SHANGHAI — For three decades, China has enjoyed astronomical growth through massive government investment and by becoming the world’s exporting powerhouse. But those days are coming to an end, and the government is looking to Chinese consumers to drive future expansion.
But a tradition of thrift and a historic mistrust of officialdom is thwarting efforts to persuade the Chinese to spend more, experts say. And with China’s economy in the midst of a major slowdown, the government has not yet moved away from restrictive policies that also discourage spending.
Friday, July 6, 2012
Thursday, July 5, 2012
The FAO Food Price Index
5 July 2012, Rome - The FAO Food Price Index fell
for the third consecutive month in June 2012, dipping 1.8 percent from
May to its lowest level since September 2010. The four-point drop in
June brought the index to 201 points from a revised level of 205 points
in May 2012.
The index now stands at 15.4 percent below its peak in February 2011. The average prices of all commodity groups in the Index were below May levels, with the largest drop registered for oils and fats.
Continued economic uncertainties and generally adequate food supply prospects kept the index down although growing concerns over dry weather sent prices of some crops higher toward the end of the month.
Food commodity prices have started rising again recently, mostly because of adverse weather and this may result in a rebound of the Food Price Index in July.
FAO also lowered its forecast for 2012 world cereal production by more than 23 million tonnes from May, which is likely to result in a smaller build-up of global stocks by the end of seasons in 2013.
FAO’s new forecast for world cereal production in 2012 stands at 2 396 million tonnes, still a record level and 2 percent up from the previous high registered last year.
Supply and demand situation adequate
According to FAO’s latest assessment, the overall supply and demand situation in 2012/13 remains adequate thanks to abundant supplies of rice, a leading food staple, and sufficient exportable supplies of wheat and coarse grains.
But grain prices were very volatile in June due to continuing dryness and above-average temperatures in most of the major maize growing regions of the United States. Adverse weather is diminishing prospects of an improvement in the maize supply situation and FAO is monitoring the development closely.
High-level event on volatility and speculation
The issue of swinging food prices will be discussed by a high-level event on “Food Price Volatility and Price Speculation” to be held at FAO on Friday, 6 July. Speakers will include Leonel Fernández, President of the Dominican Republic who will give a keynote address, and FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva.
“FAO has been actively involved in studying food price volatility and identifying appropriate policy responses,” said Graziano da Silva. “Our analytical work is helping to deepen the understanding of the nature, causes and impacts of volatility and of what governments and other stakeholders can do about it.”
The FAO Food Price Index is a measure of the monthly change in average international prices of a basket of 55 food commodities.
The index now stands at 15.4 percent below its peak in February 2011. The average prices of all commodity groups in the Index were below May levels, with the largest drop registered for oils and fats.
Continued economic uncertainties and generally adequate food supply prospects kept the index down although growing concerns over dry weather sent prices of some crops higher toward the end of the month.
Food commodity prices have started rising again recently, mostly because of adverse weather and this may result in a rebound of the Food Price Index in July.
FAO also lowered its forecast for 2012 world cereal production by more than 23 million tonnes from May, which is likely to result in a smaller build-up of global stocks by the end of seasons in 2013.
FAO’s new forecast for world cereal production in 2012 stands at 2 396 million tonnes, still a record level and 2 percent up from the previous high registered last year.
Supply and demand situation adequate
According to FAO’s latest assessment, the overall supply and demand situation in 2012/13 remains adequate thanks to abundant supplies of rice, a leading food staple, and sufficient exportable supplies of wheat and coarse grains.
But grain prices were very volatile in June due to continuing dryness and above-average temperatures in most of the major maize growing regions of the United States. Adverse weather is diminishing prospects of an improvement in the maize supply situation and FAO is monitoring the development closely.
High-level event on volatility and speculation
The issue of swinging food prices will be discussed by a high-level event on “Food Price Volatility and Price Speculation” to be held at FAO on Friday, 6 July. Speakers will include Leonel Fernández, President of the Dominican Republic who will give a keynote address, and FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva.
“FAO has been actively involved in studying food price volatility and identifying appropriate policy responses,” said Graziano da Silva. “Our analytical work is helping to deepen the understanding of the nature, causes and impacts of volatility and of what governments and other stakeholders can do about it.”
The FAO Food Price Index is a measure of the monthly change in average international prices of a basket of 55 food commodities.
Five Broken Cameras
This video shot by a B'Tselem volunteer depicts a group of four masked settlers from Yitzhar as they attempt to set fire to a Palestinian wheat field.
Why are they masked? They have nothing to fear from Israeli occupation troops or Israeli courts.
Border Police officer filmed kicking Palestinian child
Wednesday, 4 July 2012, 9:32 am
Article: B'Tselem
Hebron: Border Police officer filmed kicking Palestinian child
B'Tselem - The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories
02/07/2012
A B'Tselem video volunteer documented an Israeli Border Police officer kicking a Palestinian child while another officer held the boy. The incident took place on the 29th of June 2012 near the Tomb of the Patriarchs, in Hebron's H2 area. The child, Abd a-Rahman Burqan, who is nine years old, lives with his family near the parking lot used by Israeli vehicles outside of the Tomb. The video shows a Border Police officer ambushing a child from around the corner.
As the child walks past, the officer grabs him by the arm and says: "why are you making trouble?" The officer then drags the child, who is screaming, on the ground for a few seconds. A second Border Police officer then appears and kicks the boy. The officer then lets the child go. He runs away, and the two Border Police officers leave the scene as well.
The incident was filmed by a volunteer in B'Tselem's camera distribution project, from inside his home. The volunteer told B'Tselem that he began to film when he noticed the officer hiding behind the wall.
B'Tselem will refer the case to the Justice Ministry's Department for the Investigation of Police.
Jerusalem (CNN) -- A video released by an Israeli human rights organization shows what the group describes as a 9-year-old Palestinian boy being assaulted by two border police officers in the West Bank city of Hebron.
The footage, released by B'tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, shows the boy walking on pavement outside a building when a uniformed police officer runs up to him and grabs him by an arm, causing him to lose his balance and pulling him along the ground for a few feet.
The police officer, who is holding a rifle in one hand, asks the boy, "Why are you making trouble?" according to B'tselem. Seconds later, a second police officer, also carrying a rifle, walks up to the boy, kicks him, turns around and walks off without speaking. At that, the first policeman releases the boy, who runs out of the frame.
An investigation should be opened into the incident, said Sarit Michaeli, a spokeswoman for B'tselem.
"From the video evidence and from evidence collected from the child, it's obvious the border police officer was basically waiting for him and grabbed him and another border police officer came and kicked the child," she said. "The child denies attacking or harassing the border police officer. Regardless, this is irrelevant as far as B'tsalem is concerned, because this kind of behavior is absolutely prohibited regardless of the circumstance."She continued, "This kind of violence by border police officers, by official members of the Israeli security forces is outrageous and not allowed. B'tsalem is going to complain with the department of police investigations in the Ministry of Justice, which is a relevant government investigative body of allegations against the border police."
Michaeli said the boy had been treated similarly before. "A month ago he was attacked by border police officers on his way back from school," she said.
The incident occurred a few days after a team of human rights lawyers published a report funded by the British government that accuses Israel of violating international law in its treatment of Palestinian child detainees.
It was written after a week-long visit last September by the delegation to Israel and the West Bank.
The report accuses Israel of treating Palestinian and Israeli children differently -- Israelis must be at least 14 before they can be sent to jail; Palestinians must be 12. Israeli children generally have a legal right to have their parents present during questioning; Palestinians do not, it says. An Israeli child can be held no more than two days without being granted access to a lawyer; a Palestinian child can be held 90 days, it says.
"It may be that much of the reluctance to treat Palestinian children in conformity with international norms stems from a belief, which was advanced to us by a military prosecutor, that every Palestinian child is a 'potential terrorist,' the report says. "Such a stance seems to us to be the starting point of a spiral of injustice, and one which only Israel, as the Occupying Power in the West Bank, can reverse."
The Israel Defense Forces did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But Mark Regev, the spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told "The Age" newspaper of Melbourne, Australia, that Israel was studying the report's proposals. "The report acknowledges that Israel has made improvements and they have praised us for that," Regev said.
"You have countless acts of violence, including deadly violence, perpetrated by minors -- Israel is acting because of a vacuum created by a lack of action from the Palestinian leadership and by the exploitation of minors by the extremist groups."
The award-winning new documentary, "Five Broken Cameras," tells the story of a Palestinian farmer who got a video camera to record his son’s childhood, but ended up documenting the growth of the resistance movement to the Israeli separation wall in the West Bank village of Bil’in. The film shows the nonviolent tactics used by residents of Bil’in as they join with international and Israeli activists to protest the wall’s construction and confront Israeli soldiers. We speak with the film’s directors, Emad Burnat, a Palestinian, and Guy Davidi, an Israeli. [includes rush transcript]
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Human rights in Honduras
the Honduran people have suffered a catastrophic level of violence and repression that has recently led the United Nations to deem Honduras the most dangerous country in the world.
During those years, there have beenover 300 political assassinations. Just this Monday, a young member of the Honduran resistance movement was murdered.
Still, many Hondurans valiantly stand up against injustice and rampant impunity in their country, and the members of Witness for Peace have stood with them. We will continue to do so as long as U.S. policy contributes to human rights abuses there.
Military and police aid are expected to increase to nearly $7 million in 2013. This only an opportunity for more violence.
With your help, this week over 80 members of Congress signed a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton demanding that the State Department pressure the Honduran government to fully investigate and resolve cases of violence against LGBTQI Hondurans, and to take steps to protect such individuals. The letter reaffirms the State Department's own reports that U.S.-backed Honduran security forces themselves have targeted LGBTQI Hondurans. U.S. money and guns are only making this situation worse. Click here NOW to tell your Senators and Congressperson that you don't want any more U.S. tax dollars subsidizing human rights abuses!
To further support your advocacy for Honduras, Witness for Peace has created a Honduras Solidarity Action Toolkit, filled with useful resources and information, to help you organize solidarity actions in your community. For more information on solidarity events and actions in your area, contact your regional organizer or the National Grassroots Organizer.
To further support your advocacy for Honduras, Witness for Peace has created a Honduras Solidarity Action Toolkit, filled with useful resources and information, to help you organize solidarity actions in your community. For more information on solidarity events and actions in your area, contact your regional organizer or the National Grassroots Organizer.
Thank you for all that you do to promote human rights and justice in Honduras and throughout the Americas!
In nonviolent struggle and solidarity,
The WfP Honduras Working Group (Amy, Susan, Kristen, Elise, Walker, Tanya, Austin, Sharon, Riahl, Christine and Brooke)
In nonviolent struggle and solidarity,
The WfP Honduras Working Group (Amy, Susan, Kristen, Elise, Walker, Tanya, Austin, Sharon, Riahl, Christine and Brooke)
Forty-five people have been killed in the Bajo Aguán since September 2009. And a recent Center for Constitutional Rights report finds numerous cases of assassinations, harassment and threats against individuals who have spoken out against or reported on police corruption in recent months.
That’s why we need you to take action again today.
Last year you helped get 87 members of Congress to sign a letter asking Secretary Clinton to halt military and police aid to Honduras.
Because of that letter and other advocacy efforts, at the end of 2011 the State Department placed conditions on military and police aid to Honduras. However human rights violations have continued.
Ask your representative in Washington to stop fueling militarization in Honduras. Please take one minute to contact your representatives now to ask them to sign on to a new Dear Colleague letter circulating in the House.
In solidarity,
Brooke Denmark, Christine Goffredo and Riahl O’Malley
Witness for Peace Nicaragua International Team
Witness for Peace
3628 12th Street NE. 1st Fl.,
Washington, DC 20017
202.547.6112 - 202.536.4708
witness@witnessforpeace.org
3628 12th Street NE. 1st Fl.,
Washington, DC 20017
202.547.6112 - 202.536.4708
witness@witnessforpeace.org
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Swiss institute finds polonium in Arafat's effects
By Katharina Bart
ZURICH (Reuters) - Traces of the poisonous element polonium have been found in the belongings of late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, a Swiss institute said on Wednesday, and a television report said his widow had demanded his body be exhumed for further tests.
Arafat died at a hospital in France in 2004, after a sudden illness which baffled doctors. Many Palestinians have long suspected he was poisoned.
Darcy Christen, spokesman for the Institut de Radiophysique in Lausanne, Switzerland, told Reuters on Tuesday it had found "surprisingly" high levels of polonium-210 in Arafat's belongings.
But he stressed that clinical symptoms described in Arafat's medical reports were not consistent with polonium-210 and that conclusions could not be drawn as to whether the Palestinian leader was poisoned or not.
The Qatar-based Al Jazeera satellite channel said the institute had tested Arafat's personal effects, given them by his widow.
Its documentary said they showed that his clothes, toothbrush and kaffiyeh headscarf contained abnormal levels of polonium, a rare, highly radioactive element.
"I can confirm to you that we measured an unexplained, elevated amount of unsupported polonium-210 in the belongings of Mr. Arafat that contained stains of biological fluids," Francois Bochud, director of the institute, said in the documentary.
Bochud said the only way to confirm the findings would be to exhume Arafat's body to test it for polonium-210.
"But we have to do it quite fast because polonium is decaying, so if we wait too long, for sure, any possible proof will disappear," he told Al Jazeera.
Polonium was found to have caused the death of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006, and he was assumed to have been deliberately poisoned.
Arafat's widow Suha said she would ask for Arafat's body - buried in the West Bank town of Ramallah, seat of the Palestinian self-rule authority - to be exhumed.
Speaking at the end of the documentary, aired on Al Jazeera's English and Arabic channels, she said: "We have to go further and exhume Yasser Arafat's body to reveal the truth to all the Muslim and Arab world."
Arafat led the Palestinian Liberation Organisation's fight against Israel from the 1960s but signed a peace agreement with the Jewish state in 1993 establishing Palestinian self-rule areas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
His mysterious death came four years into a Palestinian uprising, after years of talks with Israel failed to lead to a Palestinian state. French doctors who treated Arafat in his final days could not establish the cause of death.
French officials refused to give details of his condition, citing privacy laws, fuelling a host of rumors and theories over the nature of his illness.
(Additional reporting by Sami Aboudi and Andrew Hammond; editing by Andrew Roche)
Do not mess with the most powerful country in the world
The Persecution of Julian Assange
By William Blum
03 July, 2012
Killinghope.org
Killinghope.org
I'm sure most Americans
are mighty proud of the fact that Julian Assange is so frightened of
falling into the custody of the United States that he had to seek
sanctuary in the embassy of Ecuador, a tiny and poor Third World
country, without any way of knowing how it would turn out. He might be
forced to be there for years.
"That'll teach him to mess with the most powerful country in the world! All you other terrorists and anti-Americans out there — Take Note! When you fuck around with God's country you pay a price!"
How true. You do pay a price. Ask the people of
Cuba, Vietnam, Chile, Yugoslavia, Iraq, Iran, Haiti, etc., etc., etc.
And ask the people of Guantánamo, Diego Garcia, Bagram, and a dozen
other torture centers to which God's country offers free transportation.
Monday, July 2, 2012
the Mexican Dirty War
Anything Goes in Dirty War
Margarito Genchi Casiano -- the former Mayor of Florencio Villarreal and local congressional candidate for the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) -- was assassinated in the Costa Chica of Guerrero. The tragic event took place June 11 in Llano Largo, near the municipality of Cruz Grande. Just four days earlier, Genchi Casiano had attended a campaign rally for PRD's presidential candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
The remains of 14 unidentified bodies were found inside a pick-up truck stationed a few blocks away from the Mayor's office of Mante, Tamaulipas. The Governor of Tamaulipas has confirmed that the corpses were abandoned in broad daylight inside a privately owned pick-up truck.
Authorities add that the Police and Forensic Medical Examiners have been unable to identify the cadavers of the 11 men and three women.
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