contributions

WHY FOOD PRICES WILL GO THROUGH THE ROOF IN COMING MONTHS
by F. William Engdahl
March 31, 2008
A deadly fungus, known as Ug99, which kills wheat, has likely spread to Pakistan from Africa according to reports. If true, that threatens the vital Asian Bread Basket including the Punjab region. The spread of the deadly virus, stem rust, against which an effective fungicide does not exist, comes as world grain stocks reach the lowest in four decades and government subsidized bio-ethanol (…)

American Exception: Inmate Count in U.S. Dwarfs Other Nations’
By ADAM LIPTAK
Photo: http://prisonersoverseas.com
The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population. But it has almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners.
Indeed, the United States leads the world in producing prisoners, a reflection of a relatively recent and now entirely distinctive American approach to crime and punishment. Americans are locked up for crimes — from writing bad checks to using drugs (…)

U.K. Teachers’ Pay Strike Closes Thousands of Schools
By Thomas Penny
April 24 (Bloomberg) — Thousands of schools across England and Wales are closed today as the U.K.’s biggest teaching union stages a one-day strike over pay, the first in 21 years.
The National Union of Teachers, which represents almost 200,000 of the 435,000 teachers in England and Wales, called the strike after the government offered a pay rise of 2.45 percent, which the union says is below the rate of inflation. (…)

By David Glenn Cox
Strother Martin, in the classic film, "Cool Hand Luke," uttered those immortal words: “What we’ve have here is failure to communicate.” That sums up the current war of words between the Peoples Republic of China and CNN. Part of this situation is pure, heavy-handed, government propaganda, and part is American arrogance, quick to point out the sty in other’s eyes while unwilling to deal with the log in their own. A failure to communicate, based on culture, politics, (…)

Brown Faces Growing Revolt Over U.K. Tax Increase
By Gonzalo Vina
April 23 (Bloomberg) — Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s government faces a growing rebellion against a plan to raise tax on 5.3 million of the poorest families as seven more Labour lawmakers signed a resolution opposing the measure.
At least 46 parliamentarians from the ruling party signed an amendment to the Finance Bill seeking a delay the introduction of the tax change, according to Frank Field, who proposed the (…)

"On April 26, 1986, a reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukrainian city of Pripyat exploded and began spewing radioactive smoke and gas. Firemen discovered that no amount of water could extinguish the blaze. More than 40,000 residents in the immediate area were exposed to fallout 100 times greater than that from the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan. But the most serious nuclear accident in history had only begun." (frif.com)
The Entire Film: (…)

FOOD RATIONING HAS ARRIVED IN AMERICA
Many parts of America, long considered the breadbasket of the world, are now confronting a once unthinkable phenomenon: food rationing. Major retailers in New York, in areas of New England, and on the West Coast are limiting purchases of flour, rice, and cooking oil as demand outstrips supply. There are also anecdotal reports that some consumers are hoarding grain stocks.
21 April 2008 By Josh Gerstein, New York Sun
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — At a (…)

Commondreams.org April 22, 2008
Democratic presidential Hillary Clinton has threatened to “obliterate” Iran if it launches a nuclear attack against Israel as she fights for her own political survival.
“I want the Iranians to know that if I’m the president, we will attack Iran,” Senator Clinton told ABC News, asked what she would do as president were Iran to launch a nuclear attack on Israel.” In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on (…)

Global Research April 13, 2008
China and America: The Tibet Human Rights PsyOp
The human rights issue has become the centerfold of media disinformation.
China is no model of human rights but neither are the US and its indefectible British ally, responsible for extensive war crimes and human rights violations in Iraq and around the World. The US and its allies, which uphold the practice of torture, political assassinations and the establishment of secret detention camps, continue to be (…)

A pro-Israel group’s plan to rewrite history on Wikipedia
Report, The Electronic Intifada, 21 April 2008 A pro-Israel pressure group is orchestrating a secret, long-term campaign to infiltrate the popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia to rewrite Palestinian history, pass off crude propaganda as fact, and take over Wikipedia administrative structures to ensure these changes go either undetected or unchallenged.
A series of emails by members and associates of the pro-Israel group (…)