Palestine – Features

By Jamal Elshayyal

(source: Al Jazeera Blog)

It was this time last week that I was on the top deck of the Mavi Marmara, and first spotted Israeli war ships in the distance, as they approached the humanitarian flotilla.  Little did I know how deadly and bloody were the36that soon began to unfold.

What I will write in this entry is fact, every letter of it, none of it is opinion, none of it is analysis, and I will leave that to you, the reader.

After spotting the warships at a distance, (at roughly 11pm) the organisers called for passengers to wear their life vests and remain indoors as they monitored the situation. The naval war ships together with helicopters remained in the distance for several hours.

Read More »Chilling testimony from one of the passengers on board the marmara

(source: Kashmir Media Service)

The Executive Director of Kashmir Centre London, Professor Nazir Ahmad Shawl has appealed to the United Nations to recognise the present situation of occupied Kashmir and take notice of latest mayhem orchestrated by Indian troops on Monday in the territory.

Professor Shawl in a statement issued in London urged the UN Secretary General, Chairman Human Rights Council and UN Human Rights Commissioner to recognise and acknowledge the massive participation of the people in various protest Marches. “These Marches are in fact a referendum against Indian occupation,” he added.

The Executive Director asserted that it would be quite timely if a grand political initiative was set in motion by permanent members of the Security Council by organising a round table discussion with India, Pakistan and Kashmir representatives as participants. “The discussion in this round table should be based on the UN package agreed by India, Pakistan and international community long ago. The need of the hour is to utilise UN mechanisms and unfreeze the UN package on Kashmir,” Shawl maintained.

Read More »Un urged to implement its resolutions on Kashmir

By Patrick O’Connor

(source: Worls Socialist WebSite.org)

Nearly a fortnight after Japan’s north east coast was devastated by a massive earthquake and tsunami, the country and wider region remain under threat from the nuclear disaster in Fukushima. Radioactive contamination is leaking from at least one of the reactor cores, while the state of the highly toxic spent fuel rods stored in water pools remains unclear. Authorities have now warned the 13 million people of Tokyo not to allow their children to drink the irradiated water supply.

Damning information continues to emerge about the substandard design and operation of the Fukushima plant, the appalling safety record of its corporate operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), and the negligent emergency response of the Japanese government.

What is revealed at every level are the destructive consequences of the profit system. In Japan, as internationally, the social needs of the population—including the need for a safe and environmentally sustainable energy system—are subordinated to the financial interests of the major corporations.

From the very first moments of the crisis at Fukushima, when the tsunami destroyed the nuclear facility’s backup power generators after sweeping over the inadequate coastal seawalls, considerations of corporate profit overrode those of public safety.

Read More »Nuclear power private ownership the profit system

Robert Fisk: I saw these brave doctors trying to save lives – these charges are a pack of lies

Eyewitness: Bahrain didn’t invite the Saudis to send their troops; the Saudis invaded and received a post-dated invitation

(source: Independent.co.uk)

Has the Khalifa family gone mad? Yesterday, the Bahraini royal family started an utterly fraudulent trial of 48 surgeons, doctors, paramedics and nurses, accusing them of trying to topple the tin-pot monarchy of this Sunni minority emirate. The defendants in this flagrantly unfair military court are, of course, members of the majority Shia people of Bahrain. And since I was a witness to their heroic efforts to save lives in February, I can say – let us speak with a frankness that the Bahraini rulers would normally demand – that the charges are a pack of lies.

Doctors I saw, drenched in their patients’ blood, desperately trying to staunch the bullet wounds of pro-democracy demonstrators shot in cold blood by Bahraini soldiers and police, are now on trial. I watched armed policemen refusing to allow ambulances to collect the wounded from the roads where they had been cut down. These are the very same doctors and nurses I stood beside four months ago in the Sulaimaniya emergency room, some of them weeping as they tried to deal with gunshot wounds the like of which they had never seen before.

“How could they do this to these people?” one of them asked me. “We have never dealt with trauma wounds like these before.” Next to us lay a man with bullet wounds in the chest and thigh, coughing blood on to the floor. The surgeons were frightened that they did not have the skills to save these victims of police violence. Now the police have accused the doctors and staff of killing the patients whom the police themselves shot.

How could these fine medical men and women have been trying to “topple” the monarchy?

Read More »Charges are a pack of lies