24.08.2010 Switzerland''s biggest solar energy park comes on Stream
Soft Technologies
(kuna) The Swiss federal institute of Technoligy in Lausanne (EPFL) and the western Swiss power company (Romande Energie) generated on Tuesday Switzerland's biggest solar energy park installed on the roofs of the EPFL's campus. The park, which incorporates major research and development applications, will ultimately supply over two million kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year in a unique project in Switzerland as the two Megawatt station coverd a roof area of some 20,000 square meter and use four types of photovoltic cells and different typs of energy storage. more ...
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21.08.2010 Russia, Iran set up joint venture to operate Bushehr power station
Iran’s nuclear program: civilian purposes or nuclear weapons?
(ria) Russia signed on Saturday an agreement with Iran to set up a joint venture to operate the Bushehr nuclear power plant. Under the agreement, Russia will delegate full control of the plant to Iran over a period of two or three years, the head of the Russia Federal Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom), Sergei Kiriyenko, told a news conference, without specifying when this will happen. "Today we signed an important agreement to set up a join venture to operate the Bushehr power station. It will be 50-50 in the beginning... more ...
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15.08.2010 Millions of Africans face starvation - Aid agencies
Bad situation
(kuna) British Politicians and aid agencies warned Sunday of an impending humanitarian crisis as millions face starvation in Africa. Crop failure combined with a severe drought already thrust tens of thousands of people into a perilous state in Niger and neighbouring Chad in the Sahal region of central North Africa. The situation is so bad in Niger that officials are describing the shortage as the worst food crisis in the country's history, with one in six children reportedly suffering from malnutrition. The UK Government called for more countries to provide aid to the stricken area. more ...
13.08.2010 By Nabila Hanson
When Play Is Work
Is it possible that, with the best of intentions as loving parents, we are hurting our children during their early years by foisting upon them formal academic learning?
Our religious teaching clearly advises us to let our children play for the first seven years. Yet, most American Muslim children are in 1st grade in a public or private school by the age of six, having first spent a couple of years in pre-school programs designed to prepare them for 1st grade. more ...
21.06.2010 By Amna Nasir Jamal, Lahore
Asea: Power from Garbage
Emissions from the evaporation and combustion of traditional fossil fuels contribute to a range of environmental and health problems.
LAHORE (gm). In Pakistan, due to growing energy crisis extended blackouts have plagued the entire nation by affecting many of the facilities of contemporary life, over and above has extracted social and economic tolls by choking the flow of productive resources.
The country has a total installed power generating capacity of 19,450 megawatts (MW) from three sources i.e. hydroelectric (33%), thermal (65%) and nuclear (2%). more ...
14.06.2010 Opinion: American democracy and Iraqi economy. By Eldar Kasayev
Documents with “swollen” costs
(ria) In the beginning of US intervention in Iraq there was talking that democratization will lead to the economic prosperity. In practice it turned out to be wrong. In 2005, the constitution of Iraq was approved, Iraq was proclaimed a democratic state and the presidential and parliamentary elections were held (the second elections were held in March 2010). On the results of the elections the new government was formed, but put it lightly - the development of the Iraqi economy leaves much to be desired. more ...
31.03.2010 EU welcomes Serbian apology of Srebrenica massacre of Muslims
"Declaration of apolegy"
(kuna) The European Union welcomed here Wednesday the adoption by the Serbian Parliament of the declaration of apology for the Srebrenica massacre, said to be the worst killings committed in Europe since the second world war. "This is an important step for the country in facing its recent past, a process which is difficult but essential for Serbian society to go through," said EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and EU Commissioner for enlargement Stefan Fule in a joint statement. more ...
23.03.2010 Urban trends: 227 million escape slums
Sub-Saharan Africa has the largest slum population
(un) A total 227 million people in the world have moved out of slum conditions since 2000, meaning governments have collectively surpassed the Millennium Development target by 2.2 times, says the new UN-HABITAT report on the State of the World Cities 2010/2011: Bridging the Urban Divide. The agency says in its biennial report for 2010 that the 22 million people in developing countries that moved out of slums each year between 2000 and 2010 was the result of slum upgrading. more ...
20.02.2010 A century-old Ottoman legacy in China
Abdülhamid’s interest in China
(zaman) An Austrian steamship which left İstanbul silently on April 28, 1901, stopping briefly in both İzmir and Alexandria, and then passed through the Red Sea and headed towards the Far East, wound up spurring all of the various Western agents and envoys in the region into action. Before the steamship had even reached China, the Western envoys in Beijing were all sending encrypted messages back to their capitals: “The ‘tricky Sultan’ in İstanbul has started up new maneuvers to try and pull the Muslims in China onto his side. A nine-person delegation is arriving in China. more ...
01.02.2010 Cities Going One Way, Nations Another
"Signs of a new trend"
Rio de Janeiro (IPS). Some signs are emerging of a new trend shown up by the recession: local governments (and the people) are going one way, national ones another.
Broadly, national ones have stayed on the side of the giant corporations that fell, or at least stumbled because they were thought too big to fall. U.S. more ...
29.01.2010 Unemployment: Somavia calls for the same policy decisiveness that saved banks to save and create jobs
Poverty on the rise
(ILO News) The number of jobless worldwide reached nearly 212 million in 2009 following an unprecedented increase of 34 million compared to 2007, on the eve of the global crisis, the International Labour Office (ILO) said in its annual Global Employment Trends report. Based on IMF economic forecasts, the ILO estimates that global unemployment is likely to remain high through 2010. In the Developed Economies and European Union unemployment is projected to increase by an additional 3 million people in 2010, while it will stabilize at present levels, or decline only slightly, in other regions. more ...
16.01.2010 Moscow: Russia declares war on alcoholism
"National disaster"
(ria) Russia's government has launched a crusade against alcohol abuse, describing it as a "national disaster" and aiming to halve consumption by 2020 and root out illegal production and sales. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has approved a national plan that envisions criminal punishment for illegal production and sale of alcohol, restrictions on advertising, and efforts to promote a healthy lifestyle, the government said on its website on Wednesday. more ...
12.01.2010 The financial crisis and the environment. An islamic perspective by Fazlun Khalid, Birmingham
The Copenhagen Syndrome
(gm) It hasn’t quite entered the human consciousness, that if planet earth suffers we suffer and that we have nowhere else to go. We are part of an integrated earth and when we reduce the natural world to an exploitable resource this turns inwards on us. How else does one explain the consequences of climate change?
Yes, the human species is unique. We have the capacity to observe the world around us, describe what we see, quantify it and then take advantage of it. However, the most extreme and all pervasive form of this is our collective, unfettered defilement of nature. more ...
09.01.2010 Tunisian quickly becoming attractive health tourism destination
New destination
(kuna) Tunisian towns and resorts are slowing transforming into prominent therapy centers, making the country a health tourism destination that attracts people who seek relaxation, treatment or plastic surgery from around the world. The government is seeking to place Tunisia on the world's health tourism map, and has made the export of health services a goal for 2016. more ...
05.01.2010 By Aydar R. Aganin, Director of Rusya al-Yaum News Channel
Opinion: Water resources in the Middle East
(rian) Water is the most widespread natural product in the world. It covers more than 70% of the Earth’s surface, but only 1% of its global resources, which account for 2.4 billion km3, is fresh water. Even so, theoretically, this could be enough for a population five or ten times the present number living on Earth. The question, therefore, is not the availability of water, but its distribution over the globe. Water resources (further only fresh water is meant) are spread unevenly across the globe, and the Middle East and Northern Africa are the least supplied with it. more ...
29.10.2009 Pakistan's ombudsman tackles injustice and unaccountability Mustafa Qadri
"More than a matter of improving the courts"
(GCNews). Access to justice is a major concern in Pakistan. Pakistan was ranked 134 in the world, lower than Rwanda and Libya, in the 2008 annual Corruption Perception Index released by Transparency International. In fact, one reason some communities in the North West Frontier Province cautiously welcomed the Taliban was the promise of a more efficient, less corrupt justice system. The Taliban may have proved incapable of meeting those demands, but filling the justice gap is central to improving stability in this strategic South Asian nation. more ...
27.10.2009 By Thalif Deen
Land Grabs for Food Production Under Fire
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 23 (IPS) - A move by governments and rich investors to raise food crops on farmland purchased in some of the world's poorer countries is coming under fire. "The purchase of vast tracts of land from poor, developing countries by wealthier, food-insecure nations and private investors have become a widespread phenomenon," says a new study by the Oakland Institute, an independent policy think tank based in San Francisco.
The sudden rush for these "land grabs" - prompted primarily by the global food crisis - is threatening food security and the livelihoods of some 1. more ...
30.09.2009 The policy of dehumanization and destruction of civil liberties continues. By Luke Rudkowski
The War on Terror continues
(Russia Today). My phone rang at 4am. I didn't pick up then, but when I returned the call, the voice on the other end said “Homeland Security, how can I help you?” I got that call days before President Barack Obama extended the authority of that very organization to spy on American citizens and breach due process of law. The Patriot Act was reauthorized by a president who, as a senator, had promised to repeal it. Barack Obama may have renamed the Global War on Terror the “Overseas Contingency Operation”, but the war of terror the American government is waging on its citizens continues. more ...
17.09.2009 EU anti-terror chief against stigmatization of a religion with terrorism
"Words are weapons in media communication"
(kuna) The European Union's top anti-terrorism official said here Thursday that there should not be any stigmatization of any people or religion in the fight against terrorism. Much more work is needed over "the way we use the wording. Words are weapons in media communication. We should not say 'Islamic terrorism'. The Muslim world is very sensitive about this," EU counter-terrorism coordinator Gilles de Kerchove told a conference on terrorism. more ...
11.08.2009 Conflict over solar energy? By Sulaiman Wilms
Central versus local
(gm). The future of the world’s energy supply tends to be described using a spread of ambivalent scenarios. Aside from fossil fuel and nuclear power, alternative sources of energy have been evolving all over the world for some decades. Although renewable energy is no longer considered exotic in Western Europe, many people still assume it is suited only for use in isolated or quite specific situations. more ...
02.08.2009 By Minhac Delic/Roberta Davenport
Legislation needed to realize Turkey’s solar potential
Istanbul (Zaman.com). In a nation heavily dependent on foreign nations for the majority of its energy needs, harnessing the free, efficient and renewable power of the sun is a logical move. But sector players say the government needs to move quickly on legislative incentives to enable the promising sector to thrive. From hospitals to homes to telecommunications, solar energy has a wide variety of efficient applications. more ...
21.07.2009 Sumayyah Meehan about human trafficking in the Middle East
A business of a special kind
(TMO/MMNS). This past month the US State Department released it’s 9th annual Trafficking in Persons Report, which lambasted 4 Middle Eastern countries for their blatant human rights abuses. Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Syria have found themselves strange bedfellows on America’s ‘blacklist’, which means that unless these governments change their domestic policies to meet the minimum criteria for human rights they face a slew of sanctions.
According to the report, the global economic turndown has fueled the flames of an already exasperating situation. more ...
29.06.2009 Technology: Rare metals could trigger new conflicts. By Emilio Godoy
Next trade war?
MEXICO CITY, Jun 26 (IPS/IFEJ) - Used in electric car motors and wind turbines, neodymium, a "rare earth metal," is at the epicentre of the race between wealthy and emerging nations to create green technologies, while poorer countries appear to be relegated to spectator status. Neodymium is a lanthanoid, at position 60 on the periodic table of elements for the number of atoms in a single molecule. Its production and wide range of uses reflect the quiet competition over raw materials in the area of green technologies. more ...
22.06.2009 The emergence and popularity of social networking sites has been seen as a triumph of the technological age – but what does it say about the world we live in? By Adil Morrison
Anti-social Networking
(gm) First thing’s first – social networking is here to stay. Yesterday it was Myspace; today it’s Twitter. Almost fifty per cent of all online users are involved in such activities. The question is what does the popularity of such sites tell us? A recent survey carried out in United States shows that the amount of time spent by people on such websites has risen by a meteoric 83 per cent since this time last year – users spent almost 14 billion minutes in April on such sites in the US alone. There is certainly a positive side to this phenomenon. more ...
04.06.2009 Women remain victims of indiscrimination on wide scale
An unsolved plight
GENEVA, June 4 (KUNA) -- A senior official of the United Nations affirmed on Thursday that women have remained victims of indiscrimination on a wide scale, contrary to covenants and rhetoric.
Opening discussions on Women's human Rights at the 11th session of the Human Rights Council, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, said international human rights treaties prohibited discrimination and included guarantees to ensure that women and men enjoyed their civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights on a basis of equality. more ...
03.06.2009 U.S. Military taking over the World Wide Web
"America lost its objective"
(Russia Today). The U.S. is updating its counterinsurgency effort in Afghanistan on the ground and online. The Pentagon’s nominated a new commander of U.S. Forces there and launched special web pages on popular social networking sites. Service members in Afghanistan are now posting images and reports from the battlefield to the front lines of the internet. Is this increased transparency or a propaganda tool?
“I rather doubt that this is a transparency issue. more ...
02.06.2009 Sao Paulo: Undercover investigation implicates top brands in ‘Slaughtering the Amazon’
Brazilian Government Bankrolling Amazon Destruction
(gm) A three-year undercover investigation by Greenpeace into Brazil’s booming cattle industry, the single largest source of deforestation in the world and Brazil’s main source of CO2 emissions (1), has found that top food, sports and fashion brands are unwittingly driving the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. It also shows how the Brazilian government is complicit in bankrolling the destruction and is undermining efforts to tackle the global climate crisis. more ...
04.05.2009 A hazardous heritage of the latest war in the Middle East. By Erin Cunningham
Environment Emerges as a Major Casualty
GAZA CITY, May 4 (IPS) - Countless fruit groves across the Gaza Strip are now gone, entire farms bulldozed. The remains of thousands of destroyed homes emit toxic asbestos, while dilapidated infrastructure dumps raw sewage into the Mediterranean Sea. An already deepening environmental crisis in the besieged Gaza Strip has been further compounded by the recent war. Throughout the three-week Operation Cast Lead, Israel targeted almost every aspect of the coastal territory's infrastructure. more ...
08.04.2009 By Zulkiple Ibrahim
Individual Creativity High Placed In Islam
KUALA LUMPUR, April 6 (Bernama) -- The Islamic approach to poverty eradication requires the creation of ample economic opportunities for the poor to participate and to enable them to be self independent. Malaysian Institute of Islamic Understanding (Ikim) Deputy Director-General Nik Mustapha Nik Hassan wrote this in the article 'An Islamic Approach To Economic Justice" sent to Bernama recently.
According to Nik Mustapha: "The attitude of the poor must be set right".
"Every individual must participate and contribute to meeting his needs and the needs of his dependents. more ...
06.03.2009 Belgrade: US Military Met With Mladic After Indictment
"Close encounters"
(birn) American Professor Charles Ingrao says research shows US military often encountered Hague tribunal’s top war-crimes indictee in 1996 but failed to arrest him because that was not then their policy. Purdue University History Professor Charles Ingrao says the US military saw Ratko Mladic at least 20 times in 1996 alone but the Pentagon was not then interested in capturing war crimes indictees in Bosnia and Herzegovina. more ...
26.02.2009 Berlin: State Restrictions on Religious Dress for Teachers Target Muslim Women
Discrimination in the Name of Neutrality
(gm) German state bans on religious symbols and clothing for teachers and other civil servants discriminate against Muslim women who wear the headscarf, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The 67-page report, "Discrimination in the Name of Neutrality: Headscarf Bans for Teachers and Civil Servants in Germany," is based on extensive research over an eight-month period. It analyzes the human rights implications of the bans and their effect on the lives of Muslim women teachers, including those who have been employed for many years. more ...
21.02.2009 Cairo: Arab League begins taking action against Israeli war crimes
Legal action
(kuna) The Arab League began Saturday to take legal action to ensure that Israeli war criminals do not escape punishment for their crimes against the Palestinian people in Gaza. President of Office of the Secretary-General of the Arab League Ambassador Hesham Yusuf told reporters that two committees held meetings today headed by the Secretary-General. The first meeting included international legal experts, headed by the international legal personality Jean Dugard, a French. more ...
13.02.2009 "Denial and Neglect Undermine the Fight against Human Trafficking", says UNODC Director
All countries are affected
(UNODC)The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) today issued a Global Report on Trafficking in Persons. Based on data gathered from 155 countries, it offers the first global assessment of the scope of human trafficking and what is being done to fight it. It includes: an overview of trafficking patterns; legal steps taken in response; and country-specific information on reported cases of trafficking in persons, victims, and prosecutions. "Public opinion is waking up to the reality of modern slavery", said the Executive Director of UNODC, Antonio Maria Costa. more ...
13.02.2009 Washington: Global economic crisis top security threat to US
"Time is our greatest threat"
(kuna). The deepening global economic crisis overshadows terrorism as the most immediate national security concern, threatening the security of a quarter of the worlds countries and threatening trade wars, the US intelligence agencies reported Thursday. "The financial crisis and global recession are likely to produce a wave of economic crises in emerging market nations over the next year," said the report. It said a wave of "destructive protectionism" was possible as countries find they cannot export their way out of the slump. "Time is our greatest threat. more ...
29.01.2009 Berlin: Germany is seeking more influence over the global energy supply
Industry of the Future
(gfpc) With today's founding of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), Berlin is seeking more influence over the global energy supply. IRENA aims to enhance the use of renewable energy sources on a global scale, therefore implementing what ecological organizations have been demanding for the past 20 years. At the same time, IRENA is supporting an already heavily subsidized industrial branch that is capable of covering a large part of the future energy supply. more ...
29.01.2009 Stimulating Your Organization with Green Technology. By Lisa Voldeng
Effecting Change Now
(gm). “There is no obstacle that can stand in the way of millions of voices calling for change.” In the week of President Obama's inauguration, his words are a noble call to us all to rise to meet the best in ourselves, many of us are wondering, “but how do I tangibly effect change in my own life? Or in my own organization?”
President Obama built his campaign on the promise of economic stimulus and aggressive support for green technologies. Recently, he selected alternative energy supporter and Nobel-prize winning physicist Steven Chu to head the Department of Energy. more ...
21.01.2009 By Athar Mian
Clean Energy Opportunities for Emerging Muslim World Markets
(Dinar Standard). If you think that the oil rich Gulf states have a long bonanza from ever rising prices, think again: According to Financial Sense (Jan 2008) and other sources, Saudi Arabia will approach zero net exports in 2031, within a range of 2024 to 2037. Other top exporters (Russia, Norway, Iran, and UAE) are in a similar range. Saudi per capita oil consumption is now the highest (32.88 bbl in 2006), followed by US (25.64); and India at #20 (0.87.) New, sustainable energy (and water) sources are needed as much in oil rich Gulf states as anywhere else. more ...
17.12.2008 New poll: US Approach to Muslim World Given Poor Grades by Many Nations
International Opposition to US Bases
(WPO). A WorldPublicOpinion.org poll of 21 nations around the world finds widespread opposition to the United States having naval forces based in the Persian Gulf. Most also believe that most people in the Persian Gulf region oppose such bases.
In general, America's approach to the Middle East and the Muslim world gets poor grades around the world. The United States is widely viewed as disrespectful of the Muslim world. Its support for democracy in the Muslim world is seen as limited to cases where the government is cooperative with the US. more ...
21.11.2008 London: "World oil production peaked in 2006"
Peak Oil could trigger meltdown of society
According to a newly published global oil supply report to be presented by the Energy Watch Group at the Foreign Press Association in London, world oil production peaked in 2006. Production will start to decline at a rate of several percent per year. By 2020, and even more by 2030, global oil supply will be dramatically lower. This will create a supply gap which can hardly be closed by growing contributions from other fossil, nuclear or alternative energy sources in this time frame. more ...
14.11.2008 Hyperion: The Future of Energy? By Adil Morrrison
After Oil, who knows?
(gm) Over past few decades, it has become apparent to all that the current situation with regards to energy, is untenable, we simply cannot carry on this way. According BBC Broadcast Meteorologist, Helen Willets, our climate is changing at an unprecedented rate. As things stand, we in the West are overly dependent on foreign oil reserves. Oil production is in decline whilst consumption from emerging markets (namely, China and India) is accelerating and show signs of slowing down; experts predict that between 20 and 40 billion barrels could still be recovered in the next 40 years. more ...
11.11.2008 "That money should fecundate and breed more money is against nature" By Robert Luongo, Cape Town
The Containment of the Technological Project
(gm). The containment of the technological project, bent as it is on hurtling the human race into yet darker domains of sociological quagmire, replete with the breakdown of socio-economic and religious patterns that have sustained human communities for centuries, lies in the ability of men to first recognize the situation, and then act in a unified manner for the re-establishing of a dynamic, balanced and, subsequently, sane means of exchange that can facilitate the most basic of all human exchanges. more ...
04.11.2008 RAND Study Is First to Link Viewing of Sexual Content on Television to Subsequent Teen Pregnancy
Negative influence on the youth
(RAND Health). Adolescents who have high levels of exposure to television programs that contain sexual content are twice as likely to be involved in a pregnancy over the following three years as their peers who watch few such shows, according to a new RAND Corporation study. The study, published in the November edition of the journal Pediatrics, is the first to establish a link between teenagers' exposure to sexual content on TV and either pregnancies among girls or responsibility for pregnancies among boys. more ...
19.08.2008 Futuwwa and popular culture: some notes on the situation of the Muslim youth in Germany. By Sulaiman Wilms, Berlin
Ways beyond the extremes
(gm). "The profile of the youth has been changed visibly. Their expectations towards our local communities, towards their parents and also towards society have been changed likewise. But dangers increase on the other side. If you neglect the young people, there might be the possibility that they end up in drugs, violence and crime. We are not able to address the masses, but we rather have to deal with the youth personally, individually and locally. more ...
31.07.2008 Solar Thermal Power Coming to a Boil. By Jonathan G. Dorn
Clean and carbon-free
WASHINGTON, Jul 23 (IPS) - After emerging in 2006 from 15 years of hibernation, the solar thermal power industry experienced a surge in 2007, with 100 megawatts of new capacity coming online worldwide.
During the 1990s, cheap fossil fuels, combined with a loss of state and federal incentives in the U.S., put a damper on solar thermal power development. However, recent increases in energy prices, escalating concerns about global climate change, and fresh economic incentives are renewing interest in this technology. more ...
18.04.2008 Culture: Prof. Katharina Mommsen is considered one of the most important experts on Goethe
"Weltoffenheit"
(gm) You have to love something to be able to convey it properly to others. This principle was espoused by the famous poet Goethe, and few embody it more than Professor Katharina Mommsen. Born in Berlin in 1925, she is now Professor Emeritus of Literature at Stanford University in California.
Mommsen’s love of the German classics will not let her rest. She is considered one of the most important experts on Goethe alive today. In spite of teaching for many years in the USA, Mommsen regrets the fact that Goethe has had an insufficient impact in America. more ...
07.04.2005 Debate: Rand Report on Islam revisited
"Creating divisions in the Muslim society at home and abroad". By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
March 18th marks the first anniversary of formal release of the Rand Corporation report on Islam, entitled Civil Democratic Islam: Partners, Resources, and Strategies.
The report has two fold agenda: 1. Try to create a version of Islam that suits the post 9/11 western agenda. 2. Creating divisions in the Muslim society at home and abroad.
The Rand Report recipe to achieve this objective is to encourage and promote the so-called moder
12.08.2002 Moderate Muslims Troubled by Wahabis, But without U.S. Twist
Analysis by Marwaan-Markar
(ips)Asia's moderate Muslims have unlikely allies that are giving legitimacy to a view they had asserted in the aftermath of the Sep. 11 acts of terror in the United States -- that Islam is not a monolithic faith, that there are many Islams.
Their unwitting supporters are a growing chorus of high-profile, neo-conservatives in the United States, who are calling on Washington to deem Saudi Arabia an American enemy because of the form of Islam it practices and exports -- Wahabism. more ...
