The Energy Problem: What the Helios Project Can Do About It - April2007...
The energy problem is one of the most important issues that science and technology has to solve. Nobel laureate and Berkeley Lab Director Steven...
The energy problem is one of the most important issues that science and technology has to solve. Nobel laureate and Berkeley Lab Director Steven Chu proposes an aggressive research program to transform the existing and future energy systems of the world away from technologies that emit greenhouse gases. Berkeley Lab's Helios Project concentrates on renewable fuels, such as biofuels, and solar technologies, including a new generation of solar photovoltaic cells and the conversion of electricity into chemical storage to meet future demand. His talk was presented April 23, 2007
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Cynthia McKinney in an Israeli jail - English
As if we needed any more proof that the international media deliberately avoids exposing anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian injustices, its suspect...
As if we needed any more proof that the international media deliberately avoids exposing anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian injustices, its suspect behavior during recent days has sealed the case.
Even as we were being force-fed minute details of Michael Jackson's colorful life along with endless speculation as to the true parentage of his children, a former U.S. Congresswomen and presidential candidate, Cynthia McKinney, was languishing in an Israeli jail.
Her 'crime' was boarding the Free Gaza Movement's aid vessel The Spirit of Humanity in Cyprus, in an effort to break Israel's cruel siege of Gaza, which even the U.S. President has condemned.
Like several of her sister vessels, The Spirit of Humanity was attacked by the Israeli Navy in international waters before being boarded by Israeli commandos and dragged along with its crew and passengers towards Israel.
Once there, 21 human rights advocates from the U.S., Britain, Ireland, Denmark, Jordan, Palestine and Yemen, including McKinney, Noble Laureate Mairead Maguire, and documentary filmmaker Adam Shapiro, were incarcerated.
Let's be realistic. If just about any other high-profile U.S. politician on any other mission had been detained within a cell block on foreign soil, the incident would have merited headlines.
However, McKinney's abduction went almost unnoticed. Not only was the story relegated to the back pages, if it ran at all, there was a corresponding absence of comment from Congress and the White House.
McKinney is now home after refusing to sign a statement in Hebrew that she was guilty of a violation, but the mainstream media is certainly not clamoring at her door for interviews.
As far as I can tell, her ordeal has mostly been covered by left-wing outlets such as Democracy Now or Middle East networks including Al Jazeera and Press TV.
A number of McKinney's supporters say the reason for the media blackout was the fact that she is a Black American. But, in fact, it's her cause that's the problem rather than her color.
My analysis is based on the lack of media coverage given to the Viva Palestina aid convoy of trucks and ambulances from London to Gaza, led by British Parliamentarian George Galloway.
The Herculean efforts of hundreds of ordinary Britons to deliver much-needed humanitarian supplies to war-torn Gaza earlier this year was a non-event as far as the media was concerned until Galloway was barred from entering Canada as a result.
Unless you're a person who relentlessly digs on the internet, you probably are not aware that during McKinney's ordeal, Galloway, along with Vietnam War veteran Ron Kovic, were meeting up with over 200 Americans in Cairo armed with $2 million (Dh7.35 million) that was raised in the U.S. to buy trucks and medical aid destined for Gaza.
The Egyptian English-language paper Al Ahram Weekly dubs this ""the largest grassroots medical relief effort for Gaza in U.S. history"" but once again, this doesn't merit column inches in either U.S. or European mainstream papers.
In a similar vein, is the way that the horrendous courtroom stabbing of 32-year-old Marwa Al Sherbini was considered inconsequential by the German media until it elicited angry protests in her hometown of Alexandria.
There are so many aspects to this story, which should have been emblazoned across front pages.
First of all it was a blatant race crime, which Germany is normally sensitive about. Second, it begs questions concerning court security.
What were armed officers doing when Marwa was stabbed 18 times and why was her husband shot when he attempted to protect his pregnant wife?
What kind of editors would bin reports of such a horrendous crime carried out in full view of the authorities? What were they thinking?
Purely coincidentally, I was sitting at a table with one of Marwa's uncles in an Alexandria coffee shop when he received a call on his mobile and had to dash off because of a ""family emergency"".
Today, this exceptionally close-knit family is devastated and hurt that the murder of one of their own wasn't initially treated with the weight the crime deserved.
Egyptians are outraged at Germany's disinterest and the inaction of their own foreign office. The numbers who attended her funeral, who gathered outside the German embassy in Cairo and who demonstrated in Cairo and Alexandria speak for themselves.
Because Marwa's dispute with her attacker was based on his objections to her Islamic headscarf, the death of the young pharmacist has become an emblem for the rights of Muslim women at a time when the French President is attempting to ban the burqa. Marwa loved life.
She didn't plan to become a martyr. But in the eyes of Egyptians calling for a mosque and a street in Alexandria to be renamed in her honor, she is a heroine.
If the U.S. and Europe are chronically supine when it comes to Muslim causes, then the governments and media throughout the Arab and Muslim world should embrace them clearly and loudly.
With anti-Muslim hate crimes on the rise, Muslims need a strong united voice on the international stage. Shame on the world's media that appears to be united only in its anti-Muslim bias!
Linda S. Heard is a specialist British writer on Middle East affairs.
(Source: Gulf News
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Ireland expels israeli diplomat over Hamas assassination - English
DUBLIN (AP) -- Ireland announced Tuesday it's expelling an Israeli diplomat in punishment for the Mossad use of forged Irish passports to...
DUBLIN (AP) -- Ireland announced Tuesday it's expelling an Israeli diplomat in punishment for the Mossad use of forged Irish passports to assassinate a top Hamas official in Dubai.
israel has refused to confirm or deny its agents' involvement in the January slaying of Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. Dubai police said Israeli agents posing as holidaymakers in the oil-rich Arab emirate killed Mabhouh in his hotel room.
They said assassins using 32 fake passports — including eight depicting fictional Irish citizens — participated in the hit squad. The Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and Ireland's national police force, the Garda Siochana, launched parallel investigations, but said their appeals for information from Israel fell on deaf ears.
"The misuse of Irish passports by a state with which Ireland enjoys friendly, if sometimes frank, bilateral relations is clearly unacceptable and requires a firm response," Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said as he announced the expulsion.
Ireland's two investigations received no cooperation from the Israelis, but nevertheless reached "the inescapable conclusion that an Israeli government agency was responsible," he said.
The Israeli embassy in Dublin includes four diplomats and two security officials. Both Ireland and Israel declined to identify the official facing expulsion by name or position, but The Irish Times reported it was one of the security officials.
Martin said the official was chosen for expulsion to send a symbolic message, and the Irish investigations found no evidence that any of the embassy staff was involved in the conspiracy.
"The official concerned is not accused or suspected of any particular wrongdoing," Martin said. "The official concerned is a victim of the actions of the state they represent."
Martin condemned Israel's assassination of Mabhouh.
"Many allegations have been made against Mr. Mabhouh which, if true, would categorize him as a committed terrorist," Martin said. But Ireland "does not believe that states should fight terror with terror. As a matter of principle, Ireland opposes extra-judicial killings. We believe that states have a duty to operate according to the law and to respect that way of life that terrorists seek to destroy."
Martin's aides said this was the first time Ireland has expelled an Israeli official. It last took such action in the mid-1980s against Russian officials suspected of spying activity on behalf of the former Soviet Union.
Israel's ambassador to Ireland, Zion Evrony, said he was summoned Tuesday to the Department of Foreign Affairs to be told of the expulsion.
Earlier this month Israeli commandos seized an Irish-run vessel trying to run aid into Gaza Port. All the Irish citizens aboard, including former UN humanitarian official Denis Halliday and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire, were arrested and deported.
The Dubai assassins also used fake passports from Britain, Germany, France and Australia. British officials determined that Israeli officials stole the identities of real British citizens, but Martin said all eight Irish passports involved fake identities. He said six of the forged Irish passports used real numbers assigned to real Irish people with different names, while two others were total fabrications.
Australia expelled an Israeli diplomat May 24 after concluding that Mossad was involved in forging four Australian passports.
Britain expelled an Israeli diplomat in March after reaching the same conclusion about 12 fraudulent British passports used by the alleged assassins.
The governments of France and Germany have yet to announce conclusions of their own investigations.
Tehran Times
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Professional Perspectives on Water Fluoridation-English
In a full length video produced by the Fluoride Action Network, respected professional researchers, scientists, and health practitioners openly...
In a full length video produced by the Fluoride Action Network, respected professional researchers, scientists, and health practitioners openly discuss their experience and opinions concerning the adverse health effects and ethical problems associated with the public health policy of water fluoridation.
Featuring a Nobel Laureate in Medicine, three scientists from the National Research Council’s landmark review on fluoride, as well as dentists, medical doctors, and leading researchers in the field, this professionally-produced 28 minute DVD presents a powerful indictment of the water fluoridation program.
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[14 July 2012] Suu Kyi silent on Muslims cleansing in Myanmar - English
[14 July 2012] Suu Kyi silent on Muslims cleansing in Myanmar - English
A program against a population of Muslims called the Rohingyas began in...
[14 July 2012] Suu Kyi silent on Muslims cleansing in Myanmar - English
A program against a population of Muslims called the Rohingyas began in June, which has been called an ethnic cleansing of the Muslim population. Why hasn't this received more international coverage? Certainly, Myanmar has become an example of democracy as deemed recently by the United States, the European Union and Canada.
In this news analysis examines why the Rohingya Muslims, as they are called, are facing this fate, as Myanmar's President Thein Sein says Rohingya Muslims must be expelled from the country and sent to refugee camps run by the United Nations, who have in turn, refused them.
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[20 Nov 2013] UN panel has urged Myanmar to stop Buddhist violence...
A UN panel has urged Myanmar to stop Buddhist violence against Rohingya Muslims but the resolution has seen opposition from an unlikely source: The...
A UN panel has urged Myanmar to stop Buddhist violence against Rohingya Muslims but the resolution has seen opposition from an unlikely source: The party of Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Chee.
In its resolution, the UN General Assembly\'s human rights committee has called on Myanmar to give the Rohingya minority equal access to citizenship. But the demand apparently didn\'t sit well with the West\'s democracy icon Suu Chee, whose party accused the UN of interfering in Myanmar\'s internal affairs. Buddhist violence against Rohingya which is said to have the state backing has become routine in Myanmar. It\'s left hundreds dead and sent another 240-thousand fleeing their homes. But Suu Chee has had little to say about Rohingya rights. And she even declined to meet with the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation delegation visiting Myanmar this week to look into the plight of Muslims.
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