North America

Thousands of delegates, scientists and activists are gathering today in Cancun, Mexico, for the start of a two-week United Nations Climate Change Conference. A new scientific report being issued on the occasion reveals that up to a billion people from different nations could lose their homes in the next 90 years due to climate change.

The whistle-blower website WikiLeaks was reportedly hours away from releasing millions of confidential US diplomatic cables on Sunday as governments braced for the potential fallout.

Top US officials have raced to contain the damage in recent days by warning foreign ministries in more than a dozen countries, including key allies Australia, Britain, Canada, Israel and Turkey.

In an official ceremony held earlier today, The YMCAs of Québec awarded the 2010 Peace Medals to five recipients during the 24th edition of this prestigious event. The Peace Medal serves as the only honor in the country that celebrates the work of exceptional individuals or groups who promote peace within their community or around the world.

The recent U.S. mid-term elections followed a familiar mechanic; deep discontent driven by real problems like unemployment drove a voter “revolt” against incumbents (mostly Democratic) handing control of the House of Representatives to the Republicans. This type of voter sentiment is often summed up in the phrase “throw the bums out.”

On this chilly morning of the day before midterm elections, the supporters of the New York Coalition to Expand Voting Rights, a group working to change New York City law to give all documented residents the right to vote in municipal elections, gathered in front of the Board of Elections on Broadway in lower Manhattan.

Today Change.org Action Alert mentions Sarah Palin’s attacks to public broadcasting and the campaign that is growing in order to tell North American Congress to stand up for NPR and public broadcasting.
Here we reproduce the information about it and call the medias and journalists receiving Pressenza’s articles to give diffusion to this campaign.

Just days away from crucial midterm elections, WikiLeaks, the whistle-blower website, unveiled the largest classified military leak in history.
Almost 400,000 secret Pentagon documents relating to the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq were made available on-line.
The documents, in excruciating detail, portray the daily torrent of violence, murder, rape … (read more)

Antiwar activists targeted in last month’s FBI raids in Minneapolis and Chicago have announced they won’t testify before a grand jury. On Tuesday, demonstrators gathered outside a federal building in Chicago where the grand jury is convening. Stephanie Weiner, whose home was targeted in the raid, said the activists would defy their subpoenas to appear.

The Obama administration has reportedly finalized a $60 billion deal to sell advanced military aircraft to Saudi Arabia. It would be the largest-ever single arms deal in US history. State Department spokesperson P.J. Crowley declined to confirm the plans until the White House submits the deal for congressional approval.

President Barack Obama is preparing to officially declare the end of US combat operations in Iraq seven-and-a-half years after the US invasion. Barack Obama will make the announcement in a nationally televised speech tonight from the Oval Office. He gave a preview of his speech in his weekly radio address over the weekend.