Politics

Hong Kong chooses a new representative today – a Chief Executive as different from the British titled: Governor of Hong Kong – and the city’s elites will pick from two pro-Beijing candidates for the top job after weeks of campaigning infected by poor taste jibs. The ‘other’, a people’s man, democrat Albert Ho, is reckoned as a ‘no choicer’ and is in it for asemblance of choice.

During our visit to Israel to disseminate Silo’s Message and Universalist Humanism, we met with Councilman Meir Margalit of Jerusalem. Meir is known for his struggle for human rights, the defence of Palestinian people, his campaigns to prevent the demolition of Palestinian homes, and his confrontation with institutions to prevent abuses of power.

While at least fifteen people fasted against the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant and thousands protested, the work at the plant returned to normal Tuesday, 20 March. This was a day after the Tamil Nadu government gave the go-ahead to restart work on the stalled Indo-Russian project, with officials saying the first unit would be commissioned, ‘as soon as possible.’

The video of the campaign to stop Joseph Kony, the leader of a guerrilla group in Uganda
responsible for the abduction of thousands of children, then forced to become soldiers, in just
3 weeks was viewed online by 100 million people around the world. It received endorsements
by many American politicians and celebrities and generated widespread discussion on blogs and
forums

In recent weeks, there has been a notable shuffle in the positions of key external players in the Syrian crisis. Momentum has quite suddenly shifted from an all-out onslaught against the Assad government to a quiet investigation of exit strategies. The clashes between government forces and opposition militias in Baba Amr were a clear tipping point for these players…

Following several days of mounting tensions after Israel discusses openly the possibility of bombing Iran’s nuclear installations, an Israeli couple starts a Facebook page called “Israelis love Iranians” stating in posters: we will never bomb your country. Soon responses from Iranians began to arrive saying “We love you too”.

An album by international artists to benefit the
Global March to Jerusalem – North America.

The recent Arab uprisings throughout the Middle East and North Africa have inspired popular
movements worldwide to take to the streets to peacefully protest against contemporary injustices. Many artists in these movements are also using music as a way to non-violently resist.

I took this photograph on August 16, 2008. That day my camera caught a multitude of images of the war’s aftermath: wrecked houses, some burnt cars, the city streets strewn with glass shards and cracked tree branches. I can still remember the stench of food thrown out of shops and rotting away under the hot August sun.

Al-Akhbar blog published a report Friday, March 16, 2012 informing that Afghanistan’s president had suggested that more than one US soldier was involved in the massacring of the 16 Afghan civilians killed in two villages last week. Update to Terror, Trauma, and the Endless Afghan War, by Amy Goodman, featured on Pressenza.

We may never know what drove a U.S. Army staff sergeant to head out into the Afghan night and allegedly murder at least 16 civilians in their homes, among them nine children and three women. The massacre near Belambai, in Kandahar, Afghanistan, has shocked the world and intensified the calls for an end to the longest war in U.S. history.