REUTERS - The United Nations appealed on Wednesday for $459 million in aid for flood-hit Pakistan, warning of a second wave of death among sick, hungry survivors unless help arrived quickly. Roiling floods triggered by unusually heavy monsoon rain have scoured Pakistan's Indus river basin, killing more than 1,600 people, forcing 2 million from their homes and disrupting the lives of about 14 million people, or 8 percent of the population.
AFP - Rescuers racing against a potential new deluge on Wednesday hurried to drain an unstable lake formed by China's worst mudslides in decades, as the death toll surged past 1,100. More than 10,000 soldiers and rescuers combed through the mountains of mud that buried a remote area of the northwest province of Gansu at the weekend, killing 1,117 people by latest count and leaving more than 600 others missing. But the window of survival was fast closing, with only one survivor found in a flooded hotel on Wednesday, so authorities have focused on averting further devastation in the form of new floods and possible disease outbreaks.
As Rwanda's president Paul Kagame heads for election victory, the government is reviewing its genocide ideology law. Rights groups have accused it of limiting freedom of speech but, Justice Minister Tharcisse Karugarama, insists that the changes are the cabinet's own idea. Kagame, who is certain to secure a second seven-year mandate when full provisional results are released late Wednesday, has been criticised for gagging the opposition through the use of Rwanda's Law Relating to the punishment of the Crime of Genocide Ideology. Ahead of Monday's election, two of Kagame's opponents were disqualified after being charged with genocide ideology, which is essentially ethnic hate speech.
As Rwanda's president Paul Kagame heads for election victory, the government is reviewing its genocide ideology law. Rights groups have accused it of limiting freedom of speech but, Justice Minister Tharcisse Karugarama, insists that the changes are the cabinet's own idea.
Kagame, who is certain to secure a second seven-year mandate when full provisional results are released late Wednesday, has been criticised for gagging the opposition through the use of Rwanda's Law Relating to the punishment of the Crime of Genocide Ideology.
Ahead of Monday's election, two of Kagame's opponents were disqualified after being charged with genocide ideology, which is essentially ethnic hate speech.
REUTERS - Rwandan President Paul Kagame won 93 percent of the vote in an election that opponents said was marred by repression and violence, the National Election Commission (NEC) said on Wednesday. "We can say that we are very happy with the conduct of the electoral process, from the campaign to the voting itself. We did not get reports of intimidation from anywhere," Charles Munyaneza, executive secretary of the electoral body, told a news conference.
REUTERS - Rwandan President Paul Kagame won 93 percent of the vote in an election that opponents said was marred by repression and violence, the National Election Commission (NEC) said on Wednesday.
"We can say that we are very happy with the conduct of the electoral process, from the campaign to the voting itself. We did not get reports of intimidation from anywhere," Charles Munyaneza, executive secretary of the electoral body, told a news conference.
AFP - Indonesian police said Tuesday top radical Islamist preacher Abu Bakar Bashir could face the death penalty over his alleged role in terror plots with Al-Qaeda-linked militants. Bashir, who was arrested on Monday, is accused of funding and training extremists who were planning a wave of attacks in Jakarta. "Our investigators found evidence that Abu Bakar Bashir had been actively involved in terror plots and activities including the training," National police spokesman Edward Aritonang said.
AFP - Iraq's top army officer on Wednesday warned that a pullout of all US soldiers by the end of 2011 was premature, after eight of his troops were killed in a brazen attack that exposed shaky security here. Lieutenant General Babakar Zebari's remarks, which run counter to those of his political leaders, coincide with the exit of thousands of American soldiers under a US declaration to end combat operations in Iraq at the end of August.
(Reuters Life!) - An Australian state is using exotic jobs like koala catcher, shark tagger and even beer taster to try to lure young, bored British workers to head down under for some adventure and maybe a new life. The South Australian government has launched a campaign to encourage 18 to 30-year-old Britons to come on a working-holiday visa with the chance of getting their dream role.Other jobs advertised include a shark personality profiler at Port Lincoln, a Fairy Penguin home remodeler on Kangaroo Island, and a "roo poo" harvester.
(Reuters Life!) - An Australian state is using exotic jobs like koala catcher, shark tagger and even beer taster to try to lure young, bored British workers to head down under for some adventure and maybe a new life.
The South Australian government has launched a campaign to encourage 18 to 30-year-old Britons to come on a working-holiday visa with the chance of getting their dream role.
Other jobs advertised include a shark personality profiler at Port Lincoln, a Fairy Penguin home remodeler on Kangaroo Island, and a "roo poo" harvester.
What is frustrating is the lack of microbreweries in Australia, they were all bought up by Lion Nathan in the 80s and closed, leaving only a small number of brands on the market. Thankfully the tide has turned and small breweries are opening up everywhere. It will be many years before we return to the 'pub on every corner' situation though.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_in_Australia
"At this point, the withdrawal (of US forces) is going well, because they are still here," Zebari said.
SANTA MARTA, Colombia, Aug 11, 2010 (IPS) - "The Santa Marta breeze cools off any conflict, it calms tempers. The city is the ideal place for the Santos-Chávez summit," Colombian journalist Ernesto McCausland wrote on his Twitter blog ahead of Tuesday's meeting, which indeed patched up relations between Venezuela and Colombia.
Honduras Culture and Politics: Yesterday the Lobo Sosa government failed to close a deal with the International Monetary Fund for standby funding for the government of Honduras for the next 18 months. This was an important test of the government's political capital as well as its economic capital, and it failed.
Paraguay (Boz): This past weekend we learned that Paraguayan President Lugo has lymphoma. He'll be traveling to Sao Paulo, Brazil for tests and will need at least 18 weeks of chemo treatments. Cruel as it is, this brings up a number of political questions for Paraguay. With Lugo leaving the country and undergoing treatment, it is likely that Vice President Franco will assume the duties of president.
ASUNCIÓN, Aug 11, 2010 (IPS) - The Fourth Americas Social Forum kicks off Wednesday in the Paraguayan capital with a colourful march through the streets, as some 12,000 people prepare to take part in the activities organised by 50 local groups and 550 organisations from Argentina to Canada. (...) The personalities who plan to attend the Americas Social Forum include Bolivian President Evo Morales, Argentine political scientist Atilio Borón, the executive secretary of the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO) Emir Sader, and two Nobel Peace Prize-winners: Guatemalan indigenous activist Rigoberta Menchú and Argentine human rights activist Adolfo Pérez Esquivel.
MANAGUA, Nicaragua -- Over the past four years, entities controlled by Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega have received at least $1 billion in no-strings-attached donations through an oil deal brokered by President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. The windfall has helped Ortega mount a vigorous campaign to fight rural poverty and generate electricity -- and to build political support for himself.
El Universal: The Government of Bolivia said on Wednesday that the silver, lead and zinc mine "San Cristobal", of the Japanese Sumitomo Group Corp, had to stop their operations as a result of peasant mobilization that threatened the power supply to industry.
(Reuters) - Surging Chinese investment in Brazil is reshaping ties between the countries as companies seek to secure resources and tap the rising consumer class in Latin America's largest economy.
SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil's biggest state-run bank and two other partners announced an expansion in Africa on Monday in the latest sign of growing financial links between emerging markets. Banco do Brasil, Latin America's largest bank by assets, said in a regulatory filing it will team with local private-sector giant Banco Bradesco and Portugal's Banco Espirito Santo (BES) to tap Africa's growing appetite for consumer loans, credit cards and other products.
Science News: Policies such as those implemented in Brazil in recent years can help preserve those forests, DeFries suggested. Besides stepping up enforcement of the strict laws regarding deforestation in the nation, Brazil has reduced the availability of bank loans to large agricultural producers, boosted incentives to increase agricultural production on lands already cleared and increased public awareness campaigns about deforestation. The result: Deforestation losses in the nation dropped from 28,000 square kilometers in 2004 to about 7,500 square kilometers in 2009, a decrease of almost 74 percent. Brazil's ambitious goal is to reduce the deforestation rate in 2015 to 80 percent of that seen in 2005, said DeFries.
Brazil's ambitious goal is to reduce the deforestation rate in 2015 to 80 percent of that seen in 2005, said DeFries.
Guantanamo court sentences Osama bin Laden's cook to 14 years in prison - Reuters
