Region

After four and a half days of representations from the City of London Corporation, Occupy London (represented by John Cooper QC and Michael Paget on behalf of named defendant Tammy Samede) and two litigants in person, George Barda and Daniel Ashman, the OccupyLSX hearing has concluded at the High Court with Christmas wishes being given to and by all concerned.

All eyes are on Iowa this week, as the hodgepodge field of Republican contenders gallivants across that farm state seeking a win, or at least “momentum,” in the campaign for the party’s presidential nomination. But behind the scenes, a battle is being waged by Republicans—not against each other, but against American voters.

Somaliland officials are abducting and refouling Oromo, Ogaden and Eritrean asylum seekers. This is against international law as it pertains to refugees. Dr Trevor Trueman has co-ordinated a report on this matter which turns around the incident that took place late December 2011 where twenty refugees from Ethiopia were detained by Somaliland security forces.

Arab League observers headed by Sudanese General Mustafa al Dabi, accompanied by government representatives, returned to Homs, epicentre of anti-government protests, for a second visit. Based on first statements to the press, Dabi said that the situation is Homs appeared “reassuring”, bur “further investigations” are needed, and that “20 experts will remain for some time”.

While Europeans were busily preparing for the festive season, Brussels quietly published a document that will have far-reaching consequences for everyone’s ability to see what they want on the internet. Plans contained in the CleanIt Project are supposed to create a clean internet without any terrorists/extremists. The new blueprint for the internet is a dangerous development.

Members of the hacking group Anonymous have claimed credit for hacking into the website of the global intelligence company Stratfor and then making donations to charities using credit card information found unsecured on the Stratfor website. The hacking group also released the information on 4,000 credit cards owned by subscribers of Stratfor’s products.

“Singing to freedom”, a film about the Syrian uprising, featuring: Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein, Amy Goodman, Erica Chenoweth and the Syrian protesters.
This video is about civil resistance in Syria, it presents some of the pragmatic arguments that the powerful force of nonviolent resistance is using successfully in order to bring down dictatorship.

New York – The UN General Assembly approved a budget of $5.15 billion for all its activities, including mostly humanitarian aid and peace missions, over the period of 2012-2013. Meanwhile, nuclear powers spend more than 90 billion dollars a year on atomic weapons. The U.S. alone spends over 50 billion dollars annually on this weapon of mass destruction.

New York – Two years have elapsed since the devastating earthquake destroyed a whole country—Haiti, killing over 200,000 people. Still, three quarters of the population earn less than two dollars a day, 70 per cent do not have stable jobs, more than half of children do not go to school, and the great majority –70 to 80 per cent– had no access to electricity.

Rome – Damaged crops combined with conflict and insecurity are threatening to leave some 2.5 million people in South Sudan – the world’s newest country – in critical conditions unless food assistance is provided immediately, the UN warns.