IDEALS

TOKYO, (Jan. 18, 2012) (IPS/GIN) – Japan plans to boost civilian nuclear exports even as it tries to appease its population angered at radiation leaks from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, crippled by an earthquake and tsunami on Mar. 11, last year.

“The reason why Japan is taking these dangerous steps (exports) is to gain business opportunities and diplomatic clout with developing countries,” explained Yuki Tanabe, an expert at the Japan Centre for a Sustainable Environment and Society (JACSES). Read the rest of this entry →

HAVANA, (Dec. 29, 2011) IPS/GIN – Only seven prisoners convicted of political crimes are among the nearly 3,000 inmates pardoned by the government of Ra˙l Castro. Most of the prisoners have reportedly already been released.

Cuba’s Official Gazette published on Wednesday Dec. 28 the decree signed by President Castro and the names of the 2,991 prisoners granted early release. The mass pardon was announced by the government on Friday Dec. 23, at the end of a meeting of the Cuban parliament. Read the rest of this entry →

JERUSALEM, (Jan. 4, 2012) IPS/GIN – After a 15-month collapse, Palestinians and Israelis have met only to agree on sitting down face-to-face publicly once more on Friday. So far there is no breakdown, but no breakthrough either.

The preparatory talks that began in Jordanian capital Amman on Tuesday aim at drawing the contours of a future Palestinian state and of ensuring security arrangements with Israel in advance of final peace negotiations.
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SANTIAGO, (Jan. 23, 2012) IPS/GIN – “It’s extremely serious, a full-blown environmental catastrophe,” environmentalist Sara Larrain told IPS, describing the impact of the fire that has been raging through the Torres del Paine National Park in Chilean Patagonia since Dec. 27.

The flames, fanned by high winds, took hold in a remote, hard-to- reach area and ravaged 16,000 hectares of natural vegetation, which park authorities told IPS will take eight decades to grow back to its former state. Read the rest of this entry →

ST GEORGE’S, Grenada, (Jan. 23, 2012) IPS/GIN – As China sees its influence continue to grow in this part of the world, a delegation from the United Kingdom arrived in Grenada last weekend with a proverbial carrot for its former colonies, vowing to create new opportunities for trade, investment and innovation “in our respective economies”.

With plans to invest 116.5 million dollars over a four-year period, a considerable increase from previous aid budgets, London is sending a strong signal of its intention to be part of the future socioeconomic development of the region. Read the rest of this entry →

BELGRADE, (Dec. 30, 2011) IPS/GIN – Serbia saw the first rehabilitation of a member of its royal family earlier this month, in a move by the supreme court described by historians as “deeply moral” and necessary – for generations who remember the Karadjordjevics as well as those who have learned about them from the history books.

The 15-page long court ruling says prince-regent Paul Karadjordjevic (1893-1976) will no longer be considered a war criminal – the conviction pronounced against him by the Communist regime that took over in 1945 at the end of World War II. Read the rest of this entry →

UNITED NATIONS, (Jan. 23, 2012) IPS/GIN – The Caribbean nation of Haiti, still struggling to recover from the devastating 2010 earthquake, is once again trying to cope with the sexual abuse of minors by U.N. peacekeepers – for the third time in five years.

The two cases of “sexual exploitation and abuse involving minors”, reported last week, are traced to U.N. police officers serving with the U.N. Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH). Read the rest of this entry →

HAVANA, (Jan. 23, 2012) IPS/GIN – The Cuban government energetically rebutted what it regards as another campaign to discredit it, following the death in prison of a man who, according to the authorities, was not a dissident nor on hunger strike, as the opposition alleges.

In separate declarations, the Cuban Foreign Ministry rebuffed expressions of concern over the demise of prison inmate Wilman Villar by official sources in the United States and Spain, the countries where the fatality aroused most condemnation. Read the rest of this entry →

SRINAGAR, (Dec. 30, 2011) IPS/GIN – Weaning Afghanistan’s poppy farmers away from growing the raw material for the bulk of the world’s illicit heroin has never been easy, but Kashmir’s saffron cultivators may have the answer.

A high-value crop, saffron has long been seen as a counternarcotics candidate, but the idea has a chance of coming to fruition with expertise from farmers in India’s Jammu and Kashmir state who produce the finest saffron anywhere. Read the rest of this entry →

PIBOR, South Sudan , (Jan. 24, 2012) IPS/GIN – In the ward of a partially destroyed clinic, Mangiro (who did not give his last name) sat on a bed next to his wounded nine-year-old daughter, Ngathin. The little girl is fortunate, she survived the recent inter-ethnic clashes in Pibor county that killed her mother and sisters.

There are still no official figures released on how many people were killed, but the United Nations says at least 120,000 people have been affected by the violence. Read the rest of this entry →