Region

Mired in poverty and with few land rights, indigenous groups saw little to celebrate on the bicentennial of the nation’s independence from Spain on May 14. Representatives of indigenous organizations headed to the capital, Asunción, to demand the government take immediate action to stem the severe problems afflicting Paraguay’s 20 native peoples.

Napoleon is said to have remarked: “Bayonets are wonderful! One can do anything with them except sit on them!”. Today’s bayonets are nuclear weapons; and we are actually sitting on them.
Mr. Dhanapala is President, Pugwash Conferences on Science & World Affairs. He served as UN Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs and as Ambassador of Sri Lanka to the USA in 1990s.

Reporters Without Borders calls for the immediate and unconditional release of Ernst Joseph and Wolf “Duralph” François, hosts of the programme “They said it” on Radio Prévention in the southwestern town of Petit-Goâve, who have been detained ever since their arrest during an appearance at the public prosecutor’s office on 22 June.

“High food prices are here to stay, and their impact on the poor in developing countries who spend a high proportion of their income on food can be devastating”
Their number exceeds one billion and up to 98% of them live in developing countries.

The Palestinian leadership is more committed than ever to obtaining statehood through the United Nations General Assembly. But despite this commitment, there is worry that success in New York might not necessarily mean success in Nablus or Hebron. There are many reasons the UN route is the correct strategy for Palestinians today.

While members of the Spanish 15M Democracy Now were attempting to demonstrate at Wimbledon where their beloved tennis hero Rafael Nadal was due to play, in Glastonbury U2’s Bono (“Saint Bono”) was being given a hard time by Art Uncut for dodging taxes by moving part of his huge wealth into a tax haven used by big corporations responsible for much of the poverty he criticises.

The right to food is a human right, and unless governments follow up on their pledges, it will remain a utopia. Broad-based social movements and human rights defenders the world over should therefore continue to demand change, says Olivier De Schutter, an independent United Nations watchdog.

THIS IS NOT A DEBT IT IS A FRAUD!

We, the indignant at the Bastille, in Paris, declare our solidarity with the general strike to be held June 30th in the UK against proposed austerity plans.

There are no weather forecasts for that, so you must do it by yourself. Just watch the sky every time you can as it might rain atomic bombs. It is not about any fiction tall– a technical problem, a new virus or a hiker attack, could order drones (unmanned aircrafts) to empty their full-of-nuclear-weapons’ stomach on your head.

Athens has succumbed to the onslaught of the God of the Market, more powerful even than the Gods of Mount Olympus. Despite the 48 hour strike and the thousands of demonstrators surrounding Parliament, within the building they voted by a majority of 155 to 138 in favour of the plans for measures that will create a debt of the Greek people three times its Gross Domestic Product.