Health

By Josh Butler | – UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – A single image can be more powerful, more descriptive and more potent than an entire essay – ‘ a picture says a thousand words,’ as the cliché goes. So it is in Syria, where despite the undoubted millions of words penned about atrocity after atrocity, bombing […]

Central Intelligence Agency

Drone program Crashing as Spiritually Damaged Pilots quit in Droves

contributors

By Pratap Chatterjee | (Tomdispatch.com) – The U.S. drone war across much of the Greater Middle East and parts of Africa is in crisis and not because civilians are dying or the target list for that war or the right to wage it just about anywhere on the planet are in question in Washington. Something […]

Apartheid

Gaza’s Food Insecurity made even worse by Environmental Damage of Israel’s War, Blockade

contributors

By Mel Frykberg BEIT LAHIYA, Northern Gaza Strip (IPS) – Extensive damage to Gaza’s environment as a result of the Israeli blockade and its devastating military campaign against the coastal territory during last year’s war from July to August, is negatively affecting the health of Gazans, especially their food security. Safa Subha and three-year-old Rahat […]

Health

Israel denies Gaza govt floodwater allegations

contributors

NB AFP has withdrawn the original story. BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Israel on Monday rejected allegations by the government in the Gaza Strip that authorities had released storm water into the coastal enclave. Children clear water after flooding in Gaza. (MaanImages) In a statement, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories said Israel did not […]

Health

Post-Hostilities Gaza an ‘Increasingly Toxic Environment’ UN Warns

contributors

By IMEMC News & Agencies A top United Nations official warned, on Wednesday, of an ‘increasingly toxic environment’ in the besieged Gaza Strip and called on Israel to release Palestinian tax revenues. Briefing the UN Security Council on the situation in the Middle East, Under Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman discussed what he described […]

Health

Cigarettes to Kill 1 Billion this Century Despite Global Treaty (+ John Oliver)

contributors

By Laurent Huber | – GENEVA (IPS) – February 27 will mark the 10th anniversary of the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the first global public health treaty. Today the FCTC has 180 Parties, making it among the most widely-adopted international instruments. About 90 percent of the world’s population falls under […]

Barack Obama

5 Top Reasons Romney ought to have Withdrawn

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – Likely the reasons Mitt Rimney decided not to run for a third time are financial – the big money just wouldn’t make another bet on a serial loser. But here is why he shouldn’t have even thought about running in a rational world: 1. In his famous slam […]

Apartheid

Gaza: Bringing War-Disabled Palestinian Youth back into Society

contributors

By Khaled Alashqar | (IPS) — Samah Shaheen (right), one of Gaza’s many disabled young people, joined the Irada programme to acquire expertise, learn computerised wood carving and escape social marginalisation. Credit: Khaled Alashqar/IPS GAZA CITY, Jan 17 2015 (IPS) – The Israeli attacks that the Gaza Strip has suffered in recent years have left […]

Guns

Boehner would-be Assassin had .380 Handgun despite Hearing Voices, Planning Murder

contributors

WCPO | Cincinnati — “Ebola, evil voices and the devil. Those are just a few of the things a Butler County bartender cited as reasons he was going to kill House Speaker John Boehner, police said.” WCPO.com : “FBI: Boehner’s bartender planned to poison him” NBC News reports “According to court documents obtained by NBC […]