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In Hong Kong the High Court has ruled that a domestic helper from the Philippines should be allowed to apply for permanent residency in the city. The case was brought by Evangeline Banao Vallejos, a resident of Hong Kong since 1986. The ruling follows a landmark judicial review of what has been the long term practice ever since the British ruled Hong Kong.

Statement released at the Strasbourg event: We, the participants of the Roma Youth Conference in Strasbourg, are concerned about the current rise of extremism, racism and anti-gypsyism in many European countries, and particularly about the unbearable increase of violence and hatred in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary and other places across the Europe.

The similarities between our present behaviour toward the almighty Markets and our ancestors’ toward their rather difficult to please gods could not be more obvious. We build Temples (Banks) to them, we obey their Priests (Economists) and we make sacrifices (health, education, welfare) to appease them. But the marble gods crumbled anyway; and Europe should learn from its past.

The crisis in the economic system has been well anticipated by those who noticed the complex and esoteric way in which modern Monetarism creates scarcity through taking money out of a hat to lend it, but not making enough to repay with interests. Speculation then concentrates it. Challenges to such bizarre and poverty creating system are not tolerated. Oct 15th Wake Up Day.

The concern that Reporters Without Borders expressed about Honduras’ readmission to the Organization of American States is as relevant as ever after the emergence of new media cases involving two TV journalists – Mario Castro Rodríguez and Edgardo Antonio Escoto Amador – who opposed the June 2009 coup and who have information about it.

On 25 September a caravan of awareness on peace and nonviolence is being launched, towards Nouakchott,
capital of Mauritania, by the Mauritanian Association for a World Without Wars and Violence in
collaboration with the Organization for African Integration (OAI). This action will last a week reaching
completion with a march for nonviolence on 2 October this year.

In a closed envelope delivered to UN secretary-general with little hope, the Palestinian Authority submitted on September 23rd its demand to the United Nations to recognise Palestine as an independent State, while giving time to the Security Council to consider what it had repeatedly claimed but it will now reject due to the U.S. “veto”:

Twenty aid agencies issued an open letter on 21 September urging the international community to “put people’s lives before politics if [we are] to stand any chance of aiding people suffering from the famine in Somalia”.

While very busy covering French president and British prime minister visits to Libya, and talking about the day when Libyan oil will feed again cars and industries, mainstream media has nearly ignored the continuing killings in Yemen and the growing hunger of which more than 7,5 million Yemenis are victims.

The latest available regional information about labour in the Middle East and North of Africa unveil strongly discouraging facts– youth unemployment rates are among the highest ones in the world, and unemployment rates among young women are two to three times higher than among young men, just to mention some striking examples.