Region

Cairo – A civilian court has ordered an end to the practice of forced virginity tests on female detainees in military prisons. Judge Ali Fekry, head of the Egyptian Administrative Court, read out the ruling at noon on December 27 in a courtroom packed with pro-democracy activists and journalists. The crowd immediately erupted in cheers of jubilation and anti-military chants.

The final pull-out of US troops from Iraq marks the end or perhaps just one stage of the end, of the biggest military disaster since Vietnam. Every US-UK goal behind the invasion has been lost, in some cases humiliatingly.

Libya is heading into the New Year with new leaders and hopes. But it turns out, as the immediate post-revolutionary excitement fades, the different factions of the former rebels are turning on each other in what may become a competition for power.

Nairobi – South Sudan -the world’s newest country– now faces the danger of a wide-spreading “inter-ethnic” war after increasing armed clashes between two major tribes that took around one thousand lives so far.

Rome -“They expected that we were all dead, but we are still alive.” Silvano Sarti talks through a bullhorn to the people gathered in Dalmazia square, in Florence.

Montevideo – The World Trade Organization (WTO) has failed. In December, the Doha Round is turning ten years old, with nothing to celebrate[i]. Formal negotiations of the Round expired in 2005, without any agreement, and informal negotiations stalled in 2008. Indications in December too were that an agreement to liberalize trade among its 153 member countries was eluding.

On January 6th the birth of Silo, spiritual guide, paladin of non-violence, philosopher of the Universal Human Nation, was commemorated. He gave the world a path to comprehend human beings in their truly intentional dimension. He created the tools of a novel evolutionary psychology revealing the human consciousness living in and giving shape to multiple planes of existence.

The Republican caucuses in Iowa with their cliffhanger ending, confirmed two key political points and left a third ignored. First, Republicans are not enthusiastic about any of the candidates. Second, we have entered a new era in political campaigning after the US Supreme Court decision that unleashed a torrent of unreported corporate money into our electoral process.

From 9 to 13th of November 2011 took place in Greece the Forum for Peace and Nonviolence in five different cities: Iraklion, Athens, Thebes, Corfu and Preveza. It provided excellent possibilities both for local activities and national coordination on the field of
nonviolence. It is already evident from various initiatives that came as a result of it.

During the last two centuries over 60 million of Europeans travelled to the Americas escaping the great wars or looking for a better life. When Latin Americans travelled back to Europe running away from military dictatorships and economic debacles the walls came up in “fortress Europe”. As the economic crisis in the Eurozone unfolds migration is again changing direction.