International issues

The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague has ordered Eritrea to pay neighbouring Ethiopia seven million euros in compensation for damage inflicted on each other during the war between 1998 and 2000. The international tribunal said it specified the extra money because Eritrea had begun the conflict. Both countries have agreed to the ruling.

Over one hundred religious, national, community organizations and leaders and academics today called on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to “suspend negotiations for expanded U.S. military access or operations in Colombia,” a plan that has generated protest among Latin American countries, including Colombia, the largest recipient of U.S. military aid in the hemisphere.

You live in a nice house in a tense neighborhood. Your neighbors haven’t been too pleased with you lately, and you have a terrible roach infestation running havoc in your house. But perhaps there’s hope. A big, strong guy lives near, and is offering help. He has big guns and says he has just the spray to get rid of those pesky roaches if you just let him crash at your place.

Remembering the 64th anniversary of the dropping of the first atomic bomb, services in solemn tribute to war victims was conducted at the Soka Gakkai Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After the memorial service in Hiroshima, the Soka Gakkai Women’s Peace Committee (WPC) held a meeting where hibakusha (bomb survivor) shared their experiences at the end of the Second War.

A delegation from the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights has arrived in Honduras to monitor the situation more than a month after the democratically elected Manuel Zelaya was ousted in a coup. The commission met with local Honduran human rights groups but refused to meet with the government. Luz Patricia Mejia is the head of the Inter-American Human Rights Commission.

President of South Korea from 1998 to 2003, and the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize recipient. He has been called the “Nelson Mandela of Asia” for his long-standing opposition to authoritarian rule. When he was President of South Korea, he risked the so called “Sunshine Policy” with North Korea’s Kim Jon-il in 2000, in an attempt to bring peace to the Korean peninsula.

Nonviolent direct action group gets arrested for walking into the home of nuclear-armed Trident submarines in Scotland in a peaceful manifestation and is waiting for possible prosecution as serious crime organizers. They have released the statement that is published below in what they call for the process of disarmament of Trident nuclear weapons to begin.

North Korea’s KCNA state press agency says the border has been re-opened for family visits from South Korea. The move is an important gesture at a time of rising tension between the two countries. North Korea has also announced that the whole country is on high alert because of joint military exercises taking place between the United States and South Korea.

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.

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.