by BENJAMIN A. SHOBERT
But voices that were once easy to dismiss are now, in the middle of an ongoing economic setback that at its best is labeled a “jobless recovery”, are becoming more politically powerful, and insiders in Washington are beginning to sense that this time it might actually have significant impact on the economic relationship between the two countries.
Asia Times Online for more
by A. RAMAKRISHNAN
[Warren] Anderson [of the Union Carbide], it turned out, wanted to come to Bhopal but would do so only he if was assured safe passage. When he was promised that, he came; some local officials arrested him; the US embassy got into the act, Rasgotra checked with the home ministry and soon Anderson was out and on his way to New Delhi, en route to the US. In the capital, he met Rasgotra, and perhaps some others in high office.
This fairly simple sequence answered all the questions: why was Anderson allowed to leave? Because he had been promised safe passage. Who authorized it? The home secretary or the then home minister (PV Narasimha Rao). When Rajiv Gandhi (who was travelling in Madhya Pradesh) came to know, he did not protest. Was a criminal/mass murderer allowed to get away? Well, if he had not been promised safe passage, he would never have stepped into the country, and the question of his arrest and arraignment would not even have arisen.
The Hoot for more
(Submitted by Mukul Dube)
by Anwar Akhtar
“The work is powerful and highlights an ethnically mixed, religiously tolerant and diverse Pakistan.” PHOTO/Mehmood Qureshi
‘Pakistan Through a Lens’ currently at the Redbridge Museum showcases a Pakistan rarely highlighted by the mainstream media. But it is a Pakistan that is thankfully being highlighted by an increasing interest in the photography coming out of Pakistan and its neighbours, as seen in the recent ‘Three Dreams’ exhibit in Whitechapel.
Kudos to Sadia Malik, a young student and a human dynamo who has single-handedly put this exhibition together, from liaising with the photographers and curating the show, to booking the venue and the many other tasks involved.
Dawn for more
by PATRICK MARTIN
With 12 Democrats joining a unanimous Republican bloc, the US Senate voted Wednesday to defeat a proposed extension of unemployment benefits for workers who have been jobless for nearly two years. The bill would have extended unemployment benefits for those out of work more than six months, until November 30.
In the two and a half weeks since June 1, when the last extension expired, some 903,000 workers have seen their benefits cut off. By June 26, that number will top 1.2 million.
World Socialist Web Site for more
by EMMA JACOBS
The 58-year-old chief executive of the UK-based, international anti-poverty charity leads an organisation that employs 25,000 and raises £300m a year. This is achieved through a wide range of fundraising activities, most prominently its large retail business comprising 700-plus shops, which sell second-hand items such as clothing and books as well as fair trade food and goods. Ms Stocking liaises with government, private sector and world leaders at events such as G8, International Monetary Fund/World Bank and UN summits and is a regular at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Financial Times for more
(Submitted by reader)
WORLD SCIENCE
The researchers were not only able to see that the rats had working navigational neurons from the beginning, but they were also able to see the order in which the cells matured.
The first to mature were head direction cells, the group found. These neurons tell the animal which direction it is heading, and are thought to enable an internal inertia-based navigation system, like a compass. “These cells were almost adult-like right from the beginning,” Langston said.
World Science for more
AFROL NEWS
Agbogbloshie waste dump in Ghana
© DanWatch/afrol News
Only in the major port of Ghana, Tema, each month some 600 40-foot containers of outdated electronic equipment arrive from all over the world, mostly comprising of old computers, TVs and refrigerators. The traffic in waste or almost-waste products to Ghana is on the increase.
According to the activist groups DanWatch and Greenpeace, only about one quarter of the electronic goods are capable of being reused and end up in the stores of second-hand shops around the region. The rest, amounting to at least 450 containers each month, is pure waste and ends up in Ghana’s largest waste dump Agbogbloshie.
Afrol News for more
by JEFFREY ST. CLAIR
Back at the start of the 20th century, John D. Rockefeller remarked that “not even God himself can keep me from giving my money to the University of Chicago.” The old bandit’s investments duly paid off, with platoons of Chicago economists and jurists all hymning the free market and invoking the inexorable laws requiring that some be rich and many be poor.
Philanthropy and its purposes haven’t changed much since Rockefeller millions were dispensed to winch the family name out of the mud, particularly after the Ludlow massacre when Rockefeller minions broke a strike by spraying with oil and then igniting tents filled with women and children.
Counterpunch for more
by SAMIR AMIN
Worse, “Europe” doesn’t exist socially and economically either. A Europe composed of 25-30 states remains profoundly unequal in terms of capitalist development. The oligopolies that control the economy of the region (and its current politics and political culture besides) are groups whose “nationality” is determined by that of their major directors. These groups are primarily British, German, and French, only marginally Dutch, Swedish, Spanish, and Italian. Eastern Europe and in part Southern Europe are to Northwestern and Central Europe what Latin America is to the United States.
MR Zine for more