Investment driving Amazon destruction and fuelling climate change Sao Paulo, Brazil, 12 June 2009 – The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private lending arm of the World Bank, has withdrawn a USD 90 million loan to Brazil’s cattle giant Bertin. The loan was used for the company to further expand into the Amazon region, which [...]

Dear Supporters, friends and interested observers: Our update this week took a bit longer to finish, because we wanted it to be a piece that would stay with you. Thanks to Michael Heart, who gave us permission to use his stunning song, and thanks to Paola, who spent many sleepless hours editing and re-editing, we [...]

Free Gaza Movement launches its “Right to Read” Campaign Dear Friend, In partnership with Al-Aqsa University in Gaza, the Free Gaza Movement (FG) is launching its “Right to Read” campaign which will use the FG boats to deliver textbooks and other educational supplies to universities throughout the occupied Gaza Strip. This is not a charitable [...]

INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP Lebanon’s Elections: Avoiding a New Cycle of Confrontation Pour lire ce communiqué de presse en français, cliquez ici. Beirut/Brussels, 4 June 2009: The challenge of Lebanon’s 7 June elections will be to bring winners and losers together to avoid triggering another cycle of violent confrontation. Lebanon’s Elections: Avoiding a New Cycle of Confrontation,* [...]

  Greenpeace calls on world leaders to act on climate change and save the Indian Monsoon   Mumbai, India, 4 June, 2009:  The Indian monsoon – the lifeline of the subcontinent – will be significantly affected by climate change, according to a Greenpeace report released on the eve of World Environment Day. As negotiators in [...]

INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP Pakistan’s IDP Crisis: Challenges and Opportunities Islamabad/Brussels, 3 June 2009: Unless relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP) are urgently improved, the army’s offensive against the Taliban risks leaving the extremists the ultimate winners.   Pakistan’s IDP Crisis: Challenges and Opportunities,* the latest International Crisis Group policy briefing, [...]

An Open Letter to President Obama From the Free Gaza Movement 3 June 2009 Dear President Obama, Tomorrow you travel to Egypt to give one of the most important speeches of your presidency. With the words you deliver you have said that you want to “reset” U.S. relations with the Muslim world and create a [...]