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The Canadian ship the Tahrir pulled out of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla Two over the weekend, as only French ship the Dignity El Karameh and the Swedish-Norwegian-Greek ship Juliano remain to break the blockade of Gaza. The Tahrir finally gives up after Greek Port officials ask the activists to provide new documents that had never previously been mentioned nor required.

Bolivian lawmakers on June 18 approved new legislation aimed at protecting food for the country, but critics argue it will lead to an influx of genetically-modified seeds because it would give power to the multinational genetically-modified seed and fertilizer companies to overrun indigenous communities with their products.

Peace activists won a major victory on Monday, June 20, when the US Conference of Mayors voted to adopt two resolutions that call for a drawdown of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and the abolition of nuclear weapons. Both resolutions also demand the reprioritization of defense spending, including the $126 billion spent each year in Iraq and Afghanistan.

While headlines in global media focus upon candidates for the presidency and new parties jostling for electoral advantage, the dynamics of change in Egypt are being shaped at the grass-roots. After six months of political tumult familiar problems dominate the lives of most Egyptians. What is the price of bread? Are jobs available – and what do they pay?

In his or her “AN OPEN LETTER TO ALL MANKIND” the web host at conspoetry.com defines the conspoetry title by telling that a ”CONSPIRACY is – a secret agreement between two or more people to perform an unlawful act, etc. And, that POETRY is [also] – any communication resembling poetry in beauty or the evocation of feeling.

by Carrie Humphries

This year marks the 7th Annual Nonviolence Festival Day in the Park. I remember a few years ago going to the event (hosted by the Waterloo Region chapter of Nonviolence organization) and it poured. Yes, it rained for what seemed like forever. But it didn’t stop the day. The festival, in all its soaked glory, continued on while people danced in the rain.

Since July 9th, a new state, South Sudan, came to join the international community. As usual, mainstream media have both under-reported and under-informed about it. This is a standard practice–mainstream media mostly ‘tells about bleeding events such as wars and deadly attacks. But, what do we know about this new state?

They do not apply the Mexican joke “I kill people for money; but you, my best friend, I will kill you for nothing!”. They are the private “warriors” who always charge for their services. Powerful militaries, key government agencies, large corporations and business and even individuals are increasingly outsourcing aspects of their security to private companies,

Last week it was announced that Rupert Murdoch would be allowed to own all of BSkyB, a large provider of TV and video. Now a series of reports of criminal and indecent journalism on the part of the “News of the World”, part of Murdoch’s newspaper group are coming out. Avaaz is campaigning to flood the BSkyB public consultation and stop the deal.

Demonstrators take to the street tomorrow in Malaysia calling for reforms of the electoral system to make elections clean and fair. The rally, organised by the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih) is supported by the three largest opposition parties in the country but deemed illegal by the government.