Pressenza IPA

Alicia, Pasqual and Albert were kidnapped by Al Qaeda in Southern Mauritania on the 29th of November 2009. They were travelling in the Solidarity Caravan, organised by the Barcelona Solidarity Action association, transporting support material for projects which are being carried out by 36 Catalan associations in Morocco, Mauritania, Gambia and Senegal. They were freed today.

On 19th August, the last US army combat brigade left Iraq. It was 1:30 on Thursday when soldiers from the Fourth Stryker Brigade of the Second Infantry Division crossed the border with Kuwait. There were 56 thousand soldiers still on Iraqi territory for “stabilisation” tasks, such as training Iraqi armed forces and police.

After a week of negotiations, the main conclusions of the World Peoples Conference on Climate Change and the Right of Mother Earth (Cochabamba, April 2010) have been incorporated in the document of United Nations on Climate Change, that now have been recognized as a negotiation text for the 192 countries which has been congregated in Bonn, during the first week august of 2010.

The Convergence of Cultures calls for urgent action to help refugees in Libya where reports of violence have been received with authorities failing to assist the injured and making deportations to countries in humanitarian crisis. Many of the victims are men, women and children rejected by European authorities, in violation of the Geneva Convention.

Sir Richard Jolly, former Assistant General to the United Nations and co-director of UN intellectual history project, will give the Annual Erskine Childers Lecture entitled “Inequality and Millennium Development Goals.” at Friends House on Tuesday 15th June, 2010 at 6.30pm hosted by Uniting for Peace, Action for UN Renewal and World Disarmament Campaign.

Today the Altrimondiali Team were led on a tour on CEFA milk factory in Njombe in the morning where we witnessed the processes of the production of various milk by products, e.g. cheese, yogurt, butter, etc… And in the afternoon attended and participated in a tournament organized by CEFA and ACRA and dubbed Kombe Lingine La Dunia i.e. Another World Cup.

The results of the Global Peace Index for 2010 suggest that the world has become slightly less peaceful. The Index, which gauges ongoing domestic and international conflict, safety and security in society and militarization in 149 countries, registered overall increases in several indicators, including the likelihood of violent demonstrations and perceptions of criminality.

What started as joyous preparations to welcome 700 activists on breaking the siege at Gaza’s Harbor the Israeli government maneuvered into a tragic turn of events. Their naval forces’ savagely attacked the Gaza Freedom Flotilla carrying 700 solidarity activists from 40 countries and materials for an impoverished Gaza Strip.

The moment so feared, so desired, so imagined, has arrived; the moment when the human being – by creating life – is transformed into God. The Science Journal of May 20 gives the news of the first synthetic cell, a cell completely controlled by artificial DNA. “A cell that changes the definition of what is meant by ‘life’.”

As the NPT conference comes to an end with no hope on the horizon for a speedy disarmament, Hillel Schenker, from the Jerusalem-based Palestine-Israel Journal talks about the often talked about Nuclear Weapon Free Zone in the Middle East. “One thing is clear—asking Israel to sign the NPT is a futile exercise, because it will not unilaterally disarm.”