November 2006 - Page 3 of 4

Running on Hype: The Real Scoop on Biofuels

Brian Tokar November 14, 2006 Brian Tokar

You can hardly open up a major newspaper or national magazine these days without encountering the latest hype about biofuels, and how they’re going to save oil, reduce pollution and prevent climate change. Bill Gates, Sun Microsystems’ Vinod Khosla, and other major venture capitalists are investing millions in new biofuel production, whether in the form of ethanol, mainly derived from corn in the US today, or biodiesel, mainly from soybeans and canola seed. It’s literally a "modern day gold rush," as described by the New York Times, paraphrasing the chief executive of Cargill, one of the main benefactors of increased subsidies to agribusiness and tax credits to refiners for the purpose of encouraging biofuel production. read more

Ban Cluster Bombs! A UN Call

Rene Wadlow November 13, 2006 Rene Wadlow

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for urgent actions to address the disastrous impact of cluster munitions – warheads that scatter scores of smaller bombs, especially when used in populated areas as happened in this summer’s conflict in Lebanon.

Mr Annan was addressing the start of the Review Conference on the Convention on Prohibitions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons which may be Deemed to be Excessively Injurious or to have Indiscriminate Effects – the "Inhumane Weapons’ Convention" to its friends – on 7 November 2006 in Geneva. He stressed that "Recent events show that the atrocious, inhumane effects of these weapons – both at their time of use and after the conflict ends – must be addressed immediately so that civilian populations can start rebuilding their lives." read more

Toward Freedom ‘Webcam Chat’ with Bolivian activists

Toward Freedom November 9, 2006 Toward Freedom

For Immediate Release

For info: 802-862-4929

Burlington International Website plans ‘Webcam Chat’ with Bolivian activists

TowardFreedom.com is pleased to invite the public to our first ever ‘webcam chat’ with our webmaster and political activists in La Paz, Bolivia. We will meet in the studio of CCTV from 7 to 8:30 pm, Tuesday, Nov. 14, and discuss, with questions and answers through an audio and visual link, the current political situation in Bolivia with our associates at a cyber cafe in La Paz, Bolivia. Both images will be viewed on a large monitor at the CCTV studio. read more

Hungary: Bloody Monday

John Horvath November 9, 2006 John Horvath

The police crackdown against peaceful demonstrators on the night of October 23, 2006, shows that there is very little difference between the past and the present.

Congo massacre: Australian mining company’s managers indicted

Norm Dixon, Green Left Weekly November 9, 2006 Norm Dixon, Green Left Weekly

Source: Green Left Weekly

A Congolese prosecutor has called for three former managers of the Perth-based Anvil Mining corporation to be indicted for "complicity in war crimes" – involvement in the massacre of up to 100 people in the village of Kilwa in October 2004. The slaughter, committed by Congolese Armed Forces soldiers ferried to the scene by Anvil-chartered planes and company-owned trucks, took place 50 kilometres from the company’s Dikulushi silver and copper mine in the south-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. read more

A Media Innovator Leaves the Scene

Rene Wadlow November 8, 2006 Rene Wadlow

Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber -JJ-SS as he was known to headline writers and his numerous friends and enemies in the French media- was a bright star of life in the 1950s, although he only died on 7 November 2006 at the age of 82.