Leonardo Boff

It is likely that President Bush’s election victory and Condoleezza Rice’s appointment as Secretary of State have caused great consternation to millions of people throughout the world. How is it possible that the majority of voters ratified the Bush/Cheney political line that meets violence with more violence and promises to intervene when the interests of the United States are involved anywhere in the world? It is the supreme arrogance of an empire that for the first time has truly global ambitions. Contemporary history teaches, however, that no empire lasts a thousand years. That is a Nazi dream. Nor do empires last a century. That is the stuff of ultra conservatives, who are as power thirsty as they are short sighted. All empires are brought down, not by another more powerful empire but by the yearning for freedom of its citizens and the sense of dignity of the people, which are stronger than the domination. (more…)

Maarten Messiaen

The European Parliament has made a strong demand ahead of a conference on global warming next week to include aviation and shipping within the Kyoto Protocol.

BRUSSELS, Nov 29 (IPS) - The European Parliament has made a strong demand ahead of a conference on global warming next week to include aviation and shipping within the Kyoto Protocol. (more…)

Humberto Márquez

CARACAS, Nov 26 (IPS) - U.S. politics over the next four years will be rooted in patriotism and religion, an â€?explosive combinationâ€? that will require Latin Americans to â€?arm themselves with strength, courage and bravery,â€? according to Portuguese writer José Samamago, winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize for Literature. (more…)

WASHINGTON – The Bush administration announced plans to move forward with bilateral and regional trade agreements in President Bush’s second term. But the World Bank has cast doubt on the benefits to developing countries from these agreements in its Global Economic Prospects 2005. A new report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) entitled “Poor Numbers: The Impact of Trade Liberalization on World Povertyâ€? by Mark Weisbrot, David Rosnick, and Dean Baker, similarly finds that gains to developing countries from trade liberalization are smaller in reality than the numbers that have been widely cited in the public debate. The authors’ calculations show that the impact of trade liberalization on poverty reduction ­ while not inconsequential ­ will be to lift less than 100 million people from a per capita income just below the international poverty line of $2 per day to just above $2 per day. (more…)

Analysis - By Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Nov 25 (IPS) - As U.S. families partake of the turkey, yams, and other staples of the traditional Thanksgiving feast Thursday, they are unlikely to reflect on the enduring ideological – as opposed to the gastronomic – influences of that hardy band of Pilgrims that celebrated their first year of survival in the Massachusetts colony on the American continent back in 1621. (more…)

Samir Gea’gea’ and Jirjis al-Khouri

LEBANON – November 23 – The leader of the banned Lebanese Forces (LF), Samir Gea’gea’, and Jirjis al-Khouri, a member of the LF, have been held at the Ministry of Defence Detention Centre (MDDC) in Beirut since 1994. Both are serving life sentences for their alleged involvement in politically-motivated killings and are being held in cruel, inhuman and degrading conditions, after unfair trials. Samir Gea’gea’ and Jirjis al-Khouri are now the only political prisoners held following their trials at the MDDC. (more…)

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Nov 24 (IPS) - Four years after it was launched, a global programme with a drab title - the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) - is becoming a rallying cry for a broad spectrum of activists from across Asia and the Pacific. (more…)

WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Nicki Gostin
Newsweek
Updated: 2:08 p.m. ET Nov. 24, 2004

Nov. 24 - Brazilian-born photographer Sebastião Salgado has not always been taking photos: he was trained as an economist. It was not until he was based in Africa and nearly 30 years old that he picked up his wife’s camera. The deeply affecting pictures he would take made him one of the most famous photographers in the world. For his haunting images of severe starvation and poverty, Salgado has won awards from more than 50 countries and has twice been named Photojournalist of the Year by the International Center of Photography in New York. (more…)

Moyiga Nduru

JOHANNESBURG, Nov (IPS) - A routine visit to a village in the northern South African province of Limpopo brought Stephen McFarlane face-to-face with the reality of a child-headed family.

But, the members of this household were not, as one might suspect, AIDS orphans. Their parents were very much alive ­ but living in a mountainous area some 20 kilometres away. Drought in the area had obliged the parents to move to a region where there were still small quantities of water to cultivate crops. (more…)

By Alan Berlow

In nominating Alberto Gonzales to be the next attorney general, President Bush has selected a man with a long record of giving him the kind of legal advice he wants. Unfortunately, that advice has not always been of the highest professional or ethical caliber. (more…)

Samuele Gabbio

PADUA, Italy, Nov 22 (IPS) - Civil society groups preparing for the World Social Forum in January are building up a campaign to make the United Nations an instrument for change that empowers people.

Reform of the UN was the accent at a three-day meeting of non-governmental organisations in this northern Italian city over the last weekend. (more…)

By: Eva Golinger - VenezuelaFOIA.info

On April 12, 2002, White House spokesperson Ari Fleischer stated:

“Let me share with you the administration’s thoughts about what’s taking place in Venezuela. It remains a somewhat fluid situation. But yesterday’s events in Venezuela resulted in a change in the government and the assumption of a transitional authority until new elections can be held. (more…)

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Nov 19 (IPS) - Alarmed by the pace at which consumer-driven lifestyles are destroying the planet’s resources, a leading environmental body has set its sights on creating a green-friendly haven replete with houses, restaurants, shops and hotels.

Portugal will serve as the launching pad for these planned ‘’eco-cities,'’ said officials from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) as they revealed the blueprint for the ‘One Planet Living’ initiative here Wednesday, at a major conservation conference. (more…)

By Stan Crock in Washington,
with Babak Pirouz in Tehran and Neal Sandler in Jerusalem
Business Week
Updated: 3:00 a.m. ET Nov. 19, 2004

For weeks the rhetoric mounted as diplomats shuttled between Tehran and Vienna, seeking a solution to the impasse over Iran’s nuclear program. The U.S. threatened U.N. sanctions if Iran didn’t halt uranium enrichment – a process that can lead to nuclear weapons. Israel hinted it might strike Iran militarily. Vowing to retaliate if attacked, Iran insisted on its right to “peaceful nuclear technology” as a signatory of the nuclear nonprolifera-tion treaty. (more…)

Dahr Jamail

BAGHDAD, Nov 18 (IPS) - Journalists are increasingly being detained and threatened by the U.S.-installed interim government in Iraq. Media have been stopped particularly from covering recent horrific events in Fallujah.

The “100 Orders” penned by former U.S. administrator in Iraq L. Paul Bremer include Order 65 passed March 20 to establish an Iraqi communications and media commission. This commission has powers to control the media because it has complete control over licensing and regulating telecommunications, broadcasting, information services and all other media establishments. (more…)

By: Gregory Wilpert

In a recent letter sent to President Chavez, a group of 70 mostly conservative world famous politicians and intellectuals asked the president to intervene in the case against four leaders of the oppositional and U.S.-government funded NGO Súmate. Signers of the letter included former secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former Czech President Vaclav Havel, social theorist Francis Fukuyama, the European studies specialist Timothy Garton Ash, former U.S. National Security Advisor Frank Carlucci, and U.S. News and World Report editor Mortimer Zuckerman, among many other equally high ranking personalities. (more…)

We would like to inform the ones participating to the International Seminar “Reclaim Our UN” next 19-20 November the following useful information:

The offices in Perugia are closed from 17th to 22nd November because all the staff is moving to Padua where the seminar will take place. The phone numbers you can call from Wednesday on are: 049 8205053 or 335 7191489.
We re-send you the last version of the seminar’s programme. (more…)

Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Nov 17 (IPS) - Amnesty International (AI) has urged the U.S. government to conduct an open investigation into the apparent killing of a wounded prisoner in Iraq by a U.S. soldier, and to make the probe’s findings public.

The appeal, issued by Amnesty from its London headquarters Tuesday, followed a statement Friday from the world’s best-known human rights organisation that said AI was â€?deeply concerned that the rules of war protecting civilians and combatants have been violated in the current fighting between U.S. and Iraqi forces and insurgentsâ€? in and around Fallujah. (more…)

Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Nov 16 (IPS) - In a major review of U.S. relations with Asia, two high-profile task forces are urging the Bush administration to pay significantly more attention to the region and adopt a less unilateralist posture in its dealings there.

Organised by the San Francisco-based Asia Foundation, the task forces – one composed of leading U.S. policymakers and scholars, the other consisting of Asian experts – also concluded Washington should be more flexible in dealing with North Korea and more engaged in transnational issues other than terrorism and nuclear proliferation. (more…)

By Emily Wax
The Washington Post
Updated: 8:54 a.m. ET Nov. 16, 2004

NEW AL-JEER SUREAF, Sudan - The Bush administration has called it genocide. Other governments have labeled it ethnic cleansing and the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. There have been calls for collective action and promises of relief. There have been somber reminders of the slaughter in tiny Rwanda a decade ago and solemn vows not to let such a thing happen here, in Africa’s largest country. (more…)

Leonardo Boff, Theologian
November , 2004

In spite of the devastating criticisms of religion leveled by the masters of suspicion Marx, Freud, Nietzsche and Popper, she resisted, and is making a powerful come back all over the world. But this come back, in large degree, makes God the legitimator of war, terrorism or of political and religious conservatism. Bin Laden talks of acts of terrorism with a Christ-like face, adding: “Praised be Allah.” Bush, before giving Saddan Hussein the ultimatum, retired to prayerfully consult with God and said to his advisors: “I have a mission to fulfill and on bended knee I beg of the good God help me to fulfill it with wisdom.” A charismatic and fundamentalist religiosity that dances and sings the “Our Father” without even mentioning “Our bread” has acquired strength under the pontificate of pope John Paul II. The God of Bin Laden and Bush is an idol because it is not possible that the living God of truth wants what they want: preventive war and terrorism that victimize the innocent, or a type of faith that does not link the passion for God with the passion for those who suffer. (more…)

Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Nov 15 (IPS) - Monday’s announcement that Secretary of State Colin Powell, by far the most popular of U.S. President George W Bush’s war cabinet, has submitted his resignation marks the formal launch of a new scramble for top national-security posts that could bring an even more hard-line configuration to power. (more…)

By Arianna Huffington

Twelve days before the election, James Carville stood in a Beverly Hills living room surrounded by two generations of Hollywood stars. After being introduced by Sen. John Kerry¹s daughter, Alexandra, he told the room confidently, almost cockily < that the election was in the bag. ³If we can¹t win this damn election,² the advisor to the Kerry campaign said, ³with a Democratic Party more unified than ever before, with us having raised as much money as the Republicans, with 55% of the country believing we¹re heading in the wrong direction, with our candidate having won all three debates, and with our side being more passionate about the outcome than theirs < if we can¹t win this one, then we can¹t win shit! And we need to completely rethink the Democratic Party.² Well, as it turns out, that¹s exactly what should be done. But instead, Carville and his fellow architects of the Democratic defeat have spent the last week defending their campaign strategy, culminating on Monday morning with a breakfast for an elite core of Washington reporters. At the breakfast, Carville, together with chief campaign strategist Bob Shrum and pollster Stan Greenberg, seemed intent on one thing salvaging their reputations. They blamed the public for not responding to John Kerry¹s message on the economy, and they blamed the news media for distracting voters from this critical message with headlines from that pesky war in Iraq. ³News events were driving this,² said Shrum. (more…)

Moyiga Nduru

JOHANNESBURG, Nov (IPS) - ‘’We cannot have women carrying hospital beds on their heads,’’ says Quinton Mageza of global charity ActionAid International, referring to the growing army of women and girls playing the role of nurse at home for relatives living with HIV/AIDS. (more…)

Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Nov (IPS) - The death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat will test whether U.S. President George W Bush intends to maintain his staunch support for Israel’s right-wing government at the risk of further alienating the U.S.’ European allies and Muslim public opinion. (more…)

Jane Perlez
The New York Times

JAKARTA As Washington prepared to begin a new administration, it is hard not to notice the legacy of America’s shrinking influence in Asia over the last four years.
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A profound rearrangement is under way, with China and its expanding economy leading the charge, and in some instances, it’s to the exclusion of the United States.
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“The fact is American clout in Asia is decreasing,” said Morton Abramowitz, a former U.S. ambassador to Thailand and Turkey. “We’re no longer the colossus.” (more…)

By Judy Dempsey
International Herald Tribune

BERLIN During the twilight years of communism, the people of Eastern Europe and the Balkans relied on international radio stations, not newspapers, to tell them what was happening in a world that had become mesmerized by Mikhail Gorbachev, then the Soviet leader. (more…)

James Hall

MBABANE, Nov 11 (IPS) - Many column inches have been devoted to the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) ­ a blueprint for using improved governance to attract more investment to the continent. However, it could be argued that the plan remains something of an enigma to many. (more…)

Sonny Inbaraj

BANGKOK, Nov 10 (IPS) - The threat that East Asia’s rich biodiversity faces, with 95 percent of its forests already lost because of uncontrolled logging and wildlife being decimated at alarming rates, may well create what the World Bank calls ’silent forests’, completely devoid of animals. (more…)

Common Dreams NewsCenter (*)

WASHINGTON – November 10 – Army Specialist Megan Ambuhl has become the third military police reservist and fourth U.S. soldier convicted over Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse. For standing by while abuse occurred and failing to intervene or report it, Ambuhl was convicted on Oct. 30, 2004, of dereliction of duty and sentenced to reduction in rank to private and loss of a half-month’s pay. (more…)

WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Gersh Kuntzman
Newsweek
Updated: 3:28 p.m. ET Nov. 8, 2004

Nov. 8 - There’s a very famous psychological theory that explains how human beings deal with death. According to the “Kubler-Ross Sequence of Emotions,” we first confront our own mortality with denial ("I am not going to die"), move to anger ("Damn if I’m going to believe that lousy HMO doctor who says I’m going to die"), then bargaining ("God, if you let me live, I promise to be a better person and finish “Moby Dick!"), then depression ("I’m so sad that I’m going to die") and end with acceptance ("I’m going to die, but, you know what? I’m all right with it!"). (more…)

Christina Scott

CAPE TOWN, Nov 9 (IPS) - The progress of the nasty little virus known as HIV can be monitored on its devastating journeys through bodies and communities. People’s factual knowledge about the disease can be tracked. But getting more information in people’s head does not automatically change their behaviour in bed. (more…)

Introduction of the book"Seeds of Deception”

On May 23, 2003, President Bush proposed an Initiative to End Hunger in Africa using genetically modified (GM) foods. He also blamed Europe’s “unfounded, unscientific fears” of these foods for thwarting recovery efforts. Bush was convinced that GM foods held the key to greater yields, expanded U.S. exports, and a better world. His rhetoric was not new. It had been passed down from president to president, and delivered to the American people through regular news reports and industry advertisements. (more…)

Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Nov 8 (IPS) - Four months after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that prisoners held at a special jail at Guantanamo Bay in the U.S. “war on terrorism” have the right to challenge their detention to an independent forum, the legal process appears far from fair, according to human rights groups. (more…)

Analysis - By Jim Lobe

Earnest hopes that U.S. President George W Bush will be prepared to seriously ‘’reach out'’ to U.S. friends and allies overseas to make his foreign policy less aggressive and unilateral in his second term are likely to be earnestly disappointed.

WASHINGTON, Nov 4 (IPS) - Earnest hopes that U.S. President George W Bush will be prepared to seriously ‘’reach out'’ to U.S. friends and allies overseas to make his foreign policy less aggressive and unilateral in his second term are likely to be earnestly disappointed. (more…)

His successors don’t have broad enough support among Palestinians to make the hard decisions needed when negotiating with Israel

By Stanley Reed
Business Week
Updated: 3:00 a.m. ET Nov. 5, 2004

As Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat lies gravely ill in a Paris hospital, he leaves a desperate situation behind in his homeland. Four years of a second intifada, which he helped inspire but turned out to be a disastrous miscalculation, have left Palestinian institutions and the economy in wreckage. A settlement with Israel leading to a viable Palestinian state looks as far away as ever. (more…)

Mario Osava*

RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov 4 (Tierramérica) - Rising oil prices and the upcoming implementation of the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gases, following the recent ratification by Russia, are accelerating the process of turning Brazil into a world leader in ‘’bio-energy'’. (more…)

By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Wednesday, November 3, 2004

Oh dear God please don’t let it be all convoluted and depressing and messy and stupid and please don’t let it all embarrass us on an international level all over again even more than it already has and even more than it already is and even more than we’ve endured lo these past four debilitating and soul-crushing years. Hello? Please? Is it already too late? (more…)

Stefania Bianchi

BRUSSELS, Nov 2 (IPS) - The EU is being urged to address the human rights content of its asylum and immigration policy due to be adopted later this week.

Amnesty International is appealing to the European Union (EU) to â€?match its ambition to promote fundamental rights with concrete policies that are coherent and properly resourced.â€? Amnesty is being backed by Human Rights Watch (HRW). (more…)

WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Eleanor Clift
Newsweek
Updated: 4:44 p.m. ET Nov. 2, 2004

Nov. 2 - At 80, former president Jimmy Carter remains an active humanitarian—and a prolific writer. His Revolutionary War novel, “The Hornet’s Nestâ€? (Simon & Schuster) was released in paperback last month; his 19th book, a recollection of relaxing times spent with friends and family called “The Things that Matter Most” (Simon & Schuster) will be out next month. At the same time, he remains a keen political analyst. He spoke to NEWSWEEK’s Eleanor Clift about the lessons of war and how politics have changed in the three decades since he won the presidency. Excerpts: (more…)