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United States citizen, John William Yettaw, was released and deported by the government Sunday and left the country along with Democrat Senator of the United States Jim Webb who concluded his three-day visit to Myanmar. Yettaw´s visit was the excuse for Aung San Suu Kyi 18 month extension house arrest that does not allow Ms Suu Kyi to run for next year’s elections.

Right in Nagoya international airport, in line to check in for my flight back to Sao Paulo, I hear a strange noise. Meow, meow.… There was a cat, somewhere close by. I tried to find it but could not. It was coming from a couple who spoke Portuguese. They had lots of luggage. The passengers behind them also had lots of luggage.

Switzerland wants to reduce its army by one third within the next 12 years. Swiss Minister of Defence, Ueli Maurer said there are currently 120,000 professional Swiss soldiers and that that number must come down to 80,000. The number of reservists must also shrink from 80,000 to 40,000. Switzerland wants to place more emphasis on humanitarian missions to foreign countries.

The recent anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki prompted Montserrat Ponsa i Tarrés to write the following impassioned article. A journalist with a decades-long commitment to the culture of peace, she will be a member of the core team of the first World March for Peace and Nonviolence that will circle the globe.

The Canadian Punk-Rock group Simple Plan gave a performance at the 1000 Islands Music Fest in Gananoque (Canada) on August 14, 2009.
The group is concerned by teenagers’ problems.
Pressenza met two of their members: Jeff Stinco, guitarist and Chuck Comeau, drummer.
Jeff said he was touched and is inspired by the famous speech of Martin Luther King, “I had a dream”.

Human Rights Watch released a report last week detailing new evidence of possible Israeli war crimes committed during last winter´s operations in Gaza that left over 1400 Palestinians dead. The report says Israeli soldiers unlawfully shot and killed at least 11 Palestinian civilians, including 5 women and 4 children, who were in groups waving white flags.

The self-appointed Inter Action Council, IAC, chaired by German ex-Chancellor Helmut Schmidt had its 27th Annual Meeting in King Abdullah Economic City, Saudi Arabia 10-13 May, with 20 other former prime ministers and presidents, many right wing social democrats, attending. They issued a Final Communiqué with a Present State of the World. My comments follow.

The new magazine ‘Israel-Kurd’ has caused a stir in northern Iraq. To the surprise of many in the Arab world, the second edition also recently made it into the kiosks. A third edition expected for september. Kurdish Iraq is increasingly positioning itself between Israel and the Arab world. It is known that the late Kurdish leader Moustafa Barzani made two visits to Israel.

In the episode of the two journalists freed by North Korea, a dangerous game was played when Bill Clinton genuflected at North Korea´s Kim Jong-il. Myanmar has no foreign enemies that it needs to deter. Instead of being an international pariah the Myanmar´s generals would win a lot of respect if they would become nuclear. There are signs that this could happen.

Altogether 18 participants of the World March for Peace and Nonviolence met in Vieste, Southern Italy, to receive all of the information necessary for the challenge which awaits them for three months around the world.
The members of the team committed themselves to exhibit flexibility, tolerance, humility, and an open heart in order to incarnate the spirit of this initiative.