Society's ChildS


Attention

Planet could be 'unrecognizable' by 2050, experts say

A growing, more affluent population competing for ever scarcer resources could make for an "unrecognizable" world by 2050, researchers warned at a major US science conference Sunday.

The United Nations has predicted the global population will reach seven billion this year, and climb to nine billion by 2050, "with almost all of the growth occurring in poor countries, particularly Africa and South Asia," said John Bongaarts of the non-profit Population Council.

To feed all those mouths, "we will need to produce as much food in the next 40 years as we have in the last 8,000," said Jason Clay of the World Wildlife Fund at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

"By 2050 we will not have a planet left that is recognizable" if current trends continue, Clay said.

The swelling population will exacerbate problems, such as resource depletion, said John Casterline, director of the Initiative in Population Research at Ohio State University.

But incomes are also expected to rise over the next 40 years -- tripling globally and quintupling in developing nations -- and add more strain to global food supplies.

Bomb

Canada: Pipe Bomb Found in West Vancouver Park

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© CBC NewsThe RCMP bomb squad used a robot to detonate a pipe bomb in West Vancouver's Burley Park.
West Vancouver police are trying to determine who left a dangerous pipe bomb in a neighbourhood park on Saturday morning.

The device was found in Burley Park around 10 a.m. by resident Geoff Dunn, who noticed a suspicious package and called police.

"Black, plastic, PVC pipe capped off at both ends. Typical looking pipe bomb you see on TV or whatever," said Dunn.

Police closed off the small park, which is located just west of Taylor Way and south of the Upper Levels section of Highway 1. They also evacuated about 30 homes in the area and closed the eastbound lane of Highway 1 for about five blocks.

The RCMP explosives disposal unit was brought in to examine the bomb with a robot, and then blow it up using a controlled explosion.

Cpl. Fred Harding said investigators were then able to verify it was a real bomb and not a fake device.

"This was a weapon. It was designed to injure or maim. And we need to know more about who put this down," he said.

Stormtrooper

Libyan unrest spreads to Tripoli as Benghazi erupts

AFP
Bahraini anit-government protester

Tripoli - Libya's unrest spread to the capital Tripoli on Sunday after scores of protesters were killed in the second city Benghazi, which appeared to have slipped out of control of forces loyal to strongman Muammar Gaddafi.

Gaddafi has attempted to put down protests with a violent crackdown, triggering some of the worst bloodshed in the two months since unrest began sweeping across the Arab world.

In the first sign of serious unrest in the capital, thousands of protesters clashed with supporters of Gadaffi in Tripoli. Gunfire could be heard and police using tear gas to disperse the demonstrators.

Vader

Kadhafi's son warns of 'rivers of blood' in Libya

libyan protests
© AP

Tripoli - The son of Libya's strongman Moamer Kadhafi warned Monday the country would be destroyed by civil war if protests end his father's rule, in a speech broadcast as bursts of gunfire broke out in Tripoli.

Saif al-Islam Kadhafi offered reforms to end the violent uprising gripping the country, but he warned the protests were a foreign plot and would be crushed in a "bloodbath" if the government's offer was rejected.

The turbulence gripping the Arab world following the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia also spread to Morocco, where thousands rallied for change across the country.

Dollar

U.S. Charges Global Warming Company Was A Fraud

global warming fraud
© Unknown

CO2 Tech Ltd, a publicly traded company that lured investors with claims about products and services to fight global warming, was full of nothing but hot air, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Friday.

It said the U.S. Justice Department had filed criminal fraud charges against six men, including stock promoters and traders, involved in a so-called "pump-and-dump scheme" built around shares of the company, which was purportedly based in London but had no significant assets or operations.

Pump-and-dump is a form of stock fraud in which promoters "pump up" or artificially inflate a company's share price, usually through false or misleading press releases or other public statements, and then "dump" the stock at a profit.

People

Thousands Protest in Bolivia Over Rising Prices

boliva protest
© APMembers of Bolivia's Central Workers union march to protest rising food costs in La Paz; the smoke is from small packages of dynamite set off by the protesters, Feb. 18, 2011

Thousands of people have rallied in La Paz, Bolivia to demand higher salaries as the cost of food and fuel increases.

Unions led Friday's demonstrators, who marched in the streets of the capital to protest the cost of living. Some of the protesters set off sticks of dynamite while taking part in the fifth day of protests in the Andean nation.

The protest comes one month after President Evo Morales said he planned to raise fuel prices eventually, despite rescinding a decree to do so. Morales has said the increase is necessary to level prices in the region so government subsidies do not pay for gasoline that is smuggled in from other countries.

Ambulance

Emergency: Bahraini Doctor Pleads For Help too Many Casualties to Count Hospitals Can't Cope

Bahraini troops shot at protesters near Pearl Roundabout and wounded many, a doctor of Salmaniya hospital said, a day after police forcibly cleared a protest camp from the traffic circle in Manama.


Dr. Ghassan said: "There are many casualties with head wounds."

The demonstrators made for Pearl Roundabout, where army troops who took it over after the police raid on Thursday opened fire.

The Bahraini military has opened machinegun fire on protesters who were trying to reach hospital, injuring hundreds, in what appears to be an attempted massacre, medics say.

The Army has prevented ambulances and medics from reaching those wounded amid massive pro-democracy protests in Bahrain, Dr. Ghasam, a resident at Salmaniyeh hospital in Manama, told Press TV on Friday.

He said that the protesters were marching to hospital in silence to visit those wounded in the previous rallies, when they were ambushed by troops waiting near the hospital.

"They did not even chant anti-government slogans, they wanted to visit those injured on Thursday," Dr. Ghasem said.

He maintained that the massacre was planned in advance.

"We need help! Our staff is entirely overwhelmed. They are shooting at people's heads. Not at the legs. People are having their brains blown out," Dr. Ghasam said.

He also compared the situation at the hospital to a war zone.

Che Guevara

China: Activists Arrested; Regime Fears Protests Like Those in Middle East

Police officers stand guard-China
© AFPPolice officers stand guard near a restaurant which was a planned protest site for 'Jasmine Revolution' in Beijing.
Beijing - Several top Chinese rights activists have disappeared into police custody as a web campaign urged angry citizens to mark the Middle East's "Jasmine Revolution" with protests, campaigners said Sunday.

Up to 15 leading Chinese rights lawyers and activists have disappeared since Saturday amid a nationwide police mobilisation, according to activists, while the government appeared to censor Internet postings calling for the demonstrations.

"We welcome... laid off workers and victims of forced evictions to participate in demonstrations, shout slogans and seek freedom, democracy and political reform to end 'one party rule'," one Internet posting said.

The postings, many of which appeared to have originated on overseas websites run by exiled Chinese political activists, called for protests in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and 10 other major Chinese cities.

Protesters were urged to shout slogans including "We want food to eat", "We want work", "We want housing", "We want justice", "Long live freedom", and "Long live democracy".

Attention

US: 70,000 demonstrate at Wisconsin capitol for workers' rights - Tea Party counter-rally rides out to meet them!

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As protest in Wisconsin stretch into its sixth day on Sunday, union members and supporters are have begun to arrive in both Madison and Green Bay, where a smaller pro-union rally will take place outside Packers Stadium.

Meanwhile, Governor Scott Walker said that the state Democrats senators who have fled Wisconsin to protest a vote on his controversial legislation to reduce public employee bargaining rights have "failed to do their jobs," and that he expects then to concede this week.

"If you want to participate in democracy, you've got to be in the arena, and the arena is right here in Madison, Wisconsin," Walker said on "Fox News Sunday.

"My hope is that cooler minds will prevail and by some time earlier this coming week they'll show up for their job," Walker added. "Democracy is not about hiding out in another state. It's about showing up here in the capital and making the case there, and for us, we're willing to take this as long as it takes."

More than seventy-thousand protestors descended on Wisconsin's capitol yesterday, angry at Walker's bill to slash their union benefits and eliminate bargaining rights, a plan that has the backing of the Republican controlled state Senate. Pro-union protesters were joined by supporters of Walker's bill -- many of them bused in by tea party groups -- who support efforts against the 14 Democratic state senators who are hiding in Illinois and preventing the bill from coming to a vote on Tuesday.

Che Guevara

U.S. Protests, Teacher Walkouts Mount in Wisconsin. Milwaukee Schools Closed

protest
The movement of Wisconsin workers and youth against budget-cutting and attacks on government workers continued to spread on Friday, with tens of thousands more teachers and students walking out of their classrooms, while the major demonstration in Madison continued unabated.

Demonstrations that began on Monday with an unexpectedly large march of 1,200 University of Wisconsin graduate and undergraduate students have since drawn hundreds of thousands more into struggle. The crowd surrounding the capitol building on Tuesday grew to between 13,000 and 20,000, and demonstrations have been estimated at between 20,000 and 30,000 on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. A major demonstration is also expected today.

Friday may have been the largest demonstration yet. Buses brought an estimated 11,000 students and university workers to Madison from the University of Wisconsin campuses at Milwaukee, Eau Claire, La Crosse, Superior, River Falls, Green Bay, and Stout, while teachers and government workers continued to arrive in large numbers.