Asia

Japan will hold elections of the Upper House of the Diet on 21 July 2013. Several parties, notably Prime Minister Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party, have made constitutional revision a priority. If they obtain a majority – and they are in…

Success in free elections held after the “Arab Spring” protests in Tunisia and Egypt has brought Islamists to power through democratic means, and Islamist influence is on the rise throughout the Arab world. Much of the debate about liberal democracy’s…

Over 100,000 demonstrators filed along the streets of Hong Kong 1 July this year in the annual protest march that is on every activist’s agenda in this vibrant city. The march marks the handover of the British colony to Beijing…

When Muhammad Yunus won a Nobel Prize in 2006, in conjunction with the now renown micro-credit organisation Grameen, it was a great day of jubilation in Bangladesh. Since that day, the organisation has continually got better and its methods were…

Kyodo News reported June 25, 2013 that Tokyo Electric Power Co. has measured a rise in the level of radioactive tritium in seawater within the port at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. In a sample collected June 21,…

Pressenza publishes here a report prepared by members of a team of German peace activists who recently travelled to Afghanistan to see for themselves to situation for the people in Kabul.  The report is long but well worth reading.  In…

“With food and hunger being basic human issues, there is an urgent need to extensively work at grass root levels like neighborhood and community-based support projects that would help in achieving a hunger free and sustainable world in a short…

Human rights, including women’s rights, must be integral to any peace deal with the Taliban said Amnesty International today as the USA announced that it was to start direct peace talks with Afghanistan’s Taliban armed group. The call comes as…

An Open Letter to the Mediahouses in India! The Struggle Committee June 16, 2013 People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) Idinthakarai & P. O. 627 104 Tirunelveli District Tamil Nadu Dear friends: Greetings! Please allow us to bring the following…

Sad scenes of Liu Xia, wife of Liu Xiaobo – writer, professor, and political dissident, in 2009, Liu was sentenced to 11 years for inciting subversion because of his involvement in writing Charter 08, a petition advocating political reform in…