International

India presented on Sunday the first of five nuclear powered submarines that it plans to produce, with its energy source being an 85 megawatt nuclear reactor which can generate a speed of 44 kilometres per hours underwater. The Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh called it an “historic milestone in the country’s defence preparedness.”

The Prefecture of the Pontifical Household confirmed that the Pope will receive members of the Peace March in a general audience on the coming 11th of November. The members of the base team who start in New Zealand on the 2nd of October will have travelled through Oceania, Asia and Europe before presenting their proposals for nuclear disarmament and nonviolence before the Vatican.

Organisers of the World March in Ghana today highlighted the issue of the Treaty of Pelindaba to the Deputy Speaker of parliament who promised to investigate and see what could be done to ratify it as soon as possible.

Participants asked the World March team to denounce the intention of the Japanese government to modify the Japanese Constitution that renounces the right to go to war.

According to the UN World Food Programme the economic crisis is adding four million hungry people per week.

The United States, Italy, Germany, Brazil, Austria and Belgium head the list of the world’s leading exporters of these types of weapons.

Delegations from various countries and international personalities are meeting until the 18th of July to talk about peace and reconciliation.

Although Obama and Medvedev pledged to work for a nuclear weapons free world this spring, they failed to take meaningful steps at their July summit to put the world on the proper path to nuclear abolition.

Avaaz.org, a community made up of three million citizens, is calling on all residents of Latin America to sign a declaration which is to be sent to the negotiating table for the political conflict in Honduras. A formal request will be submitted to Oscar Arias, president of Costa Rica, “[in order for] the parties involved to be aware that the people of Latin America will only accept a political resolution based on democratic principles”.

Pressenza rediscovers an article from the Brazilian religious activist Frei Betto in which he makes a surprising proposal regarding the devolution of occupied territories. For the former consultant and personal friend of Lula and Fidel Castro, the USA should not only withdraw their troops from Iraq, but also return Texas, California and Arizona to Mexico, and Puerto Rico to the Puerto Ricans, in addition to returning the Guantanamo Naval base to the Cubans.