International

Tadatoshi Akiba says he is “furious” with the country´s disregard of international demonstrations against their threat of building a nuclear arsenal. The UN Security Council called for sanctions over the country´s tests voting unanimously for sanctions both on the nuclear tests and the North Korean ballistic missile programmes.

On Friday 3rd of July 2009, Mogho Naaba Baongo, Emperor of the Mossi people (the majority ethnic group in Burkina Faso) endorsed the World March. This endorsement was marked by a special ceremony that took place in the Royal Palace in Ouagadougou, in the presence of the Minister for Promotion of Human Rights, Salamata Sawadogo.

Ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya is in Washington today for meetings with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. It’s Zelaya’s highest-level meeting with a U.S. official since his overthrow last month.

156 people have died and more than 800 have been injured in the worst wave of ethnic violence in many decades in China during strong clashes between the Han and Uigur ethnic groups. A curfew was declared today in the Xinjiang region from 9pm until 8am to “avoid more chaos”.

US President, Barack Obama and Russian president, Dmitri Medvedev, yesterday signed terms of an agreement to reduce strategic nuclear weapons by a third, despite differences over US plans to install an anti-missile shield in Europe. The Russian president proposed the creation of an anti-missile shield capable of protecting all countries worldwide.

Last July 2nd, the Brazilian President sanctioned a new law which benefits an estimated 50,000 foreigners living illegally in the country. During the signing of the new law, President Lula criticized the anti-immigration policy adopted by richer countries which restrain immigrants’ rights.
*”All we want is for Brazilians living abroad to be treated in the same way we treat immigrants here in Brazil”*, said Lula.

Barack Obama is getting ready for his first trip to Moscow that will last from Monday 6th of July to Wednesday 9th. This is a re-start of a new area in the relations between Russia and the USA. Depending on those meetings is the future of the bilateral nuclear programme of disarmament and the anti missile shield affair (NMD) that the USA plans to build in Central Europe.

In this Summit a new treaty will be prepared in order to reduce the nuclear strategic arsenal of both countries, to replace the START-1 treaty that will expire on December 5th 2009.

The human rights organisation condemned actions by the Israeli army and Hamas as war crimes, while refuting claims by Israel that it had acted according to international law during its attacks on the Gaza Strip.

North Korea made a new challenge today launching two short range SCUD missiles, from their east coast into the Sea of Japan, according to information from the local news agency, Yonhap.

Both missiles, with a range of around 500 km, seem to have been launched around 8 am local time (23:00 GMT) from a military base close to the coastal city of Wonsan located in the south east of North Korea.

The launch was made two days after the regime fired another four short-range missiles, also from the East coast into the Sea of Japan to coincide with US Independence Day on the 4th of July.

Whether in the Korean peninsula, in unstable Pakistan, or in the volatile Middle East, the risk of military or terrorist nuclear attacks is escalating daily. Yet one of the most real chances to rid the world of nuclear weapons is happening and will be won or lost far from the headlines.

Next week in Moscow, Presidents Medvedev and Obama could make history by agreeing to reduce their nuclear arsenals and set the world´s course towards a nuclear-free world. A group of highly influential figures called Global Zero has presented a four-step plan to achieve that goal and, though it seems incredible, they are successfully persuading the nuclear powers that the world is more secure without nukes.