Just before the Thanksgiving holiday, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly revealed that President Barack Obama would follow in President George W. Bush's footsteps and not sign the international Mine Ban Treaty. Many of us had hoped he would embrace President Bill Clinton's pledge that the U.S. would join.
The 1997 treaty was a landmark accomplishment. For the first time, a group of governments and civil institutions joined together to ban a conventional weapon that had been used by virtually every fighting force for decades.
Today, 156 nations are party to the treaty -- including Afghanistan, Australia, Indonesia, Japan, all of Europe except Finland (Poland has signed but not yet ratified), all of sub-Saharan Africa except Somalia, almost half of the countries in the Middle East and North Africa (including Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait and Algeria), and the entire Western Hemisphere, except for the United States and Cuba.
Puppet Masters
Russia has no evidence that Iran is trying to build a nuclear weapon, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Thursday.
"We have no information that Iran is working on the creation of a nuclear weapon," Putin said when asked by a reporter if Iran was close to making an atomic bomb.
Russia, a veto-wielding permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, is a key player in efforts to force Tehran to allay Western fears that it is trying to make nuclear weapons.
Moscow has previously supported UN sanctions against Iran only after insisting they be watered down and has so far refused to publicly support calls by the United States for the threat of additional sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
"We have no information that Iran is working on the creation of a nuclear weapon," Putin said when asked by a reporter if Iran was close to making an atomic bomb.
Russia, a veto-wielding permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, is a key player in efforts to force Tehran to allay Western fears that it is trying to make nuclear weapons.
Moscow has previously supported UN sanctions against Iran only after insisting they be watered down and has so far refused to publicly support calls by the United States for the threat of additional sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
© Unknown
Doku Umarov
Doku Umarov
On Monday Prime Minister Vladimir Putin linked the Nevsky Express bombing with an explosion that occurred that day on a railway line in the internal Russian republic of Dagestan. The Tyumen-Baku line connects southern Russia with the "former" Soviet republic of Azerbaijan. Russia's KGB-communist dictator called the Dagestan bombing a "second terror attempt." No one aboard the second train was hurt and the locomotive sustained only superficial damage from the blast. After Monday's attack, the Kremlin-run rail monopoly, Russian Railways, stated: "Traffic on the railway is closed. Employees of Russian Railways, law enforcement bodies, the FSB [Federal Security Service] and emergency services are working at the scene.'"
© PressTV
The story brings to light the fact that Israel has brought some 25,000 Ukrainian children into the occupied entity over the past two years in order to harvest their organs. It cites a Ukrainian man's fruitless search for 15 children who had been adopted in Israel. The children had clearly been taken by Israeli medical centers, where they were used for 'spare parts'.
The account was unveiled five days ago by a Ukrainian philosophy professor and author, Vyacheslav Gudin, at a pseudo-academic conference in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev. Gudin told an estimated 300 attendees of the Kiev conference that it was essential that all Ukrainians be made aware of the genocide Israel was perpetrating.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) on Tuesday formally started to use the name "European Union (EU)" as the Lisbon Treaty came into force. Previously, for legal reasons the EU was known officially in the WTO as the European Communities (EC).
"For the first time in the WTO, the name 'European Union' was used" at an ongoing WTO ministerial conference, the Geneva-based body said in a statement.
But the name EC will continue to be found in older documents, it said.
"For the first time in the WTO, the name 'European Union' was used" at an ongoing WTO ministerial conference, the Geneva-based body said in a statement.
But the name EC will continue to be found in older documents, it said.
© Latuff
Peres, as well as Israel's fifth president, Yitzhak Navon, who also attended Sunday's ceremony, were both close disciples of Ben-Gurion's and continue to preach his legacy.
Trying to imagine how Ben-Gurion would have reacted to Ahmadinejad, Peres said Iranian threats must be taken seriously and that Israel must work with other nations to mitigate them.
"Ahmadinejad wants to destroy a nation and he denies the Holocaust. His ambition is to rule the Muslim world with unmitigated force and terror," Peres said.
© Unknown
That was then... a synagogue burns in Nazi Germany
That was then... a synagogue burns in Nazi Germany
Muslim groups in Switzerland and abroad condemned the vote as biased and anti-Islamic. Business groups said the decision hurt Switzerland's international standing and could damage relations with Muslim nations and wealthy investors who bank, travel and shop there.
"The Swiss have failed to give a clear signal for diversity, freedom of religion and human rights," said Omar Al-Rawi, integration representative of the Islamic Denomination in Austria, which said its reaction was "grief and deep disappointment."
About 300 people turned out for a spontaneous demonstration on the square outside parliament, holding up signs saying, "That is not my Switzerland," placing candles in front of a model of a minaret and making another minaret shape out of the candles themselves.
© Getty Images
Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin apologises to the victims of child sex abuse during a press conference yesterday.
Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin apologises to the victims of child sex abuse during a press conference yesterday.
Four archbishops were among those condemned for allowing hundreds of vulnerable children to suffer so they could protect the Church's reputation.
The Catholic hierarchy was granted police immunity and Church leaders protected abusers in some cases with the blessing of senior law enforcers.
Hundreds of crimes were not reported while police treated clergy as above the law, investigators said.
The report examined the handling of only a 'representative sample' of allegations of child abuse by 320 children against 46 priests in Dublin between 1975 and 2004.
© Unknown
First, let's briefly review a few pertinent details.
We reported on Saturday that among the most revealing of the "hacked" e-mails released last week was one dated November 1999, in which CRU chief P.D. Jones wrote these words to Hockey-Stick-Team leaders Michael Mann, Raymond Bradley, and Malcolm Hughes:
More than 150 countries have agreed to the Mine Ban Treaty's provisions
Washington - The Obama administration has decided not to sign an international convention that bans land mines.
State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said Tuesday that the administration recently completed a review and decided not to change the Bush-administration era policy.
"We decided that our land mine policy remains in effect," he said.
More than 150 countries have agreed to the Mine Ban Treaty's provisions to end the production, use, stockpiling and trade in mines. Besides the United States, holdouts include: China, India, Pakistan, Myanmar and Russia.
Human rights groups had expressed hope that the Obama administration would sign the treaty.
Washington - The Obama administration has decided not to sign an international convention that bans land mines.
State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said Tuesday that the administration recently completed a review and decided not to change the Bush-administration era policy.
"We decided that our land mine policy remains in effect," he said.
More than 150 countries have agreed to the Mine Ban Treaty's provisions to end the production, use, stockpiling and trade in mines. Besides the United States, holdouts include: China, India, Pakistan, Myanmar and Russia.
Human rights groups had expressed hope that the Obama administration would sign the treaty.
Comment: "State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said Tuesday that the administration recently completed a review and decided not to change the Bush-administration era policy."
So, the Obama Administration agrees with the Bushies that land mines are A-OK. Continuing maiming and death are no problem.
More of the Change and Hope that was promised.