Region

A proposed international conference regarding a nuclear weapons-free Middle East, tentatively scheduled for year 2012, may be in jeopardy amid the growing political turmoil sweeping across the Arab world – and Israel’s fears of negative fallout on its own security.

By Thalif Deen
Nuclear Abolition News | IPS |

Whilst protesters are shot at in demonstrations against long standing autocratic regimes in the Middle East the British style of avoiding protest and opposition during the Royal Wedding is simply to arrest people **before** they have the opportunity to express themselves. The few who did manage to stage small and peaceful protests are arrested for “Breach of the peace”.

Images of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, following an unprecedented nine magnitude earthquake and resultant tsunami, inevitably evoke memories of my two encounters with Hiroshima.
A gentle monument in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park is festooned with thousands of paper cranes that symbolise humankind’s fervent desire that Hiroshima and Nagasaki may never happen again.

Abolition 2000 message on the nuclear crisis in Japan and around the world. “In solidarity with the hundreds of thousands of victims and survivors of the nuclear energy and weapons industries we call for an end to nuclear energy and weapons – the human and environmental impact of both being uncontrollable in time and space.”

Green Party Hong Kong took the streets on Sunday 24 April 2011, allied by Humanist Association of Hong Kong, in support of a Greenpeace initiative calling on the Hong Kong government Environmental Bureau to put a stop to nuclear expansion.The Legislative Council is meeting on April 29 and the demonstration was to pressure the government to cease any expansion plans.

Malaria still kills thousands of people a day. That’s distressing when you consider it is a disease that can not only be combated, but even eradicated. On the occasion of World Malaria Day for year 2011: the irritation, the expectation and the hopes of three prominent Dutch malaria fighters.

By Thijs Westerbeek van Eerten

During this week the United Nations General Assembly discussed international standards that grant nature equal rights to humans. Similar protocols have been adopted by over a dozen U.S. municipalities, as well as Bolivia and Ecuador. Renowned environmentalists Maude Barlow and Vandana Shiva join us for this interview.

A group of prominent Israelis met Thursday in Tel Aviv to announce their support for the formation of an independent Palestinian state.

Forty-seven leading Israeli cultural figures and academics signed a “Declaration of Independence from the Occupation.” Yaron Ezrahi is a professor of political science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

On the eve of the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster – and 6 weeks after the devastating disaster in Japan – 9 Nobel Peace Laureates call upon world leaders to invest in safer forms of renewable energy by sending an open letter to 31 heads of state whose countries are currently heavily invested in nuclear power production, or are considering investing in nuclear power.

With one week to go before the 25th anniversary of Chernobyl, World without Wars has published it’s official position for the first time in this field. They are calling for an end to nuclear energy and for criminal charges against TEPCO executives and members of the Japanese Government responsible for the criminal negligence.