|
|
||||||||
| Sentido's Broadsheet section provides readers with an archive of all stories placed on our front page, for each year. The service will soon be expanded to include republication of special reports from other sources and premium articles and information, along with the option to create tailor-made news and travel publications for personal enjoyment. | ||||||||
|
|
WAR TO UNDERMINE SOMALI FOOD, AID SUPPLIES
MASS REFUGEE FLOW FEARED AS COMBAT INTENSIFIES ACROSS STRIP FROM BAIDOA TO MOGADISHU 30 December 2006 After Ethiopia admitted to placing at least four thousand ground troops into Somalia, to aid the powerless 'transitional government' based in Baidoa, it became apparent that full-blown war had broken out between Somalia's neighbor and the militia of the Union of Islamic Courts, governing most of the country since early June. Now, aid groups say the fighting will disrupt efforts to get food and other aid to the millions of poor Somalis in need in the anarchic political and economic situation. [Full Story] ETHIOPIA INVADES SOMALIA, SEEKS TO OUST UNION OF ISLAMIC COURTS The Horn of Africa appears headed for open war, as Ethiopia has admitted, after a week of combat, that its forces are operating inside Somalia, in an effort to aid the powerless Baidoa government. Ethiopia has sided with the weak transitional government, itself exiled from the capital, while its neighbor Eritrea has provided assistance to the sectarian militia that has spent much of the year trying to pacify the country. [Full Story] FMR CHILEAN DICTATOR, AUGUSTO PINOCHET, DIES AT 91 General Augusto Pinochet, head of the Chilean armed forces, leader of the coup of 11 September 1973, that toppled the government and ended the life of socialist president Salvador Allende, has died. For 17 years, he ruled Chile with an iron fist, nationalized key industries and directed a campaign of kidnap, torture and murder against thousands of dissidents. [Full Story] HEZBOLLAH LEADS OPPOSITION COALITION IN BID TO OUST LEBANON GOVERNMENT Demonstrations in Beirut are threatening to topple the moderate government of PM Fouad Siniora. The militant group, Hezbollah, comprised of political, religious and militia factions, has called for the replacement of the sitting government and brought as many as 1 million supporters into the streets of downtown Beirut to show the strength of its political coalition. [Full Story] RUSSIAN STATE-OWNED MEDIA LAUNCH SMEAR CAMPAIGN AGAINST LITVINENKO After Russia launched an official criminal investigation into the radiation poisoning of ex-spy Alexandr Litvinenko, it also announced it would no longer be permitting foreign agents to interview suspects on Russian soil, and there would be no extradition to Britain for Russian suspects. Now, state-run media are reportedly feeding stories into the international media to make accusations against Litvinenko and against the credibility of those who would support him. [Full Story] LITVINENKO POISONING NOW MARRED BY ALLEGATIONS CONVENIENT TO SOME SUSPECTS In the wake of the poisoning of former KGB spy Alexandr Litvinenko, by exposure to intensely radioactive polonium-210, allegations have turned from state terrorism to corrupt oligarchs, to questions of a blackmailing scheme. What now looks to be a major issue is whether there is an effort to discern the credibility of hearsay allegations being spread by powerful figures involved in the case. [Full Story] UK AUTHORITIES FIND SIGNIFICANT QUANTITY OF POLONIUM-210 IN CLOSE CONTACT OF MURDERED SPY, LITVINENKO Investigators in the UK have said they found a "significant quantity" of Polonium-210, the intensely radioactive isotope that killed former Russian spy Alexandr Litvinenko, in the body of a close associate of the victim. The discovery raises fears about wider contamination and the possibility that others may have been targetted. [Full Story] SCIENTISTS SAY LITVINENKO POLONIUM POISONING BEARS HALLMARKS OF SOPHISTICATED STATE OPERATION When former Soviet spy, Alexandr Litvinenko accused the Russian state, under Vladimir Putin, of organizing his murder, the diplomatic community was faced with a possibly explosive situation. Now scientists in the United Kingdom are saying the polonium-210 isotope found in Litvinenko's system suggests a level of sophistication that would require not only state sponsorship, but likely military cooperation. [Full Story] FMR RUSSIAN SPY LITVINENKO DIES IN LONDON, AFTER APPARENT RADIATION POISONING Alexandr Litvinenko, a former Russian spy, who defected after working witht the Soviet KGB, and who appears to have been poisoned, died yesterday in a London hospital. Litvinenko was reportedly investigating the contract killing of investigative journalist and fellow Kremlin critic, Anna Politkovskaya. [Full Story] RISK OF RETURN TO CIVIL WAR IN D.R. CONGO Reports suggest there is a new risk of civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, after the opposition party leader announced he rejects the election results that returned the presidency to Joseph Kabila. The Roman Catholic archibishop of Kinshasa, Cardinal Frédéric Etsou, also denounced the election result as a rigged vote designed to deliver Congo's mineral wealth to western powers, telling Radio France International "results that are coming out are not the results that are being published". [Full Story] VIRGINIA GIVES DEMOCRATS CONTROL OF THE SENATE The concession of Sen. George Allen (R-VA) to challenger Jim Webb gives the Democrats 51 seats in the Senate chamber, guaranteeing an outright majority, and control of both houses of Congress. The concession appears to seal the results of the midterm elections as a rejection of the methods and ideas of the party that has held power throughout the Bush presidency, and could significantly weaken his position as top executive. [Full Story] DEMOCRATS WIN HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, REPUBLICANS SUFFER HEAVY LOSSES AT POLLS Among the early news emerging from the 2006 midterm elections: Hillary Clinton, Ted Kennedy win by wide margins; embattled Republican senator Rick Santorum is ousted by Bob Casey, Jr., by margin of nearly 59% to 41%; Rep. Weldon loses seat in PA, largely due to corruption scandal; Democrats take control of House of Representatives. [Full Story] MANUAL FOR MARYLAND REPUBLICANS APPEARS TO OUTLINE PLAN TO BLOCK VOTES The Republican Party of Maryland has distributed an instruction booklet for party volunteers it plans to station at polling places which instructs them in how to prevent voters casting ballots. The document outlines the need to ensure that the law is followed and that no voter is denied their legal right to cast a vote, but includes language urging volunteers to tell judges they may face jail time if they do not do as asked by the Republican party voter challengers. [Full Story] D.R. CONGO VOTES IN FIRST FREE ELECTIONS IN 40 YEARS The Democratic Republic of Congo voted Sunday in its first free and decisive presidential elections in four decades. It is hoped that a peaceful transition with a recognized, elected government, will bring peace to the war-ravaged country. More than four million people have been killed in civil war, just since 1998, and decades of instability and violent conflict have taken many more lives. [Full Story] NEW ANTHOLOGY OF RIZAL'S PLAYS, POEMS, IN ORIGINAL SPANISH José Rizal was the father of the Philippine cause for independence from Spain. His poetic works show a marked interest for the improvement of the human condition and serious politicla meditations. While confined to Fort Santiago, in Manila, he penned at the end of his life his last work in verse, "My Last Farewell", which is prized for its coherent and intimate look at the human condition. Now, a new anthology, created in collaboration between New Jersey-based publisher Casavaria and Barcelona-based publisher Linkgua, a new anthology contains both of Rizal's dramatic works and a selection of his most prized poetry. [Full Story] OAXACA SCENE OF FEDERALES CRACKDOWN, STRIKERS DISPERSED In hopes of bringing peace and normalcy to strike-ridden Oaxaca, outgoing pres. Vicente Fox ordered 4,600 Federal Preventive Police, airlifted in from the capital, to occupy the city's central square, or Zócalo. The move came after 5 months of smothering general strikes, with a broad coalition of demonstrators demanding the resignation of regional governor Ulises Ruiz and establishing barricades. [Full Story] CHENEY ENDORSES TORTURE DESPITE LEGAL BANS, UPROAR PROMPTS PLEDGES NOT TO TORTURE US vice president Dick Cheney has publicly announced his support for an explicitly banned method of torture. In a radio interview with Scott Hennen of Fargo, North Dakota, the vice president said that mock drowning is "a no brainer", claiming the procedure has been a "very important tool", despite its being specifically illegal under American law, both written and in judicial precedent, and formally banned by the Pentagon. [Full Story] BUSH SIGNS BORDER FENCE LAW, ESTABLISHING PERMANENT BARRIER ALONG 700 MILES OF MEXICO-US BORDER Before his party reached any agreement on proposed immigration policy reform legislation, Pres. George W. Bush yesterday signed a new law imposing harsh restrictions at US border crossings, establishing 700 miles of fencing to be patrolled by military, border guards, dogs, and drones. [Full Story] BIOMETRIC DEVICES MAY UNDERMINE INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY In the wake of major terrorist attacks against densely populated civilian centers in several countries across Europe, Asia and America, governments and private industry are looking at ways of using biometric scanning technology to determine who should or should not have access to certain locations and services. The technology is complicated and highly advanced, but unproven, and potentially highly flawed. [Full Story] 'LA ISLA FLOTANTE': EXHIBIT IN PLANNING TO HIGHLIGHT CUBAN LITERATURE, CULTURE, DIASPORA Planned to open February 2007, in Barcelona, Spain, the first of the Café Sentido exhibits, La isla flotante will examine the dynamism and diversity of the Cuban culture, through literature, artwork, debates, music, and the diaspora. The exhibit will feature an event each week, designed to discuss and illuminate threads of the broader story and evolution of Cuban culture and specific works within it. [Full Story] REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMAN BOB NEY PLEADS GUILTY TO BRIBERY, CONSPIRACY IN PROBE LINKED TO ABRAMOFF On 13 October, Rep. Bob Ney, a Republican from Ohio, admitted he gave political favors in exchange for bribes, pleading guilty on several counts. He will now face sentencing and is expected to resign his seat in Congress, though he has not given a date. Ney is the latest political casualty of a massive corruption investigation involving convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, anti-tax hawk Grover Norquist, disgraced Texan congressman Tom DeLay, and dozens of other influential Washington figures. [Full Story] GRAMEEN BANK, FOUNDER YUNUS WIN NOBEL PEACE PRIZE Muhammad Yunus, the Bangladeshi economist and entrepreneur who founded the Grameen Bank to give micro-credit loans to poor small-business owners, has won the Nobel Peace Prize. Yunus shares the prize with the bank he founded, the award given for the bank's efforts to help eradicate endemic poverty among large populations through individual financing. [Full Story] INDIA TO PUSH FOR POLIO ERADICATION In late September, India announced it was planning an aggressive campaign to halt the spread of polio, a paralyzing disease nearly eradicated worldwide a decade ago. The plans came after official reports showed 5 times as many new cases in the first 9 months of 2006 as in all of 2005, with about 90% of the 297 new cases concentrated in Uttar Pradesh state alone. [Full Story] 'OBJECTIVELY VERIFIABLE TRUTH NOW SUSPECT' The foundation of a free society is a press with the freedom to criticize instruments of power and influence and to reveal wrongdoing as it actually takes place. War is not a sufficient reason to institute a system of broad censorship criteria or to rein in the news media, as if they posed a direct threat to the wellbeing of the nation. But increasingly, it appears that American news media are intolerant of facts as such, waiting for members of the government themselves to come forward with complaints. [Full Story] WORLD'S LANGUAGES DISAPPEARING AT ALARMING RATE The world's three most widely-spoken languages, English, Spanish and Mandarin, each enjoy more than 450 million speakers worldwide. These languages are increasingly useful for international business and for diplomacy in an interconnected global society. But languages with fewer than 10 million speakers are now considered "minor" and many long-standing cultures are in danger of disappearing, as only a handful of people remain who can speak them. [Full Story] FOLEY SCANDAL INVOLVES LEADERSHIP, MAY BE ROOTED IN ABUSE SUFFERED AS TEEN Shortly after it was revealed Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) had sent inappropriate and highly sexual e-mails to underage boys that had worked as interns on Capitol Hill, he was forced to resign. Now, Republican leaders in the House are facing accusations they took the issue as a political one and not a matter involving the well-being of children. Two criminal probes have been launched, which are expected to include a look at cover-up allegations. [Full Story] IT'S NOT JOHN McCAIN'S COMPROMISE TO MAKE It was quite rightly John McCain's fight to demand that the US government never, under any circumstances, sanction or engage in torture. That doesn't mean he is ethically free to compromise on how much abuse is tolerable or whether due process can be pushed aside in favor of extreme interrogations and rigged prosecutions. Allowing any information obtained via banned abusive techniques to be presented as evidence, or sanctioning past cases of torture, erodes US constitutional principles and violates a basic moral obligation each human individual has to all others. [Full Story] NEW MICROWAVE ENGINE APPLIES THEORY OF RELATIVITY A new breakthrough in propulsion technology may enable a fuel-free engine with no moving parts to use microwaves to push satellites through space and automobiles on earth. The science is complicated and controversial, but appears to be sound and takes advantage of Einstein's landmark theory of relativity to turn contained microwaves into a propulsion system, in the form of a non-mechanical engine. [Full Story] BOLIVIA INTENT ON REGAINING ACCESS TO THE PACIFIC After the 1879 War of the Pacific, Chile retained control of coastal territory that had previously been party of Bolivia, leaving the Andean nation landlocked. The nation famous as a symbol of Spanish imperial wealth, for the Potosí silver mines, the richest ever uncovered, would be geographically isolated and would become the poorest nation in South America. [Full Story] TANKS SEEN MOVING INTO BANGKOK, THAILAND, COUP FEARED Tanks are reported as "heading for central Bangkok", reports confirmed by journalists on the ground, as of 11:41am EDT. There is suspicion the military action is an attempted coup, either to restore democracy after elections earlier this year were annulled, or to overthrow the existing government, in an effort to establish a system the nature of which is not yet known. [Full Story] GLOBAL WARMING FORCING U.S. COASTAL POPULATION TO MOVE INLAND Those of us who track the effects of global warming had assumed that the first large flow of climate refugees would likely be in the South Pacific with the abandonment of Tuvalu or other low-lying islands. We were wrong. The first massive movement of climate refugees has been that of people away from the Gulf Coast of the United States. [Full Story] AT CUBA SUMMIT 50 WORLD LEADERS DISCUSS POLICIES AMONG 'NON-ALIGNED NATIONS' More than 50 heads of state have gathered in Havana, Cuba, for a summit meeting to organize a geopolitical policy that would resist unipolar US control of economic and strategic affairs. The summit is a prelude to the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly in New York, this week. The summit placed strengthening of diplomatic institutions and promotion of economic development in poor regions as priorities. [Full Story] SECRET PRISONS, COERCIVE INTERROGATIONS UNDERMINE AMERICAN DEMOCRACY Until 12 days ago, the Bush administration maintained that there were no secret CIA-run "black-sites", extralegal prison camps where accused terror suspects were held incommunicado and beyond any judicial process. On 6 September, Pres. Bush admitted to constructing and managing the prison system through the CIA, and now his government is demanding that Congress sanction a system which circumvents Constitutional law and permits "alternative" methods of coercive interrogation, presently banned under international law. [Full Story] GENERALS, REPUBLICANS REVOLT AGAINST BUSH TORTURE POLICY Roughly three dozen retired generals, including former Sec. of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Colin Powell, have come out in opposition to the White House's latest attempt to transform the legal meaning of the Geneva Conventions ban on torture and inhumane treatment of prisoners. Senate leaders, behind John McCain (R-AZ) have also joined the rebellion, passing a measure that upholds the standing definition of the Geneva constraints on coercive interrogation. [Full Story] DARFUR AGAIN VERGES ON MASS KILLING, MILLIONS IN PERIL The troubled western region of Sudan, Darfur, is again at the center of a kind of perfect storm of cynicism, ignorance and neglect. Even as the UN Security Council has voted to authorize a force of 20,000 "blue helmet" peacekeepers, incorporating the 7,000 African Union (AU) soldiers already in the region, Sudan's ruler Omar al-Bashir has ordered the AU out and massed 10,000 soldiers on the edge of Darfur. [Full Story] SENATE REPORT SAYS HUSSEIN NEVER HAD AL-QAEDA TIES As the 5th anniversary of the attacks of 11 September 2001 approach, the US Senate's Intelligence Committee has issued a report officially finding that Saddam Hussein never collaborated with al-Qaeda in any sense. In fact, he was hunting Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who would later name his organization "Al-Qaeda of Mesopotamia". Hussein was suspicious of the Islamist radicalism of al-Qaeda and did not view them as friendly to his regime and its interests. [Full Story] BUSH ADMITS TO SECRET JAILS WITH 'ALTERNATIVE' INTERROGATIONS Pres. Bush has acknowledged the existence of a secret network of CIA-run prisons, where an "alternative set of procedures" was used to extract information given up "unwillingly" by top terror suspects. The revelation suggests that some facilities existed on European soil, renewing allegations that have long been denied by European and US officials, and provoking calls for a probe into possible human rights violations. [Full Story] ABC TO AIR 'DOCU-DRAMA' USING FABRICATIONS AS EVIDENCE ABC plans to air a "docu-drama" entitled Path to 9/11, a 6-hour TV movie detailing in fictional re-enactment events its writers allege occurred in the US counterterrorism community in the years before the attacks of 11 September 2001. It clearly assigns blame to members of the Clinton administration for thwarting efforts to kill Bin Laden, and many now say the film directly misrepresents the truth, fabricating scenes, words and events either for dramatic or for political effect. [Full Story] FELIPE CALDERÓN WAS OFFICIALLY DECLARED THE WINNER OF MÉXICO'S 2 JULY 2006 ELECTION Mexico's Federal Electoral Tribunal, the last constitutional word on the outcome of the election of 2 July 2006, has officially declared Felipe Calderón the winner and president-elect. Oppostion leader Andrés Manuel López Obrador has said he will ask his supporters to back him in a rally vote on 16 September in the center of Mexico city in an effort to form a parallel government, the function of which is, at present, still unclear. [Full Story] TOP MEXICO ELECTORAL COURT TO DECIDE ELECTION TUESDAY Mexico's special court, established to resolve electoral protests in a constitutional process, has announced it will decide what the final official count is for the 2 July balloting, and whether or not the established count is valid. Felipe Calderón currently holds a 240,000 vote advantage in the official tally, and nothing points to the court annulling the election. [Full Story] ALL VOTES MUST BE COUNTED, ALWAYS It is no secret that Mexico's electoral system is undergoing a period of extreme strain and an important test of resilience. While the ruling PAN party's candidate Felipe Calderón enjoys a narrow but contested lead, challenger López Obrador seeks to effect at least a full hand-count of all ballots cast, or a reversal of the election results on the grounds of fraud. The stickiest part of the controversy is what justifies examining only a small percentage of the contested ballots. [Full Story] 'CROCODILE HUNTER' STEVE IRWIN KILLED BY STINGRAY Steve Irwin, world-renowned conservationist and television personality, has died in a rare accident involving a puncture wound from a large stingray's barbed tail. Stingrays are not generally aggressive animals and use their barbs only in self-defense, meaning Irwin should not have been in any immediate peril. The incident occurred while filming documentary footage for an episode of his 8-year-old daughter's new program, off Port Douglas, in northern Queensland. [Full Story] DESPITE THOUSANDS OF CIVILIAN DEATHS, FEW MURDER CASES HAVE BEEN BROUGHT IN IRAQ WAR While prisoner abuse has been a widely reported charge, with shocking images and public outrage to keep attention on the subject, there has been relatively little similar public outrage expressed over situations where civilians have died in questionable circumstances. The Washington Post reports there has been a tendency not to investigate many such deaths, with top officials saying "in private" that there's "a tendency to consider Iraqi civilian deaths an unintended consequence of combat operations". [Full Story] US SENATOR ENERGIZES CROWDS IN KENYA United States Senator Barack Obama has reportedly made a connection with the people of his father's homeland, Kenya. On the 4th day of his visit there, the Illinois Democrat visited the Kibera "slum", home to some 600,000 people, one-fifth of which are estimated to be HIV-positive, according to HIV/AIDS prevention groups. [Full Story] FEDERAL JUDGE STRIKES DOWN BUSH POLICY LOOSENING CONTROLS ON PESTICIDE USE U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour has struck down a Bush administration policy loosening regulation of toxic pesticides. He found the rule change "striking in its total lack of any evidence of technical or scientific support for the policy positions ultimately adopted" and further chastised the government for failing to properly apply the Endangered Species Act. [Full Story] WARRANTLESS NSA WIRETAPS RULED UNCONSTITUTIONAL A federal judge in Detroit ruled early yesterday that Pres. Bush's NSA surveillance program, which uses wiretaps implemented with no judicial oversight, is unconstitutional. The ruling strongly enforced the point that there are "no powers not created by the Constitution" rejecting the AG's claim that the Congressional Authorization for the Use of Military Force (in Afghanistan) as a legal platform for sweeping new domestic powers. [Full Story] UN-BROKERED LEBANON CEASEFIRE COMES INTO EFFECT A ceasefire as laid out in UN Security Council resolution 1701, passed unanimously on Friday, came into effect this morning. Though Hezbollah launched a record number of rockets yesterday into northern Israel, and Israeli warplanes continue to batter Beirut and other sections of southern Lebanon less than half and hour before the 8am deadline, one hour later there were reports that Israeli aircraft were "absent" from Lebanese skies and that Hezbollah had ceased firing rockets into Israel. [Full Story] INVESTIGATIONS INTO BP'S OPERATIONS IN ALASKA WIDENPIPELINE DECAY MAY INDICATE LONG-RUNNING PRACTICES FALLING BELOW REGULATORY REQUIREMENTS 10 August 2006 Global petroleum giant BP has been forced to shut down the entire supply from its Prudhoe Bay pipeline, due to corrosion that has caused several spills and threatens an environmental catastrophe. Now, US investigators are demanding sections of the pipeline be dismantled and sent as evidence to a criminal inquiry. [Full Story] UNKNOWN UPSTART, WAR CRITIC LAMONT OUSTS 3-TERM SENATOR One of the nation's top Democrats, 3-term senator Joseph Lieberman, candidate for vice president in 2000 and primary candidate for president in 2004, has lost his first statewide election in a quarter century. Upstart Ned Lamont gained momentum from activist groups who helped project his anti-war message to voters throughout the state. [Full Story] PHYSICISTS IN JAPAN PLAN TO CREATE NEW UNIVERSE IN LAB A radical new project could permit human beings to create a "baby universe" in a laboratory in Japan. While it sounds like a dangerous undertaking, the physicists involved believe that if the project is successful, the space-time around a tiny point within our universe will be distorted in such a way that it will begin to form a new superfluid space, and eventually break off, separate in all respects from our experience of space and time, causing no harm to the fabric of our universe. [Full Story] CASTRO HANDS OVER POWER, TEMPORARILY, TO BROTHER After nearly 5 decades in power, Cuba's authoritarian leader Fidel Castro, has relinquished power to his brother and appointed succesor, Raúl Castro. The move is supposed to be temporary, as a means of providing for a transition should complications arise or recover be lengthy, after his surgery to correct acute intestinal bleeding. [Full Story] FEAR ENDANGERS BY DECEIVING The fear and uneasiness that provokes human beings to conflict is never what it seems to be; that is its nature and its method: to take hold by way of complex deceptions. Fear wages a coup d'esprit by deceiving the mind into thinking it promises clarity and intellectual comfort, peace of mind, justice and the healing of wounds, that it may actually generate the only feasible path to physical or political safety. [Full Story] WORLD’S WATER RESOURCES FACE MOUNTING PRESSURE Global freshwater use tripled during the second half of the twentieth century as population more than doubled and as technological advances let farmers and other water users pump groundwater from greater depths and harness river water with more and larger dams. As global demand soars, pressures on the world’s water resources are straining aquatic systems worldwide. Rivers are running dry, lakes are disappearing, and water tables are dropping. [Full Story] |
JAPAN TO AID IN SOUTHERN PHILIPPINES MONITORING TEAM
INT'L MONITORING TEAM (IMT) FOR MINDANAO PEACE PROCESS TO INCLUDE JAPANESE NEGOTIATORS, DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS 25 July 2006 Philippine president Gloria Arroyo's government announced Sunday from Malacañang presidential palace in Manila that Japan will be joining the International Monitoring Team officially aiding in the moderation of peace talks between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which has been leading an insurrection on the large southern island of Mindanao. [Full Story] 'AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH' BRINGS SCIENCE TO THE FORE IN ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS For a long time, conventional wisdom dictated that environmental issues were political in nature, and a matter of preference or opinion. The landmark documentary 'An Inconvenient Truth' demonstrates conscientiously that the issue is beyond politics. The film takes pains to show that while priorities —and opinions about them— are at issue, not making ecological sustainability a top priority is not only foolish, but morally unjustifiable. [Full Story] ISRAEL-LEBANON ESCALATION NOW MAJOR INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC CRISIS Diplomacy will play a vital role in any resolution to the Israel-Lebanon conflict, but will involve tough choices for any parties joining the negotiations. While having expressed visceral opposition to contact with Damascus, the White House is likely to have to cobble together an improbable coalition of rivals to achieve a functional ceasefire on the Israel-Lebanon border territories. [Full Story] SUPERMARKETS & SERVICE STATIONS NOW COMPETING FOR GRAIN Cars, not people, will claim most of the increase in world grain consumption this year. The U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that world grain use will grow by 20 million tons in 2006. Of this, 14 million tons will be used to produce fuel for cars in the United States, leaving only 6 million tons to satisfy the world’s growing food needs. [Full Story] US STATE DEPT. TO WAIVE FEE FOR EVACUEES FROM LEBANON The United States Department of State has issued a statement saying it plans to waive any fees associated with US nationals' evacuation from the now wartorn Lebanese territory. The situation had provoked anger, as evacuation teams were late in arriving, and stranded Americans complained the proposed commercial fees were making it difficult to arrange their departure. [Full Story] QUANTUM STABILITY FROM GRAPHENE'S 'PERFECT' CRYSTAL FILM Philip Ball reports in the New Scientist that discoveries in the quantum properties of graphene, a single-atom-thick sheets of interlinked carbon atoms may hold the secret to superfast computing, beyond the physical capacity of silicon. The unique material is obtained by flaking or peeling individual sheets away from graphite. [Full Story] BEYOND THE BIG BANG, THE MEMBRANE MULTIVERSE The 'universe' we know as all-encompassing may actually be just one of many such distinct self-contained, self-sustaining phenomena, with distinct physical properties and corresponding physical laws and tendencies, unified membrane cosmologies adrift in a 'superfluid' soup, at times colliding with incredible energy diffusion, creating whole new universes. [Full Story] ISRAEL EASES CONDITIONS FOR CEASE-FIRE UPI is reporting Israel has eased the conditions it requires to suspend military operations and its blockade against Lebanon. PM Ehud Olmert, in a speech to Israel's parliament expressed his determination not to yield to any group that launches missiles into Israeli cities, but signalled that moving Hezbollah away from the Israeli border could bring about a cease-fire. [Full Story] RALLIES IN MEXICO CITY CALL FOR VOTE-BY-VOTE RECOUNT The uncertified result of Mexico's presidential election of 2 July is leading to wider calls for a national hand recount. The liberal leader of the Partido por el Bien de Todos has said the election was frought with ballot fraud and official acts of sabotage and intimidation and that the count is illegitimate and incomplete. [Full Story] ISRAEL-LEBANON CONFLICT RAPIDLY ESCALATING Israel's bombardment of Lebanon is described today as "relentless", with new targets in northern Lebanon having been hit and civilian death tolls and injuries mounting. Leaders at the G8 summit have issued a joint communiqué blaming Hezbollah attacks on civilians for the violence, demanding an end to rocket attacks, but calling on Israel to cease all operations in Lebanon that could harm civilians. [Full Story] CIA AGENT WHOSE COVER WAS BLOWN BY WHITE HOUSE LEAK FILES SUIT AGAINST VP In the summer of 2003, after victory had been declared in the invasion of Iraq, then career undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame's name was illegally leaked to the press by as yet undetermined government officials, effectively ending her undercover work and potentially endangering her life. Now she is filing suit against VP Cheney, Karl Rove, Lewis Libby, and 10 unnamed administration officials for maliciously blowing her cover. [Full Story] OBSERVERS WORRY MIDEAST ESCALATION COULD FLARE INTO WAR Israel's attack on Lebanon has escalated, with bombing of Beirut's international airport, the main highway between Beirut and Damascus, at least one power station, several bridges, and a mounting sea blockade. Israel says it holds Lebanon responsible for Hezbollah's abduction of two Israeli soldiers and is acting in self-defense. [Full Story] WORKING OUT THE KINKS IN RENEWABLE ENERGY'S GREATEST PROMISE: WIND POWER Opponents of wind-harvested power generation —usually lobbying for subsidies or public support for fossil fuels purveyors, but also including conservationists— like to crow that giant turbines kill birds, destroy pristine habitat and even "emit" carbon dioxide indirectly. The gist: that an "environmentally friendly" power source is in point of fact not so environmentally friendly. [Full Story] UN NAMES 10 MOST UNDER-REPORTED STORIES FOR 2006 Every year, the United Nations publishes a list of the 10 most serious stories most overlooked by global press, world governments and international bodies. The list often includes multiple crisis situations which could degenerate into full-scale war. Developing nations, whose situations are often misunderstood or dismissed by news media, as too complicated, intractable, or of marginal relevance, take the spotlight this year. [Full Story] PRESS FREEDOM IS EVERYONE'S FREEDOM The freedom of the press is the freedom of the American people. Not its guarantor, not a metaphorical representation of freedom as an idea, not even merely a mainstay of a free system. A free and independent press is American liberty at work, building and defending itself against the slide toward secret or arbitrary exercise of power, as conceived within or beyond the legal process. [Full Story] 230 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Sentido is adding to its online content the transcripts of the founding documents of the republic of the United States of America. From the Declaration of Independence: "IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776 ... We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. —That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed..." [Full Transcript] UN SMALL ARMS CONFERENCE SEEKS GLOBAL REGULATIONS The United Nations conference on light weapons proliferation is facing a burgeoning black market trade which spreads new and used small arms around the globe, fueling civil wars and organized crime. Recent months have seen a number of reports urging governments to tackle the problem; in May, the rights group Amnesty International reported the illicit trade was "out of control", fueled by an "opaque chain" of private interests. [Full Story] SUPREME COURT FINDS GUANTÁNAMO DETAINEES' RIGHTS DENIED BY BUSH MILITARY TRIBUNALS PROPOSAL Pres. Bush's efforts to assume new powers in personally judging accused al-Qaeda co-conspirators "enemy combatants", then crafting a unique, extralegal war crimes tribunal system, where certain rights are denied the defendants, have been rejected by the Supreme Court. The Bush administration must now file criminal charges, either in civilian criminal court or before a standard military court martial. [Full Story] GLOBAL WIND POWER EXPANDS IN 2006 Global wind electricity-generating capacity increased by 24 percent in 2005 to 59,100 megawatts. This represents a twelvefold increase from a decade ago, when world wind-generating capacity stood at less than 5,000 megawatts. Wind is the world’s fastest-growing energy source with an average annual growth rate of 29 percent over the last ten years. In contrast, over the same time period, coal use has grown by 2.5 percent per year, nuclear power by 1.8 percent, natural gas by 2.5 percent, and oil by 1.7 percent. [Full Story] ALITO BREAKS TIE, SUPREME COURT RULES 5-4 TO UPHOLD KANSAS DEATH PENALTY STATUTE New Supreme Court Justice Sam Alito broke the tie between the other 8 justices, leading to a 5-4 majority upholding Kansas' death penalty statute. The statute was challenged by a man sentenced to death under a statutory provision which causes sentencing to default to death when juries find convicted murderers are not among the worst offenders, some of whom will not face a death sentence. [Full Story] PAPERLESS TOUCHSCREEN IS NOT THE ONLY PROBLEM PARADIGM As noted by a Sentido reader, paperless touchscreen balloting machines are not the only machine-based voting technique vulnerable to tampering. Punch-card readers can be calibrated to miss, exaggerate or misread marked votes. And optical-scan paper ballots can record figures not accurately representing the markings on ballots. [Full Story] SECURITY OF U.S. ELECTIONS, VOTING RIGHTS NOT GUARANTEED The 2000 election process gave clear evidence that the established system for running elections and counting votes in the United States is not cohesive, not fool-proof and not secure against tampering. Congress took action to reform voting standards nationwide to "Help America Vote". But that legislation suffered one fatal flaw: while promoting the shift to touchscreen ballots, it did not require that electronic balloting machines produce a paper record that could be hand-checked. [Full Story] CATALUNYA VOTES FOR NEW ESTATUT, GAINS MORE AUTONOMY FROM MADRID Catalunya, a region of northeastern Spain, along the Mediterranean and the French border, has approved a new regional charter by popular referendum. The 'Estatut' gives the culturally distinct and historically complicated region greater autonomy over taxes revenues, policy and infrastructure. [Full Story] BILL PRESENTED TO PREVENT GOV'T TAMPERING WITH SCIENCE Rep. Brad Miller (D-NC) is to introduce an amendment to legislation currently under debate, which would restrict the executive branch's ability to gag scientists, manipulate their findings or demote those who disagree with official policy. The legislation would also require that scientists appointed to investigatory panels be selected for their credentials, not their political views. [Full Story] WORLD GRAIN STOCKS FALL TO 57 DAYS OF CONSUMPTION This year’s world grain harvest is projected to fall short of consumption by 61 million tons, marking the sixth time in the last seven years that production has failed to satisfy demand. As a result of these shortfalls, world carryover stocks at the end of this crop year are projected to drop to 57 days of consumption, the shortest buffer since the 56-day-low in 1972 that triggered a doubling of grain prices. [Full Story] AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL CALLS FOR EU GOV'TS TO BE HONEST ABOUT INVOLVEMENT IN RENDITIONS A new report by the human rights organization, entitled Partners in Crime, accuses 7 EU member states of collaborating in extrajudicial detentions and renditions to third countries or prison facilities where torture may be used. The report follows up on a Council of Europe investigation, headed by Swiss senator Dick Marty, which found that 14 EU states had been complicit in extralegal detentions and prisoner transfers. [Full Story] SHIFTING PROTEIN SOURCES The composition of world meat production has changed dramatically over the last half-century or so. From 1950 until 1978, beef and pork vied for the lead. Then the world meat consumption pattern began to change as economic reforms adopted in China in 1978 led to a dramatic climb in pork production, pushing it far ahead of beef worldwide. [Full Story] JOURNALIST HOSPITALIZED AFTER FOUR MONTHS ON HUNGER STRIKE Independent Cuban journalist, Guillermo Fariñas Hernández, is now hospitalized in critical condition, after 4 months on hunger strike, which led to his needing emergency surgery. Fariñas has said he would follow through with the hunger strike until the last, facing possibly deadly consequences in hopes of spurring reform that would allow reporters to gather information and to report on and criticize government activities. [Full Story] TWENTY-SIX STATES HAVE PASSED LEGISLATION REQUIRING PAPER TRAILS FOR ELECTRONIC BALLOTS Since the 2000 election, voting technology has become a major issue in US elections regimens and regulations; touchscreen balloting machines, which legislatures seem to have favored as a way to record votes accurately, eliminating the 'hanging chad' problem, were designed with no paper record and have proven insecure and susceptible to tampering. Now, 26 US states have passed laws requiring paper trails, and 13 more, plus Washington, DC, have proposed laws "not yet enacted". [Full Story] SAN DIEGO COUNTY SENT VOTING MACHINES HOME WITH POLL WORKERS ON EVE OF ELECTION Reports have emerged that according to the San Diego registrar of voters, poll workers in San Diego county took tamper-susceptible Diebold voting machines home on the eve of the election. In some cases, poll workers may have had unsupervised access to the machines for a week or longer. [Full Story] MOST WANTED INSURGENT LEADER KILLED IN AIR-STRIKE Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed by a US airstrike on 7 June 2006. The official announcement was made by Iraq's prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, and was later confirmed by US Gen. Casey. The White Housesaid the removal of Zarqawi could be a moment of hope for Iraq, but will not end the ongoing violence. [Full Story] LUCCA: ELEGANT, DEFIANT, WALLED & ENDURING As you approach the city by train, you find it is nestled in the green Tuscan countryside, but unassuming, unimposing, a humble quiet city that seems expert in giving back more than it asks. The city's medieval walls are still intact, and the top of the walls is parkland comprising a four kilometer hike around the city center. Chartered in 1160 as an independent comune, the city has long had a character of its own. [Full Profile] BACHELET DISMISSES POLICE COMMANDER FOR VIOLENT CRACKDOWN Michelle Bachelet's government has tried to bridge the divide between seizing a unique opportunity to increase spending due to the copper boom and demonstrating the fiscal responsibility she has promised will allow her government to build long-term reforms into Chilean social policy. But her $130 million spending plan does not include a major education-spending increase. High school students have been organizing to call for nationwide increases, saying only with better education is an egalitarian democracy truly possible. [Full Story] PARMA: SAGE, SAVORY & URBANE Famed for its cured ham and zesty cheese, Parma is a gracious Italian city. There is a little bit of everything here, whether your tastes are musical or historical, Parma is an ideal place for a short weekend or a perfect day trip from nearby Bologna. Easily accessible by train, Parma offers an array of delights for the pedestrian, and was named by French newspaper Le Monde as the best city for living in Italy. [Full Profile] HIGH COURT ALLOWS DEMOTION FOR DISSENT The freedom of speech is one of the foundational rights under the First Amendment to the US Constitution, because it affords the common citizen a protection against a basic authoritarian abuse of power. Now, the US Supreme Court has ruled 5 to 4 that public employees do not enjoy First Amendment protections while on duty. [Full Story] THE WORLD AFTER OIL PEAKS Peak oil is described as the point where oil production stops rising and begins its inevitable long-term decline. In the face of fast-growing demand, this means rising oil prices. But even if oil production growth simply slows or plateaus, the resulting tightening in supplies will still drive the price of oil upward, albeit less rapidly, and in a world of declining oil production, no country can use more oil except at the expense of others. [Full Story] THE ILLUSION OF THE DEFINITE & INVASIVE 'OTHER' The identity of groups, or for that matter of individuals is not implacable, nor is it absolutely relative. It follows the vicissitudes of the human health and mind, and requires sincere dialogue with the other in order to reach its fullest potential. The push to establish a single national language can only be sustained on the basis of a number of false premises, all of which work against the interests of both a democratic society and American tradition itself. [Full Story] UGANDA TO DESTROY 57,000 WEAPONS The nation of Uganda is taking important steps toward reducing the risk of regional arms poliferation, by destroying a stockpile of old and out-of-use weapons and weapons seized from illegal sources. The move is part of Uganda's pledge to the 2004 Nairobi Protocol, which required signatory nations of Africa's Great Lakes region to reduce the threat of proliferation of light arms across borders, to the peril of civilian populations and political stability. [Full Story] BACHELET OUTLINES NEW SOCIAL SPENDING, BACKED BY STATE COPPER PROFITS Michelle Bachelet has faced opportunity, temptation and regional economic upheaval, and she is showing signs of following the wisest course, while staying faithful to her pledges. In her first state of the nation address, the new president has said she will use windfall state profits from the inflated copper markets to fund social programs, but without relaxing her policy of strict fiscal discipline. [Full Story] THE WALL GOES UP AGAINST ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION On Monday, George W. Bush announced a "five-point plan" for curbing illegal immigration and recognizing and regularizing the estimated 12 million immigrants living in the United States without proper residence or work permits. Now, as the Senate has voted to 83-16 to include a 370 mile protection barrier in its immigration reform legislation, the White House is enlisting major defense contractors to build the fence. [Full Story] THE HIDDEN ALLURE OF 'THE DA VINCI CODE' Dan Brown's bestselling novel is not, contrary to popular opinion, primarily about conspiracy theories. Conspiracies do figure in the plot, as they have in his other books, but they are too simplistic an explanation for the popularity of the book, too much a device to explain what in the substance of the book attracts special attention among readers. [Full Story] THE NET WIDENS: WHAT ELSE ARE THEY MONITORING? Historian and expert NSA researcher Matthew Aid has told Salon.com that he believes it will be revealed in time that Internet service providers and cellphone companies also cooperated with the NSA spying and data mining programs. He offered no proof, but cited past examples of NSA overreaching and the key fact that the article exposing the collaboration of 3 major telecoms failed to explore the complicity or innocence of cable, cellular and Internet companies. [Full Story] 'THE WIND RUSH IS ON' IN TEXAS State authorities in Texas have announced plans to build the nation's largest offshore wind farm. The facility would be built about 10 miles off Padre Island in the Gulf of Mexico and would consist of 500 wind-harvesting turbines, 400 feet in height. [Full Story] NSA BUILDING DATABASE OF ALL PHONE CALLS MADE IN U.S. The National Security Agency, which has been the center of a major legal controversy over its eavesdropping on law-abiding American citizens without judicial approval, has now been revealed to be collecting phone records of tens of millions of people. The effort is reportedly part of a strategy to amass a record of all phone traffic in the US, no matter its purpose. [Full Story] RAISE GAS TAXES, LOWER INCOME TAXES The amount of oil pumped has exceeded new discoveries since 1980. And the gap is widening. Instead of encouraging gasoline use with tax rebates or gas tax holidays, we need a way to reduce gasoline use, one that is practical and politically acceptable. We need a higher gas tax, but the only way to get a gas tax rise large enough to wean us from imported oil is to offset the rise with a reduction in the tax on income. [Full Story] AMNESTY REPORTS INTERNATIONAL ARMS TRADE 'OUT OF CONTROL' Amnesty International has published a new report examining the international arms trade, and its findings indicate there is little control on the expanding web of private interests seeking to profit from a proliferation of dangerous weapons. The report also illustrates the ways in which this scattering of dangerous weapons has lead to severe human rights abuses. [Full Story] GOV'T DOCUMENTS SHOW SURVEILLANCE OF FAITH-BASED HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP New information acquired by the ACLU by way of the Freedom of Information Act, shows the FBI and the Joint Terrorist Task Force have been monitoring, infiltrating and spying on innocent, law-abiding individuals and both non-religious and faith-based activist groups whose activities are entirely peaceful and are protected by the First Amendment to the US Constitution. [Full Story] BUNCEFIELD FIRE LIKELY CAUSED WHEN PETROL (GASOLINE) BEING POURED INTO TANK OVERFLOWED, SPARKED New report suggests mechanical failure caused gauge reading fuel levels in one tank to "stick", leading to workers filling the tank to be unaware it would shortly overflow. Fuel kept being poured into the tank, allegedly until it somehow caught a spark, causing a massive explosion and the largest fire in Europe since the Second World War. [Full Story] SCIENCE ABOVE TECHNOCRACY, FOR A FULLER FUTURE Science is in many ways an artform, but it is specifically and most importantly, the art of knowledge. It is not philosophy, not a study of how knowledge comes about, what it is, whether it can be trusted or whether we need to adjust our thinking; it is, instead, a direct study of the natural world, its tendencies, its evidence, and its capacity to work with us, for us and around us. [Full Story] THE COMING DECLINE OF OIL When the price of oil climbed above $50 a barrel in late 2004, public attention began to focus on the adequacy of world oil supplies —and specifically on when production would peak and begin to decline. Analysts are far from a consensus on this issue, but several prominent ones now believe that the oil peak is imminent. [Full Story] U.S. MAYORS RESPOND TO WASHINGTON LEADERSHIP VACUUM ON CLIMATE CHANGE Recognizing that global warming may fast be approaching the point of no return and that the world cannot wait for the U.S. government to act, hundreds of U.S. city mayors have pledged to cut emissions of greenhouse gases. By signing the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, these mayors —representing some 44 million Americans— have committed their cities to meet or beat the U.S. emissions reduction target in the Kyoto Protocol, despite the federal government’s refusal to ratify that treaty. [Full Story] NEPAL PARLIAMENT SWORN IN UNDER NEW PRIME MINISTER After King Gyanendra declared he would reinstate the lower house of parliament, which he disbanded, claiming a state of emergency in his war to put down Maoist insurgents, agreements were reached with the 7-party alliance of mainstream opposition parties which had staged the massive and growing demonstrations. That 7-party alliance reconvened parliament on Friday and today swore in its interim Prime Minister, who will oversee the vote and negotiations to draft a new constitution. [Full Story]
BOLOGNA: 70 KM OF PORTICOES & A STUDIED RESISTANCE Less well-known than nearby Tuscany with its myriad of famous hillscapes and medieval towns, the region of Emilia Romagna to the east boasts its great and complicated capital: Bologna. A town known for hearty cuisine and a leftist politics, Bologna is full of things to see and do apart from eating. It is an under-toured historical city, ripe for rich days of discovery. [Full Profile] CHAD CONFLICT RISK IN TURBULENT REGION In the region of the Chad-Sudan border, it is Sudan that has won most of the outside world's attention in recent years. This has been due to separate civil wars with rebels in the east, south and west of the country, the peace deal with the southern rebels and the ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing in Darfur. Now Chad, which has taken in huge numbers of refugees fleeing the genocide in Darfur, has a severe crisis with its own stability. [Full Story] NEPAL OPPOSITION STAGES MASSIVE PRO-DEMOCRACY RALLY AGAINST ABSOLUTE MONARCH The opposition movement in Nepal has captured the attention of the world press, in part because of the extremes involved in the situation. Many poor people putting their lives at risk to demonstrate against an absolutist monarch. The highest places in the world, extreme weather, and high stakes, as pro-democracy activists seek to forge a way out of authoritarianism, while Maoist rebels seek a communist regime and the king seeks to hold onto power. [Full Story] DAY OF THE BOOK, DAY OF BARCELONA'S SANT JORDI The Dia de Sant Jordi —as Cataláns would have it— marks both the feast day of the patron saint of Barcelona, and the increasingly international Day of the Book, which falls on the 23rd of April, in honor of the two great pioneers of modern literature, Cervantes and Shakespeare, who died on that date in the year 1616. [Full Story] CLIMATE OF SECRECY PUTS DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES IN BACK SEAT An insistence on near absolute secrecy threatens to undermine two vital elements of the security of the United States: 1) the democratic process itself, without which there can be no system to secure; 2) the intellectual dissent which is necessary to enforce truly reasoned thinking in planning of operations and information analysis. [Full Story] |
GOV'T POLICY UNLAWFULLY CRIMINALIZES COMMENT ON SCIENTIFIC FACT
NASA SCIENTIST TARGETTED FOR SPEAKING TO PRESS, EPA STAFF GAGGED SO BOSSES AREN'T "SURPRISED" BY COVERAGE 20 April 2006 The global environment is, of course, a global issue, one that touches every life on the planet, and the science about it should be open and available to all. Past government policy and existing federal law mean that such scientific evidence should be readily available to the public. But now, it appears that several agencies are laboring to silence scientists who are researching climate trends and alterations. [Full Story] CHERNOBYL DISASTER 20 YEARS ON, STILL NOT FULLY ADDRESSED The world's worst nuclear accident occurred 20 years ago this week in Chernobyl, Ukraine, under the Soviet regime of the USSR. Fallout from the explosion directly contaminated an area inhabited by 5 million people in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. Now, a new study based on research from the Russian Academy of Sciences finds 200,000 people or more will eventually die from maladies directly caused by the disaster. [Full Story] NEW ROUND OF MASSIVE PRO-IMMIGRANT DEMONSTRATIONS Peaceful rallies in more than 60 US cities took place yesterday, to protest against House Republicans' plans to classify all undocumented immigrants as felons, to build fortified wall between US, Mexico. Tens of thousands gathered in major cities, carrying banners reading "We are America" and waving American flags and flags of their countries of origin. [Full Story] PLANS MAY ALREADY BE UNDERWAY FOR IRAN STRIKE The New Yorker magazine has published a story by investigative reporter Seymour Hersh which cites sources with links to the Pentagon and to US intelligence as saying the Bush administration may already have plans to target Iran's nuclear research facilities with "tactical nuclear weapons", i.e. 'low-yield' bombs with radioactive fuel but massive destructive capability. [Full Story] FIRENZE: VALLEY OF GENIUS & REBIRTH Florence (Firenze in Italian) is a city like no other: a small provincial capital with the attractions and amenities of a major metropolis, but laced with the most stunning array of artistic creations available anywhere. It is a bustling cultural and tourism center, feeding the appetite of a region for a constant inflow of new visitors and for the preservation of its golden age. [Full Profile] COURT FILING CITES 'CONCERTED EFFORT' TO ATTACK CRITICS Regardless of whether the president or the vice president have done anything illegal, it is now clear that they were both involved in deliberately using classified national security information to smear a critic of their Iraq policy. This contradicts statements made as recently as last week which suggest that the president opposed any such use of sensitive information for personal or political gain. [Full Story] IMMIGRATION BILL FAILS IN SENATE Though many sources had predicted passage of substantial new immigration law reform in the Senate, the bill failed to gain passage, after a series of complex parliamentary maneuvers stalled a bipartisan compromise. Republicans opposed to the legislation had attempted to attach amendments designed to limit the number of people who would be eligible for citizenship and to narrow the focus of benefits under the law, prompting Democrats to use parliamentary procedural measures to block those amendments. [Full Story] PRES. BUSH LINKED TO LEAK OF INFORMATION TO PRESS As the case against Lewis "Scooter" Libby proceeds, for violating the federal law prohibiting the disclosure of the classified identities of undercover agents, he has reportedly testified to a grand jury that Pres. Bush was directly involved in the leaking of other information to the press. [Full Story] IMMIGRATION REFORM COULD EASE HARDSHIP FOR MILLIONS In recent weeks, the United States has seen the streets of major cities flooded with protesters, demanding more humane immigration reform than that offered by the House of Representatives. The bill currently before the Senate could offer such a solution, and would provide an opportunity for millions more people to become US citizens. [Full Story] NEW PROTEST MOVEMENT SHOWS VITAL HISPANIC POPULATION The issue of "immigration reform" began sweeping the mindset and the Latin media markets of the United States in December, when the House of Representatives passed a bill that would classify all undocumented immigrants as "aggravated felons", and make it a crime to provide assistance of any kind to them, regardless of personal relationship or imminent need of serious assistance. [Full Story] AT&T SUED FOR VIOLATING LAW IN NSA DOMESTIC SPY PROGRAM AT&T was once the nation's telecommunications monopoly, and abuses there led to the break-up of the Bell monopoly and the regulation of telecoms, with the intent of encouraging competition and achieving the goal of forcing providers to serve the customers first. Now, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has filed a lawsuit alleging that the telecommunications giant has violated federal law by assisting the government in spying on innocent Americans without any court authorization. [Full Story] US CLASHES WITH ELEMENTS OF RULING SHI'A IN TROUBLED IRAQ Reports from Baghdad suggest the bodies of some 69 Iraqis were found yesterday, at several sites where sectarian clashes occurred. In one incident, it appears at least 30 people were massacred. Aides to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr cited as saying 18 killed in US-led raid; Iraqi police allege 22 civilians killed in raid on mosque. [Full Story] 'PERMANENT CEASEFIRE' DECLARED BY ETA BEGINS TODAY Spain's 4-decade long conflict with terrorist group ETA, fighting for separation of the Basque country from Spain, today appears at an end. Two days ago, the organization surprised many by declaring a "permanent ceasefire", without receiving any guarantees about its goals or about the future of its membership. [Full Story] LUKASHENKO GOV'T ORDERS MASSIVE ARRESTS OF DEMONSTRATORS The authoritarian regime of Belarus pres. Aleksandr Lukashenko has used mass-arrest as a tool to silence opposition to its dubious recent election win. Opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich has gone to the prison where his supporters are being held, demanding international opposition to rule of embattled Lukashenko. [Full Story] TOURISTS SHOULD SPEND WISELY Tourists are often and well advised to always be aware that areas which favor tourists also often contain "tourist traps", set up specifically to wrest more than the going rate from unsuspecting and often giddy or jetlagged outsiders. A traveler's advice to fellow travelers would be: responsible tourism shouldn't aid in the disintegration of local neighborhoods or the extreme distortion of basic living costs... [Full Story] WORLD WATER DAY HIGHLIGHTS EFFECTS OF CLEAN WATER SCARCITY ON 1 BILLION Parts of east Africa have not seen rain for six years and six nations there are facing extreme famine. Through events organized by UNESCO, the UN and NGOs are hosting World Water Day today, to raise awareness of the problem of scarcity of safe drinking water affecting an estimated 1 billion people worldwide. [Full Story] BRAZIL INAUGURATES WORLD'S FIRST FULLY DEDICATED LANGUAGE MUSEUM Brazil has launched the world's first museum devoted solely to the history and evolution of a language: Portuguese, the national language since the colonial era and independence. The museum is located in the Station of Light, a train facility built by the British at the turn of the 20th century, and a national architectural landmark. [Full Story] AT LEAST 2 BODIES OF KATRINA VICTIMS FOUND IN NEW ORLEANS LOWER 9TH WARD Seven months after hurricane Katrina devastated the US Gulf Coast, officials have found the bodies of at least 2 more victims, with a third body possibly also that of a hurricane victim. Student volunteers were working to help remove debris and search for still missing victims in the Lower Ninth Ward, one of the most devastated sections of New Orleans, when they came upon human remains. [Full Story] BELARUS POLL "SEVERELY FLAWED", GOV'T TO FACE SANCTIONS In the weeks before the election, held yesterday, Belarus pres. Lukashenko imprisoned an estimated one-third of the top campaign staff of his lead rivals. The state openly called any opposition to his reelection a threat to the nation and warned of "bloodshed" if there were protests. The EU says the vote took place in a "climate of intimidation" and opposition leaders say the state-orchestrated results were an illegal "seizure of power". [Full Story] CHINA'S WORST-KEPT SECRET Beijing is nervous about a movement stirring in the remote countryside. The severe hierarchy and stratified economic system dominating the ancient nation are provoking violent demonstrations and calls for economic reforms by poor in rural areas. [Full Story] BELARUS PRES. THREATENS TO "WRING THE NECKS" OF OPPONENTS Belarus president Lukashenko has spent years stamping out opposition through a combination of abuses through the state police (still KGB), jailing of dissidents, press censorship, expropriation and propaganda. Opposition to democratic means is almost total under his rule, and the state mobile phone provider has warned of bloodshed. [Full Story] WILD BIRDS MAY BE LESS LIKELY TO SPREAD AVIAN FLU THAN POULTRY As nations across the world either brace for what is now seen as the inevitable spread of the H5N1 strain of avian influenza, which has proven deadly to a high percentage of the few human beings who have contracted the virus, some are taking aim at migratory birds. But wild birds might not be the most likely means of delivery for the aggressive virus. [Full Story] BACHELET TAKES OFFICE, CHILE'S FIRST WOMAN HEAD OF STATE Michelle Bachelet, winner of Chile's recent presidential election, has been sworn in and has taken power as the nation's first woman president. She inherits the economic legacy of fellow socialist, outgoing pres. Ricardo Lagos, who leaves surpluses in government revenue, a rapidly expanding economy and a well-functioning balance between free market policies and expansive social programs. [Full Story] TARRAGONA: GRACE OF TIME & DAYLIGHT If you approach the city by train, you might be lucky enough to find a glistening blue sea to your left and the austere keep of the Roman amphitheatre rising on the hill to your right. It's a city with a unique and casual knack for such cohabitation, the ancient inlaid into a thriving modern city, once the seat of Roman colonial authority and trade in northeast Hispania, now Catalunya. [Full Profile] CITIZEN GOVERNMENT: HAVE YOUR SAY BEFORE CONGRESS VOTES In an effort to prevent "earmarking", whereby language is added to a bill with the specific purpose of directing specific funds to a given project or district, Readthebill.org is calling for the US House to pass a resolution that would require that all legislation be available in full online, in its final form, for at least 72 hours before Congress votes on its passage. [Full Story] SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO DISAPPEARING AT ACCELERATED RATE Research and new images show glaciers famed as "snows of Kilimanjaro" receding at alarming rate, far faster than projections had suggested. Researchers at Ohio State University, who warned five years ago that the famed snowcap on Mount Kilimanjaro might melt or even disappear now say the melt is occurring, but at a rate much faster than expected. [Full Story] RARE QUAKE HITS MOZAMBIQUE, ZIMBABWE, SOUTH AFRICA The quake shook buildings in the south of Mozambique, in the capital, Maputo, reportedly causing many to flee into the streets. The tremors were also felt in Zimbabwe and South Africa. The Save river quake was Mozambique's worst in more than 100 years. [Full Story] ABANICO: PHILIPPINE IMPRESSIONS Another current in time runs over this landscape, through the people. 'There is a different rhythm here'. This mantra greets me as I take my first breath of tropic metropolitan air. 'There is a different rhythm here'. This I hear from every quarter, from every mouth. It seems to be a national chorus, introducing me to the difference, without knowing how to describe it. 'It may take time', they tell me. I have already begun to succumb. [Keep reading] VALENCIA: SUNSOAKED ENLIGHTENING Spain's third largest city, Valencia is the bustling capital of the autonomous region called the Comunidad Valenciana. The surrounding landscape is laced with geometrically plotted orchards and orange groves and is famed for its agricultural richness and productivity. Throughout its varied history, Valencia has been ruled, like many Spanish cities, by a number of distinct civilizations, and now displays a commitment to blending the ancient with the modern in creating a city with an energy like no other. [Full Profile] CÓRDOBA: JEWEL OF LEARNING Córdoba was the preeminent city in Moorish Spain: educated, wealthy, populous, refined. The city was the intellectual capital of the Caliphate of Al-Andalus. It was here that Maimonides and Averroes dispensed their great philosophical works, where algebra was developed, and where European philosophy was rescued and restored to prominence by eager Moorish students and translators. [Full Profile] REPORTS SUGGEST PHILIPPINE COUP PLOT WIDELY KNOWN According to the Houston Chronicle, media reports throughout the last week had given details of an alleged plot to use mass celebrations of the 1986 ouster of dictator Ferdinand Marcos, to stoke popular sentiment against Arroyo government, sway military officers to join in public demand she resign. [Full Story] PHILIPPINES UNDER MARTIAL LAW AGAINST ALLEGED COUP Philippines pres. Arroyo, has declared a state of emergency after police clashed with demonstrators at rally in Manila where thousands of Filipino citizens and a former president called for her to step down. Arroyo declared the efforts part of an attempted military coup d'état and a "threat to the nation". [Full Story] CHINA FREES JOURNALIST IMPRISONED SINCE TIANENMAN PROTESTS Journalist Yu Dongyue has been imprisoned by Chinese authorities since the Tianenman Square pro-democracy protests of 1989. He was initially sentenced to 20 years in prison for allegedly throwing eggs filled with red paint at a portrait of Mao Zedong displayed at the entrance to the Forbidden City. After two reductions in his sentence, he is now being released to his family. [Full Story] OUR COLLECTIVE STUDY OF THE UNIVERSE People want to believe what their friends, neighbors, teachers, political representatives tell them. They will express skepticism, and they will be brash and indignant about public scandals or about dubious claims, but ultimately, they err on the side of credulity. The human being in society, is able to suspend disbelief to take part in and to further the ongoing project to understand the universe we inhabit... [Full Essay] BRAZIL MONKEYS SIGN OF INTENSE BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY Brazil is home to one-third of the world's monkey species, making the nation one of the richest in primate genetic diversity. The survival and prevalence of monkeys in Brazil stands against the country’s demand for more arable land to feed and house an ever-growing population. This makes the monkeys’ survival an important measure of the effect of human beings on the natural environment. [Full Story] OBSERVERS WARN UGANDA ELECTION PROCESS NOT FAIR Uganda is a complex political fabric in a volatile regional patchwork. The nation has been ruled for 20 years by one man at the head of one party (NRM), and now Pres. Museveni will face his first multi-party election contest. Recent weeks have seen arrests, allegations of intimidation and use of single-party government structures to impede opposition campaigns. [Full Story] 3 BANKERS LOSE EXTRADITION APPEAL IN ENRON CASE Three former executives for Greenwich NatWest, a subsidiary of NatWest Bank, have lost their appeal for refusal of extradition to the US on charges of fraud in connection to the Enron corruption case. The executives may now face up to two years in a federal prison awaiting trial, classified as "fugitives from justice" solely for fighting extradition. [Full Story] 1,800 FEARED DEAD AFTER LANDSLIDE IN LEYTE, PHILIPPINES The mudslides began amid two weeks of torrential rains, which flooded and destabilized mountainside soils. Witnesses described the event as sounding "like the mountain had exploded". The entire village of Guinsahugon essentially disappeared beneath the heavy sheets of mud, leaving only 57 survivors. [Full Story]
PRÉVAL DECLARED WINNER IN HAITIAN ELECTION René Préval will be the next president of Haiti. After a week of violent protests and allegations of "massive fraud", with the candidate calling for peace and responsibility from supporters and an investigation into manipulations, the government of interim president Boniface Alexandre has declared Préval the winner of the 7 February elections. [Full Story] 4 MILLION KILLED IN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO SINCE 1998 Ongoing armed conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo has taken an estimated 4 million lives since 1998. Estimates range from attributing 2 to 4 million deaths to the 5 year war, to placing 3 million during the war and 1 to 2 million more in fractious post-conflict unrest and deprivation. The Lancet reports 36,000 people per month are still dying from armed conflict, criminal violence, disease and malnutrition. [Full Story] SCIENCE SAYS EVOLUTION WORKS The journal Science, in selecting its breakthrough of the year, decided to feature a series of scientific advances demonstrating how evolution works. At the end of a year that has seen a growing marginal movement in the US to displace evolution as mere conjecture in favor of the untested, religiously based "intelligent design" argument, Science intends to proactively defend science, as such. [Full Story] BOTTLED WATER: POURING RESOURCES DOWN THE DRAIN The global consumption of bottled water reached 154 billion liters (41 billion gallons) in 2004, up 57 percent from the 98 billion liters consumed five years earlier. Even in areas where tap water is safe to drink, demand for bottled water is increasing—producing unnecessary garbage and consuming vast quantities of energy. Although in the industrial world bottled water is often no healthier than tap water, it can cost up to 10,000 times more. At as much as $2.50 per liter ($10 per gallon), bottled water costs more than gasoline. [Full Story] OFFICIAL SECRECY POWER UNDERMINES FREE ENTERPRISE There is no secrecy power in the US Constitution, and no law enacted by Congress provides such power. In the case of the Crater Coupler, the government's assertion of a right to conceal all activities related to a covert operation, under official secrecy claims, actively allowed a major company to usurp the intellectual property rights of an inventor, by stripping that individual and his partners of the constitutional right to seek redress in court. [Full Story] CBS NEWS REPORT DISTORTS POLL RESULTS, SAYS BUSH "LIKELY NOT" OBLIGED TO FOLLOW LAW IN SURVEILLANCE In a report from the White House regarding the president's response to criticism from the public, from Congress and from legal and national security experts that his warrantless wiretaps are illegal, CBS White House correspondent John Roberts falsely cites a recent poll to claim Bush has broad support from the public for warrantless wiretaps. [Full Story]
GOOGLE TO COLLABORATE IN CENSORING INFORMATION DELIVERED TO CHINESE USERS The premier internet search engine Google has launched a new Chinese service, under the domain Google.cn, which it will voluntarily censor in keeping with the mandates of Chinese authorities. The announcement came earlier this week, as the Davos trade talks opened and on the same day as China's government announced it was ordering the closing of a weekly newspaper known for publishing articles on topics the Chinese Communist party's propaganda office had banned or which included criticism of government policy. [Full Story] REPUBLICANS NEGOTIATE BEHIND CLOSED DOORS TO GIVE $22 BILLION BREAK TO HMOs In mid-December, a group of Republican senators and representatives held closed door meetings during which they crafted new language to save HMOs $22 billion over 10 years. Democrats were excluded from both meetings and not permitted to alter or remove the new language before Senate approval on 21 December. [Full Story] EUROPE INVESTIGATION SAYS EU GOV'TS LIKELY KNEW OF RENDITION NETWORK Prelminary findings from the Council of Europe's investigation into human rights abuses and a secret CIA network of extralegal detention facilities report high probability that European governments knew what US forces were doing on their soil and in neighboring countries. [Full Story] AG GONZALES SAYS CONGRESS KNEW FULL EXTENT OF WIRETAPPING Attorney Gen. Alberto Gonzales, while speaking to a group at Georgetown University, defended the president's authorizing the warrantless wiretaps carried out by the NSA on US citizens. He reiterated the drumbeat that it was the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force against Al Qaeda that gave the president the authority to execute warrantless wiretaps, despite prohibitions in federal law. [Full Story] JUSTICE DEPT. ISSUES REPORT DEFENDING WARRANTLESS WIRETAPS The US Justice Dept., under AG Alberto Gonzales, who advised Pres. Bush as White House Counsel, during the planning of the extrajudicial wiretaps, has issued a 42-page report that claims authorization for the wiretaps was implicit in the preliminary "Authorization for the Use of Military Force" (AUMF), passed after the attacks of 11 September 2001. Critics note serious problems with the report and its premises. [Full Story] A BUBBLE TOO FAR In the summer of 2005, the Economist magazine led with an article that discussed in detail the problems inherent in what appears to be the most expansive boom real estate has seen since records began, and of all markets studied, only Germany, Japan and Hong Kong were not contributing to the inflation. [Full Story] LONDON: QUIET LUXURY OF TIMELESS CULTURE London is often thought of as one of the world's great capitals, seething with millions upon millions from every corner of the world, known for its labyrinthine transit network and its multicultural makeup. Its museums, many of the best of which are free to the public, every day, stand as some of the most important reservoirs of cultural history in the world. [Full Profile] CRAFTING INVISIBLE FIRES The streets around Leicester Square were laced with street performers of surprising quality. I would later come to know this is not uncommon in the center of London. In particular, I found a string quartet enthralling. They were playing Beethoven and Bach, and within a few minutes had gathered a large crowd around them. They could easily have been playing in any concert hall, but the acoustics of the street and its rushing throng were the site of their sound, and they used it just as well... [Full Story] NORWAY TO BUILD ARCTIC SEED BANK The Norwegian government has announced plans to create a global seed bank, to be located in the nation's arctic subsoil, to preserve all world crop varieties against extinction, should any number of natural disasters strike. The seed bank will be located inside a frozen mountain on the island of Spitsbergen, in the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. [Full Story] NOT ALL POLITICS IS OPINION Shortly after publishing yesterday's lead story, referring to a speech by former US vice president Al Gore as a "non-partisan" event, Sentido received a complaint from a Bush supporter, upset by the "partisan" nature of such a report. It is simply not true, however, that all text and all language are opinion. That bias gives rise to a radical perversion of the "fairness doctrine", whereby all stories, no matter how evidentially sound, must include reference to at least one assertion that contradicts the lead story, no matter how evidentially void this oppposing assertion. [Full Story] FMR VP AL GORE SPEAKS ON DANGERS OF EXTRA-CONSTITUTIONAL ABUSES Former US Vice President Al Gore gave what is being described as an historic non-partisan speech, calling for a passionate nationwide movement to defend and uphold the Constitution of the United States. Gore gave the speech in a non-partisan context, speaking at the Daughters of the American Revolution hall, with the express support and participation of Representative Bob Barr, Republican of Georgia. [Full Story] CHILE GETS FIRST FEMALE PRESIDENT Michelle Bachelet has a long and turbulent political biography. She and her mother were kidnapped and tortured by the Pinochet government, after her father was murdered for his political affiliation with the Allende government. They were forced into exile by the military regime and Bachelet has worked to restore democratic principles to Chilean government. Like Ricardo Lagos before her, she is a moderate socialist, intent upon leading Chile's governing center-left coalition, while continuing free-market policies. [Full Story] TRANSCRIPT OF GORE SPEECH FOR LIBERTY COALITION, ENDORSED BY REP. BOB BARR (R-GA) Congressman Barr and I have disagreed many times over the years, but we have joined together today with thousands of our fellow citizens-Democrats and Republicans alike-to express our shared concern that America's Constitution is in grave danger. In spite of our differences over ideology and politics, we are in strong agreement that the American values we hold most dear have been placed at serious risk by the unprecedented claims of the Administration to a truly breathtaking expansion of executive power. [Full Transcript] ARCTIC ICE MELT WILL SOON OPEN NORTH-POLE SHIPPING As ice melts across the arctic north, and the Arctic Ocean opens up in summer months, the mythic Northwest Passage is expected to open to regular shipping, and Russia's Northern Sea Route is expected to rival it in global trade traffic, within a generation. It is also expected the Arctic Ocean will be completely without ice in warm months by the end of the 21st century. [Full Story] DATA SHADOWS & IMPROBABLE CONSENT Neither contracts nor "terms and conditions" including indemnities disclaimers, can be classified as legislation. They do not make or construct legal limits by themselves. Obvious as this may seem, it is a necessary introduction to the problem of the trade in personal information and "soft surveillance", whereby one is routinely subjected to interrogation, inspection and even physical search, not for having broken any laws or even aroused any reasonable suspicion, but simply because "that's policy". [Full Story] |
| :: Column 2 » | :: Column 3 » | :: 2005 :: 2004 :: 2003 |
|
||||||||
|
Original, Graphic Content © 2000-08 Sentido