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Greek addicts turn to deadly sisha drug as economic crisis deepens

Fri, 17 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Helena Smith - May. 17 (News Analysis) - Growing popularity of 'cocaine of the poor' in Athens has overwhelmed public health authorities already under strain Nobody knows which came first: the economic crisis tearing Greece apart or shisha, the drug now known as the "cocaine of the poor".

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Four colossal Sun flares in 48 hours

Wed, 15 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

BBC News - By Paul Rincon - May. 15 (News Report) - The Sun has unleashed the most powerful eruption - a solar flare - of 2013 so far.

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European energy chief puts forward case for funding coal

Mon, 13 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Terry Macalister - May. 13 (News) - EBRD chief Riccardo Puliti warns Europe not to be hasty in adopting 'ideological' policy on carbon intensity funding One of Europe's most influential government-owned investors in the energy industry has hinted it may expand funding of high-carbon coal projects despite mounting pressure from climate change campaigners to rule out such investments. Riccardo Puliti, energy chief at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), warned against an "ideological" policy on carbon intensity in funding decisions without giving weight to other considerations. The EBRD, which is based in London and owned by more than 60 countries, including the UK, is reviewing its energy policy. It has a €37.5bn (£32bn) loan book, with 41% of its investments last year channelled into the energy and infrastructure sectors. Puliti's comments came as scientists declared the highest day-long concentration of C0 2 in human history and a line of global institutions such as the International Energy ...

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Racist chants halt Milan-Roma game

Mon, 13 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

BBC News - May. 13 (News) - The Serie A match between AC Milan and Roma is halted because of racist chanting inside the San Siro.

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The Facts Are In and Paul Ryan Is Wrong

Fri, 10 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

New York Magazine - By Jonathan Chait - May. 10 (News Analysis) - Changes in the way we think about the world are not “news” in the classic sense — they occur gradually, without discrete events to signal them. But they matter. Two such developments have come together recently, both reported in the New York Times. The f

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'Climate change sceptics are turning Earth into dying patient'

Fri, 10 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Fiona Harvey - May. 10 (News Report) - Heir to throne intervenes on issue dividing coalition, making outspoken criticism of attempts to tackle global warming Prince Charles has attacked corporate lobbyists and climate change sceptics for turning the Earth into a "dying patient", making his most outspoken criticism yet of the world's failure to tackle global warming just when the heir to the throne is assuming a growing number of the duties of what is supposed to be an apolitical monarchy. Hosting a two-day conference for forest scientists at St James's Palace in London, the Prince of Wales satirised those who stand in the way of climate action, characterising them as "the confirmed sceptics" and "the international association of corporate lobbyists". Faced with these forces of opposition, "science finds itself up the proverbial double blind gum tree", he added. At the debate on environmental issues, hours after the prince attended the Queen's speech, Charles attacked businesses which failed to care for the environment and ...

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Stop the Plunder of Africa

Thu, 09 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By By KOFI ANNAN - May. 09 (Opinion) - Op-Ed Contributor: Stop the Plunder of Africa

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Is Cameron's Britain what we fought for in the war?

Thu, 09 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Harry Leslie Smith - May. 09 (Opinion) - At 90 I'm too old to fight those who seek to wreck the civilisation we shed blood, sweat, and tears for in the second world war Every year, the spring rains fall hard and heavy to a parched and hungry earth. Life is reborn from the long slumber of winter. For me the beauty in this annual transformation stings as if I caught my finger on a thorn from a rose. These lengthening days remind me of another time, when I was a young man. Back then the sun's rays were just as warm and sensuous but the splendour of nature being reborn was tainted with death. It was 1945, and Europe was still caught in the dying grasps of a cruel and unforgiving world war . It was a conflict that consumed tens of millions of lives through military battles, air bombardment and pure and simple mass murder. For five years of war, through defeat and bitter struggle, the calendar changed from humid summers to crisp fall days, to the bitterness of winter and then back to the optimism of spring. As clocks in every household ...

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EU debates biopiracy law to protect indigenous people

Wed, 01 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - May. 01 (News Report) - Pharmaceutical firms would need to compensate indigenous people for using their knowhow in creating new medicines The European parliament is debating a draft biopiracy law requiring industry to compensate indigenous people if it makes commercial use of local knowledge such as plant-based medicines. Under the law – based on the international convention on access to biodiversity, the Nagoya protocol – the pharmaceuticals industry would need the written consent of local or indigenous people before exploring their region's genetic resources or making use of their traditional knowhow. Relevant authorities would have the power to sanction companies that fail to comply, protecting local interests from the predatory attitude of big European companies. German firm patents South African herb The draft report on access to genetic resources by Green MEP Sandrine Bélier cites as an example a German pharmaceutical company's dealings in South Africa. Pelargonium sidoides, a variety of ...

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2 More Grad Students Claim To Find Another Flaw In Reinhart-Rogoff Research

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Mark Gongloff - Apr. 30 (News Report) - Like Scooby-Doo villains, Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff keep getting done in by meddling kids. First, University of Massachusetts-Amherst grad student Thomas Herndon shot holes in their influential research paper, "Growth In A Time Of Debt," by pointing out several mistakes and omissions the Harvard economists had made. Now, two PhD students at the University of Missouri-Kansas City have a new paper that they say finds another flaw in that same research.

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The Kilburn Manifesto: our challenge to the neoliberal victory

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Stuart Hall - Apr. 24 (Opinion) - Elites are using the crisis of global capital to reassert power. But this is no time for retreat. Our manifesto outlines the alternative The crisis in the global economic system triggered by the banking collapse of 2006-08 has precipitated a new moment in the evolution of global capitalism. But its novelty is not generally understood. Some previous crises, most famously the great crash and depression of the 1930s, produced radical social change: the welfare state and New Deal , as well as the rise of fascism. In the past five years protest groups such as Occupy have appeared, and resistance to austerity has grown. Yet there has been no rupture in the system or its governing ideology. Indeed, elites have used the crisis in Europe and north America to advance the neoliberal project, as unrelenting attacks on living standards, the NHS and the welfare state in Britain show. The disintegration of the British postwar settlement was the central project of one of the new right's most politically ...

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Sotheby's Auction Boosts Indian Art Sales

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Gayatri Rangachari Shah - Apr. 19 (Opinion) - India Ink: Sotheby’s Auction Boosts Indian Art Sales

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Paul Ryan's Austerity Agenda Relies on Bad Math, Coding Errors and a 'Significant Mistake'

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Nation - By John Nichols - Apr. 18 (News Analysis) - The paper the House Budget Committee chairman has used as the intellectual and statistical underpinning for his austerity agenda has been significantly discredited by the revelation that essential data was excluded from the study, leading "to serious errors that inaccurately represent the relationship between public debt and growth." The Harvard professors who produced the paper—which Ryan cited as recently as last month—have acknowledged their mathematical error. Now, the question is whether Ryan and

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Clean energy progress too slow to limit global warming, warns IEA

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - Apr. 17 (News Analysis) - With governments failing to promote green energy, top scientists say the drive to keep temperature rise below 2C has stalled The development of low-carbon energy is progressing too slowly to limit global warming, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Wednesday . With power generation still dominated by coal and governments failing to increase investment in clean energy, top climate scientists have said that the target of keeping the global temperature rise to less than 2C this century is slipping out of reach . "The drive to clean up the world's energy system has stalled," said Maria van der Hoeven, the IEA's executive director, at the launch of the agency's report on clean energy progress . "Despite much talk by world leaders, and a boom in renewable energy over the past decade, the average unit of energy produced today is basically as dirty as it was 20 years ago." Global clean energy investment in the first quarter fell to its lowest level in four years, driven by cuts in ...

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China cozies up to Iceland in race for Arctic resources

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Christian Science Monitor - Apr. 15 (News Analysis) - China has been paying a lot of attention to Iceland, a country with a population 5,000 times smaller than its own, as an effort to stretch its influence into the Arctic Sea. ...

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All Politics Is Economic

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Masha Gessen - Apr. 15 (Opinion) - Latitude: How Politics Controls Russia's Media Business

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Climate change: how a warming world is a threat to our food supplies

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By John Vidal - Apr. 14 (Comment) - Global warming is exacerbating political instability as tensions brought on by food insecurity rise. With research suggesting the issue can only get worse we examine the risks around the world Infographic: the impact of climate on food When the Tunisian street vendor, Mohamed Bouazizi , set himself on fire on 17 December 2010, it was in protest at heavy-handed treatment and harassment in the province where he lived. But a host of new studies suggest that a major factor in the subsequent uprisings, which became known as the Arab spring, was food insecurity. Drought, rocketing bread prices, food and water shortages have all blighted parts of the Middle East. Analysts at the Centre for American Progress in Washington say a combination of food shortages and other environmental factors exacerbated the already tense politics of the region. As the Observer reports today, an as-yet unpublished US government study indicates that the world needs to prepare for much more of the same, as food prices ...

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North Korea issues fresh warning of war

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

BBC News - Apr. 11 (Special Report) - North Korea has warned that war could break out at any moment, as tensions mount on the Korean peninsula. South Korea had raised its alert level amid indications that the North is preparing for a missile test.

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The long, slow death of the UK coal industry

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Mark Seddon - Apr. 11 (News Report) - Earlier this month Maltby colliery in South Yorkshire closed down for good. At the end of a winter that saw 40% of our energy needs met by coal – most of it imported – we witnessed the poignant closing ceremony Nothing better symbolised the passing of a great industry, referred to reverentially as "King Coal", than the lowering of one of the last chunks to have been cut at Maltby colliery next to the grave of the "unknown miner" in the town's cemetery last weekend. His had been the only body to be recovered when a gas explosion ripped through the underground galleries 90 years ago, killing 27 men. Those present wiped away tears, as last rites on an industry that had sustained this community for more than a century were read by the local priest. Wreaths were laid and the colliery brass band played the miners' hymn, Gresford, itself an anthem to another disaster. The short service had been billed as a "thanksgiving and prayer for the future", although the many newly redundant must have wondered ...

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How Much Do Health Impacts From Fossil Fuel Electricity Cost The U.S. Economy?

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Forbes - By Justin Gerdes - Apr. 08 (News Analysis) - How much would electricity cost in the United States if the retail price reflected the health impacts of burning fossil fuels? A paper recently published by researchers at the Environmental Protection Agency finds that accounting for such costs would add an average of 14 to 35 cents per kilowatt-hour to the retail cost of electricity. Nationwide, these hidden health costs add up to as much as $886.5 billion annually, or 6% of GDP.

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China bird flu virus found in more markets in Shanghai

Sat, 06 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Reuters - By Adam Jourda - Apr. 06 (News Report) - Chinese authorities have found traces of a new bird flu virus that has killed six people in more areas in Shanghai, state media reported, after authorities slaughtered over 20,000 birds at a large poultry market in the city. State-run Xinhua news agency said samples of the H7N9 virus were found at two markets selling agricultural products in the Minhang district of Shanghai, a city of 23 million people that is China's financial hub.

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UK locks up people who want to save the planet

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Andrew Simms - Apr. 03 (Opinion) - The climate campaigners should be given a medal for their outstanding bravery and public service, not prison sentences What if, instead of giving Marie Curie and Alexander Fleming Nobel prizes for their life-saving work on radiation and penicillin, they'd been thrown in jail? Or, instead of being awarded the Grand Croix of the Légion d'honneur for his work on the germ theory of disease, Louis Pasteur was imprisoned like Napoleon on Elba? It would be perverse to return the favour of great, public works by depriving people of their freedom. Yet that is just what we're doing in Britain right now. The contributions of the people above were remarkable, but how much greater is the challenge of preserving a readily habitable climate, and how thankful should we be to those prepared to throw their life's energy and creativity at the task? The answer according to the British establishment currently is not at all. Their response is the kind of gratitude a Caesar might hand-out to an innocent ...

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Indian court rejects Novartis cancer patent bid

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - Apr. 01 (News Report) - Healthcare activists welcome landmark ruling they say will give poor patients continued access to cheap medicines India's supreme court has rejected drugmaker Novartis AG's attempt to patent a new version of a cancer drug in a landmark decision that healthcare activists say ensures poor patients around the world will get continued access to cheap versions of lifesaving medicines. Novartis had argued it needed a patent to protect its investment in the cancer drug Glivec, while activists said the company was trying to use loopholes to make more money out of a drug whose patent had expired. The decision has global implications since India's $26bn (£17bn) generic drug industry supplies much of the cheap medicine used in the developing world. The ruling sets a precedent that will prevent international pharmaceutical companies from obtaining fresh patents in India on updated versions of existing drugs, said Pratibha Singh, a lawyer for the Indian generic drug manufacturer Cipla, which ...

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Novartis denied cancer drug patent in landmark Indian case

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Sarah Boseley - Apr. 01 (News) - The Indian supreme court has refused to allow one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies to patent a new version of a cancer drug, a decision campaigners hailed as a major step forward in enabling poor people to access medicines in the developing world. Novartis lost a six-year legal battle after the court ruled that small changes and improvements to the drug Glivec did not amount to innovation deserving of a patent. T

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Hot Money Blues

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Paul Krugman - Mar. 25 (Opinion) - It will mark the end of an era for Cyprus, which has in effect spent the past decade advertising itself as a place where wealthy individuals who want to avoid taxes and scrutiny can safely park their money, no questions asked. But it may also mark at least the beginning of the end for something much bigger: the era when unrestricted movement of capital was taken as a desirable norm around the world.

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