Region

Criminal gangs are becoming a threat to the world’s glaciers, which are already receding as a result of climate change, the UN reported, citing a case in Chile where police are investigating the theft of some 5,000 kilograms of millennia-old ice from the Jorge Montt glacier.

More than 60% of ships involved in reported cases of sanctions-busting or illicit transfers of arms, drugs, other military equipment and sensitive dual-use goods that could be used in the development of missiles and weapons of mass destruction (WMD) are owned by companies based in the EU, NATO or other OECD states.

The bomb had political messages stuck to it according to the web media [www.pressan.is](www.pressan.is) but we don’t know what they said and if that is true.

Part of downtown of the city of Reykjavik was closed off by the police and the bomb squad, who were assisted by the “viking squad” of the police (SWAT in english).

Finally, there is some argumentation in the West supportive of a nuclear free zone for the Middle East. Such thinking is still treated as politically marginal, and hardly audible above the beat of the war drums.

Occupyface art by Paul-Felix Montez, a new face on the arts scene, providing a visual message for the Occupy movement world wide protestors. The proposal sees a 40-foot tall sculpture monument based on the artist’s art work designs. First, a half scale mock up is to be constructed and brought to downtown Manhattan for exhibition in 2012.

Geneva – The Mediterranean Sea has become the deadliest stretch of water in the world for migrants and refugees, according to a UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) new report.

The deaths caused by the U.S. in Iraq are “untold” by the media, writes Danny Lucia.

Over a million Iraqis are dead from America’s war.

That sentence is a cognitive litmus test. Some people’s immediate reaction is, “That can’t be right,” because the United States couldn’t do that. Or because crimes on that scale don’t still happen.

Dubai – Oil rich United Arab Emirates (UAE) harassed, arrested, and jailed activists, and disbanded the elected boards of two of the country’s most prominent civil society organizations, says [Human Rights Watch](http://www.hrw.org/) (HRW) report “[UAE: Free Speech Under Attack](http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/01/25/uae-free-speech-under-attack)”

Geneva – Almost 1,100 Palestinians, over half of them children, were displaced due to home demolitions in the West Bank by Israeli forces in 2011 – over 80 per cent more than in the previous year – according to a [United Nations new report.](http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=41051&Cr=palestin&Cr1=)

Banks are lending very little to help the real economy – businesses and mortgages – but there are no shortages of bonuses for top executives. Huge payments to lobbying firms at home and in the US (whose activities are not covered by the Freedom of Information Act) have been used to influence policies that may curtail the financial sector’s licence to cream.