RAMALLAH, Aug 28, 2010 (IPS) - As Hamas cracks down on the rights of Palestinian women in the Gaza Strip, their sisters in the occupied West Bank are slowly gaining ground. But a bureaucracy, that is sometimes supported by foreign aid, is crippling these advances. The Hamas authorities in Gaza have been making international headlines as they slowly restrict the rights of women. The restrictions have included banning women from smoking argilah (also known as hookah or water-pipe) in public places and riding pillion on motorbikes. Schoolgirls and women lawyers are now forced to cover their hair, and mannequins displaying female underwear have been banned from Gaza's shop windows. In the West Bank, five of the Palestinian Authority's (PA) 24 cabinet ministers are women. Women head two West Bank municipalities. A woman has been appointed commander of one of the Palestinian police stations, and a woman also runs the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. The Governor of Ramallah (Palestine's de facto capital) Dr Leila Ghanem has several government bodies falling under her jurisdiction. Earlier, she had been a high-ranking official in the Palestinian Security Services. Nissan FM Radio station has a staff of 20, most of them women, and hosts a Café au Lait programme which broadcasts six hours a day. The radio station focuses its programme content on the rights and interests of Palestinian women. "Palestinian women constitute half our society and they are beginning to be recognised as full partners to their male counterparts," Rabiah Diab, the PA minister of women's affairs told IPS. And in the most significant development in March this year, PA Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad approved new legislation, which would equate "honour killings" of Palestinian women with murder. Every year, throughout the occupied Palestinian territories, dozens of women are killed by their male relatives for allegedly having an affair or bringing "dishonour" of a sexual nature to the family
So here were witnessing another deleterious consequence of Israel and Bush nullifying the perfectly legitimate democratic election of 2006.
RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 27, 2010 (IPS) - Experts from 13 Latin American countries called for a shift in counter-drug policies from a punitive to a public health-based approach for users, in order to reduce drug-related violence, on the argument that the current "war on drugs" has been lost in the region.The Aug. 26-27 Second Latin American Conference on Drug Policy was organised in Rio de Janeiro by Intercambios Civil Association for the Study of and Assistance for Drug-Related Problems, of Argentina, and Psicotropicus of Brazil, two non-governmental organisations that advocate a new approach to global anti-drug policy. The conference, which brought together public officials, academics and activists from around the region to debate drug policy, discussed questions like the decriminalisation of the possession and personal use of drugs. "Criminalisation drives drug users away from health services, out of fear of discrimination or being turned in to the police," Psicotropicus director Luiz Paulo Guanabara said at the opening of the conference. Rejection of a punitive approach to drug use was a common theme in the speeches of the majority of the participants at the conference, which was supported by the Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO) and attended by the representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Regional Office for Brazil and the Southern Cone, Bo Mathiesen.
The human genome contains just over three billion paired nucleotides and about 25,000 genes. The ambitious plan to map all of them was undertaken by two different enterprises. One was funded by the U.S. government and private philanthropy; the other was commercial, largely supported by drug companies buying access to future patents and data. Problems ensued, according to Lewis Hyde, author of "Common as Air: Revolution, Art, and Ownership" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). He notes that during the 1990s, J. Craig Venter's Celera Genomics Corp. said it would make its data freely available to the scientific community. In fact, there were always restrictions. Hyde points out that property rights tend to expand over time. Congress passed a copyright extension law in 1998 to keep Mickey Mouse out of the public domain. And a recent electronic- book version of Lewis Carroll's 1895 "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" forbade copying, printing, lending or giving it to someone else, plus warned against reading the tale aloud.
The human genome contains just over three billion paired nucleotides and about 25,000 genes.
The ambitious plan to map all of them was undertaken by two different enterprises. One was funded by the U.S. government and private philanthropy; the other was commercial, largely supported by drug companies buying access to future patents and data.
Problems ensued, according to Lewis Hyde, author of "Common as Air: Revolution, Art, and Ownership" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). He notes that during the 1990s, J. Craig Venter's Celera Genomics Corp. said it would make its data freely available to the scientific community. In fact, there were always restrictions.
Hyde points out that property rights tend to expand over time. Congress passed a copyright extension law in 1998 to keep Mickey Mouse out of the public domain. And a recent electronic- book version of Lewis Carroll's 1895 "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" forbade copying, printing, lending or giving it to someone else, plus warned against reading the tale aloud.
Temperatures of minus 1.8 degrees C should really be enough to freeze any fish: the freezing point of fish blood is about minus 0.9 degrees C. How Antarctic fish are able to keep moving at these temperatures has interested researchers for a long time. As long as 50 years ago, special frost protection proteins were found in the blood of these fish. These so-called anti-freeze proteins work better than any household antifreeze. How they work, however, was still unclear. The Bochum researchers used a special technique, terahertz spectroscopy, to unravel the underlying mechanism. With the aid of terahertz radiation, the collective motion of water molecules and proteins can be recorded. Thus, the working group has already been able to show that water molecules, which usually perform a permanent dance in liquid water, and constantly enter new bonds, dance a more ordered dance in the presence of proteins - "the disco dance becomes a minuet" says Prof. Havenith.
Temperatures of minus 1.8 degrees C should really be enough to freeze any fish: the freezing point of fish blood is about minus 0.9 degrees C. How Antarctic fish are able to keep moving at these temperatures has interested researchers for a long time. As long as 50 years ago, special frost protection proteins were found in the blood of these fish.
These so-called anti-freeze proteins work better than any household antifreeze. How they work, however, was still unclear. The Bochum researchers used a special technique, terahertz spectroscopy, to unravel the underlying mechanism.
With the aid of terahertz radiation, the collective motion of water molecules and proteins can be recorded. Thus, the working group has already been able to show that water molecules, which usually perform a permanent dance in liquid water, and constantly enter new bonds, dance a more ordered dance in the presence of proteins - "the disco dance becomes a minuet" says Prof. Havenith.
A planned exhibition by Japanese pop artist Takashi Murakami at Louis XIV's Versailles Palace has stirred up a storm of opposition. Two petitions have gathered over 3,000 signatures each but organisers dismiss them as right-wing reactionaries. The organisers of one petition, "Versailles mon amour", refuse to make the names of its 3,500 signatories public because, they claim, "not liking modern art may be disapproved of by future employers". The internet petition, which declares "No to the provocation of modern `art' which respects nothing", was launched by Versailles resident Anne Brassié who hosts a literary broadcast on right-wing radio station Radio Courtoisie. Brassié takes particular exception to two of Murakami's works, My lonesome cowboy, which she describes as "the little man with a pointed penis whose sperm forms a lasso" and Hiropon, which she says portrays "a little woman with big breasts whose milk forms a skipping rope".
A planned exhibition by Japanese pop artist Takashi Murakami at Louis XIV's Versailles Palace has stirred up a storm of opposition. Two petitions have gathered over 3,000 signatures each but organisers dismiss them as right-wing reactionaries.
The organisers of one petition, "Versailles mon amour", refuse to make the names of its 3,500 signatories public because, they claim, "not liking modern art may be disapproved of by future employers".
The internet petition, which declares "No to the provocation of modern `art' which respects nothing", was launched by Versailles resident Anne Brassié who hosts a literary broadcast on right-wing radio station Radio Courtoisie.
Brassié takes particular exception to two of Murakami's works, My lonesome cowboy, which she describes as "the little man with a pointed penis whose sperm forms a lasso" and Hiropon, which she says portrays "a little woman with big breasts whose milk forms a skipping rope".
So they are ashamed of being reactionary? Wind power
Jyllands-Postens culture editor is to release a new book including a page containing a reprint of controversial caricatures. A leading U.S. terrorism expert has warned of renewed tensions between the Muslim world and Denmark in connection with plans by Jyllands-Postens Culture Editor Flemming Rose to release a book in which caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed are reprinted. In his `The tyranny of silence' Rose studies the 12 controversial caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, which were first published in Jyllands-Posten in 2005. Since then, they have repeatedly been re-printed in media across the world and caused anti-Danish demonstrations, boycotts of Danish goods in Muslim countries, the burning of Danish flags and torching of Danish embassies in Damascus and Beirut. "If I were him, I would seriously consider the consequences of reprinting the drawings," says U.S. terrorism expert Evan Kohlman, who has worked for the FBI and the U.S. administration on terrorism issues.
A leading U.S. terrorism expert has warned of renewed tensions between the Muslim world and Denmark in connection with plans by Jyllands-Postens Culture Editor Flemming Rose to release a book in which caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed are reprinted.
In his `The tyranny of silence' Rose studies the 12 controversial caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, which were first published in Jyllands-Posten in 2005.
Since then, they have repeatedly been re-printed in media across the world and caused anti-Danish demonstrations, boycotts of Danish goods in Muslim countries, the burning of Danish flags and torching of Danish embassies in Damascus and Beirut.
"If I were him, I would seriously consider the consequences of reprinting the drawings," says U.S. terrorism expert Evan Kohlman, who has worked for the FBI and the U.S. administration on terrorism issues.
Martin A. Nowak, Corina E. Tarnita & Edward O. Wilson. Eusociality, in which some individuals reduce their own lifetime reproductive potential to raise the offspring of others, underlies the most advanced forms of social organization and the ecologically dominant role of social insects and humans. For the past four decades kin selection theory, based on the concept of inclusive fitness, has been the major theoretical attempt to explain the evolution of eusociality. Here we show the limitations of this approach. We argue that standard natural selection theory in the context of precise models of population structure represents a simpler and superior approach, allows the evaluation of multiple competing hypotheses, and provides an exact framework for interpreting empirical observations.
Eusociality, in which some individuals reduce their own lifetime reproductive potential to raise the offspring of others, underlies the most advanced forms of social organization and the ecologically dominant role of social insects and humans. For the past four decades kin selection theory, based on the concept of inclusive fitness, has been the major theoretical attempt to explain the evolution of eusociality. Here we show the limitations of this approach. We argue that standard natural selection theory in the context of precise models of population structure represents a simpler and superior approach, allows the evaluation of multiple competing hypotheses, and provides an exact framework for interpreting empirical observations.
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