Notice to Media: First Pre-Trial Hearing of “Tokyo Two” Greenpeace Activists Heard In Japan The first formal court hearing in preparation for the trial of two Greenpeace activists took place in Aomori, Japan today. Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki are being prosecuted, and risk up to ten years in jail if convicted, after they exposed [...]

INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP Engaging Syria? U.S. Constraints and Opportunities Damascus/Washington/Brussels, 11 February 2009: Constrained by the legacy of a troubled relationship, the Obama administration’s first steps will be crucial if the new Syria policy it is preparing is to restore mutual trust without compromising core principles. Engaging Syria? U.S. Constraints and Opportunities,* the latest International [...]

Statistics shows that Americans drink more soda than ever before. They account for more than 25 percent of all drinks consumed in the United States. More than 15 billion gallons were sold in 2000 — about one 12-ounce can per day for every man, woman and child. But here’s some information that may keep you [...]

http://www.splcenter.org/intel/immigrant.jsp The immigration debate in the United States has been maistrked by racist propaganda, bogus statistics about immigrants and wild conspiracy theories — all of which combine to dehumanize Latino immigrants and falsely portray them as disease-carrying, job-stealing criminals invading our country. This xenophobic rhetoric — echoes of the scapegoating of new immigrants throughout American [...]

by Cort Greene Feb.6th, 2009 The March on the Pentagon on March 21st is a critical moment but not for the reasons stated by ANSWER.The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are entering a critical stage but their are even a more important issues for the anti war movement to address such as a discussion of [...]

http://www.countercurrents.org/levine050109.htm By Joseph Levine 05 January, 2009 Countercurrents.org Israel’s current assault on Gaza has sparked controversy in the mainstream press. But for all their differences, critics and supporters share a fundamental assumption: that Israel, as a Western industrial democracy, accepts the Enlightenment idea of the absolute value of individual human lives, and recognizes the inalienable [...]

INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP Timor-Leste: No Time for Complacency Dili/Brussels, 9 February 2009: A year after Timor-Leste’s president José Ramos-Horta was shot, security is markedly improved but at the cost of an army that is unreformed and increasingly unaccountable. Timor-Leste: No Time for Complacency,* the latest update briefing from the International Crisis Group, says the government [...]