In These New Times

A new paradigm for a post-imperial world

Archive for June, 2008

Bush fails on missile defense

Posted by seumasach on June 14, 2008

 

9th June 2008

MOSCOW. (Nikita Petrov exclusively for RIA Novosti) – President Bush’s missile defenses are dying with his presidency, but they might not rest in peace.

The Czech government is on the verge of a crisis. Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said that his Cabinet might collapse in the fall. He admitted that the Cabinet lost a firm majority in parliament over the possible deployment of a high-frequency radar of the U.S. third positioning strategic missile defense area in the Czech Republic. Environmentalist deputies did not even want to hear about it, while others insist on a nation-wide referendum, which the government cannot win because 68% of the population is emphatically against the deployment. Read the rest of this entry »

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Why Hezbollah’s Victory may lead to peace in the Middle East

Posted by seumasach on June 14, 2008

 

Interview with Franklin Lamb(ICH)   

By Mike Whitney

Question:  Between May 7 to May 10, Hezbollah took over Beirut, shut down the city’s TV and communications facilities, blocked the main highways, closed the airport, and surrounded the homes of the leading political leaders with armed gunman. The action was taken in response to Prime Minister Fouad Siniora’s decision to outlaw Hezbollah’s telecommunication network and sack the head of security at Beirut airport. Although the incident has been downplayed in the western media, it appears that Hezbollah achieved a total victory and is now recognized as the strongest group operating within Lebanon. What affect will Hezbollah’s victory have on the political dynamic within Lebanon? Read the rest of this entry »

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Our Government’s Dirty Little Secrets.

Posted by seumasach on June 14, 2008

 

A fine intervention by Galloway, somewhat marred by the unfounded presumption that the Brits are somehow reluctant supporters of the “war on terror”. This is not something which emerged from the mind of George Bush: it is classic British foreign policy.

House of Commons debates – Wednesday, 11 June 2008 – 

Somalia (Human Rights)

Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn. —[Steve McCabe.]

By George Galloway

13/06/08 “ICH “ — – -A Government ready to rely on those friends of liberty, the Democratic Unionist party, to shred the liberties of our own people are almost by definition unembarrassable, but I hope this evening to add to the issues ventilated in a recent Channel 4 “Dispatches” programme  to adumbrate the extent to which the tragedy in Somalia, which so many people are now becoming aware of, is another of our Government’s dirty little secrets. Read the rest of this entry »

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South Korean government besieged by demonstrations and strikes

Posted by seumasach on June 14, 2008

 

By James Cogan(WSWS)
14 June 2008


South Korean President Lee Myung-bak heads a government under siege, facing another week of demonstrations demanding his resignation over his decision to lift a ban on US beef imports, and a national strike by truck drivers over rising fuel prices. Read the rest of this entry »

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FDA issues warning on silver dental fillings

Posted by seumasach on June 14, 2008

Click here for more on FDA warning

13th June, 2008

    BEIJING, June 13 (Xinhuanet) — Silver dental fillings, officially known as amalgam fillings, contain mercury that may pose a safety concern for pregnant women and young children, warned the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as quoted by media reports Friday. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Ecological and Public Health Crisis | Tagged: | Leave a Comment »

Can mobiles make you infertile?

Posted by seumasach on June 12, 2008

“These new technologies have been introduced without full provision of information about their nature and without prior discussion within the scientific community about its possible consequences for health.” 

1st June, Kounteya Sinha, (Times of India)

 

NEW DELHI: In a recent pilot study done at Jawaharlal Nehru University, rats subjected to radiation from mobile phones were found to have damaged DNA and low sperm count, leading to infertility and reduction in testis size. The Union health ministry now wants to find out whether excessive cellphone use could be having the same adverse effects on your health. Read the rest of this entry »

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Bush forced to rethink plan to keep Iraq bases

Posted by seumasach on June 12, 2008

 

“Momentum is also growing within the Maliki administration for the US to leave altogether. Mr Maliki was in Iran this week where the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told him not to sign up to any long-term security deals with Washington.

Sartraps against the empire.

President offers concessions after furious reaction in Baghdad to American ‘colonialism’

By Leonard Doyle in Washington(Independent)

hursday, 12 June 2008

Faced with Iraqi anger over a US plan to enable Washington to keep military forces in the country indefinitely, George Bush is offering concessions to the government of Nouri al-Maliki in an effort to salvage an agreement, it emerged yesterday. Read the rest of this entry »

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Why the Oil Price Is High

Posted by seumasach on June 12, 2008

By Paul Craig Roberts

11/06/08 “ICH — – How to explain the oil price? Why is it so high? Are we running out? Are supplies disrupted, or is the high price a reflection of oil company greed or OPEC greed. Are Chavez and the Saudis conspiring against us?

In my opinion, the two biggest factors in oil’s high price are the weakness in the US dollar’s exchange value and the liquidity that the Federal Reserve is pumping out. Read the rest of this entry »

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IRAQ: ‘Special Weapons’ Have a Fallout on Babies

Posted by seumasach on June 12, 2008

By Ali al-Fadhily and Dahr Jamail


FALLUJAH, Jun 12 (IPS) – Babies born in Fallujah are showing illnesses and deformities on a scale never seen before, doctors and residents say. Read the rest of this entry »

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South Korean government unravels in the face of mass political protests

Posted by seumasach on June 12, 2008

 

“What he [Lee] did was little different from an old Korean king offering tribute to a Chinese emperor. This time, we give a tribute to Washington? It’s humiliating, bad education for Korean children.”

By James Cogan

12 June 2008(WSWS)

The conservative Grand National Party (GNP) administration of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak is in disarray little more than three months after taking office. It faces popular repudiation of virtually its entire policy agenda, amid the largest anti-government demonstrations since the final days of the military dictatorship in 1987. Read the rest of this entry »

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A Voltaire Network collaborator jailed in Berlin

Posted by seumasach on June 11, 2008

Voltaire Network

19th June, 2008

Repression against the Voltaire Network keeps on. Jürgen Cain Külbel has been jailed in Berlin. The weak legal pretexts used to condemn him cannot hide the political motive behind this decision: our contributor had shown that the Commissioner of the UN International Independent Investigation Commission into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri had financial binds with the perpetrators, and that his main aide is a CIA agent involved in the ongoing wave of kidnappings in Europe. Read the rest of this entry »

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