Resistance in the News

GENEVA (Reuters) — Women still lag far behind men in top political and decision-making roles, though their access to education and health care is nearly equal, the World Economic Forum said Wednesday.

In its 2008 Global Gender Gap report, the forum, a Swiss research organization, ranked Norway, Finland and Sweden as the countries that have the most equality of the sexes, and Saudi Arabia, Chad and Yemen as having the least.

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In a daring guerrilla raid earlier this fall, members of the Los Angeles chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) infiltrated a local gas station to deploy a battalion of 4171 toy soldiers, together with a sign reading, “Price of Gas: 4171 U.S. Soldiers.”

The project was initiated by designer Andrew Wilcox, who served as art director, and photographer and former marine Jonas Lara. According to Wilcox, it also involved “6 Iraq War Veterans who wish to remain anonymous.”

A video of the action, carried out in the early morning hours of October 11, has now been posted on YouTube and Digg and featured at the IVAW website and on several blogs.
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WASHINGTON — The number of young people considering a military career has significantly increased for the first time in about five years, buoyed by more positive news out of Iraq.

Military officials predict interest will rise even further because of the worsening economy.

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The UN has no more food to distribute in the Gaza Strip, the head of relief efforts in the area has warned.

John Ging said handouts for 750,000 Gazans would have to be suspended until Saturday at the earliest, and called Gaza’s economic situation “a disaster”.

Israel earlier denied entry to a convoy carrying humanitarian supplies.

It has prevented the transfer of all goods into Gaza for nearly a week, blaming continuing rocket attacks by Palestinian militants.

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At least 11 more Burmese activists have received jail sentences for taking part in anti-government protests last year.

It brings the total number sentenced this week to more than 60.

A special court set up by the military government handed out jail terms of up to nine-and-a-half years to activists, mainly from the opposition NLD party.

Fourteen student leaders were given 65-year sentences earlier this week and monks and labour activists have also been given long spells in prison.

It is unclear why the authorities have acted against the opposition now.

However, human rights groups say the government is intensifying efforts to curb dissent ahead of elections in 2010.

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Nothing is more non-nonconformist than a nearly two-hour panel discussion. But times have indeed changed, and the three former political radicals who gathered for one on Saturday in Manhattan did not seem to mind.

At a table in the Steven Kasher Gallery in Chelsea, Tom Hayden sat next to Bernardine Dohrn. Next to her was Jamal Joseph.

Forty years ago, Mr. Hayden was a co-founder of Students for a Democratic Society, a driving force behind the movement against the Vietnam War. He was also a member of the Chicago Seven, who were tried on charges of conspiring to incite a riot at the Democratic National Convention in 1968. Ms. Dohrn was also a leader of S.D.S., and would later help form a violent splinter group called the Weather Underground that bombed government buildings in the early 1970s. Mr. Joseph was a young Black Panther in Harlem who went to prison in the ’80s for harboring a fugitive.

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DHARAMSHALA, India (AFP) — More than 500 leading Tibetan exiles will gather in India next week for a rare meeting that could radically alter the course of their decades-old struggle with Chinese rule in Tibet.

The conclave — the largest of its kind in 60 years — was called by Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who last month finally, and very publicly, threw in the towel on wringing any concessions from Beijing.

In a move seen by some as an open invitation to those who favour pushing for full Tibetan independence, the Dalai Lama has urged the November 17-22 gathering to consider every aspect of current policy regarding China.

“I think this meeting will prove to be a turning point,” said Sonam Dolkar, a human rights worker with the Gu Chu Sum organisation of former Tibetan political prisoners.

“The time has come for the Tibetan people to consider their future and to make a substantive decision on what direction they want the Tibetan movement to take,” Dolkar said.

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The planting of landmine-detecting tobacco plants is to be delayed as researchers are not yet sure which plant mutation will be most effective.

The Cape Times states that the University of Stellenbosch’s Department of Agronomy entered into a research agreement with Danish plant biotechnology company Aresa to test the viability of the plant. Stellenbosch University agronomic researcher Estelle Kempen said the department would apply for a Genetic Modification Organism permit to conduct field trials next year. Aresa developed the ‘RedDetect’ technology in a weed called Thales cress. The tobacco plant was chosen as it is hardy and any changes in colour may be seen easily on its large leaves. The plants were transformed with a gene from the snapdragon that enables them to detect nitrogen dioxide, a by-product of landmines, in soil. This releases a red plant pigment into the leaves.

Link to Original: Growing of Landmine-Detecting Plants Delayed (Legalbrief Today)

Arms control advocates and anti-war activists are ratcheting up pressure on President-elect Barack Obama to dump Defense Secretary Robert Gates and replace him with a more strident anti-war voice.

Nominating Gates to stay, “would be a violation of the mandate for change that Obama says he represents,” said Medea Benjamin, cofounder of the anti-war group CodePink.

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Had destiny followed the course his relatives had scripted, 16-year-old Satish would have been a member of the Salwa Judam — the government-assisted private army to take on the Naxalites in Chhattisgarh. By now, he would have mastered the “art of killing”.

“I stand for peace and friendship,” says Satish who, along with 30 children from economically weaker families, is pedalling his way to Pakistan. Part of the Peace By Cycle, an initiative by Bangalore-based Bornfree Art School International (BASI), the group reached Mumbai on Tuesday. The cyclists, aged between 11 and 18, would have covered a distance of 2,869 km when they reach Lahore on November 23.

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