Apr
09
2013
Tanzania is preparing to kick Masai tribesmen off their land to allow rich tourists the freedom to shoot animals like lions and leopards, activists say.
The Government announced last week it was making changes to Loliondo Game Control Area – a park which the Masai claim it has land rights to.
One part of the park has been allocated to the tribesmen but the other will be free of agriculture and grazing.
The right to hunt in Loliondo …
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Apr
09
2013
In 1996, Sylvester Johnson left his post as a commanding officer in the US Army and began a career managing logistics at Walmart’s corporate headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas. Once there, he received a series of rapid promotions, eventually overseeing the HR management of over 26,000 employees in five states. He became friendly with Walmart executive Mike Duke, who became CEO in 2009. In 2002, Johnson received the Sam M. Walton Hero Award, a prestigious company …
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Apr
09
2013
(CNN) — Comedy scares people in power.
We saw a disturbing example this week when Egyptian TV host and comedian Bassem Youssef, frequently described as Egypt’s Jon Stewart, was charged with the crimes of mocking Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsy and insulting Islam. If convicted, Youssef could be fined and sentenced to prison.
Now, before you quickly categorize this incident under the catch all, “They hate us for our freedoms” crap, let’s not forget our own history.
Comedy legend …
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Apr
09
2013
A remarkable thing happened in 2008: drug overdose surpassed auto fatalities as the leading cause of accidental death in the United States. Public health officials declared an epidemic, and communities united to battle this new enemy that had left a staggering body count in its wake. The people had a weapon, naloxone, an antidote that reverses opiate overdose, and programs began popping up across the country to provide training and free naloxone to …
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Apr
09
2013
Margaret Thatcher was a hugely divisive figure in British politics. And for the people of Ireland, and especially the north, the Thatcher years were among some of the worst of the conflict. Her policy decisions entrenched sectarian divisions, handed draconian military powers over to the securocrats, and subverted basic human rights.
Thatcher refused to recognise the right of citizens to vote for representatives of their choice. She famously changed the law after Bobby Sands was elected …
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Apr
09
2013
US defense secretary Chuck Hagel has recommended that Congress change military law so that commanders can no longer overturn convictions in military court for sexual assault and other major offences, he announced on Monday.
The proposed changes follow widespread outrage over the overturning of the conviction of a US air force officer found guilty of aggravated sexual assault, in a case which victims groups said was symptomatic of the military’s failure to address an “epidemic” of …
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Apr
09
2013
When it comes to US energy policy, President Obama’s actions toward changing our basic reliance on fossil fuels is so incremental, you can hardly notice it is moving forward.
Yes, one came blame the Republicans for continuing an earth-destroying dependency on fossil fuel, but you get the feeling Obama is not pushing much beyond lip service to create a systemic change in US energy policy.
That is why there is no reason to be surprised that President …
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Apr
09
2013
At a time when higher education is under siege all over the globe by market mentalities and moralities, there is an urgent necessity on the part of the American public to reclaim the academy in its multiple forms as a site of critique and a public good, one that connects knowledge and power, scholarship and public life, and pedagogy and civic engagement. The current assault on higher education by the apostles of neoliberalism and religious …
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Apr
09
2013
Kenya’s new president, Uhuru Kenyatta, who faces international charges of crimes against humanity, has been sworn in to office at a ceremony in a stadium packed with supporters and foreign dignitaries.
Kenyatta took the oath on Tuesday on a bible used by his father, Kenya’s first president, and was watched by tens of thousands of Kenyans, almost a dozen African leaders and other officials.
“I do swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance …
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Apr
09
2013
MARTIN, S.D. — Rural Americans are increasingly without lawyers even as law school graduates are increasingly without jobs. Just 2 percent of small law practices are in rural areas, where nearly a fifth of the country lives, recent data show.
Here in Bennett County, which is situated between Indian reservations on the Nebraska border, Fredric Cozad is retiring after 64 years of property litigation, school board disputes, tax cases and homicides with no one to …
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