Archive for August, 2009

While the EU questions Italy and Malta over the situation regarding a repatriated boatload of 75 illegal immigrants, the very same boat languishes 5 miles off the coast of Libya, unable to reach the North African country. Difficult sea conditions have prevented the boat from reaching safety.

Italy’s Corriere della Sera reports that Dennis Abbot, a spokesman for the EU, said that every ‘human being has the right to request refugee status and seek international protection.’

But Abbot clarified that the EC was not ”pointing its finger.”

The mainly Somali migrants were boarded onto an Italian patrol ship to be transported back to Libya in keeping with the government’s new push-back immigration policy, says ANSA. A number of the refugees were able to contact a Somali reporter for the BBC in Italy, who they called for help via satellite phone.

”We told the Italian military that we wanted to request asylum and asked them not to hand us over to the Libyans because we were afraid of going to jail, but they wouldn’t listen to us,” the caller said.

The refugees added that at least ten of them were in need of medical attention.

The Italian Minister of the Interior Roberto Maroni stated that ‘The push-back policy works and we will continue to uphold it in the interests of both Italy and the European Union.’

Posted by our contributor Alessandro Passanti

The Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama urged Taiwan citizens to pay greater attention to the threat posed by global warming and to “preserve democracy” during a tour of sites in Kaohsiung and Pingtung counties devastated by Typhoon Morokot on the first day of a controversial three day visit to Taiwan over China’s opposition, says Taiwan News.

Despite protests by about 15 pro-advocates of unification with China across the street from the hotel, the Dalai Lama told reporters that his visit was “not political but humanitarian” and said he had “very complicated feelings” about visiting sites where many people had died.

Accompanied by Deputy Kaohsiung City Mayor Lee Yung-teh, the Dalai Lama, his entourage, an escort of Kaohsiung County police and nearly 100 journalists arrived at 11:30 a.m. at the site chosen for a Buddhist prayer service on a road directly overlooking the remnants of Siaolin Village, where over 400 lives were swept away by mud slides triggered by the typhoon.

Looking very solemn, the Dalai Lama and several monks sat down on Tibetan prayer rugs and recited in soft voices a Tibetan a sutra of mercy for over 15 minutes despite the heat.

The Tibetan leader stated that the scene of devastation “reminds me of the Buddhist concept of the necessity of impermanence” and related that he felt “very sad to see that so many people had lost their precious lives here.”

“As a Buddhist, the only thing I can do is pray that they will return in their next lives as humans and have a happier life,” he stated.

Asked whether he had any advice for the Taiwan people in their struggle for identity, the Dalai Lama stressed that since his first visit to Taiwan in 1997 he had told Taiwanese politicians that “as far as we Tibetans are concerned, we are not seeking separation, but the future of Taiwan depends on its 23 million people.”

While saying that “it is good that things are moving in a better way,” the Dalai Lama also pointed out that “Taiwan already enjoys democracy and economic prosperity” and “has made much progress in economics and education and especially democracy.”

“What is most important is that you have achieved and enjoy democracy and that you must preserve and for that reason you must think of your common interests and work united together,” said the Tibetan leader.

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President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela will be among a large number of heads of state who will be visiting Libya this week to take part in the celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the Great Al Fateh Revolution.

On September 1st, 1969, Gaddafi led a coup d’etat against the then-king of Libya, King Idris I.

Among these dignitaries there will also be Malta’s President George Abela and Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

A statement issued on Thursday by the Foreign Ministry of the Philippines the visit would sustain the excellent ties that have existed between the Philippines and Libya since 1976, when diplomatic ties were first established.

The special envoy of Chinese President Hu Jintao, Jiang Weixin, is also to attend the celebration of the 40th anniversary.

According to the Tripoli Post, Libya played a significant role in bringing peace and development in the southern Philippines, and was instrumental to the conclusion of the 1976 Tripoli Agreement and in the 1996 Final Peace Agreement between Manila and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi traveled to Tripoli on Sunday to take part in the celebration of the 40th anniversary and also to mark the first anniversary of a friendship treaty signed in 31 August 2008. Italy receives gas from Libya through the underwater pipeline known as Greenstream.

Mr Berlusconi and Colonel Gaddafi also laid a symbolic paving stone for a $5.95 billion trans-Libya highway to be built by Italy. The 1600-kilometre road linking Tunisia to Egypt is considered compensation for Italian colonialism in Libya before World War II.

The Spanish royal couple will also take part in the celebrations.

Many African heads of state are also expected to attend. They will be in Libya in for an extraordinary summit on Monday of the 53-nation African Union.

The presence of Western diplomats in Tripoli can be attributed to the thawing of relations between the West and Libya over Libya’s vast reserves of oil. According to the Oil and Gas Journal (OGJ), Libya holds close to 44 billion barrels of oil reserves, the largest in Africa.

It has been speculated that the recent release of Lockerbie bomer al-Megrahi is to coincide with a major deal between the UK and Libya over the African nation’s oil reserves. Britain’s The Observer obtained documents that show UK ministers and senior civil servants met Shell to discuss the company’s oil interests in Libya on at least 11 occasions and perhaps as many as 26 times in less than four years.

Foreign secretary David Miliband and the former Labour leader Lord Kinnock were involved in the meetings with Shell about its business in Libya or Egypt.

The revelations, showing that the government invested large amounts of political capital in securing North African oil, lend weight to claims that commercial interest lay behind last week’s decision to release the Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, from jail in Scotland to receive a hero’s welcome in Libya.

Meanwhile, the UK justice secretary, Jack Straw, today denied fresh allegations that he gave the Scottish government the green light to release Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, in the “overwhelming interests” of wider trade and oil negotiations with the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi.

Libya also rejected The Observer’s assertions that al-Megrahi’s release was part of an impending oil deal:

“Linking this (BP contract) with a deal over Megrahi makes me laugh,” said Mohammed Siala, secretary for international cooperation at the Libyan Foreign Ministry. “We have our laws and tender process and BP is a very good actor in the oil field and we are satisfied with what they are doing.

“We are talking about economic resources belonging to every Libyan and no one can do anything that differs from this very transparent process.”

In the meantime, the West’s reformed approach to dealing with Libya may have brought a new era of optimisim to the North African country. The BBC reports that Libyans see hope for their country’s future standing in the world:

“We are rich, [the West] needs us, and they are all coming to work here now,” a young man said, as he explained why it is better to be in Libya these days.

The age-old question remains whether or not the West should ignore ethical standards and escalate its oil dealings with a man long known as a vociferous supporter of international terrorism.

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Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has contracted the AH1N1 flu virus, government health officials confirmed on Sunday, Latin American Herald Tribune reports.

While in the northwestern city of Medellin, presidential press secretary Cesar Mauricio Velasquez read a government communique in which it was announced that Uribe has swine flu, in Bogota officials with the National Health Institute, or INS, confirmed the diagnosis.

According to the various sources, Uribe began showing symptoms of being ill on Friday the 28th when he returned from the Unasur Summit held in the Argentine city of Bariloche, but – they said – he must have become infected some days prior to that.

The symptoms worsened on Saturday when Uribe headed a government community council in the eastern town of Puerto Carreño and had to get medical attention.

The progression of the disease in the president’s case is, at present, requiring treatment at home and the implementation of “clinical management protocols,” according to the information provided by the government.

The President’s Office also said in a communique read by Velasquez that it had informed “through diplomatic channels” all the officials and leaders who participated at the Union of South American Nations (or Unasur) Summit “so that they may take appropriate measures.”

It also had warned “people who have had close contact” in recent days with the president, the text of the message said.

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The term carbon trading refers to commercial approaches to promoting environmental responsibility. Under carbon trading programmes, companies that release greenhouse gases can either agree to reduce their emissions or buy the right to keep on polluting.

The United Nations considers carbon markets as an efficient system to guide investments toward cutting greenhouse emissions. The clean development mechanism (CDM) under the Kyoto Protocol allows two types of forestry offsets: reforestation of previously forested areas and afforestation where threes are planted in areas where forests have not existed for over 50 years.

One such an investment in Uganda, by the Dutch organisation called Forests Absorbing Carbon-dioxide Emissions (FACE) Foundation, has generated controversy as indigenous people known as the Benet have been displaced to clear the way to tree-planting projects.

The FACE Foundation is working with the Uganda Wildlife Authority in the afforestation of Mount Elgon in Eastern Uganda. The Uganda Wildlife Authority-FACE Foundation project involves planting of trees inside the boundaries of Mount Elgon National Park.

The idea is that FACE Foundation assists with the planting of 25,000 ha of trees to absorb carbon dioxide and hereby offset emissions from a new 600 MW coal-fired power station in the Netherlands. FACE Foundation then sells the offsets to GreenSeat, a Dutch carbon-offset business with western clients, mainly airline companies.

Early last year GreenSeat calculated that a mere 28 dollars covers the costs of planting 66 trees which ‘’compensates’’ for the carbon-dioxide emissions of a return flight from Frankfurt to Kampala.

The project has a guaranteed lifespan of 99 years but indigenous communities in the mountain are bitterly opposed to it.

Moses Mwanga, chairperson of the Benet Lobby Group, an organisation pushing for the rights of the Benet, told IPS during a visit to the area that the evictions have caused indescribable suffering to the Benet who are now living as squatters, having lost their land and other belongings to armed park rangers.

Read the story here.

Lal Mohammed was determined to exercise his right to have a say in his country’s future and vote in the election. It was a decision for which he paid a horrific price. On his way to the polling station he was held by Taliban fighters, beaten brutally, and then had his nose and ears slashed off.

What happened to the 40-year-old farmer is the savage and hidden side of the election in a country experiencing a bloody war. This chilling account is the first from a victim of retribution taken by insurgents on someone who had defied their order to boycott the polls. And it helps to explain why so many people throughout the country were simply too afraid to vote.

The Independent listened to Mr Mohammed’s terrifying tale in a house where he has taken refuge and is being guarded by friends. To add to the misery he has suffered, he has not received any serious medical treatment for three days because one of the main hospitals in the Afghan capital – where he had arrived after an arduous three-day journey – declared it had no room to keep him due to chronic overcrowding.

Eminent Afghan and international figures had encouraged citizens to defy the Taliban and vote in the elections. Yet, as a casualty in the process, Mr Mohammed and his friends say he has received no official support.

Read more here.

Never mind peak oil, or even peak water: Some experts are pondering the possibility of the UAE’s development being limited by “peak salt” – the notional point at which the Arabian Gulf becomes so salty that relying on it for fresh water stops being economically feasible.

There is cause for concern, says Dr Shawki Barghouti, director-general of the International Centre for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) in Dubai.

“Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE all have their desalination plants along the Gulf’s shores,” he said. “The brine that these desalination plants produce is being dumped back into the ocean.”

In addition, damming of rivers has cut the flow of fresh water into the Gulf – and the water that does flow in is increasingly polluted.

“All fresh water in the Gulf has been minimised significantly,” said Dr Mohammed Dawoud, manager of the water resources department at the Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi (EAD). “The pollution load has increased dramatically.”

The implications of this, says Dr Barghouti of the ICBA, are exacerbated by the Gulf’s small size, relative shallowness and slow circulation.

“The Gulf is a small water body, it is more like a lake,” he said. “It is open to the ocean at the Strait of Hormuz, but because the opening is narrow, water is replaced once every eight to nine years.”

This means the polluted water that comes from cities, farms, factories and desalination plants around the Gulf’s shores takes longer to flush out, and the amount of pollution is significant and rising.

Because of its shallowness and the high evaporation rates in the hot summer season, the Gulf is one of the saltiest seas, and this is already a challenge for even the latest desalination technologies. Experts in the region have been pressing for the adoption of membrane desalination – reverse osmosis – which is more energy-efficient and kinder to the environment than thermal processes, which currently provide the bulk of the UAE’s potable water, but the high salinity presents a challenge to the membrane technology.

The question, says The National, is whether a time will come when no technology can cope with the salt load – peak salt, in other words.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Monday declared that Israel would not stand by idly should Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad go ahead with his stated plan to declare a de-facto state within two years.

Lieberman told visiting UN envoy Tony Blair and European Union’s foreign policy chief Javier Solana that such unilateral initiatives did not contribute to the creation of positive dialogue and vowed that Israel would respond.

He also said that a deadline should not yet be set on a future agreement between Israel and the Palestinians as past attempts to do so has only exacerbated the conflict.

Meanwhile, President Shimon Peres earlier Monday told Solana that Israel the Palestinians had both expressed willingness to enter negotiations and have agreed to work toward the principle of two states for two peoples.

Peres added that now was the time to move on peace talks, and suggested the sides launch two parallel negotiations, one on a permanent agreement the other on existing issues.

Fayyad said last week that the Palestinian Authority intends to establish a de-facto state by 2011, despite failing peace talks.

The full story here.

“The western countries are trying to change the world’s public opinion about resistance movements through psychological pressure and propaganda, but their moves have backfired and made Iran and Hezbollah even more popular,” Abu Sharif told FNA.

“Despite massive propaganda by western countries, most of the Palestinian people maintain their belief in the Islamic Republic and Iranian people. The popularity of Iran and Hezbollah has increased all around the world,” he reiterated.

Abu Sharif described Palestinian and Lebanese movements as the world’s most important resistance movements, and added, “They are the movements which continue path of resistance and defend their beliefs and thoughts.”

The Islamic Jihad envoy further underlined that resistance groups have been able to survive recent Israeli wars on Palestine and Lebanon, and noted, “We believe that Palestinians will continue their resistance, despite the pressures imposed by the Zionists (Israel).

“And we believe that the required ground would be prepared for new moves by resistance movements,” he concluded.

Two defeated Christian Democratic state governors, a newly powerful Left Party, the Greens in the role of kingmaker and a weak Social Democratic Party which nevertheless has ambitions to appointing the governor in two of the three states where elections were held Sunday. Indeed, Germany’s “Super Sunday” elections don’t exactly bode well for Angela Merkel’s hopes of forging a governing coalition between her center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the business-friendly Free Democratic Party (FDP) after Germany’s national election on Sept. 27.

If Sunday’s vote showed anything, it was that a “black-yellow” coalition — as the CDU-FDP alliance is known, after the parties’ official colors — is far from certain on the national level. Even in the eastern state of Saxony, where the CDU got 40 percent of the vote, a coalition government featuring the FDP as junior partner is not certain. Reports that the national election had already been decided appear to have been greatly exaggerated. Anyone in CDU or FDP headquarters in Berlin who had been assuming that a black-yellow government was a done deal will have to have a rethink after the massive wake-up call from the electorate.

Despite all the confusion that is spreading in the state parliaments in question, where up to six parties are now represented, there are a few certainties: The German political landscape no longer consists of monolithic blocks, but of flexible units. The traditional system of an SPD-Green camp and a CDU-FDP camp now seems like a thing of the past. That’s something that is benefiting the SPD, of all parties, just four weeks before the national elections.

Read more here.

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