Daily Archives: May 9, 2015

Action, Economic Justice, Economy

Want to Help Nepal Recover from Debt, Says Rights Group

INTER PRESS SERVICE
News Agency (IPS)
By Kanya D’Almeida

School children in Nepal’s Matatirtha village practice an earthquake drill in the event of a natural disaster. A 7.8-magnitude earthquake in Nepal on Apr. 25, 2015, has endangered the lives of close to a million children. Credit: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade/CC-BY-2.0
School children in Nepal’s Matatirtha village practice an earthquake drill in the event of a natural disaster. A 7.8-magnitude earthquake in Nepal on Apr. 25, 2015, has endangered the lives of close to a million children. Credit: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade/CC-BY-2.0

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 27 2015 (IPS) – The death toll has now passed 3,300, and there is no telling how much farther it will climb. Search and rescue operations in Nepal entered their third day Monday, as the government and international aid agencies scramble to cope with the aftermath of a 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck this South Asian nation on Apr. 25.

Severe aftershocks have this land-locked country of 27.8 million people on edge, with scores missing and countless others feared dead, buried under the rubble. More…

Biodiversity, Brazil, Environment

Peru’s mega-dam projects threaten Amazon River source and ecosystem collapse

by David Hill
April 28, 2015
news.mongabay.com

'The Marañón River in Peru where the government is proposing more than 20 dams on the main trunk.' Photo credit: David Hill
‘The Marañón River in Peru where the government is proposing more than 20 dams on the main trunk.’ Photo credit: David Hill

Peru is planning a series of huge hydroelectric dams on the 1,700-kilometer (1,056-mile) Marañón River, which begins in the Peruvian Andes and is the main source of the Amazon River. Critics say the mega-dam projects could destroy the currently free-flowing Marañón, resulting in what Peruvian engineer Jose Serra Vega calls its “biological death.”

In 2011, Peru passed a law declaring the construction of 20 dams on the main trunk of the Marañón to be in the “national interest” and that the projects will launch the country’s “long-term National Energy Revolution.” But many Peruvians following the issue believe the planned dams are less about meeting “national demand” for electricity as the law reads, and more about supplying mining companies, and exporting to neighboring countries.  More…

Action

Italy–Those seeking asylum are seeking it from you

INDEPENDENT CATHOLIC NEWS
By: Jacquelyn Pavilon
Posted: Friday, April 24, 2015 5:45 pm.

Crammed boat arrives at LampedusaThe number of asylum applications in Italy increased by 143 percent in 2014, reaching a new record of 64,886, according to the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) Italy annual report. While great strides have been made to accommodate refugees and asylum seekers, more needs to be done by the Italian and European authorities to welcome and integrate the newcomers. More…

Economy

Elizabeth Warren Tells Obama To Put Up Or Shut Up On Trade

COMMON DREAMS
by Zach Carter, Huff Post’

WASHINGTON — Progressive Democrats have been hoping to see a showdown between Elizabeth Warren and Hillary Clinton for years. Instead, they’re getting a public feud between the senator from Massachusetts and President Barack Obama.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, along with Sen. Sherrod Brown, have responded to recent White House statements on TPP with a sharply-worded letter calling out President Obama and other backers of the corporate-friendly trade pact. (Photo: Timothy D. Easley)
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, along with Sen. Sherrod Brown, have responded to recent White House statements on TPP with a sharply-worded letter calling out President Obama and other backers of the corporate-friendly trade pact. (Photo: Timothy D. Easley)

Obama accused Warren and congressional Democrats on Friday of being “dishonest” and spreading “misinformation” about the Trans-Pacific Partnership — a trade pact the administration is negotiating among 12 nations. The overwhelming majority of Democrats in Congress oppose TPP, while Republican leaders support it.

‘We respectfully suggest,’ reads a letter from Sens. Warren and Sherrod Brown to President Obama, ‘that characterizing the assessments of labor unions, journalists, Members of Congress, and others who disagree with your approach to transparency on trade issues as ‘dishonest’ is both untrue and unlikely to serve the best interests of the American people.’ More

Action, Church

After fresh tragedy, Syrian Christian leader warns: ‘We could disappear’

CRUX
By John L. Allen Jr.

Associate editor | April 28, 2015

Jeanbart-Archbishop-Melkite-Greeks-717x450

While most of the world celebrated Easter 2015 with church services and family get-togethers, Christians in the Syrian city of Aleppo spent the holiday digging through rubble to locate the bodies of 15 people who died after a ferocious round of rocket bombs rained down on a Christian neighborhood.

It was merely the latest assault on Christians in the city, which has seen some of the most intense fighting between jihadists and Syrian forces.

Archbishop Jean-Clément Jeanbart, head of the Melkite Greek Catholic Archparchy of Aleppo… More