World Stories you Probably Won't Hear on the News

[Plutonic Panda]

Palm oil fuels Indonesia deforestation

Indonesia is the world's top palm oil producer, but that has led to land grabs and violence against indigenous people.

Gohong, Indonesia - Anang Sugito, 47, stands in front of a 100-strong crowd pointing to a hand-drawn map on the wall. His voice cracks when he talks about the future of Dayak village.

"If we sell off our forests, our children will be landless. They will have their own children, and what would they do?" asked Sugito, 47, the village secretary for the 7,000 household strong community of Gohong, and father of five children ranging from 10 to 18-years old.

In a country where indigenous activists and leaders defending their land are sometimes intimidated, harassed, and killed by palm oil companies and their collaborators, many Dayak villagers - who have practiced shifting cultivation in forests in Central Kalimantan for hundreds of years - do not understand why they have to go to court to defend forests against conversion to mono-crop palm plantations.

"It is only natural, and as it should be, that we do everything in our power to hold onto our land," said Abdul Muin, an ethnic Dayak hailing from the neighbouring village of Sei Dusun, where villagers have filed lawsuits against oil palm corporations with concessions to 11,000 hectares of peatland forest.

While so far 11 companies have had their permits revoked as a result, the country hosts more than 2,500 local suppliers and Muin said it is a constant struggle to fend them off.

Demand for palm oil and energy in Indonesia continues to drive deforestation and displacement of local communities in a country that has already lost 64 million hectares of tropical forests to agribusiness in the past five decades, according to the World Research Institute (WRI), an international research organisation focusing on sustainable energy and conservation.

- Palm oil fuels Indonesia deforestation - Features - Al Jazeera English

[Plutonic Panda]

To the mods, wasn't sure if this should be in politics or not.

[Chadanth]

I saw something about this in my FB feed a while back, and I'll admit, I overlooked it. I'm going to do some reading on the topic. Seems legit.

[Plutonic Panda]

Severe flood situation going on due to high-tide. I still disagree with the notion that global warming is man-made and will still continue to happen no matter what, however, this is an issue that needs to be looked at. Further more, it really isn't smart planning to be building cities below sea level especially if the city is located right next to an ocean.

FLOOD-BATTERED ISLANDS PUSH CLIMATE TREATY NEGOTIATORS TO SPEED EFFORTS

A tiny Pacific Island nation – still recovering from massive floods that destroyed homes and displaced residents – played host this week to an international climate conference where delegates vowed to push ambitious global targets.

A new sense of urgency permeated the meeting due to the recent release of a startling new report by the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicting severe consequences if emissions continue unabated. But Marshall Islands President Christopher J. Loeak said the effects the study warned about have already arrived at his doorstep.

“I have already built a seawall around my home, but the waves rise higher every month,” Loeak told delegates from more than two dozen countries at the meeting hosted by his country. “This is what we can see now, but what does our future hold? What will king tides, droughts, and storms be like in 10, 20, or 30 years?”

Loeak said he fears that the Martial Islands will soon resemble a “war zone,” and that his people “stand to lose everything.”

Representatives from 30 counties were gathering in the islands for the Cartagena Dialogue for Progressive Action, an informal meeting for negotiators ahead of a major United Nations summit in 2015 aimed at establishing an international treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The venue of the latest meeting vividly brings home the urgency of formulating a response to climate change.

The Marshall Islands was hit in early March by higher-than-usual “king tides” – seasonal tides that are the highest in the year – that surged through the capital. Just before those floods, the country’s northwest had suffered an extreme drought that prompted a state of emergency.

The meeting comes just after a report Monday from the IPCC, which issued a stark warning about threats the world will face if no action is taken to reduce climate change.

Partly in response to the IPCC’s grim findings, those gathered in the Marshall Islands agreed on new aims to tackle the effects of global warming.

“Shocked by the most alarming scientific report on climate change the world has ever seen, the Cartagena Dialogue alliance of progressive countries has for the first time forged a common purpose around a set of objectives for a new climate agreement, due to be signed in 2015,” Marshall Islands Foreign Minister Tony de Brum told Al Jazeera in an emailed statement.

“We committed to accelerate preparations now to bring forward our post-2020 emission reduction targets as early as possible next year in time to seal an ambitious new agreement in Paris, and to use the agreement to take vulnerability assessment and adaptation planning to a new level globally,” he wrote.

- read more here: Flood-battered islands push climate treaty negotiators to speed efforts | Al Jazeera America

[Plutonic Panda]

Measles outbreak in California

More measles outbreaks in Calif. as debate continues over vaccines

In high-income neighborhoods in California, 21 cases of measles have been reported since the start of the year. Many wonder why this long-dormant disease is suddenly making a comeback. While the debate over childhood vaccines rages on, health officials hope the cases of measles won't. Al Jazeera's Stephanie Stanton has more from Los Angeles.

http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/s...rvaccines.html

- read more here: More measles outbreaks in Calif. as debate continues over vaccines | Al Jazeera America

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NEW YORK POLICE ARREST VETERANS PROTESTING AT VIETNAM WAR MEMORIAL

Activists say protest was part of an attempt to revive Occupy movement, with events planned worldwide


Three military veterans were arrested at New York City’s Vietnam Memorial after taking part in a protest that activists said was part of an attempted revival of the Occupy movement, a push that began Friday with events planned worldwide.

About 100 protesters at the New York memorial shouted “shame” and “no justice, no peace” as police loaded the three veterans and two other protesters into the back of a van.

Activists said they had planned to read the names of fallen U.S. soldiers at the memorial in lower Manhattan, but police said the park had closed at 10 p.m. so the public was not allowed to be there. The rally was organized by Veterans for Peace (VFP), a nonprofit organization that says it is dedicated to educating the public about the costs of war.

As the crowd gathered, police gave three warnings over a loudspeaker that anyone remaining at the memorial would be subject to arrest.

“There’s no reason for this park to be closed,” John Spitzberg, a veteran and member of VFP, told Al Jazeera. Spitzberg was one of the veterans arrested Friday.

“The right to protest doesn’t end at 10 p.m.,” he said.

A New York Police Dept. Detective who gave only his surname, Sessa, said at the time of publication late Friday that police did not yet have information about the arrests.

The Occupy movement began in Zuccotti Park in New York City’s financial district in September 2011, launching debate over wealth concentration in the hands of the “1 percent” into mainstream politics and media.

On May 1, 2012, hundreds of protesters marched from Zuccotti Park to the Vietnam memorial for a “general assembly.” Police later arrived and told those gathered that they would have to leave because the park closed at 10 p.m. Activists say the memorial is usually open to the public 24 hours a day.

- read more here: New York police arrest veterans protesting at Vietnam War Memorial | Al Jazeera America

I honestly don't believe this is an attempt to bring back the joke known as the occupy movement, but I wouldn't doubt the same parasites were there.

[Plutonic Panda]

MCDONALD’S EXITS CRIMEA

McDonald's closed its three restaurants in Crimea as it evaluates the "evolving situation" on the Black Sea peninsula, weeks after its annexation by Russia following a referendum held in the wake of Ukraine's political upheavals.

The world's biggest hamburger chain said Friday that the closures were "strictly a business decision which has nothing to do with politics." It cited the suspension of financial and banking services and said it is evaluating the potential business and regulatory implications of the situation.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the leader of the Russian nationalist Liberal-Democratic Party, or LDPR, said in televised comments that he would welcome the closure of McDonald's restaurants throughout Russia.

"I will give an order to the LDPR local branches to place pickets outside all of McDonald's restaurants," Zhirinovsky said.

But his provocative statements are aimed mostly at his support base of nationalist voters and do not represent official policy.

Other pro-Kremlin lawmakers quickly indicated that the government has no intention of cracking down on McDonald's. Sergei Zheleznyak, a deputy speaker of the Russian lower house and a leading member of the ruling party, United Russia, was quoted by the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper as saying that there is no plan to shut down McDonald's.

The company, based in Oak Brook, Ill., has more than 400 restaurants in Russia.

The ITAR-Tass news agency quoted Igor Rudenskiy, the head of the economic affairs committee in the Russian lower house, as saying that that closing McDonald's makes no sense. "It's a road to nowhere," he said.

The restaurants in Crimea were owned by the company, not by franchisees, McDonald's said.

"We hope to reopen our restaurants soon so we can welcome back our loyal customers," the company said in a statement.

- McDonald?s exits Crimea | Al Jazeera America

More destabilization in the east. I know it is just a McDonalds, but if a country can't even support a fast food joint, things are getting bad.

[Plutonic Panda]

Afghanis presidential election

AFGHANS HOPEFUL FOR ELECTION DAY, ANXIOUS FOR THE DAY AFTER

Saturday’s presidential vote in Afghanistan marks the country's third attempt at a legitimate election, and the beginning of its first democratic transfer of power. And despite widespread anxiety, opinion polls find a rise in optimism — fueled, some say, by increased confidence in the Afghan Security Forces and by the promise that, after 12 years, the country will be led by someone other than Hamid Karzai.

According to an Al Jazeera poll — conducted amid a string of Taliban attacks on high-profile targets in the heart of Kabul — 85 percent of respondents said Afghanistan was “ready” for the elections, and nearly 70 percent said the country would improve over the next five years under a new president. This optimism comes despite fears over the potential for civil conflict erupting from a disputed result, and preparations for departure by year's end of the NATO-led forces that have propped up the Karzai government over more than a decade.

Afghan opinion about the future may be buoyed by a handful of tangible indicators such as the trebling of GDP, the eightfold increase in school enrollment and improved access to health care that have resulted more from the cascade of Western aid since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion, which ousted the Taliban, than from competent policymaking in Kabul. And while violence remains a part of everyday life in parts of the country, the Afghan Army is said by officials to have largely its ground against a resilient Taliban insurgency since taking over more security responsibility from NATO forces.

But Afghans have fallen prey to false hopes in the past, warn some experts. After the highly compromised 2009 election, which saw the country’s Independent Election Commission nullify nearly 1 million votes for Karzai in a poll in which only one third of registered voters participated, “there was a collective nervous breakdown,” said Sara Chayes, an Afghanistan expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “However rigged the election was expected to be, there was an illogical enthusiasm then.”

- read more here: Afghans hopeful for election day, anxious for the day after | Al Jazeera America