Continue reading the main story Inside North Korea Q&A: Inter-Korean crisis Q&A: North Korea nuclear talks Why border hot-spot is war relic Rare peek into China-N Korea ties UN experts believe North Korea has at least one hidden nuclear site, according to leaks of a UN report….
Continue reading …South Carolina lawmakers are considering a bill that would explicitly state that “foreign law” could not be enforced in the Palmetto State—the latest in a series of laws that some critics say are really just trying to preemptively ban sharia law, Talking Points Memo reports. State Sen. Michael Fair,…
Continue reading …Julie Schenecker shook emotionally in court today as she was charged with killing her two teenage children because they were “mouthy” and she was “tired of it,” reports ABC. The charges come after Schenecker was released from the hospital for an unspecified pre-existing medical condition, and as revelations of a…
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Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was in Dallas Monday to provide details on security plans for the Super Bowl. The Packers and Steelers play Sunday, in Super Bowl XLV. (Jan. 31)
Continue reading …The Jasmine revolution in Tunisia has offered much hope across the Arab world. We have seen young and hopeful demonstrators in Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, calling for much-needed reform and democracy in their own countries ( Change is coming , 31 January). We offer our support to those courageous young demonstrators. Their aspirations and hopes are legitimate and the Jasmine revolution has shown that it may be possible to achieve them. We condemn the violent repression of those demonstrations and ask western governments, especially EU members and the US, to respect the Arab world’s desire for change, and to halt their financial and military assistance to autocratic regimes in the region. David Held , Professor of Political Science at LSE Hamid Dabashi , Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, Inderjeet Parmar , Professor of Government at Manchester University Jameson W Doig , Professor Emeritus of Politics and International Affairs, Princeton University John Esposito , Professor of Religion and International Affairs at Georgetown University John Sidel , Sir Patrick Gillam Professor of International and Comparative Politics at LSE Mary Kaldor , Professor of Global Governance at LSE Noam Chomsky , Professor (Emeritus) of Linguistics at MIT Rainer Baubock , Professor of Social and Political Theory, European University Institute Richard Caplan , Professor of International Relations, Oxford University Kevin Morgan , Professor of Politics and Contemporary History at University of Manchester Egypt Middle East Tunisia Jordan Saudi Arabia guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …The cries of ‘bread and freedom’, heard across the Arab world the past two weeks, are not mere rhetoric The cries of “bread and freedom”, heard across the Arab world during the past two weeks, are not mere rhetoric. The price of bread has always been as powerful a driver of revolt as the denial of liberty. The latest reminder of this has come in Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan, where the lethal combination of joblessness and sharply rising prices for basic foodstuffs helped to set off the current protests. In Davos last week, the leaders of global capitalism could be heard musing about how far such unrest might spread. The revolts will cause sleepless nights in many presidential palaces. Their wider effect, though, is to focus political attention on the upward spiral in world energy and food prices. The revolts mean the warnings of a new food crisis are being taken more seriously. Food security is back on the agenda in ways that echo 2008, when it was estimated that rising food prices set off violence in 30 countries . It is to the last government’s credit that, at that time, it commissioned an important study on food sustainability. So the publication of that report – The Future of Food and Farming , written by Sir John Beddington , the former chief scientific adviser – could hardly be more timely. Working out how to feed a world population that may have grown to 9 billion (or even 11 billion) within the next 40 years, at a time when a sixth of the current population of 6.5 billion already goes hungry (and another billion is malnourished) is a mammoth task. But finding a way to do it that does not exacerbate climate change, nor otherwise do lasting damage to the environment, is arguably the single greatest collective challenge the world faces. The Beddington report is an admirably clear account of the difficulty of devising an affordable, equitable and sustainable solution. It rightly identifies the need to contain the demand for resource-intensive foods (also known as meat), the problem of avoidable waste, and the weaknesses of political and economic governance of the food industry. It cannot be faulted for its careful mapping of a complex problem. But the report lacks an answer to the enduring difficulty posed by the power politics of the globalised food industry: food security and free markets can be uneasy bedfellows in the absence of social safety nets provided by strong institutions. Higher prices for agricultural products are not necessarily bad: in cash crops like cocoa and cotton, they can transform the balance sheets of some of sub-Saharan Africa’s poorest countries. But most countries of sub-Saharan Africa are net importers of grain. They are now suffering the consequences of the new volatility of cereal-price speculation on the world’s commodity markets . This magnifies every change in price and distorts the relationship between production and prices. Nor is that the only area where the needs of poor countries conflict with the desires of the rich. Demand for biofuels is reducing the amount of land available for food and driving up the price. So is the strategic land grab mounted by fast-growing countries like China and South Korea, investing in political stability by ensuring food supplies. The report rightly highlights the weaknesses of infrastructure – poor roads, lack of storage – but can no more impose an answer to them than it can solve the problems of global distribution. It is right to argue that agriculture subsidies in rich countries distort food production; but it pays little attention to the question of national food security (and the environmental impacts of food imports). It notes the concentration of corporate power in the food supply chain, but argues that the market can be left to sort it out for itself. It puts its faith both in promoting agricultural research and best practice in poorer countries, and in the introduction of GM crops and cloned animals in the richer ones. In short, the Beddington report has analysed a failing system and then wanly concluded that what will work best is more of the same. Egypt Middle East guardian.co.uk
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enlarge Meet Rep. Darrell Issa. He promises to scrutinize and investigate every possible picayune aspect of the Obama administration , but this might be taking things a little too far. He’s now requesting information about everyone who requested FOIA information over the last four years . (behind NYT paywall) Representative Darrell Issa calls it a way to promote transparency: a request for the names of hundreds of thousands of ordinary citizens, business executives, journalists and others who have requested copies of federal government documents in recent years. Mr. Issa, a California Republican and the new chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, says he wants to make sure agencies respond in a timely fashion to Freedom of Information Act requests and do not delay them out of political considerations. But his extraordinary request worries some civil libertarians. It “just seems sort of creepy that one person in the government could track who is looking into what and what kinds of questions they are asking,” said David Cuillier, a University of Arizona journalism professor and chairman of the Freedom of Information Committee at the Society of Professional Journalists. “It is an easy way to target people who he might think are up to no good.” Mr. Issa sent a letter on Tuesday asking 180 federal agencies, from the Department of Defense to the Social Security Administration, for electronic files containing the names of people who requested the documents, the date of their requests and a description of information they sought. For those still pending after more than 45 days, he also asked for any communication between the requestor and the federal agency. The request covers the final three years of Bush administration and the first two years of President Obama’s. “Our interest is not in the private citizens who make the requests,” said Kurt Bardella, a spokesman for Mr. Issa. “We are looking at government responses to these Freedom of Information requests and the only way to measure that is to tally all that information.” Can you say massive government overreach? I knew that you could. The very short Times article doesn’t get into the extent to which Issa and his allies are indebted to corporations that have a strong interest in finding out about inquiries that could affect their interests. Like reporters nosing around into the military-industrial complex, or trying to find out about stalled prosecutions of egregious polluters. If, indeed, Issa is just super concerned about openness in government, that’s fine. But it’s not clear that a member of Congress— and a highly politicized, partisan one at that—ought to be the one to receive such sensitive information. Can Issa be trusted? Well, consider this New York Magazine summary of a New Yorker dig into Issa: The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza has taken a long look into the often shady past of California congressman Darrell Issa, the House Oversight Committee chairman who intends to unleash a flurry of investigations on the Obama administration. Issa has, “among other things, been indicted for stealing a car, arrested for carrying a concealed weapon, and accused by former associates of burning down a building.” “Everyone has a past,” Issa tells Lizza. This is true. But not everyone has fired an employee by “plac[ing] a box on the table, and open[ing] it to reveal a gun.” Such personal behavior is bad enough, but often, as with Issa, it parallels shocking professional behavior. For example, on taking his committee chairmanship, Issa sent a letter out to big corporations inviting them to tell him which government regulations they do not like. I think it’s safe to say that there is nothing in either Issa’s personal history or stated agenda that would make him in the slightest trustworthy with such a massive amount of information about Americans, especially in such a way that could be formed into a database for other purposes with no accountability at all, something that Republicans were up in arms about not that long ago . I am constantly reminded of the Chinese blessing that is really a curse: May you live in interesting times . And we certainly are.
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Head injuries may raise the risk of death for years after the initial injury, according to a new study.
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Al Jazeera’s web journalists in Cairo visit the heart of Egypt’s ongoing protest movement the night before what organisers hope will be the biggest demonstration yet.
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Gifted Films Inc presents a Okayplayer OG Brian ‘B.Kyle’ Atkins project, J. Dilla: Still Shining. The comprehensive remembrance piece on the late great James ‘J. Dilla’ Yancey will be available February 7th @ TheJDillaProject.com. The doc will feature unseen personal photos, and rare concert performance footage. Along with all of that, the project also will feature Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Nah Right Discovery Date : 01/02/2011 00:40 Number of articles : 4
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