Canada a Champion of … Everyone?
By Mark Bourrie

OTTAWA, Nov (IPS) - Delegates to December’s Commonwealth summit can be
forgiven if they are confused by Canada’s rhetoric as a
free trade booster and by the country’s attempts to hold moral high ground as a
champion of developing world issues, experts here
say.

The Canadian government has several teams of foreign affairs officials working
on agendas that are opposed to each other, says Maude
Barlow, chair of the Council of Canadians, an umbrella group of anti-free trade
activists, Canadian nationalists and pro-equality
groups. (more…)

In the context of solidarity socioeconomy
Oscar Ugarteche

The debt issue has returned to remind humanity that the solutions posed during the 1980s have been to no avail. The result of the 1980s crisis was the transformation of the World Bank (WB) as a political party that financed Governments, gave it technicians and a political platform to follow in order to be elected or reelected, as long as the road map followed. It was a political party mainly of the US Treasury with the support of the G7 countries altogether for the benefit of transnational capital and strengthening global capitalism that was taking on a new shape because of the very low rates of increase in capital productivity, in face of rapid technological change and increasing competition. The consequence of this was increased financial activity, speculation and capital mobility in order to compensate for lack of real sector profits. This required a new set of rules of the game for global capitalism than would help to concentrate income that has had as end result a financial bubble that burst with the same consequences as in previous periods, 1930, 1870 and the 1820s. Some elements perceived are rapid transformation of net resources transfers from positive to negative, a depression in the prices of raw materials, and an increase of the cost of capital for developing countries as a result of increasing country risk while undergoing a world recession/depression, a world deflation and the recognition that the productive paradigm based on knowledge has reached a turning point. (more…)

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Nov (IPS) - The spread of the deadly disease AIDS is
threatening the security and stability of several U.N. peacekeeping missions
overseas, said an agency official Monday.

‘’HIV/AIDS represents a challenge to every one of the 42,000 soldiers and
police officers currently under U.N. command,'’ Under-Secretary-General
Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS, told the Security Council. (more…)

Columbus, GA, The U.S. Military is blasting anthems and marshal
music at high decibel levels from inside Ft. Benning, directed at our
peaceful, permitted demonstration outside of the gates of the base. The
military is attempting to drown out an annual vigil to close the School of
the Americas, renamed Western Hemisphere Institute for Security
Cooperation (SOA/WHISC), the notorious combat-training school for Latin
Americans.

The technique of blasting loud music as a ‘psychological operation’ has
been used by militaries around the world. This method was used to drive
SOA-graduate Manuel Noriega out of sanctuary in Panama and by Israel
during the 2002 siege of the Church of the Nativity. (more…)

Lula Raises the Stakes

by William Greider & Kenneth Rapoza

The bearded political leader they call Lula is the new phenomenon of globalization, a man with audacious ambitions to alter the balance of power among nations. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the new left-wing president of Brazil, envisions a united South America that gains economic strength by drawing closer together in trade and bargaining collectively, much as the European Union does. He wants to create a global coalition speaking for the not-rich countries–reminiscent of the “nonaligned nations” that decades ago tried to stand between the cold war’s two superpowers. And he wants to push the IMF, the World Bank and the United Nations to become more democratic. (more…)

The Realists Rally
Analysis - By Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Nov (IPS) - After two years of dominating U.S. foreign
policy, are unilateralist hawks in the administration of President George W.
Bush losing power to the so-called realists whom they have long disdained?

Although internal fights within the administration on issues such as
policy towards Syria, Iran and North Korea remain fierce, there are growing
indications that the influence of the hawks, neo-conservatives in
particular, is on the wane. (more…)

Measuring attitudes and values: what Europeans think and feel

Involving 22 countries and their national research agencies, the European Social Survey (ESS) is a definitive study on changing attitudes and values in Europe which pulls together EU, international and national resources in a common endeavour. Early findings of the study suggest that, as a group, Europeans do not trust their politicians and institutions, electoral turnout is low, active involvement in public life is limited, and the fabric of society is weak. But the picture is not all bleak: by comparing countries within Europe, we can see that some countries have managed to resist this decline much better than others. Moreover, comparison with the USA shows that, whereas a generation of disillusioned youngsters alienated from society seems to be developing in the US, the youth of Europe are just as likely as their older counterparts to be engaged in voluntary organisations. The new European Social Survey will enable us to track these trends over time to see to what extent they vary between different countries and indeed continents. (more…)

Aid Worker’s Killing Underlines Decline in Security
By Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Nov (IPS) - Aid workers are increasingly targets in the
ongoing “war on terrorism” between U.S.-led forces and Islamic radicals, as
the killing of a United Nations refugee worker Sunday in Afghanistan
demonstrates.

Bettina Goislard, a French citizen, was gunned down while riding in a car
of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the provincial city of
Ghazni, when two men on a motorcycle opened fire on the vehicle, killer her
and injuring her driver. (more…)

November 23, 2003
F.B.I. Scrutinizes Antiwar Rallies
By ERIC LICHTBLAU

http://soros.c.tep1.com/maabHh9aa2oQtb36p4Yb/

WASHINGTON, Nov. 22 — The Federal Bureau of
Investigation has collected extensive information on
the tactics, training and organization of antiwar
demonstrators and has advised local law enforcement
officials to report any suspicious activity at
protests to its counterterrorism squads, according to
interviews and a confidential bureau memorandum.

The memorandum, which the bureau sent to local law
enforcement agencies last month in advance of antiwar
demonstrations in Washington and San Francisco,
detailed how protesters have sometimes used “training
camps” to rehearse for demonstrations, the Internet to
raise money and gas masks to defend against tear gas.
The memorandum analyzed lawful activities like
recruiting demonstrators, as well as illegal
activities like using fake documentation to get into a
secured site. (more…)

By Mario Soares (*)

LISBON, (IPS) - Is an ‘’ethical globalisation'’ possible, like that
called for by former UN High Commissioner of Human Rights Mary Robinson? The
answer must always be, Yes it is possible.

To reach this goal, however, politics must first be
rehabilitated and aligned with principles and values, and
economics must be kept from subverting politics. Instead, politics
must guide economics, which must be placed at the service of the
community. The inequalities created by the free market must be
corrected through implementation of coherent social policies that
protect the less fortunate. (more…)

November 8 - 12, 2003
Fort Count Mirasol,
Vieques, Puerto Rico

We, the participants of La Tierra Es Vida (Land is Life) came from the Philippines, the Marshall Islands, Guahan (Guam), Hawai`i, the Dine people, Puerto Rico and the United States, and gathered in Vieques, Puerto Rico to stand in solidarity with the people of Vieques at a historic moment in their struggle for a free Vieques, and to share our stories of survival and struggle against U.S. militarism and imperialism.

We celebrate the Viequenses’ courageous and victorious struggle to end the Navy bombing of their island, and commit ourselves to support them in their continuing efforts for the clean up, return of land, compensation and health care, and sustainable economic development of their island. (more…)

New Leak Smells of Neo-con Desperation
Analysis - By Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Nov (IPS) - This week’s blockbuster leak of a secret
memorandum from a senior Pentagon official to the Senate Intelligence
Committee has spurred speculation that neo-conservative hawks in the Bush
administration are on the defensive and growing more desperate.

Both the committee and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have asked
the Justice Department to launch an investigation of the leak, which took
the form of an article published Monday by the influential neo-conservative
journal, ‘The Weekly Standard’. (more…)

U.S. Moves on ‘Incremental’ Deals As Americas Talks Stall
By Emad Mekay

MIAMI, Nov 18 (IPS) - The United States officially unveiled its new
“incremental approach” to global trade Tuesday, announcing a string of
bilateral deals with Latin American nations at a meeting that was supposed
to achieve a comprehensive pan-American trade agreement.

Critics warned that Washington is resorting to the bilateral deals to try
to isolate Brazil and other countries that have voiced concerns over U.S.
economic hegemony and that the new agreements could also harm developing
countries’ economies. (more…)

The US Military: bringing hope “to every corner of the world”
Ben Moxham

THE extent of US military reach is unquestionably vast but exactly how vast is deliberately hazy. According to the US Department of Defense’s 2003 Base Structure Report, a detailed itinerary of US owned military installations, the United States has 702 bases in 40 countries and a further 96 bases in its territories. This figure does not reflect the recent trend of stationing troops on foreign bases where the United States has access rights but not formal ownership of facilities but it does include the large number of US troops stationed for the major military interventions of the 1990s, namely, Bosnia, Saudi Arabia (post Gulf War), and Kosovo. In the wake of September 11, the US invaded Afghanistan and now maintains facilities in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. Since the invasion of Iraq, Gulf States such as Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman are housing US military. The US fear of terrorists hiding out in North Africa has seen the US military web extend to Djibouti on the horn of Africa. And to assist in the other “war” the US administration is fighting - the war on drugs - US reach in Latin America now covers half a dozen countries. This is in addition to the “traditional” US presence in many European countries, Japan and South Korea (more…)

Power and insecurity
By Zbigniew Brzezinski (IHT)
November 2003

WASHINGTON: Paradoxically, American power worldwide is at its historic
zenith while its global political standing is at its nadir. Why?
Since the tragedy of Sept. 11, which understandably shook and outraged
every American, the United States has increasingly embraced, at the
highest official level, what can be fairly called a paranoiac view of the
world. This is summarized in a phrase repeatedly used at the highest
level: “He who is not with us is against us.”
Let’s not forget this was a phrase popularized by Lenin when he attacked
the social democrats on the grounds that they were anti-Bolshevik and,
therefore, “he who is not with us is against us” and can be disposed of
accordingly. (more…)

By Julio Godoy

BOBIGNY, France, Nov 15 (IPS) - The dismantling of welfare institutions in Western Europe and the growth of capitalism in Eastern Europe are eroding women’s rights, feminist groups say.

Members of women’s organisations from several Western and Eastern European countries participating in the European Social Forum (ESF) have expressed alarm over the deterioration of living conditions among women all over the continent. (more…)

By Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Nov (IPS) - Popular doubts about President George W. Bush’s
credibility and his justification for going to war in Iraq are on the rise,
according to a new survey conducted by the University of Maryland’s
Programme on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA).

The survey of a random sample of more than 1,000 voters, which echoes the
results of other recent national polls, found that 55 percent of respondents
believed the administration went to war on the basis of incorrect
assumptions, particularly the notion that Iraq posed an imminent threat to
the United States or its allies. (more…)

Mission Impossible?
Venezuela’s Mission to Fight Poverty

By: Gregory Wilpert

Over the past two years or so there has been much polemic between the government and the opposition over the issue of poverty. Chavez was originally elected on a platform to pay particular attention to the needs of Venezuela’s poor. Also, without a doubt, the poor represent Chavez’ most important constituency. Opinion polls, whose accuracy one can legitimately doubt for being biased towards the opposition, consistently show that Chavez draws most of his support from Venezuela’s poor.

However, in an effort to discredit Chavez and to cast doubt among his followers, the opposition, with the help of poverty research centers, such as of the Catholic University Andrés Bello (UCAB), argue that poverty has increased dramatically during Chavez’ tenure as president. One of the opposition’s favorite anti-Chavez ads, shown quite regularly whenever the TV stations mobilized for an anti-Chavez demonstration, shows a poor woman in one of Venezuela’s slums, who says, “Chavez said he would put an end to poverty ­ what he is really doing is putting an end to the poor.â€? (more…)

“Aloha aina must continue”
Clean up and return lands ­ demilitarize Hawaii

Today, as Kahoolawe is turned over to the State of Hawaii, we must remember
the history which has led to this moment. President Dwight Eisenhower said
in 1953 that Kahoolawe was necessary for military training, but would be
returned shortly to the then-Territory of Hawaii, in a habitable state.
After forty years of struggle, the people of Hawaii, with the support of
people throughout the world, accomplished the cessation of bombings. We
lost two dear souls in the struggle, George Helm and Kimo Mitchell, whose
voices of aloha aina were silenced. (more…)

EUROPE: ‘Stop Complaining, Start Planning’
By Julio Godoy

PARIS, Nov 17 (IPS) - Proposals for a better world must replace protests against present ways, the European Social Forum concluded over the weekend.

“Social forums have so far been a popular university, an enterprise in people’s education,” says Bernard Cassen, president of the Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions to Aid Citizens (ATTAC, after its French name). The group is a coalition of union members and university professors, and the main organiser of the European Social Forum (ESF) held in and around Paris Nov. 12-15.

“Now, despite the successes in organising social forums to protest against the state of the world, the alter globalisation movement must think of new ways of influencing political decisions to achieve its goals,” Cassen told a press conference. (more…)

More Iraqis support resistance, CIA report says

A new, top-secret CIA report from Iraq warns that growing numbers of Iraqis are concluding that the U.S.-led coalition can be defeated and are supporting the resistance.

The report paints a bleak picture of the political and security situation in Iraq and cautions that the U.S.-led drive to rebuild the country as a democracy could collapse unless corrective actions are taken immediately.

L. Paul Bremer, head of the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, who arrived unexpectedly in Washington for strategy sessions on Tuesday, essentially endorsed the CIA’s findings, said a senior administration official. (more…)

By Julio Godoy

PARIS, Nov (IPS) - European Union officials are working closely with private corporations to push privatisation of public services in other countries, activists say.

“We have evidence that European Commission (EC) officials work hand in hand with executives of private corporations to set up international rules at organisations such as the World Trade Organisation to facilitate the privatisation of public services,” Oliver Hoedeman of the corporate watchdog European Corporate Observatory said at a meeting at the European Social Forum (ESF) Thursday.

Activists pointed particularly to the new dangers from privatisation of water. (more…)

Case for war confected, say top US officials

An unprecedented array of US intelligence professionals, diplomats and former Pentagon officials have gone on record to lambast the Bush administration for its distortion of the case for war against Iraq. In their view, the very foundations of intelligence-gathering have been damaged in ways that could take years, even decades, to repair.

A new documentary film beginning to circulate in the United States features one powerful condemnation after another, from the sort of people who usually stay discreetly in the shadows - a former director of the CIA, two former assistant secretaries of defence, a former ambassador to Saudi Arabia and even the man who served as President Bush’s Secretary of the Army until just a few months ago. (more…)

Defenders Thwarted by Anti-Terrorist Laws - Report
By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Nov (IPS) - Hina Jilani, whose U.N. mandate is to
protect the world’s human rights defenders, believes that support for human
rights worldwide continues to be eroded by a rash of new anti-terrorist laws
that threaten civil liberties and the rule of law.

These domestic laws are being used ‘’to criminalize accepted forms of
dissent and suppress the right to hold governments accountable,'’ she told
IPS. (more…)

This is What They Did to Me

By MAHER ARAR

I am here today to tell the people of Canada what has happened to me.

There have been many allegations made about me in the media, all of them by people who refuse to be named or come forward. So before I tell you who I am and what happened to me, I will tell you who I am not.

I am not a terrorist. I am not a member of al-Qaida and I do not know any one who belongs to this group. All I know about al-Qaida is what I have seen in the media.

I have never been to Afghanistan. I have never been anywhere near Afghanistan and I do not have any desire to ever go to Afghanistan. Now, let me tell you who I am. (more…)

By Julio Godoy

PARIS, Nov 12 (IPS) Political parties in France are coming to talk the
language of non-governmental organisations on globalisation.

If the importance of an event to political parties can be a measure of its
success, then the European Social Forum (ESF) that opened in Paris
Wednesday is already a triumph.

About 50,000 people are gathering in Paris and at three locations on its
outskirts this week to discuss ways of changing capital-led globalisation,
militarism and the supremacy of security considerations over human rights. (more…)

Ben Moxham

THE extent of US military reach is unquestionably vast but exactly how vast is deliberately hazy. According to the US Department of Defense’s 2003 Base Structure Report, a detailed itinerary of US owned military installations, the United States has 702 bases in 40 countries and a further 96 bases in its territories. This figure does not reflect the recent trend of stationing troops on foreign bases where the United States has access rights but not formal ownership of facilities but it does include the large number of US troops stationed for the major military interventions of the 1990s, namely, Bosnia, Saudi Arabia (post Gulf War), and Kosovo. In the wake of September 11, the US invaded Afghanistan and now maintains facilities in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. Since the invasion of Iraq, Gulf States such as Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman are housing US military. The US fear of terrorists hiding out in North Africa has seen the US military web extend to Djibouti on the horn of Africa. And to assist in the other “war” the US administration is fighting - the war on drugs - US reach in Latin America now covers half a dozen countries. This is in addition to the “traditional” US presence in many European countries, Japan and South Korea (more…)

Analysis - By Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Nov 10 (IPS) - The right-wing coalition that powered the United States into Iraq earlier this year appears in ever greater disarray amid increasingly heated complaints by friends, as well as foes, that the U.S. occupation is not going well at all.

The main target is Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld, who appears increasingly at a loss to explain U.S. strategy beyond his now-famous admission in a ‘’leaked'’ memo to his top aides last month that the situation in Iraq – not to mention the wider war against al-Qaeda terrorists – will be a ‘’long, hard slog'’.

That was before Iraqi insurgents shot down a Chinook transport helicopter, killing 15 U.S. servicemen at a single blow 10 days ago, and then destroyed a Blackhawk helicopter late last week and killed 6 more. (more…)

Leonardo Boff, 08-15-2003

The ethos, to be fully human, needs to incorporate compassion. There is too much suffering in history, too much blood in our paths, endless loneliness in millions and millions of persons, who carry in their hearts the lonely cross of misunderstanding, bitterness and injustice. Such is the human condition of beings who are the convergence of contradictions. The ethos which is compassionate wants to include all in the human “ethos,” this is, in the human household, where there is hospitality and where tears can be shed without shame, or can be lovingly wiped from the cheeks.

But first, we need to make a linguistic modification, a language therapy, because in common understanding compassion has pejorative connotations. Thus, to have compassion is understood to mean to have pity on the other, who is seen as helpless, without the inner strength to stand up. It presupposes the attitude of one who sees from top to bottom. That understanding of compassion humiliates the other. (more…)

Social Forum Seeks Alternative to Globalisation
By Julio Godoy

PARIS, Nov 10 (IPS) - The European Social Forum opening in Paris
Wednesday will look for an economic model that could become an alternative to
capital-led globalisation.

This search will be a central theme during the three days of meetings that will
see 270 seminars, 55 conferences and 287 workshops in and around Paris.
Close to 60,000 delegates from 1,500 non-governmental organisations (NGOs)
are expected to attend. (more…)

From The Economist Global Agenda

President George Bush has laid out an ambitious vision for a free and democratic Middle East. But with America still struggling to bring order to Iraq, success will not come easily

TWENTY years from now, will President George Bush be seen as a visionary who helped bring democracy to the Middle East, or as a case study in American hubris? On Thursday November 6th, Mr Bush made a bid for future glory, laying out a vision for democracy and freedom in a region long dominated by tyrannical regimes. “Iraqi democracy will succeed, and that success will send forth the news, from Damascus to Tehran, that freedom can be the future of every nation,â€? he told an approving audience at the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). (more…)

By Marian Chiriac

BUCHAREST, Nov 7 (IPS) - Maneciu appears on a map of Europe as a tiny dot
remote from the centres of power. It is some 2,000 km from Brussels and 100 km
even from the Romanian capital Bucharest.

The little town in southern Romania is held in by wooden fences. The
landscape is craggy and scarred by slag heaps; a river flowing through the
mountains looks a poisonous blue; the stunted trees are black and withered.

“Many people here are terribly desperate and poor,” says Ioan Topala, 43,
who owns a shabby pub here where locals buy their drinks mostly on credit.
“We had enormous hope a decade ago when the communist regime was
overthrown, but we have not seen any change for the better.” (more…)

by Hazel Henderson

Curitiba, Brasil
Over 700 statisticians, policy wonks, government officials and business leaders convened here at the first ICONS conference on measuring sustainable progress, prosperity and quality-of-life. Preceding this historic conference was a gathering of 600 business executives hosted by the leading business association of Parana and its visionary president Rodrigo Loures, CEO of Nutrimental, a leading food company in
Brasil. The agenda: Business As Agent of World Benefit ­ exploring socially responsible business and investing, co-sponsored by Brasil’s Instituto Ethos de Empresas Responsibilidade Sociale, COPEL, Parana’s electric utility and many other companies.

This focus on socially responsible companies, ethical investing and overhauling economic statistics and national accounts (GNP and GDP) is encouraged by Brasil’s Minister Tarso Genro, Special Secretary of the Federal Social and Economic Council, whose speech opened the ICONS conference, together with the Governor of Parana. Tarso Genro was the former mayor of Porto Alegre and initiator of many social innovations ­ from that city’s Participatory Budgeting to the NGO-led World Social Forum, which offers positive alternatives to the “Washington Consensusâ€? views of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. (more…)

Brussels is Far From Istanbul

Analysis by Hilmi Toros

ISTANBUL, Nov 6 (IPS) - Turkey’s entry into the European Union is a long way
off despite a generally favourable report card by the European Commission.
Some wonder if it will ever happen.

“They don’t want us. They’ll never take us,” says Gunes Kurtulan, a Britain-
educated restaurant owner in Istanbul’s swank Cihangir district. “We are not
ready for them anyway.”

Her comments, in line with the views of many other ‘persons in the street’ came
after the European Commission praised Turkey in its enlargement report
Wednesday as being on the right road for accession talks. (more…)

Analysis - By Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Nov 5 (IPS) - ‘’What’s gonna happen with Feith?”

That, in a nutshell, is the question of the month for the Washington cognoscenti trying to figure out whether a major shift in the Bush administration’s unilateralist and ultra-hawkish foreign policy is or is not underway.

The reference is to Douglas Feith, the administration’s rather obscure but nonetheless strategically placed undersecretary of defence for policy, who reports directly to deputy secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld.

If the administration is looking for a scapegoat for the situation it faces in Iraq, Feith is the most likely candidate both because of his relative obscurity compared to other administration hawks and the fact that, of virtually all of them, his ideas – particularly on the Middle East – might be the most radical. (more…)

Final Declaration of the International Conference

We, intellectuals from the sectors of academia, the media, culture, and social movements in diverse regions of the world, participants in the international conference In Defense of Humanity, have gathered in Mexico City to reflect on the extremely grave situation facing the world today. We are aware of our responsibility, and have therefore adopted the following:

Declaration

The human race has reached a critical point rife with serious dangers. A new age of barbarism looms before us. It is not merely that a minority has accumulated an enormous proportion of the world’s wealth, while the impoverished masses are barely able to survive. Moreover, the hegemonic system functions like an apparatus of social exclusion. (more…)

Author, Independent Futurist, Worldwide syndicated columnist, Advocate for and consultant on equitable ecologically sustainable human development and socially responsible business and investment

Dear friends: Please visit my website www.hazelhenderson.com, click
EDITORIALS for this important editorial on Brasil and click on IMPORTANT
UPDATES for my presentation to SEBRAE in Brasil.

Warm regards,
Hazel

www.hazelhenderson.com
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PO Box 5190
St. Augustine, FL 32085
Phone: 904/829-3140
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phone: 904/826-1381
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Celebrating cultural and biodiversity – and a new “earth ethics” beyond “economism.”

Dr. Hazel Henderson is a world renowned futurist, evolutionary economist, a worldwide syndicated columnist, consultant on sustainable development, and author of Beyond Globalization, and seven other books. Her editorials appear in 27 languages and more than 400 newspapers syndicated by InterPress Service, Rome, New York, and Washington DC. Her articles have appeared in over 250 journals, including (in USA) Harvard Business Review, New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, and Challenge, Mainichi (Japan), El Diario (Venezuela), World Economic Herald (China), and Australian Financial Review. (more…)

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Nov (IPS) - A United Nations agency that brokered a much-ballyhooed international treaty against bribery and corruption is now being investigated for misconduct and financial irregularities in its own backyard.

Less than 72 hours after the 191-member General Assembly unanimously endorsed a historic global convention against corruption Friday, a U.N. investigative unit is probing the Vienna-based U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on charges of ‘’mismanagement'’ and ‘’misappropriation of funds'’.

The probe is being led by the U.N. Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), a watchdog body mandated to track corruption and waste in the U.N. system. (more…)

Book reveals how President’s religious and political beliefs are entwined - and claims he did pray with Blair

President George W. Bush stood before a cheering crowd at a Dallas Christian youth centre last week, and told them about being ‘born again’ as a Christian.

‘If you change their heart, then they change their behaviour. I know,’ he said, referring to his own conversion, which led to him giving up drinking.

Behind Bush were two banners. ‘King of Kings’, proclaimed one. ‘Lord of Lords’, said the other. The symbolism of how fervent Christianity has become deeply entwined with the most powerful man on the planet could not have been stronger. (more…)

By Stephen Leahy

BROOKLIN, Canada, Nov 3 (IPS) - While battles rage in the U.S. administration over cutting greenhouse gas emissions, conservative lobby groups and environmentalists in Washington and beyond continue to debate the objectivity of the global Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The IPCC was established in 1988 to “assess scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant for the understanding of climate change".

Last Thursday, a proposal in the U.S. Senate to seriously cut greenhouse gas emissions died at the hands of the pro-business administration of President George W. Bush. (more…)

By Noam Chomsky

Establishment critics of the war on Iraq restricted their comments
regarding the attack to the administration arguments they took to be
seriously intended: disarmament, deterrence, and links to terrorism.

They scarcely made reference to liberation, democratization of the
Middle East, and other matters that would render irrelevant the weapons
inspections and indeed everything that took place at the Security
Council or within governmental domains.

The reason, perhaps, is that they recognized that lofty rhetoric is the
obligatory accompaniment of virtually any resort to force and therefore
carries no information. The rhetoric is doubly hard to take seriously
inthe light of the display of contempt for democracy that accompanied it,
not to speak of the past record and current practices. (more…)

By Peter Hirschberg

JERUSALEM, Nov 1 (IPS) - Close to one in five families below the poverty line.
An average of almost one in three children living in poverty. That is a total of
1.32 million people, including 618,000 children in a population of 6.5 million.

This is the stark reality of modern-day Israel, as revealed this week in the
annual report of the National Insurance Institute, the government body in charge
of welfare payments.

Once the most egalitarian society in the developed world, Israel is now among
the least so. A society in which the welfare safety net is being shredded even as
the country remains mired in its deepest recession ever. Few jobs are on offer,
and more and more people desperately need state assistance. (more…)

Dear Friends,

If you have not already read it, Seymour Hersh has a very incisive article
in this week’s New Yorker magazine that offers the best explanation I have
come across of the intelligence failure of the Bush Administration around
the weapons of mass destruction issue in Iraq. It can be accessed at:

http://soros.c.tep1.com/maabCt9aa1M6cb36p4Yb/

Have a good weekend.

——————————————————————————–
“Other News” is a personal initiative seeking to provide information that should be in the media but is not, because of commercial criteria. It welcomes contributions from everybody. Work areas include information on global issues, north-sutrh relations, gobernability of globalization. The “Other News” motto is a phrase which appeared on the wall of Barcelona’s old Customs Office, at the beginning of 2003:â€?What walls utter, media keeps silentâ€?. Roberto Savio