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Afghan Women’s Rights Advocate Barred from U.S.
The U.S. government has denied a travel visa to Malalai Joya, an acclaimed women’s rights activist and former member of Afghanistan’s parliament, said organizers of her U.S. tour. Joya, who was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world in 2010, was set to begin a three-week U.S. tour to promote…
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Declaration of War on Libya?
PHYLLIS BENNIS A fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, Bennis is author of Calling the Shots: How Washington Dominates Today’s UN. She said today: “Libya’s opposition movement faces a ruthless military assault. They have already paid a far higher price in lost and broken lives than activists in any of the other democratic uprisings…
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Backing Nuclear: Administration “Disconnected from Reality”
Bloomberg reports today: “The Obama administration will press ahead with efforts to expand loan guarantees for new nuclear reactors while investigating the failure of Japan’s power plants after an earthquake, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said.” NORMAN SOLOMON Available for a limited number of interviews, Solomon is president of the Institute for Public Accuracy and a…
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Haiti: “Would Kill Aristide” Says Presidential Candidate Martelly in Video
MARK WEISBROT, via Dan Beeton Co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Weisbrot has been been involved in Haiti policy work for over 20 years. He has co-authored two papers analyzing the outcome of the first round of Haiti’s elections and several op-eds and columns on the elections and Aristide’s return. He said…
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St. Patrick’s Day and the Irish Famine
CHRISTINE KINEALY Kinealy is author of “This Great Calamity: The Irish Famine 1845-52” and other books on Irish history. She is professor of history at Drew University in New Jersey and just returned from Ireland on Tuesday. She said today: “In 1997, the New York St. Patrick’s Day parade honoured the victims of Ireland’s Great…
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The U.S. and Egyptian Army Are One?
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Cairo. RASHA AZAB Azab is spokesperson for the Liberties Committee at the Press Syndicate in Cairo, which is holding a news conference tomorrow on the “hundreds of Egyptians protesting in Tahrir Square who have been subject to detention and torture by members of the army and Republican Guard…
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Bahrain: Martial Law, Hundreds Wounded
Reuters reports: “Two men were killed and more than 200 people wounded in clashes in Bahrain on Tuesday, a hospital source said.” Extremely graphic video of Bahraini protester in hospital: youtube.com HUSAIN ABDULLA Abdulla is director of Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain. He said today: “It’s obvious that the Saudi and Bahraini…
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Saudi Occupies Bahrain
CHRISTOPHER DAVIDSON A scholar in Middle East politics at Durham University, Davidson said today: “What is happening is an invasion and occupation of Bahrain by Saudi Arabia under the guise of the Gulf Cooperation Council. This is done at the request of the regime in Bahrain to put down the pro-democracy movement there. … “The…
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Japan Nuclear Disaster
ARJUN MAKHIJANI Makhijani is president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, which has just released a paper “Post-Tsunami Situation at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan: Facts, Analysis, and Some Potential Outcome.” In addition to meltdowns, the paper highlights the problem of the storage pools, which could be even more dire.…
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Threat of Nuclear Disaster in Japan
AP is reporting: “Japan ordered thousands of residents near a northeastern nuclear power plant to evacuate today following a massive earthquake that caused a problem in the plant’s cooling system.” KEVIN KAMPS Kamps is a specialist in nuclear waste at Beyond Nuclear. Last year he was in Japan assessing the state of nuclear facilities there.…