Politics

South American countries spent more than US$51billion dollars in defense in 2008, almost 30% more than last year, according to a study carried out by the Centro de Estudios Unión para la Nueva Mayoría. Military investment is to increase further following a recent military purchase and technology sharing agreement between France and Brazil.

Three of the member countries of NATO want to urgently detail a plan of retreat from Afghanistan; this comes after the latest strike against two tankers at the start of September – implicating the West in the death of civilians. A conference will be held between representatives of the three countries to arrange plans.

James Elder, an Australian national, was appointed spokesperson for the United Nations children’s fund (UNICEF) in July last year. He appeared regularly on television and radio news, as well as in print media, discussing the plight of children caught up in Sri Lanka’s decades-long civil war. He has now been accused by the government of doing propaganda in support of the LTTE.

A spokesperson for Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission says votes from 447 polling stations have been annulled due to fraud. The cancelled ballot papers could amount to as many as 200,000 votes. Partial results released today give sitting President Hamid Karzai 48.6 percent of the vote while his closest rival, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, 31.7 percent.

Peruvian President Alan García has been accused by the Executive Director of Peru’s Association for Human Rights (APRODEH), Miguel Jugo Viera, of trying to force the Police to use their weapons to repress popular protests. During 2009 Peru has been witness already to 52 cases of people assassinated in protests in the country.

The Governor of the province of Mendoza, Celso Jaque, in a document of adhesion to the World March for Peace under the auspices of the World Without Wars Foundation, appealed to people to “unite in a commitment to work for freedom, dialogue, equality, respect and justice, and to achieve peace. May this be an opportunity for light to dispel the shadows that cloud our future”.

A study published by the University of Heidelberg reveals the gap between the media-generated image of war and the nature of the actual conflicts. Although the Second World War ended with great aspirations for world peace, since that time the total number of world conflicts has risen in a moderate, but constantly upward, curve.

The 53-member Commonwealth voted to fully suspend Fiji because it has failed to schedule elections by October of 2010. The Commonwealth objects to the decision by the government of Commodore Frank Bainimarama, who seized power in a 2006 coup, to delay elections until 2014. Mr Bainimarama wants to reform the voting system which he says works in favor of ethnic Fijians.

Northrop Grumman personnel ready a visiting unmanned Global Hawk aircraft for takeoff at Brunswick Naval Air Station. A pilot from Patrol navigates the craft remotely from Patuxent River (Md.) Naval Air Station. The Global Hawk’s approximately stay represented the first time one of the military’s vaunted drones had ever landed from a New England location.

Celso Jaque, the governor of the Argentine province of Mendoza, has signed the Provincial Declaration of Interest in the World March for Peace and Non-Violence. The government’s backing was announced in the Official Gazette on Monday, June 8th. The global journey’s completion will be commemorated with a ceremony in Punta de Vacas Park, Mendoza, on January 2nd of 2010.