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Latest Articles: International News
With U.S. in slump, dual citizenship in EU countries attracts Americans
Post Date: 2008-06-08 21:17:28 by A K A Stone
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For millions of Europeans who braved the Atlantic Ocean for a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty and dreams of a lavish life, there was little thought of ever emigrating back. Yet for a new generation of Americans of European descent, the Old Country is becoming a new country full of promise and opportunity. The creation of the European Union and its thriving economy is very appealing for Americans in a global economy. "With an EU passport, I can live and work in 27 countries," said Suzanne Mulvehill of Lake Worth. "With a U.S. passport, I can live and work in one." Americans can claim citizenship in any of the 27 European countries that are in the EU based on the ...
Caribbean monk seal becomes extinct
Post Date: 2008-06-07 08:30:30 by A K A Stone
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JAYMES SONG HONOLULU - Federal officials have confirmed what biologists have long thought: The Caribbean monk seal has gone the way of the dodo. Humans hunting the docile creatures for research, food and blubber left the population unsustainable, say biologists who warn that Hawaiian and Mediterranean monk seals could be the next to go. The last confirmed sighting of a Caribbean monk seal was in 1952 between Jamaica and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries Service confirmed Friday that the species is extinct. Kyle Baker, a biologist for NOAA's Fisheries Service southeast region, said the species is the only seal to become ...
Statism Beats Capitalism; Gazprom Squeezes Exxon, BP (Update2)
Post Date: 2008-05-30 23:12:55 by A K A Stone
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Jan. 28 (Bloomberg) -- State-controlled energy companies OAO Gazprom and Petroleo Brasileiro SA are winning the battle for investors as their governments squeeze Exxon Mobil Corp., BP Plc, and Royal Dutch Shell Plc for access to oil and gas. Russia's Gazprom forced BP and Shell last year to cede control of gas deposits that can supply Asia for more than five years, while Brazil pulled 41 exploration licenses from an auction after Petrobras found an 8-billion barrel oil field in November. Governments are demanding more of the industry's record revenue because crude prices have tripled since 2002, and drilling contracts give host nations a bigger share of output when commodity ...
Isolated tribe spotted in Brazil
Post Date: 2008-05-30 22:47:55 by A K A Stone
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One of South America's few remaining uncontacted indigenous tribes has been spotted and photographed on the border between Brazil and Peru. The Brazilian government says it took the images to prove the tribe exists and help protect its land. The pictures, taken from an aeroplane, show red-painted tribe members brandishing bows and arrows. More than half the world's 100 uncontacted tribes live in Brazil or Peru, Survival International says. Stephen Corry, the director of the group - which supports tribal people around the world - said such tribes would "soon be made extinct" if their land was not protected. 'Monumental crime' Survival International says that ...
Livni: Rising star of Israel's troubled political establishment
Post Date: 2008-05-29 17:21:07 by A K A Stone
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Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who on Thursday challenged the Kadima party leadership of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, under investigation for alleged corruption, is seen as as rising political star and a contender to be its second woman leader. The 49-year-old lawyer, who defied her staunch nationalist background to become the number two in government and in the centrist Kadima, is today the most popular member of government. She is seen as the strongest candidate to succeed Olmert as Kadima's head and enjoys high public approval ratings, though she still trails right-wing Likud party chief Benjamin Netanyahu in polls as a potential premier. Today Livni heads the peace ...
Al Qaeda Tape to Call for Use of WMDs
Post Date: 2008-05-27 22:52:50 by A K A Stone
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Intelligence and law enforcement sources tell ABC News they are expecting al Qaeda operatives will post a new video on the Internet in the next 24 hours, calling for what one source said is "jihadists to use biological, chemical and nuclear weapons to attack the West." al qaeda Officials say they expect a new tape from al Qaeda to call for the use of weapons of mass destruction against civilians. The group has released messages with increasing frequency this year. (AP Photo) "There have been several reports that al Qaeda will release a new message calling for the use of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) against civilians," FBI spokesman Richard Kolko told ABC News in an ...
Czech President Klaus ready to debate Gore on climate change
Post Date: 2008-05-27 22:44:56 by A K A Stone
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Washington - Czech President Vaclav Klaus said Tuesday he is ready to debate Al Gore about global warming, as he presented the English version of his latest book that argues environmentalism poses a threat to basic human freedoms. "I many times tried to talk to have a public exchange of views with him, and he's not too much willing to make such a conversation," Klaus said. "So I'm ready to do it." Klaus was speaking a the National Press Building in Washington to present his new book, Blue Planet in Green Shackles - What Is Endangered: Climate or Freedom?, before meeting with Vice President Dick Cheney Wednesday. "My answer is it is our freedom and, I might ...
Missile race? Japan OKs military applications for its space program
Post Date: 2008-05-23 22:04:07 by A K A Stone
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Japan's lower house of parliament has approved a plan to use the country's space programs to meet military objectives, namely the bolstering of national defenses against the ballistic missile threat posed by North Korea. A H-2A rocket launches from the island of Tanagashima, Japan on Feb. 23, 2008 carrying a communications satellite designed to enable super high-speed data transmission. Kyodo News/AP Japan has been strengthening its military posture since the national shock that followed North Korea's test-firing of a missile over the Japanese mainland in 1998. Tokyo is also concerned that China's space program could pose a military threat. The upper house is expected to ...
The oil price crisis: Not so difficult to understand
Post Date: 2008-05-23 22:01:24 by A K A Stone
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[On May 21], the Senate Judiciary Committee summoned top executives from the petroleum industry for what Chairman Pat Leahy thought would be a politically profitable inquisition. Leahy and his comrades showed up ready to blame American oil companies for the high price of gasoline, but the event wasn't as satisfactory as the Democrats had hoped. The 'emir', Abu Mussib Al Zarqawi. AFP The industry lineup was formidable: Robert Malone, Chairman and President of BP America, Inc.; John Hofmeister, President, Shell Oil Company; Peter Robertson, Vice Chairman of the Board, Chevron Corporation; John Lowe, Executive Vice President, Conoco Philips Company; and Stephen Simon, Senior Vice ...
Majority of Oceanic Shark Species Face Extinction
Post Date: 2008-05-23 12:46:36 by A K A Stone
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More than 50 percent of wide-ranging oceanic shark species are threatened with extinction as a result of overfishing, according to a new study. The research, conducted by 15 scientists from institutes around the world and organized by the IUCN Shark Specialist Group, focused on oceanic pelagic sharks and rays, including great white sharks, whale sharks, crocodile sharks, bigeye threshers, basking sharks, shortfin makos, longfin makos, salmon sharks, silky sharks, porbeagle sharks, oceanic whitetip sharks, blue sharks, manta rays, spinetail devilrays, giant devilrays and Chilean devilrays. The team determined that 16 out of the 21 oceanic shark and ray species that are caught in high seas ...
The Flying Penis of Mother Russia Strikes At Political Foes
Post Date: 2008-05-21 08:36:27 by A K A Stone
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By Red Square 5/20/2008, 11:58 pm Just recently we discussed the need to balance vagina monologues by penis monologues (with optional testicle dialogues and interpretive dancing) on a thread dedicated to making progressive art from human organs and exploring the many purposes that our body parts can have. Well, here's an example of a flying penis from the Motherland, of all places. In this video, a propeller-driven penis flies in the face of Gary Kasparov, a chess champion turned politician, as he is talking about the need of civility in political discussions and calling for equal respect for all parties regardless of their views. Kasparov must be one of those knuckle-dragging types ...
Chemicals From Teflon Found in Human Breast Milk
Post Date: 2008-05-15 00:11:10 by A K A Stone
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Chemicals used to make nonstick (teflon) cookware and stain-resistant (scotchgard) fabrics are spreading around the world and turning up in surprising places, everywhere from wildlife and drinking water supplies to human blood. Now, a team of researchers including Kathleen Arcaro of the University of Massachusetts Amherst has found these suspected carcinogens in samples of human milk from nursing mothers in Massachusetts. "Perfluorinated compounds, or PFCs, are found in human blood around the world, including the blood of newborns, but this is the first study in the United States to document their occurrence in human milk," says Arcaro, a professor in the department of veterinary ...
World Bank `Destroyed Basic Grains' in Honduras
Post Date: 2008-05-14 23:42:27 by A K A Stone
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May 14 (Bloomberg) -- Fidencio Alvarez abandoned his bean and corn farm in southern Honduras because of the rising cost of seeds, fuel and food. After months of one meal a day, he hiked with his wife and six children to find work in the city. ``We would wake up with empty stomachs and go to bed with empty stomachs,'' said Alvarez, 37, who sought help from the Mission Lazarus aid group in Choluteca in January. ``We couldn't afford the seeds to plant food or the bus fare to buy the food.'' Honduran farmers like Alvarez can't compete in a global marketplace where the costs of fuel and fertilizer soared and rice prices doubled in the past year. The former breadbasket ...
An Oil Addicted Ex Superpower
Post Date: 2008-05-12 21:15:33 by A K A Stone
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Nineteen years ago, the fall of the Berlin Wall effectively eliminated the Soviet Union as the world's other superpower. Yes, the USSR as a political entity stumbled on for another two years, but it was clearly an ex-superpower from the moment it lost control over its satellites in Eastern Europe. Less than a month ago, the United States similarly lost its claim to superpower status when a barrel of crude oil roared past US$110 on the international market, gasoline prices crossed the $3.50 threshold at American pumps, and diesel fuel topped $4. As was true of the USSR following the dismantling of the Berlin Wall, the US will no doubt continue to stumble on like the superpower it once ...
Chinas Win Win in Congo
Post Date: 2008-05-12 20:42:17 by A K A Stone
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China has just signed its biggest contract in Africa, a multi-billion dollar deal with the Democratic Republic of Congo. Roads and railways in exchange for minerals. Newsnight's Tim Whewell Reports... It's a scene that - with just a few changes - you might have found in the central African bush in the late 19th Century. Ploughing through the long grass is a foreigner in a wide-brimmed sun-hat, scribbling away in a notebook. Alongside, a deferential African bearing a long pole. The two are barely able to communicate with one another. You're reminded, irresistibly, of images of Victorian era explorers such as David Livingstone and Henry Morton Stanley, hacking their way across ...
Pictured: The moment a London tourist dies after screaming 'I can't breathe' to police who restrained him
Post Date: 2008-05-06 22:21:51 by A K A Stone
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This is the moment a tourist died in the street after being restrained by police. Frank Ogboru, 43, was sprayed with CS gas and pinned down after a minor row. CCTV footage captured him losing consciousness after screaming: "I can't breathe. I can't breathe." The Nigerian businessman, who was in London on holiday, stopped breathing and was declared dead in hospital. Witnesses said officers had their "knees and feet" on him as he "wailed like a dog". But the CPS decided there was "insufficient evidence" for any of the officers to be charged in connection with Mr Ogboru's death in Woolwich in September 2006. Speaking from her home in ...
Food shortages: how will we feed the world?
Post Date: 2008-04-25 07:08:51 by A K A Stone
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A global food shortage threatens the lives of millions. Charles Clover reports on the possible solutions to the crisis The era of cheap food is over. In Britain, a standard white loaf costs more than £1, grocery bills are driving up inflation and land prices are going through the roof. But steep rises in the price of staples such as wheat and rice are having an even bigger impact on poor countries. Harvesting wheat Global shortages mean wheat is now is in high demand In Cameroon, 24 people have been killed in food riots since February, while in Haiti, protesters chanting, "We're hungry" forced the prime minister to resign this month. In the past month, there have ...
Protesters take CNN to task over commentator's China remarks
Post Date: 2008-04-20 18:36:33 by A K A Stone
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LOS ANGELES (AP) - Chinese-Americans rallied outside CNN's Hollywood office on Saturday to demand the firing of commentator Jack Cafferty for calling China's goods "junk" and its leaders a "bunch of goons and thugs." "We understand free speech," Lake Wang, 39, told the Los Angeles Times. "But what if Cafferty said this about other racial groups? I think he would be fired. I think he's jealous of China." A crowd estimated by police at 2,000 to 5,000 gathered, chanting and holding signs that read "Fire Cafferty" and "CNN: Chinese Negative News." The crowd was peaceful, and no arrests were made, police Sgt. David Torres ...
Hungry mob attacks Haiti palace
Post Date: 2008-04-13 23:08:34 by A K A Stone
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Crowds of demonstrators in Haiti have tried to storm the presidential palace in the capital Port-au-Prince as protests continue over food prices. Witnesses say the protesters used metal bins to try to smash down the palace gates before UN troops fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse them. Several people are reported to have been injured in the clashes. At least five people have been killed in Haiti since the unrest began last week in the southern city of Les Cayes. The demonstrators outside the presidential palace said the rising cost of living in Haiti meant they were struggling to feed themselves. "We are hungry," they shouted before attempting to smash open the ...
World Bank echoes food cost alarm
Post Date: 2008-04-13 23:00:16 by A K A Stone
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The rapid rise in food prices could push 100m people in poor countries deeper into poverty, the head of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, has said. His warning follows that from the leader of the International Monetary Fund, who said hundreds of thousands of people are at risk of starvation. Mr Zoellick proposed an action plan to boost long-run agricultural production. There have been food riots recently in a number of countries, including Haiti, the Philippines and Egypt. "Based on a rough analysis, we estimate that a doubling of food prices over the last three years could potentially push 100 million people in low-income countries deeper into poverty," Mr Zoellick said. His ...
Cuban Medical plan
Post Date: 2008-04-08 15:47:45 by master_of_disaster
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HAVANA (Reuters) - President Raul Castro's government will close more than half of Cuba's family doctor offices and boost staffing at the rest in a major reform of its vaunted free health care system, medical sources said. The overhaul of one of the pillars of the health system came in response to public complaints, the sources said, and is another step by Castro to improve life since he succeeded his ailing elder brother Fidel Castro as president in February. Cubans complain that the family doctor program has been short on staff since the communist government began sending thousands of doctors to Venezuela in 2000. In the provinces, family doctor offices will now be staffed by a ...
'Fitna' pulled from Web
Post Date: 2008-03-29 17:51:53 by A K A Stone
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AMSTERDAM -- The controversial anti-Muslim film by Dutch right-wing politician Geert Wilders has been removed from the Web by its British Internet provider, which said its employees have been seriously threatened. "Following threats to our staff of a very serious nature and some ill-informed reports from certain corners of the British media that could directly lead to the harm of some of our staff, LiveLeak.com has been left with no other choice but to remove 'Fitna' from our servers," the company said. The 15-minute short film was posted Thursday and taken down Friday and had been seen by some 3 million people. In the film, presented in Dutch- and English-language ...
OFFICIAL: 4000 DEAD IN IRAQ
Post Date: 2008-03-23 22:42:05 by A K A Stone
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Four U. S Soldiers have been killed today. According to official government sources we have now crossed the 4000 mark folks. With no end in site.
Rush for biofuels threatens starvation on a global scale
Post Date: 2008-03-08 20:40:08 by A K A Stone
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The rush towards biofuels is theatening world food production and the lives of billions of people, the Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser said yesterday. Professor John Beddington put himself at odds with ministers who have committed Britain to large increases in the use of biofuels over the coming decades. In his first important public speech since he was appointed, he described the potential impacts of food shortages as the “elephant in the room” and a problem which rivalled that of climate change. “It’s very hard to imagine how we can see the world growing enough crops to produce renewable energy and at the same time meet the enormous demand for food,” ...
Toyota Considers Entering Aircraft Industry: Official
Post Date: 2008-03-05 07:35:15 by A K A Stone
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Japan's Toyota Motor, which is widely expected to overtake General Motors this year as the world's top-selling automaker, is considering entering the aircraft industry, a spokeswoman said Wednesday. Toyota may put up funds to a company to be set up by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for its passenger jet project, Toyota spokeswoman Kayo Doi said. "Mitsubishi Heavy has invited us to invest (in the venture) and we are considering it," she said, while adding nothing has been decided yet. The comment came after a report Wednesday in the Asahi Shimbun daily which says Toyota plans to put up 10 billion yen (97 million dollars) in the venture to be set up in April. Mitsubishi has ...
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