"If Osama bin Laden does, in fact, head a vast international terrorist organization with trained operatives in more than 40 countries, as claimed by Bush, why, despite torture of prisoners, has this administration failed to produce hard evidence of it?"

like mother like son...

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) - "Sir Mark Thatcher pleaded guilty Thursday to unwittingly helping to finance a foiled coup in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, accepting a $609,150 Cdn fine and a suspended jail sentence."

"...Latin American populations are no longer listening to the old "prosperity is just around the corner" tune of the neo-liberal crowd, whose policies have ruined their countries. In nation after nation, democratic elections have resulted in centre-left governments gaining power on promises of activist government, and moderating neo-liberal policies. Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela are among them, and Bolivia and Uruguay have followed suit. The unintended consequence of U.S. neo-liberal policies has been to revive a powerful Latin American nationalism."

How the mangrove shield was lost - Thursday January 6, 2005; The Guardian

Powerful business interests left Asian coastal protection in tatters before
the tsunami, reports John Vidal.

As the clear-up from the Asian tsunami starts and the full damage is
assessed, there is growing consensus among scientists, environmentalists and
Asian fishing communities that the impact was considerably worsened by
tourist, shrimp farm and other industrial developments which have destroyed
or degraded mangrove forests and other natural sea defences.

World oil production will peak on Thanksgiving Day 2005, according to Kenneth Deffeyes of Princeton University. "After the peak, the world's production of crude oil will fall, never to rise again," Deffeyes wrote in an abstract. "If the predictions are correct, there will be enormous effects on the world economy. Even the poorest nations need fuel to run irrigation pumps. The industrialized nations will be bidding against one another for the dwindling oil supply. The good news is that we will put less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The bad news is that my pickup truck has a 25-gallon tank."

"An Indian helicopter dropping food and water over the remote Andaman and
Nicobar Islands has been attacked by tribesmen using bows and arrows.

There were fears that the endangered tribal groups had been wiped out when
massive waves struck their islands."

Left-wing political movements, as Petrini has acknowledged, tend to be
uncomfortable with the idea of pleasure. In the past, he has written, "people
on the left, no matter how sophisticated and modern they might be, had an odd
relationship to gastronomy". This remains broadly true today. Environmentalists
find it hard to rid themselves of their earnest, do-gooding image. And there
is something horribly joyless and negative about the approach of many
anti-globalisation protesters.

This is a bit old but after finding it stashed away in my email, I had to send it on.

In a UN report on its own relevence, they state: "Lack of agreement on a clear and well-known definition [of terrorism] undermines the normative and moral stance against [it] and has stained the United Nations image." The report singles out two reasons why an international definition of terrorism has been impossible to achieve.

The first, it says, "is the argument that any definition should include states' use of armed forces against civilians." The second [problem] says the UN, "is that peoples under foreign occupation have a right to resistance and a definition of terrorism should not override this right."

Developing countries' crippling debt hits women hardest. And the policies of
the IMF and World Bank make matters worse

Noreena Hertz |
The Guardian

In the first story (posted by Yang), South Africa's ruling party has accused top U.S. officials of "conspir[ing]" with a German drug firm and treating Africans like guinea pigs amid questions over testing of a key HIV/AIDS drug before a U.S.-backed roll-out of the treatment across the continent.

In the second story (posted by Fern), mostly black or hispanic orphans in NYC were treated with experimental AIDS drugs without their knowledge or the knowledge of their caregivers.

[by way of the aut-op-sy list...]

New e-lists formed

Hi, this is just to let you know that some new email

lists have recently been formed which are actively

seeking new members.

Someone just gave me a bike. It was really amazing riding a bike, after not riding one in a long time. I have been doing a lot of walking and riding buses over the last many years, not bike riding. A bike to me is more than a recreational toy, it is something that will increase my quality of life greatly, on a daily basis. The bike will cut down on my travel times considerably. Many people do not realize that not only do you spend extended journeys on buses due to stopping every few blocks for passengers en route, but if bus transfers are involved, that overlay is time consuming as well, both coming and going. Having a bike now means I can ride my bike to the bus stop, eliminating 10 minutes there, then put the bike on the bus bike rack and ride for an hour into Seattle. In the past, I would then have to transfer to one or more buses to get where I was going. Now, I can just unload my bike once in Seattle, and ride to those destinations, taking only one round trip bus ride, versus the previous three roundtrip bus rides. The bike makes going to the library and grocery store easier, as the bike can carry the weight of juice or books, rather than me. It seems many, if not most, middle class garages are filled with one bike per family member, even though the family uses the SUV more than the fleet of bikes. I think we should have *bike drives* for the poor, like we have food or clothing drives.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/  - Deccember 17,2004

The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) has announced that 2004 is expected to be the fourth warmest year worldwide since records began. And the insurance industry says this year will face unprecedented claims for damage from weather-related disasters.

Both sets of figures were released as ministers from 180 countries heard a message from the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan urging an end to doubts and delays on action to combat climate change.

Montreal, December 16th, 2004

Today, a solidarity group called Alcan't in India held a demonstration in front of Alcan's Montreal headquarters to commemorate the killings of three anti-mining villagers four years ago. Meanwhile an independent report from India shows that goons, who have been on Alcan's payroll for the last three years, have attacked various delegations attempting to enter the region to observe and report on the commemorations occurring in Kashipur.

"Just before the Montreal demonstration, we received a report from Sudhir Pattnaik an independent journalist of Orissa who has been covering breaking news from Kashipur, that 7000 local peoples congregated to commemorate the December 2000 shootings and again proclaim their clear anti-mining stance," said Alcan't in India spokesperson Abhimanyu Sud "This is despite massive police presence, which has set up checkpoints throughout Kashipur restricting almost all movement and communications within, to and from the area. This police intimidation is a conscious program of the state in support of UAIL's proposed mine and refinery, in which Alcan has a 45% share"

If you want to understand poverty in America, start with food privilege. Go to your local food bank. Who is there? In virtually all food banks across the country, you will find a predominance of women with children, and the elderly. What does that say about American society to you? Go to any restaurant, and look at their clientele. They will not even allow the homeless or poor in their doors, but look through the windows. Do restaurants reflect the same clientele as the food banks? Why or why not? Does this not show you the fault line of privilege based solely on food privilege? (I use the term restaurants as differentiated from fast food establishments, which are often the only hot food homeless folks can afford, but which are even more egregious corporate offenders than restaurants often.)