Libya – Features

18 Veterans Commit Suicide Daily

By Bill Van Auken

(source: World Socialist Website)

An average of 18 US military veterans are taking their lives every day as the Obama administration and the Pentagon grow increasingly defensive about the epidemic of suicides driven by Washington’s wars of aggression.

The stunning figure was reported last week by the Army Times, citing officials in the US Veterans Affairs Department.

The department estimates that there are 950 suicide attempts every month by veterans who are receiving treatment from the department. Of these, 7 percent succeed in taking their own lives, while 11 percent try to kill themselves again within nine months.

The greatest growth in suicides has taken place among veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, who accounted for 1,868 suicide attempts in fiscal 2009, which ended on September 30. Of these, nearly 100 succeeded in killing themselves.

Read More »Hidden toll ofUSwars

Fears of Arrest and Prosecution by Tony Blair on Charges of War Crimes

by Perdana Global Peace Organisation (PGPO)

War criminal Blair, the keynote speaker at the National Achievers Conference organised by Success Resources, a sycophant Singapore outfit at the Sunway Pyramid Convention Centre in Kuala Lumpur, hid in fear at the threat that members of the Malaysian anti-war NGOs would throw slippers at him and that members of the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission would serve an indictment for war crimes.

Extensive security measures were put in place before his arrival for the three-day event. For the first time, delegates to the conference had no itinerary of the speakers invited to speak at the convention. Organisers and delegates were not even told when speakers were scheduled to speak. There was a total black out!

Delegates have to wear a special wrist band for the entire duration of the convention for identification purposes and anyone without the security wrist band was not allowed to enter the vicinity of the convention hall.

Read More »No where to hide

(source: Middle East Monitor)

Deputy Minister of International Relations and Co-operation of the Republic of South Africa Ebrahim Ismail Ebrahim used the occasion of the 2010 Budget Vote in the National Assembly (22nd April 2010) to reiterate the South African position in relation to the current state of Israeli – Palestinian affairs.

He took the opportunity to salute Judge Richard Goldstone, a fellow South African countryman, and his team and praised them for having "exposed the calculated and well orchestrated violations of international humanitarian law in Gaza." In addition to emphasising South African support for the implementation of the Goldstone Report’s recommendations, he also stated that the current South African administration would exert efforts to see a "just peace" for Palestinians which should include a total freeze on Israeli settlement building; the end of the blockade on Gaza; the right of return for Palestinian refugees; East Jerusalem as the capital for Palestinians; and the right for Palestinians to control their own natural resources.

Read More »South Africas deputy minister calls for a just peace for palestinians

(source: telegraph.co.uk)

Hamas has accused Egyptian security forces of pumping poisonous gas into a cross-border smuggling tunnel, killing four Palestinians as a result

An Egyptian intelligence official has denied they pumped gas into the tunnel although admitted security forces blew up the entrances to several tunnels earlier this week and were not aware of any casualties.Egypt, which has been under pressure to shut down the cross-border tunnels into Gaza, routinely blows up entrances to seal the tunnels off.

Palestinian medics working for the Hamas-run health ministry said the four had died from suffocation and that there was evidence of poisonous gas.

Read More »Hamas accuses Egypt of poisoning palestinians in smuggling tunnel