sanctuary of soul

last train to lhasa - tibet still lives in fear

nobody@vox.com(karlos) — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 21:02:18 +0100

Tania Branigan is China correspondent for the Guardian and Dan Chung is an established photojournalist for the news publication. Together they have kept the world informed of the status in Tibet 6 months after the protests. The military are on patrol and the people of Tibet still live in fear . . . video and photographic reports

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

u.s.amazing - profit from impending devastation

nobody@vox.com(karlos) — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 03:43:52 +0100

Oil and gas companies are preparing for a complete shutdown of offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico as tropical storm Gustav gathers strength and churns ominously towards the US coast. Shell and BP evacuated staff from rigs, while ExxonMobil and other operators activated contingency plans to cease operations on offshore facilities that account for a quarter of US crude oil production and 15% of natural gas output. The US department of energy said it would release emergency stocks from the country's strategic petroleum reserves if supplies are severely disrupted.

Energy prices rose on concerns that the storm could be the worst to hit the region since hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated New Orleans and the Texas shore three years ago. In New York, the cost of a barrel of oil ended 13 cents down at $115.46 after having hit $118.76 on storm fears.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

76 civilians die in US led airstrike - 50 children

nobody@vox.com(karlos) — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 02:06:05 +0100

US-led coalition forces killed 76 Afghan civilians in western Afghanistan yesterday, most of them children. The coalition have of course denied killing civilians. Civilian deaths in military operations have become an emotive issue among Afghans, many of whom feel international forces take too little care when launching air strikes, undermining support for their presence. The Interior Ministry said in a statement that "76 civilians, most of them women and children, were martyred today in a coalition forces operation in Herat province" Coalition forces bombarded the Azizabad area of Shindand district in Herat province on Friday afternoon. 19 of the victims were women, 7 of them men and the rest children under the age of 15, it said.

US-led coalition forces denied killing any civilians. They said 30 militants had been killed in an air strike in Shindand district in the early hours of Friday and no further air strikes had been launched in the area later in the day. [source: guardian on-line] full story

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

nuclear war - united states Vs russia in poland

nobody@vox.com(karlos) — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 15:08:38 +0100

The risk of a new era of east-west confrontation triggered by Russia's invasion of Georgia heightened yesterday when Moscow reserved the right to launch a nuclear attack on Poland because it agreed to host US rockets as part of the Pentagon's missile shield. As Washington accused Russia of "bullying and intimidation" in Georgia and demanded an immediate withdrawal of Russian forces from the small Black Sea neighbour, Russia's deputy chief of staff turned on Warsaw and said it was vulnerable to a Russian rocket attack because of Thursday's pact with the US on the missile defence project. "By deploying, Poland is exposing itself to a strike - 100%," warned Colonel General Anatoly Nogovitsyn. He added that Russia's security doctrine allowed it to use nuclear weapons against an active ally of a nuclear power such as America.

The warning worsened the already dismal mood in relations between Moscow and the west caused by the shock of post-Soviet Russia's first invasion of a foreign country. There were scant signs of military activity on the ground in Georgia, but nor were there any signs of the Russian withdrawal pledged on Tuesday under ceasefire terms mediated by the European Union. Instead, the focus was on a flurry of diplomatic activity that exposed acute differences on how Washington and Berlin see the crisis in the Caucasus. [source:guardian on-line] full story

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

amazon rainforest - corporate rape + destruction

nobody@vox.com(karlos) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 12:55:26 +0100

Vast swathes of the western Amazon are to be opened up for oil and gas exploration, putting some of the planet's most pristine and biodiverse forests at risk, conservationists have warned. A survey of land earmarked for exploration by energy companies revealed a steep rise in recent years, to around 180 zones, which together cover an area of 688,000 sq km, almost equivalent to the size of Texas. Detailed mapping of the region shows the majority of planned oil and gas projects, which are operated by at least 35 multinational companies, are in the most species-rich areas of the Amazon for mammals, birds and amphibians.

Researchers used government information on land that has been leased to state or multinational energy companies over the past four years to create oil and gas exploration maps for western Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia and Colombia. The maps showed that in Peru and Ecuador, regions designated for oil and gas projects already cover more than two thirds of the Amazon. Of 64 oil and gas regions that cover 72% of the Peruvian Amazon, all but eight were approved since 2003. Major increases in activity are expected in Bolivia and western Brazil. [source: guardian] full story

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

mugabes zimbabwe - how to rig an election

nobody@vox.com(karlos) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 12:14:24 +0100

Robert Mugabe's henchmen have long been suspected of stealing civil servant postal ballots. The Guardian provides the first evidence of how they did it watch video

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

russian forces on the move - gori and poti

nobody@vox.com(karlos) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 12:04:53 +0100

They say one thing and do another .... Russia is expanding its military presence in Gori, the Georgian government said today, contradicting earlier claims they were pulling out of the key town where their presence had threatened the ceasefire over South Ossetia. Georgia's foreign ministry also said the Russians had entered Poti, a Black Sea port with an oil terminal vital to the country's fragile economy. Earlier, its interior ministry said Moscow forces had withdrawn from both. As confusion mounted about how Russia was responding to US calls to pull out its troops to end the week-long conflict, a Russian general said they would soon start to return control of Gori to Georgia. [source:guardian on-line]

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

russia on the rampage - ceasefire breakdown

nobody@vox.com(karlos) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 13:16:23 +0100

Villages in Georgia were being burned and looted as Russian tanks followed by "irregulars" advanced from the breakaway province of South Ossetia, eyewitnesses said today. Luke Harding, the Guardian's correspondent, said "People are fleeing, there is a mood of absolute panic. The idea there is a ceasefire is ridiculous,". Russia has denied any advance, however Georgian authorities claimed that about 50 tanks and armoured vehicles were near the strategically important town of Gori. Harding, watching villages near Gori burn, said witnesses had told him Russian military, including at least 25 tanks, had moved from the Russian-controlled South Ossetia into the villages. "They asked villagers to hang white flags or handkerchiefs outside their houses if they did not want to be shot, they say."

The tanks had passed through the village of Rekha at about 11.20am local time. "Behind them (say eyewitnesses) is a whole column of irregulars who locals say are Chechens, Cossacks and Ossetians. "Eyewitnesses say they are looting, killing and burning. These irregulars have killed three people and set fire to villages. They have been taking away young boys and girls," said Harding, watching smoke rise from another village, Karaleti. It appeared that Russian tanks had entered Gori, targeting military installations, some built with Nato money. [source guardian on-line] full story

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

zimbabwe - 5 million humans face starvation

nobody@vox.com(karlos) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 05:04:35 +0100

Problems in Zimbabwe are escalating under Mugabe's control - Millions of Zimbabweans are threatened with starvation after the widespread failure of the latest harvest brought on by the government's disastrous mishandling of land redistribution and food shortages in the shops caused by hyperinflation. The U.N stated hundreds of thousands of people require food aid immediately because they have harvested little or nothing in recent weeks. It has warned that up to 5 million will need assistance in the coming months. A third of the population is chronically malnourished.

Attempts to assist them are blocked by a ban on foreign aid agencies working in rural areas after President Robert Mugabe [a relative of the devil] said they were just fronts for "regime change" by Britain and the US. Aid workers say the first signs of looming famine are evident with significant population movements and children arriving at hospitals suffering from kwashiorkor (a form of malnutrition). Many families are reduced to one meal a day, with some living on fruit berries. According to the UN there has been a significant rise in the number of families fleeing to South Africa. Food availability has also been hit by hyperinflation which economists say runs above 10m%. The central bank is issuing a $100bn note today, the highest denomination to date but worth less than 10p - [source - guardian on-line] full story

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

united states of global terrorism and dictatorship

nobody@vox.com(karlos) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:37:50 +0100

Having just read this story > American foreign policy and the absolute hypocrisy of their stance on nuclear power is just so absurd and so biased. Who the hell do the Bush Administration think they are. The answer is obvious, the Bush Administration is now a Global Dictatorship with its sole aim and objective being it's own self-serving interests.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend