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Researchers document world's mammals in crisis
From the report: From majestic African elephants to tiny and often unappreciated rodents, mammals on Earth are in a state of crisis. One in four mammal species on Earth is being pushed to extinction, according to the Global Mammal Assessment, the most comprehensive assessment of the world's mammals.
Writing in the October 10 issue of Science, ("The Status of the World's Land and Marine Mammals: Diversity, Threat, and Knowledge") and unveiling a "Red List" of endangered mammal species (at the International Union for Conservation of Nature World Conservation Congress in Barcelona, Spain), the researchers who worked on the exhaustive study say that from 25 percent to 36 percent of species may be in danger of extinction.
"It is frightening that after millions and millions of years of evolution that have given rise to the biodiversity of mammals we are perched on a crisis where 25 percent of species are threatened with being lost forever," said Andrew Smith, an Arizona State University professor who played a key role in the mammalian assessment. Smith and his research assistant, Charlotte Johnson, are two of the 103 authors of the Science paper.
The Global Mammal Assessment was conducted by more than 1,800 scientists from more than 130 countries working under the auspices of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. It was made possible by the volunteer help of IUCN Species Survival Commission's specialist groups and collaborations between top institutions and universities, including Arizona State University, Texas A&M University, University of Virginia, Conservation International, Sapienza Università di Roma and the Zoological Society of London.
The mammal assessment is the first comprehensive look at the health of terrestrial and marine mammals across the globe. It is a companion assessment to similar documentation of the world's amphibians, released four years ago by IUCN.
"Mammals are important because they play key roles in ecosystems and provide important benefits to humans," Smith explained. "If you lose a mammal, you often are in danger of losing many other species."
The assessment shows that at least 1,141 of the 5,487 mammals on Earth are known to be threatened with extinction. At least 76 mammals have become extinct since 1500. The real situation could be much worse as 836 mammals are listed as "data deficient."
The culprits driving this precarious position include habitat loss and over exploitation for terrestrial mammals, and pollution, global warming and over exploitation for marine mammals, Smith said.
Follow link for full article. From the report: From majestic African elephants to tiny and often unappreciated rodents, mammals on Earth are in a state of crisis. O... more -
Corporate Hall of Shame-2008
More than 10,000 voters cast their ballots online and through the mail in Corporate Accountability International's 2008 Hall of Shame. Here are the results:
The top three Inductees in the Corporate Hall of Shame 2008
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Blackwater for killing unarmed Iraqi civilians, hiring paramilitaries trained under military dictatorships, and using its close political and financial ties with the Bush Administration to secure lucrative contracts.
Archer Daniels Midland for making Indonesia the world’s worst contributor to global warming (after the U.S. and China) through its clearing of endangered forests and wildlife habitat for palm oil plantations.
Wal-Mart for displacing local businesses, failing to cover employees under the corporation’s health plan, and opposing legislation that would increase homeland security.
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There is also a link to make your top three picks for 2009. And there are so many to choose from. More than 10,000 voters cast their ballots online and through the mail in Corporate Accountability International's 2008 Hall of S... more -
Hundreds protest Nepal crackdown on "NUDE" discos
KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Hundreds of disco workers protested in Kathmandu on Monday against a government crackdown on "nude dancing" in its bid to improve the deteriorating law and order.
Police have raided scores of discos, nightclubs and dance bars in the past two weeks and detained 1,500 people saying many were running bars where "nude dances" were performed, not allowed by law in the Hindu majority society.
There are hundreds of such night spots in the Kathmandu valley, although the country has no specific law to regulate them.
A Maoist-led government which took power in August has already ordered the bars should be closed an hour before midnight, to halt worsening public security in the capital, home to more than two million people.
Bar and disco operators are protesting the move would jeopardize their business and render 80,000 people jobless.
Police official Sarbendra Khanal said those dancing nude in bars as well as their clients would be charged under the public offence act.
If found guilty they could be sentenced to up to one year in jail and fined $400. KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Hundreds of disco workers protested in Kathmandu on Monday against a government crackdown on "nude dancing&... more -
432 Babies sick from tainted milk powder
NOTE: THIS IS AVAILABLE IN ASIAN STORES IN THE UNTIED STATES. SO IT EFFECTS USA ALSO.
A Chinese state news agency has reported that nearly 430 babies are sick with kidney stones after ingesting contaminated milk powder.
A probe was launched in China yesterday after babies nationwide got sick after taking baby formula sold in stores. At that time China reported only a few babies were affected with kidney stones, but today a higher number of babies were reported to be sick after taking the contaminated milk powder.
The news agency reported that the Sanlu Group Co. has been ordered to stop production.
FDA also has released a warning notice even though the Chinese milk powders are not allowed to be sold here in the U.S. But the powder may still be available in Asian stores, so FDA has sent a warning not to buy the contaminated milk powders.
The FDA is advising caregivers not to feed infant formula manufactured in China to infants. This should be replaced with an appropriate infant formula manufactured in the United States as mentioned below. Individuals should contact their health care professional if they have questions regarding their infant’s health or if they note changes in their infant’s health status.
Kidney stones are rare in infants, so it is alarming to see a high number of them are affected by it. The FDA believes the infant formula may be contaminated with melamine. Melamine is added to inflate the protein profile of milk but also causes kidney stones. NOTE: THIS IS AVAILABLE IN ASIAN STORES IN THE UNTIED STATES. SO IT EFFECTS USA ALSO. ... more -
Second infant death in milk scandal
BEIJING (Reuters) - China reported on Monday the death of a second infant from tainted milk powder in a growing scandal that left hundreds more ill but only led to a product recall after the New Zealand government raised the alarm.
Two traders were arrested for selling up to 3 tonnes of contaminated milk a day, police reported.
The latest death blamed on infant milk powder made by the Sanlu Group was in Gansu province, a poor northwestern region where the first infant fatality linked to the chemical-laced milk was also reported, the official Xinhua news agency said.
One of the infants was a five-month-old boy who died in May. The other was an eight-month-old girl who died in July after her parents removed her from hospital, health ministry official Wang Yu told a news conference.
"The family refused an operation to insert a catheter and abandoned treatment," Wang said, without explaining why.
By Monday morning, 1,253 children had been diagnosed with illnesses linked to the milk powder, with 340 still in hospital and 53 "relatively serious", Vice Minister of Health Ma Xiaowei told the news conference. At the weekend, officials said 432 children were ill from the milk powder.
Milk powder producer Sanlu, 43 percent owned by New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra, last week halted production after investigators found the chemical compound melamine in its powder was causing kidney stones and complications in infants.
The scandal threatens to batter the nation's troubled product safety record soon after the public relations success of the Beijing Olympics and following a string of scares last year. Continued... BEIJING (Reuters) - China reported on Monday the death of a second infant from tainted milk powder in a growing scandal that left hund... more -
African Children accused of witchcraft
Children accused of witchcraft
(06:50) Report
Sep 13 - Many children in the Democratic Republic of Congo are being accused of sorcerery and bringing bad luck to their families.
Most are forced to undergo dangerous cleansing rituals where they are set on fire and if they survive, are left physically and mentally scarred.
Some are chased away from their homes and end up on the streets.
(video at link, copyrighted) Children accused of witchcraft (06:50) Report ... more -
Google literally sees & keeps everything you type when you search.
The one big drawback of this technology (Google's Suggest And Search) is that your search terms are transmitted as you type them to Google’s server. They literally know everything you type, including half-finished search terms that you subsequently erase without submitting. And what if you accidentally had copied a lot of text into your cut-and-paste buffer and dropped that in the address bar? The whole buffer would be in Google’s hands immediately.You can see where this could lead to a potential problem. What if an executive of a giant company started to search for an insider-trading tip just prior to dumping a lot of stock? Could these partial search results be requested by subpoena in a resulting civil trial?
Google’s Promise
Earlier this month, Google did in fact consider this issue and updated what and how much they cache from Google Suggest. You can read the details from the official Google blog here. In summary, they promise:
* 98% of Google Suggest searches are not logged.
* 2% of these searches are logged with IP addresses.
* These 2% will have their logs will be ‘anonymized’ within 24 hours of search result, starting late this month or early next month.
Keep in mind that this promise is specifically for Google Suggest searches. If you actually submit your search query, Google’s standard privacy assurance goes into effect, which you can see explained very simply in this YouTube video. It seems reasonable to believe that Google is putting forth a good faith effort to protect your privacy while balancing the needs of their search business.
Another Dynamic to Consider
Google isn’t giving you the whole picture though. Sure, having a cutting edge search engine is what made them the first name in search. However, their business revenue comes from advertising, not search.How does this affect their high-wire balancing act? Well, it’s not completely clear. However, they didn’t become the first name in Web advertising by not involving search. In fact, search is key to the effectiveness of their advertising business.
The Google banner ads you see in your search result pages, and the Web pages with even more targeted advertising when you click on a link in that result page, this is how Google makes its money.You can safely assume that Google is always feeling pressure from their profit center to hand over as much information as possible on search results to help in making their advertising even more clairvoyant.
Getting Back to Privacy
So how does this affect you? Well, the bottom line is, what you do on Google’s search engine will never be completely private. Like throwing a rock in a pond, the ripples are immediately noticeable and quickly die down, but the waves might not hit the opposite shore for a while. Tiny traces will always be left, and it is those traces Google uses to improve its search, and ultimately its search-based advertising.
The Bottom Line
You do have to make a decision if you want to participate in this giant information machine Google has built behind its sleek minimalist Web site. Some people think Google Suggest is going too far. Some may think that Google Chrome’s Incognito mode will keep them safely anonymous.The answer to both of these is: Not quite.
* Google Suggest does gather more statistical data (such as typing speed, number of corrections, etc) but anonymizes that information quickly.
* Incognito mode only works on the client side, that is to say, it keeps your audit trail off the books on your end. If you use Google to search for something with this mode turned on, they still get all the same info they would get if you weren’t using it.
The only real privacy solution, the only way to remain out of the grand Google experiment, is to not search online at all. The one big drawback of this technology (Google's Suggest And Search) is that your search terms are transmitted as you type them ... more -
How to Get Touchy-Feely on the Emotional Web - Are your Emotions being "Ex...
There appears to be a new trend in micro-blogging where services are focusing on letting members share how they feel versus just what they are doing. Services such as Twitter and Plurk have messages about things their users are doing and places they’re going, but these new services reveal the inner-most emotions of their users. One could say it’s like a modern day version of the mood ring. Here are some of these “networks for feelings.”
Feelings, nothing more than feelings
http://moonri.se is like twitter but it lets you insert Flickr photos, YouTube videos and even your favorite famous quotations from their sister-site, QuotationsBook. One of its neat features is the ability to send a feeling, which is really a greeting card with attached elements such as a photo, video or quote. Every member gets their own RSS feed called My Feelings, which tracks all of their moods. You can even add this feed to your FriendFeed account if you really want to share with your friends.
MoodMill calls itself a social mood management website. It was one of the first services to try to tap into the hearts of its users. The Mood Makers Chart groups members according to their latest moods, which is handy because you’ll know which friends to stay far away from that day and which ones are in good spirits. There’s also a mood graph which lets you analyze your feelings, as well as an RSS feed for your moods.
I Rate My Day doesn’t have a plethora of features, but lets you rate your day and displays graphs and charts.
Emotionr has a unique slider bar that you use to share how you feel at the moment on a scale from 1 to 10. There are badges and widgets that you can add to your website that will share how you feel whenever you update your status. There’s an ambitious World Happiness section that tracks how you, the USA and the world itself feels. I don’t know what you’re supposed to do with that information, but there you go.
The objects of my affection
There are a ton of sites that let users rate and rank things such as movies, books, restaurants, hotels, etc. They allow us to share how we feel about our favorite things. Perhaps these services will be blending and merging with these new emotional micro-blogging services. Here are some of the sites that let people show the world what they love most:
- WeHeartPlaces lets you share which places you love the most in the world. Check out Mashable’s full review of We Heart Places Here.
- I Heart Movies lets you show which movies you dig the most. You can read a full review of I Heart Movies here on Mashable.
- Blippr goes a bit further and lets you share your favorite books, movies, music and more!
Mixing business with pleasure
This whole touchy-feely mess has even spread into the business community and corporate America. As I discussed in a recent post, many sites and businesses have set up shop with feedback services whose sole reason for being is to discover exactly how you feel about those sites and businesses. Are you happy with their new product or service? What don’t you like about it or even us? It’s become one big ole Dr. Phil-fest.
Final thoughts and feelings
Will we see a flood of these types of services that focus on our emotions? I don’t think so really. At the end of the day, most of us don’t want separate services that just do one thing like sharing how we feel or where we are going or what we’re doing. Instead, we want less sites that do more. For example, why not have one service that aggregates all of our feelings and emotions, not just our moods, but also how we feel about people, places and things? Not having to log in to so many sites sure would make me feel better. There appears to be a new trend in micro-blogging where services are focusing on letting members share how they feel versus just what ... more -
Out-of-Body Image: Women See Themselves Through Eyes of Others
This sort of self-objectification impairs women's body image, mental health, motor skills and even sex lives.
On a typical day, you might see ads featuring a naked woman's body tempting viewers to buy an electronic organizer, partially exposed women's breasts being used to sell fishing line, and a woman's rear -- wearing only a thong -- being used to pitch a new running shoe. Meanwhile, on every newsstand, impossibly slim (and digitally airbrushed) cover "girls" adorn a slew of magazines. With each image, you're hit with a simple, subliminal message: Girls' and women's bodies are objects for others to visually consume.
If such images seem more ubiquitous than ever, it's because U.S. residents are now exposed to 3,000 advertisements a day -- as many per year as those living a half century ago would have seen in a lifetime. The Internet accounts for much of this growth, and young people are particularly exposed to advertising: 70 percent of 15- to 34-year-olds use social networking technologies such as MySpace and Facebook, which allow advertisers to infiltrate previously private communication space.
A steady diet of exploitative, sexually provocative depictions of women feeds a poisonous trend in women's and girl's perceptions of their bodies, one that has recently been recognized by social scientists as self-objectification -- viewing one's body as a sex object to be consumed by the male gaze. Like W.E.B. DuBois' famous description of the experience of black Americans, self-objectification is a state of "double consciousness ... a sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others."
Researchers have learned a lot about self-objectification since the term was coined in 1997 by University of Michigan psychology professor Barbara Fredrickson and Colorado College psychology professor Tomi-Ann Roberts. Numerous studies since then have shown that girls and women who self-objectify are more prone to depression and low self-esteem and have less faith in their own capabilities, which can lead to diminished success in life. They are more likely to engage in "habitual body monitoring" -- constantly thinking about how their bodies appear to the outside world -- which puts them at higher risk for eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia.
**Read More** This sort of self-objectification impairs women's body image, mental health, motor skills and even sex lives. ... more -
Zizzi pays employees minimum wage through tips
Gondola Group, the private equity-controlled company that owns more than 540 PizzaExpress, Zizzi and ASK restaurants across Britain, describes its 12,000 employees as its "greatest asset" and stated in its most recent financial report that it strives to treat them "with respect... looking after their welfare".
But employees at the 205 branches of Zizzi, a chain specialising in Italian food, and ASK, which specialises in pizzas, have told The Independent the restaurants operate a policy of using gratuities left on a credit card to ensure waiting staff receive the minimum wage of £5.52 per hour.
Workers said they received a basic hourly wage of £4.10 which was made up to the minimum with credit card service charges. Despite heavy criticism, the practice is perfectly legal. Gondola Group, the private equity-controlled company that owns more than 540 PizzaExpress, Zizzi and ASK restaurants across Britain, d... more -
Farm and food: Monsanto's prices to rise on RoundUp and seeds
In late March, Monsanto Co. sent a Dear Valued Customer letter to most U.S. corn and soybean farmers. The reason, wrote Jim Zimmer, Monsanto's vice president of U.S. branded business, was to discuss some current marketplace dynamics that will directly affect you in terms of increased prices for Monsanto's line of Roundup herbicides for 2008.
Demand for glyphosate, Roundup's generic counterpart, is at an all time high, explained Zimmer. As such, we have seen the demand for Roundup brand herbicide increase more than our current ability to supply.
That's a problem, he continued, because We have a reliable supplier commitment to farmers who choose to purchase Roundup Ready technology and who choose to purchase Roundup brand herbicide that we will have supply available.
The solution?
Our competitive challenges have put our commitment at risk, forcing us to increase our price for Roundup herbicide.
Golly, a farmer who telephoned me about the letter asked, How much is their promise to me going to cost me?
Globally, about $411 million, the amount Roundup net sales increased from March through May over the same three months in 2007, according to Monsanto's third quarter, Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission June 27.
That's a 54 percent increase.
Additionally, the 10-Q reports, Net sales of Roundup and other glyphosate-based herbicides increased 63 percent, or $1,222 million $1.222 billion in the nine-month comparison with fiscal 2007's first three quarters.
Remarkably, however, that $1.2 billion increase in Roundup sales, notes the 10-Q, was posted despite a seven percent sales volume drop in Roundup and other glyphosate-based herbicides in third quarter 2008 and only an 8 percent increase in global Roundup sales for the nine-month period ending in May.
Clearly, Roundup mostly because Monsanto boosted its price hit a home run. Gross profit increased $927 million because of higher sales of Roundup and other glyphosate-based herbicides in the first nine months of 2008, the company said.
What Monsanto did for Roundup herbicide this spring, it promises to do for Roundup seed corn next year, according to a July interview of company officials by DTN and Progressive Farmer editors.
Indeed, wrote Marcia Taylor for DTN after the gathering, Even the list price on seed corn will topple the $300 per bag barrier starting this fall, up about $95 to $100 per bag, or 35 percent on average, according to Monsanto officials.
snip
Again, according to Monsanto's most recent 10-Q: In the first quarter 2008, Monsanto entered into an agreement on corn herbicide tolerance and insect control technologies with Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc (whereby Monsanto will receive) cumulative cash receipts of $725 million over an eight-year period.
In third quarter 2008, Monsanto and Syngenta entered into a Roundup Ready 2 Yield Soybean License Agreement (under which) the minimum obligation from Syngenta over this (nine-) year period is $81 million, reports the 10-Q.
Is Monsanto everywhere? Almost; according to its June SEC filing, it recently bought a vegetable seed company in Europe, a seed corn company in Guatemala, another in Brazil. In late March, Monsanto Co. sent a Dear Valued Customer letter to most U.S. corn and soybean farmers. The reason, wrote Jim Zimmer, Mo... more -
Globalization is destroying the world's oceans
The oceans are a primary source of food for mankind, and fishing provides 200 million people with income, as meager as it may be. But growing demand and the industrial-scale exploitation of the seas are destroying global fish populations. The European Union's quota system is partly to blame.
Dawn creeps across the horizon as the Pinkis brothers' cutter returns to the harbor at Kühlungsborn. The Baltic is still calm, but wind from the northeast has already picked up sharply, a sign of the storms in the evening forecast. The Pinkis brothers and their crew have been out since 2 a.m., 10 nautical miles off the coast of northeast Germany's Mecklenburg region, in a spot where they had staked hundreds of nets into the sea floor the previous afternoon, hoping the fish would come.
The brothers' cutter is small, less than 10 meters (33 feet) long, with a tiny bridge on top and a large fish tank in the hold below. Two stake-net fishermen stand on the deck, wearing bright orange oilcloth clothing. The boat has hardly docked at the wharf before they begin shoveling the catch from the hold, mostly flounder and codfish, even a lone turbot. The catch amounts to 200 kilograms (440 lbs), the fruits of a day's labor -- a day that can sometimes last 20 hours. Six days a week.
They're the only fishermen docked in Kühlungsborn harbor this morning, a lone cutter among sailboats and yachts. The fishing harbors along Germany's coast have been emptied. There are about 3,700 ocean fishermen left in Germany today, many of them getting on in years. The Pinkis brothers are among the youngest members of the Wismarbucht fishing cooperative. Uwe Pinkis is 45, and his brother Klaus is 42. Fishing, in Germany, is a dying profession.
Read more... The oceans are a primary source of food for mankind, and fishing provides 200 million people with income, as meager as it may be. But ... more -
The politics of rice
Inside USA travels to Haiti to look at how the stories of politics, rice and the US are deeply interwoven.
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Blackwater, Archer Daniels Midland and Walmart Inducted in Corporate Hall of Shame
Today Corporate Accountability International announced the 2008 inductees into the annual Corporate Hall of Shame: military contractor Blackwater, agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) and big box retailer Wal-Mart. More than 30, 000 votes were cast online and through the mail.
Inductees have been responsible for the murder of innocent civilians in Iraq, gross labor law violations, and accelerating climate change.
"The voting tells us that people are frustrated with a broad range of corporate abuse," said Leslie Samuelrich, deputy director of Corporate Accountability International. "They are tired of being lied to about corporate greed under the veil of environmentalism and they are tired of seeing their hard-earned dollars subsidizing human rights abuses abroad."
In the weeks before the polls closed:
· Blackwater was raided by federal agents in a firearms probe;
· Wal-Mart was fined $2 billion by the State of Minnesota for cutting worker break time and forcing employees to work off the clock;
· ADM has been called to task by Rainforest Action Network and Greenpeace for helping make Indonesia the third largest emitter of CO2 behind the U.S. and China.
With 28 percent of the vote, Blackwater earned the dubious honor of the year's most abusive corporation. More than 20 percent of the votes went to ADM and 15 percent to Wal-Mart for runner-up. Wal-Mart, the largest corporation in the world, is facing its second consecutive nomination.
Corporate Accountability International will now continue to monitor Blackwater, ADM, and Wal-Mart's activities, exposing abusive practices throughout 2008. In previous years, corporations like Columbia HCA and Waste Management have earned their way out of the Hall by reforming their practices in response to this type of direct pressure.
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We need to keep up the pressure. Today Corporate Accountability International announced the 2008 inductees into the annual Corporate Hall of Shame: military contractor... more -
IS it cool to use SEX to SELL???
Attach sexuality to any goods or services and it blows up right ???
Love it or hate it, sex sells !!!
But why exactly ??? is it biological wiring or are we obsessed with it??
I mean there is so much in life, nature and humor all around. There's food and art and yet somehow nothing gets the attention that sex does...
and is it something we should look at, challenge and change within us? Or do we just accept the somewhat exploitation of our humanness and our human desires ...
What do you think ???? Attach sexuality to any goods or services and it blows up right ??? Love it or hate it, sex sells !!! ... more -
Security at Discout Rates!
It amazes me that an organization so well funded, respected and internationally recognized would pay such a low wage to an employee just because he is not a resident. I'm not sure I would call it slavery but worker exploitation is alive and well even in the richest of nations. I'm glad to see worker's fighting back once in awhile. It amazes me that an organization so well funded, respected and internationally recognized would pay such a low wage to an employee ju... more
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'Sinister diet patch' uses Facebook to target teenage girls
Doctors have said they are worried about a "sinister" new diet patch that specifically targets young women and teenagers who don't need to lose weight.
The adverts for the Pink Patch are plastered all over websites including Facebook and Hotmail. They're a small inch-squared patch which you stick to your skin for 24 hours at a time.
And apprently they don't work. Doctors have said they are worried about a "sinister" new diet patch that specifically targets young women and teenagers who... more -
Japan to try for massive whale kill
THE Japan Whaling Association believes data about to be released on the abundance of minke whales in the Antarctic will justify an increase in Japan's annual whale kill to "tens of thousands".Kevin Rudd has confirmed he will use his trip to Tokyo next week to increase diplomatic pressure on Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda to stop whaling in Australian-controlled waters.Japan sends a whaling fleet to the Southern Ocean each summer, on the pretext of conducting scientific study. In reality the whales are killed for human consumption in restaurants.In December, Australia issued a demarche, or formal diplomatic protest, on behalf of numerous nations over Japan's plans to cull about 900 minke whales and 50 fin whales.Early this year the Rudd Government spent about $1million sending Customs vessel the Oceanic Viking to trail the whaling fleet to collect evidence for possible use in an international court challenge against the hunt.Japanese whaling spokesman Glenn Inwood told The Australian yesterday this month's meeting of the International Whaling Commission in Chile would receive new research into the abundance of minke whales in Antarctica, which was expected to reveal they were far more common than previously thought.Mr Inwood, who is based in New Zealand, said: "It is certainly hopeful that when that figure is run through the quota system of the IWC that it will be looking at the sustainable harvest possibly of tens of thousands of minke whales each year. I think this new abundance estimate for Antarctic minkes will be one of the greatest threats to Australia's position on whaling. It will be very hard to deny Japan a quota."Mr Inwood said Japan had a right to hunt whales if it could be demonstrated whale stocks were not being over-exploited and Australia could hardly complain, since it exploited its natural resources, including fish on the high seas, and beef and other meats for consumption."The (whaling) convention itself is not about protecting whale species regardless of their abundance," Mr Inwood said."Where it is demonstrated that whale stocks are abundant and particular species are abundant, then they should be able to be managed and harvested on a sustainable basis and allow for an annual quota." THE Japan Whaling Association believes data about to be released on the abundance of minke whales in the Antarctic will justify an inc... more
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Plight of migrant workers blemishes Dubai's image
The unfair treatment towards south Asian immigrant workers is coming to light, albeit late in the day. Dubai showcases itself as a global economic forerunner, when in reality it still has a long way to go before any substantial social or economic reforms are established. The unfair treatment towards south Asian immigrant workers is coming to light, albeit late in the day. Dubai showcases itself as a gl... more
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Hundreds of Indian workers exploited for labor following Katrina demand justice
The vast rebuilding effort in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina led the US government to permit recruitment of foreign laborers who were accorded "guest worker" status for the duration of their employment but apparently not the same rights and protection that domestic workers are guaranteed under US labor laws. Lacking safeguards, the foreign workers are ripe targets for exploitation and abuse by contractors.
Some 500 Indian workers caught in what they claim is a human trafficking racket have asked the Indian government to protect their families in India from vengeful recruiters even as they filed a class action anti-racketeering lawsuit in the US against their American employer.
Additionally, hundreds of Indian workers will return to DC next week to launch an indefinite hunger strike to demand the federal government investigate the guest worker program and abuse of post-Katrina Gulf Coast workers.
In late 2006, the workers mortgaged their futures – and $20,000 – on false promises of fortune and green cards by recruiters from marine construction company Signal International. But when the workers arrived in the US to work on post-Katrina reconstruction, they only received guestworker visas and were forced to pay Signal $1,050 a month to live in a trailer with 23 other workers.
The hunger strike will specifically call on the Department of Justice to prosecute Signal International and for Congress to hold hearings on the guest worker program in the post-Katrina Gulf Coast. The vast rebuilding effort in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina led the US government to permit recruitment of foreign laborers ... more
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