the nearly two-year-old conflict.

“The Syrian government, if it has such weapons, will never use it against its own population,” Jaafari said.

Denying any involvement into the incident, the rebels have accused the government forces of using the chemical weapons. They have also called for an inquiry into the deadly attack.

Beginnings were made this week to begin advance planning to head off the growing effects of drought and plan accordingly in endangered areas of Africa.

The High-level Meeting on National Drought Policy marked the first globally-coordinated attempt to move towards science-based drought disaster risk reduction and break away from piecemeal and costly crisis-response, which often comes too late to avert death, displacement and destruction.

The meeting issued a declaration encouraging governments to develop and implement national drought management policies consistent with their development objectives. It also provided detailed scientific and policy guidance on how to achieve this.

“Prevention must be our priority,” said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon in a message to delegates. “Nations need urgently to develop strategies for resilience — especially for the poor, who are always hit first and worst.”

Beginnings with promise could be a beacon to backwards countries presently unable to handle the most obvious effects of disastrous policies, such as the U.S. has headed toward in its present economic loggerheads policies.  Informed planning for handling disasters would improve chances of avoiding the public’s being victimized by officials concerned for other influences than those they serve.

Never.Give.Up.

Over Easy

(Picture courtesy of mhaithaca at flickr.com.)

The Thursday foreign media are pretty busy with news about the new Pope of the Catholic

Church announced yesterday, a South American very much at variance with emerging progressive promotion of women’s rights.

“In favour of Bergoglio is his pastoral attitude, as they say in the Church – his relationship with the people,” said Leandro Pastor, a friend of the new Pope for a quarter of a century who is philosophy professor at the University of Buenos Aires. “He’s a very simple man. He’s very austere. And also, I think he’s an intelligent man and someone who is very good at communicating.”

But he has also campaigned strongly against the progressive social agenda of the Argentine government.

Like John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, he regards the Roman Catholic Church’s core values as under attack from secular society.

Monsignor Osvaldo Musto, who was at seminary with him, said the archbishop would also be a good choice in terms of continuity.

“He’s as uncompromising as Pope John Paul II, in terms of the principles of the Church – everything it has defended regarding euthanasia, the death penalty, abortion, the right to life, human rights, celibacy of priests. All of this will continue if Bergoglio is made Pope.”

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species  secured protections that are meeting with continuing opposition in protections of sharks and ivory trade

“If you see ivory being sold at the airport terminals, all they need to do is shut it down. These are do-able actions, they are not ones that would require a great deal of new resources,” he added.

There is a chance that these proposals could be watered down. But Mr Zain said that there had been a significant change in Cites, as seen in relation to rhinos, elephants and sharks.

Governments, he said, were no longer seeing these species issues as being about biodiversity – they were seen as threats to national security.

“The criminals who are now poaching elephants and smuggling tiger parts are the same who are funding terrorism and funding militias,” he added. “This is mainstream.”

An international  rights organization, Save the Children, report detailed the plight of Syrian children caught up in conflict and the targeting of them in the fighting.

The report also said two-thirds of children surveyed said that they had been separated from members of their families due to the conflict and a third said they had experienced the death of a close friend or family member.

“All these children tell you these stories in a matter of fact way and then you realise that there are layers and layers of emotional trauma there,” said Forsyth.

Forsythe said he met a Syrian refugee boy, 12, who saw his best friend killed outside a bakery.

Forsythe also said that rape is being used to deliberately punish opponents of the government, adding that it is under-reported due to the sensitivity of the issue, especially among conservative communities.

Canadian opposition pointed out that the proposed XL pipeline promoted by Harper will be a damaging element in the country’s operation of it.

Pumping tar sands oil to America would cost 40,000 Canadian jobs, and would keep energy prices high inside Canada, Mulcair said.

Instead of lobbying hard for a pipeline south, to refineries on the Gulf coast, Mulcair said his government would have focused on getting tar sands crude to market through Canadian east coast ports. “We would make sure that we bring the product from west to east. We would take care of our energy security. We would create jobs in Canada, and we would get a better price for our producers,” he said.

Mulcair’s remarks – though he stopped short of explicitly opposing the pipeline – were in sharp contrast with the line promoted by the Conservative government of Stephen Harper, which has said the Keystone XL project is critical to Canada’s economy.

As always, we close with Southern Dragon’s insistence that we;  Never.Give.Up.

Over Easy

(Picture courtesy of mhaithaca at flickr.com.)

Foreign media and news once again is the emphasis I continue in recollection of Southern Dragon and this week perhaps the videos and links will all work for you.

Water shortages will again be the lead feature that we address first, and as in this country, growing drought stresses population in Africa and elsewhere.   In some areas of the southern continent, hydroelectric generation has been prevented as water levels aren’t up to needs determined long ago in estimates of prospects for the future that are now no longer viable.

The intense drought in the northeast of Kenya has already claimed several lives, the International Committee of the Red Cross says, and doctors say they fear that the number of people who die due to starvation could yet rise.

Tanzanian power outages

The drought has also forced Tanzania’s state-run power company to announce daily 12-hour electricity outages, as low water levels at hydropower dams and a shortage of fuel for thermal power generation have made it impossible for it to meet demand.

“The Tanzania Electric Supply Company (TANESCO) regrets to inform its customers … that it has been forced to extend power rationing to all regions connected to the national grid, including Zanzibar,” the company said in a statement seen by the Reuters news agency on Saturday.

TANESCO said that water levels at the country’s main hydroelectric dams were almost below the minimum level required for generation.

The Europeans have chosen to end passing profits on to executives of their banks, as a needed preventive measure to keep from encouraging mismanagement.

European Union officials have struck a provisional deal on new financial rules, including capping bank bonuses.

Under the agreement, bonuses will be capped at a year’s salary, but can rise to two year’s pay if there is explicit approval from shareholders.

Entrepreneur Jin Zingmen offers 200,000n yuan ($32,082.60) for environmental official to swim twenty minutes in his polluted local river.

“If the environmental protection bureau chief dares to swim in [Ruian's] river for 20 minutes, I will pay [him] 200,000 yuan [HK$246,000],” Jin wrote on Sina Weibo.

In three photos Jin posted, a river in small-town Ruian is seen entirely blocked by floating rubbish. Jin blamed a rubber overshoe factory for dumping industrial waste into the river.

This river was where villagers used to wash vegetables and clothes in his childhood, Jin told Chinanews.com.

To the surprise of absolutely no one, Italy rejected a failed austerity plan the autocrats seem to think can be foisted off on the public that’s already suffered economic disasters at their hands since 2008.

Three years of German-led austerity and budget cuts aimed at saving the euro and retooling the European economy was left facing one of its biggest challenges as Italian voters’ rejection of spending cuts and tax rises opened up a stark new fissure in European politics.

The governing stalemate in Rome and the vote in the general election – by a factor of three to two – against the austerity policies pursued byItaly‘s humiliated caretaker prime minister, Mario Monti, meant that the spending cuts and tax rises dictated by the eurozone would grind to a halt, risking a re-eruption of the euro crisis after six months of relative stability.

The Beeb (BBC) has its own sequester to promote, nothing like the silliness our Congress has blundered into – as its solution to maintaining the full faith and credit of our country.

Did you and the SO have plans for the next couple of years? and are you middle aged?   then Inspiration Mars Foundation has a great plan for you to take a trip.  An older couple is the Right Stuff for their as yet unfunded Mars outing, and back.

… conditions would be squeezed and spartan, with no room for pressurised space suits. The report suggests that 1,360kg of dehydrated food will be enough to last the journey and the manifest includes 28kg of toilet paper for a crew of 2 for 500 days.

But the issue of radiation protection according to Mr Ojha is “glossed over” with the recognition that more work and “creative solutions” need to be explored. More work will also need to done to improve recycling technologies to convert urine into water.

This may be a perfect lab for relationship testing, are you brave and very tolerant?

Brave New World for; Never.give.up.

Over Easy

(Picture courtesy of mhaithaca at flickr.com.)

The foreign media and news our late friend, Southern Dragon, kept bringing to our attention has yet another scary story about water loss.   In the Middle East, whole rivers are being lost.

Pictures taken by NASA satellites reveal an alarming loss of freshwater in the Middle East.

Two important rivers are disappearing, and if they vanish millions of people will be affected.

The UN has begun promotion of solar power on the continent of Africa for a multitude of reasons that benefits occur.

Nigeria could save US$1.4 billion a year and avoid using 17.3 million barrels of crude oil if it used modern off-grid lighting solutions.

That’s one finding of a new UN study into lighting in Africa, a continent that relies heavily on kerosene, candles and batteries to light homes.

In West Africa alone, 76% of the population lacks access to electricity and spends up to 20% of the household budget on kerosene for lighting.

Not only do these practices release huge levels of carbon emissions, they also contribute to lung complaints and are huge polluters across the continent.

China’s cyberattacks gained a new level of recognition requiring U.S. response.

THE US is planning tough new laws to combat China’s rampant internet hacking, despite angry denials from Beijing that its powerful army is responsible for hundreds of covert cyber attacks.

An explosive report from Mandiant, a US internet security firm, revealed on Tuesday that China’s People’s Liberation Army operates a secret division employing thousands of people in Shanghai to break into government and corporate computer networks around the world.

It was claimed that China had hacked at least 140 organisations in the past six years, through an intricate network, to steal official secrets and data of potential rival firms and governments.

Financing micro-enterprise gains more attention and support as the need for new economic success for workers grows in urgency and importance.

A Ghanaian start-up planning to popularise crowdfunding in Africa has been selected as one of the winners of this year’s Apps4Africa competition.

SliceBiz plans to develop a service that will deliver 30-second pitches recorded by entrepreneurs to potential backers over the phone.

Never.give.up.

Over Easy

Sometimes our domestic news sounds foreign, but today is a day I’ve chosen to visit foreign media and news. For Valentine’s Day something heartening would do well. A reassuring story about a reporter resolutely presenting news many of his fellows don’t want to know strikes a chord as the fact seeking congregate ever more in the remaining places truth is held in esteem, and insisted on.

In the interest of letting Israeli readers know the effects of the occupation of Palestine, a Haaretz reporter has made his emphasis the facts most of Israel’s press avoids or at least softens.

Gideon Levy is someone who evokes strong emotions from fellow Israelis.

The writer and journalist has made weekly visits, over the past three decades, to the occupied Palestinian territories, describing what he sees – plainly and without propaganda.

For some Israelis, he is seen as a brave disseminator of the truth. But many others condemn him as a propagandist for Hamas. And his columns for the Tel Aviv-based Haaretz newspaper have made him, arguably, one of the most hated men in Israel.

(snip)

Levy’s reports have told of young Palestinians gunned down by Israeli soldiers after being accused of throwing stones; the lack of retribution against soldiers who kill Palestinians in cold blood; and the plight of Palestinian farmers, who make their livelihoods from olive trees, but who have had them burned and destroyed by settlers time and time again.

Many in Israel have criticised Levy’s reporting, saying that he and his colleagues are responsible for reinforcing anti-Semitism around the world.

But others see Levy as an individual who is courageously going against the common views of the society in which he lives.

North Korea’s third nuclear test has put its few remaining allies in an awkward position.

China is likely to agree to new or tightened economic sanctions on North Korea or possibly curb its own assistance as its frustration with its ally grows, experts believe.

China summoned the North Korean ambassador and delivered a stern protest, and as after previous tests, the foreign ministry called for a calm reaction and denuclearisation talks. However, it stopped short of the harsh criticism it unleashed in 2006 when it described the North’s first nuclear test as “brazen”.

South American governments pledged to grow economies often are overriding the interests of their people to accomplish those aims, particularly with regard to mining and mineral extraction by industry. Water sources are a particular concern.

Leaders across the region, elected on promises to fuel economic growth and lift their populations out of poverty, are fast tracking water-use approvals for projects like the Conga mine. Helped by mining and agriculture exports, Brazil’s gross domestic product increased 43 percent from 2002 to 2012, after adjusting for inflation, while Chile’s economy grew 58 percent.

Peru is on target to expand 6 percent in 2013, the fastest pace in South America, driven by investments in gold, silver and copper mines.

South America has more water than any other region on earth, with 29 percent of the world’s reserves, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. The rub is that the water isn’t always where the best mineral or agricultural resources are located.

South Sudan struggles to survive after achieving status as a nation independent of Sudan. Its attempts to  supply citizens of the new state with basic necessities is under constant attack.

The South Sudanese government has long accused Sudan of backing rebellions in its territory to destabilise the country after it seceded in 2011, but this is the first time Juba has linked the alleged support of rebels with its attempts to build a new oil pipeline.

“The government of Sudan is deliberately sponsoring all militia activities in this country, especially in Jonglei state,” South Sudan’s information minister, Barnaba Marial Benjamin, said.

Authoritarian governments distinguish themselves as always by inability to respect humanity.

Still we proceed; Never.give.up.

Read the rest of this entry →

Over Easy

(Picture courtesy of mhaithaca at flickr.com.)

As formerly, I’m exploring news today from foreign sources, something that Southern Dragon did for us not so long ago, and that we appreciated.

Unsurprisingly, the lead article is a revelation about our own practices, the location of CIA drone facilities in Saudi Arabia.   The war continues as our troops are withdrawn, not exactly suited  to the taste of seekers of actual peace.

Kristian Coates-Ulrichsen, an expert on Gulf politics at the London School of Economics, told the BBC that Saudi anxieties about the growing threat of AQAP would have been behind the government’s decision to allow the US to fly drones from inside the kingdom.

“The Saudis see AQAP as a very real threat to their domestic security,” he said. “They are worried about attacks on their energy infrastructure and on the royal family, so it fit their strategy to allow the drone attacks.”

The existence of the base was likely a “sensitive issue” for both Washington and Riyadh, Mr Coates-Ulrichsen added.

The role of Saudi Arabia is a complex one in the ‘sphere’ of our influence.   Noam Chomsky has good observations on the matter.

Concern about political Islam is just like concern about any independent development. Anything that’s independent you have to have concern about because it might undermine you. In fact, it’s a little ironic, because traditionally the United States and Britain have by and large strongly supported radical Islamic fundamentalism, not political Islam, as a force to block secular nationalism, the real concern.

So, for example, Saudi Arabia is the most extreme fundamentalist state in the world, a radical Islamic state. It has a missionary zeal, is spreading radical Islam to Pakistan, funding terror. But it’s the bastion of US and British policy. They’ve consistently supported it against the threat of secular nationalism from Gamal Abdel Nasser’s Egypt and Abd al-Karim Qasim’s Iraq, among many others. But they don’t like political Islam because it might become independent.

While western nations ignore facts, China seems to be learning the lessons of austerity.

China has unveiled sweeping tax reforms to make wealthy state-owned firms, property speculators and the rich pay more to narrow the gap between the urban elite and hundreds of millions of rural poor.

The plans approved by the state council – China’s cabinet – also included commitments to push forward market-oriented interest rate reforms to give savers a better return and more security.

Public interest from the country we consider autocratic even more sets apart our government’s resistance to prosperity and the means to insure it, the lessons we’ve learned over and over – and still refuse to make part of economic planning.

Analytics by the methods available with computers has vastly increased available knowledge, and standards are changing with scientific possibilities.   The rainforests have been protected, but other climates have failed to receive consideration as threatened, until available data increased.

An analytics project Dr. Sanchez-Azofeifa leads in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais changed the way 16,000 square kilometers of tropical “dry forest” was classified under Brazilian law – allowing it to come under federal conservation protection in a court case that will likely transform how environmental protection is granted across South America.

Tropi-Dry, an effort of the University of Alberta funded by the Inter-American Institute (tself supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation) utilizes several years’ worth of ecological and social science research. In this case, a logging consortium faced a court challenge when it wanted to harvest within one of Brazil’s so-called tropical dry forests. While rainforests receive the lion’s share of environmental interest and protection in South America, tropical dry forests play a special part in maintaining ecological balance.

Growing capacity creates growth in care for environment, wonders never cease.

Still we persevere;  Never.Give.Up.

Over Easy

(Picture courtesy of mhaithaca at flickr.com.)

The Thursday edition will once more be pointed at foreign media, as late host Southern Dragon brought to us in the past.

Banks in the U.S. are under a barrage of attacks in the cybersphere, which has not absolutely been tracked to its source but is seen as coming from Iran by those defending them.

“There is no doubt within the US government that Iran is behind these attacks,” James Lewis, a former official in the state and commerce departments and now a computer security expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the New York Times.

While the identities of those behind the online onslaught officially remains a mystery, it was clear they were using a potent new weapon for slamming bank websites with overwhelming numbers or requests for information.

The attackers infected datacenters used to host services in the Internet “cloud” and commandeered massive computing power to back distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, according to security experts.

The potential appointment of John Brennan as CIA Director prompted criticism for former testimony he gave about civilian deaths resulting from drone attacks.  Glenn Greenwald in The Guardian was especially vituperative.

It is a perfect illustration of the Obama legacy that a person who was untouchable as CIA chief in 2008 because of his support for Bush’s most radical policies is not only Obama’s choice for the same position now, but will encounter very little resistance. Within this change one finds one of the most significant aspects of the Obama presidency: his conversion of what were once highly contentious right-wing policies into harmonious dogma of the DC bipartisan consensus. Then again, given how the CIA operates, one could fairly argue that Brennan’s eagerness to deceive and his long record of supporting radical and unaccountable powers make him the perfect person to run that agency.

Personally, I am astonished to hear charges that drone attacks are counter-productive  go without comment that our entire war in the Middle East is exactly that, too.

Brennan’s statements on the current drone program also have attracted controversy. In a June 2011 speech at Johns Hopkins university, he said that in the prior year “there hasn’t been a single collateral death because of the exceptional proficiency, precision of the capabilities we’ve been able to develop”.

Three Kurdish women,  including Sakine Cansiz, a co-founder of the militant dissident group in Turkey, PKK, were murdered in Paris.

Members of the Kurdish community demonstrated outside the information centre as Mr Valls arrived.

The three women had “undoubtedly” been executed, Mr Valls said, adding that the French authorities were determined to “shed light on this act”.

Help was being sent by Canadian government Fisheries and Oceans department, for killer whales trapped in the ice in a remote area.

Several killer whales are trapped and at times panicking in the sea ice of Hudson Bay, and a local mayor is calling on the Canadian government to send an icebreaker to save them. The whales are taking turns breathing through a hole in the ice about the size of a pickup truck in the frigid waters near the remote Inuit community of Inukjuak, Quebec. “They are trapped,” the community’s mayor, Peter Inukpuk, told CBC radio on Wednesday.

Upcoming elections in March are being foreshadowed in Kenya by violence as natural resources combine with ethnic division conflicts.

The 2013 elections are for the presidency and parliament, as well as for regional gubernatorial posts and local councils, under a new constitution designed to devolve power from the centre to Kenya’s marginalised regions.

But while the devolutionary reforms of the 2010 constitution have been widely welcomed, it has also unleashed historical grievances over land and resources…Kenya has a track record of politicians inciting violence around election season. Four prominent Kenyans – including Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and lawmaker William Ruto – have been charged with inciting the 2007-2008 post-electoral violence by the International Criminal Court.

Flames resulting from unparalleled high temperatures in Australia continued to threaten homes and countryside, as well as a former weapons site in the Tianjara plateau.

Were the flames to reach the plateau, located in the Morton National Park, it could complicate firefighting efforts, with the unexploded bombs making water-drops impossible.

As much as half of the world’s food is being wasted, a report from Britain’s the Institution of Mechanical Engineers estimated.

The report said that between 30% and 50% of the four billion tonnes of food produced around the world each year went to waste.

It suggested that half the food bought in Europe and the US was thrown away.

Dr Fox, head of energy and environment at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, said: “The amount of food wasted and lost around the world is staggering. This is food that could be used to feed the world’s growing population – as well as those in hunger today.

“It is also an unnecessary waste of the land, water and energy resources that were used in the production, processing and distribution of this food.

“The reasons for this situation range from poor engineering and agricultural practices, inadequate transport and storage infrastructure through to supermarkets demanding cosmetically perfect foodstuffs and encouraging consumers to overbuy through buy-one-get-one-free offers.”

Much food is left in the field, the report noted, as it isn’t physically attractive and therefore unsaleable.

As we continue to remind ourselves, Never.give.up.