Women Leaders Urge Peaceful End To Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Women leaders attending a United Nations-hosted conference in Madrid called for a just and peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including an end to the three-year-old blockade of the Gaza Strip.
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UN EXPERT ALARMED AT RISE IN NUMBER OF JOURNALISTS KILLED FOR THEIR WORK

The number of journalists killed last year rose by 26 per cent compared to 2008 and many of the murders were related to investigations into corruption, organized crime and political misdeeds that the reporters were carrying out at the time of their death, a United Nations independent expert said today. Read more

Gulf Oil Spill FAQ: What Happened, What May Have Caused it, and Who’s Responsible

Last month’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill has been followed by huge amounts of reporting. Here’s our attempt to distill the information, and to focus on the more nebulous, unanswered questions of why it happened, whether it could’ve been prevented, and who’s on the hook for the disaster. Read more

Iran’s Efforts to Buy Embargoed Arms Revealed in Italian Case

MILAN – The Italian businessman sounded worried on the wiretap.

Alessandro Bon was a politically connected entrepreneur and former sales representative for Beretta, the Italian gun manufacturer. But behind that facade, he was leading a ring of Italian arms dealers and Iranian spies who were illegally selling ammunition, helicopters and other military hardware to Iran, according to Italian court documents obtained by ProPublica.

As investigators listened in October, Bon gave one of his associates bad news: Some German sniper scopes they had sold to Iran had surfaced among Taliban militants fighting NATO troops in Afghanistan. Read more

What’s behind Christian-Muslim fighting in Nigeria?

The Nigerian Army was sent in Tuesday to stop violence that began Sunday, after Christians protested the construction of a mosque and after Muslim protesters attacked a Catholic church. Fighting is centered in the city of Jos – an acronym for “Jesus Our Savior.” Read more

Haitian dig out from earthquake

Jan. 16 (GVMonitor) — Tons of aid supplies are arriving in Haiti but workers are finding problems getting the materials to the people stricken by the earthquake.

The 7.0-magnitude earthquake that hit Tuesday wrecked the Haitian capital’s infrastructure, further limiting humanitarian efforts to reach victims. Estimates are that as many as 70,000 people may have died and thousands of survivors are without food, water or medical help. Read more

Coordinated Bombings Kill at Least 101 in Baghdad

BAGHDAD — In what appeared to be a coordinated assault, a series of car bombings across Baghdad on Tuesday killed at least 101 people and wounded scores more, according to preliminary accounts by police and hospital officials… Five bombs, including at least one suicide attack, struck near a university, a court, a mosque and a market in a neighborhood near the Interior Ministry. The blasts began shortly Read more

Keep an Eye on the Balkans

Trouble is brewing.

The Balkans is a region we love to forget. Sandwiched between the Adriatic and Black seas, the peninsula is a hodgepodge mix of religions, peoples and cultures. The complexity and obscurity of the Balkans—together with its geographic situation—fosters the perception of the region as a largely irrelevant backwater to Europe, Russia and the Middle East… History punctures this perception… Historically, the Balkans is a place where civilizations have converged and clashed. During the Middle Ages, the peninsula fell under the control Read more

Palestinians warned over UN move

Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, has warned the Palestinian leadership against any attempts to unilaterally declare statehood for the Gaza Strip, the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem… West Bank-based Palestinian officials said on Sunday that they were preparing to ask the United Nations Security Council to declare their backing for the Palestinian quest for an independent state… In a radio address on Sunday evening, Netanyahu said: “There is no substitute for negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority—[read more…]

This story from Al Jazeera.net | posted: 16 November 2009

On patrol in Mexico’s most dangerous city

Mexico’s Ciudad Juarez is one of the world’s most dangerous cities, plagued by battles between drug gangs. A BBC team witnessed its violence at first hand on a police patrol, as Ian Sherwood reports… The sun sets early now that winter is approaching. It is nearly 1800 and Ciudad Juarez has already descended into darkness…We drive up to Estacion Delicias police station, where all is quiet–[read more…]

This story from BBC NEWS | posted:16 Nov. 2009

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