May
21
2013
A riverside refinery that has operated in Detroit since the 1930s began refining a new type of oil in November: tar-sands oil from Canada.
In the few short months since it began handling the Canadian oil, the refinery has already spewed out a three-story mountain of black waste covering an area the size a city block. That mountain is still growing, and it is not covered with anything to prevent tiny carbon particles from blowing over …
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May
21
2013
More than two years after peaceful demonstrators took to the streets to demand reforms, Bahrain’s uprising has not abated. Activists and opposition groups continue to demand the basic human rights and political reforms promised to them by their government. Rather than meet the opposition’s calls for reform, the government of Bahrain has responded by subjecting citizens to arbitrary arrest and imprisonment, interrogation, torture, and abuse.
Human rights activists such as Naji Fateel, board member of the …
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May
21
2013
Remember the video of the guy in the “pimp costume” who got advice from ACORN employees on how to run his prostitution ring? Turns out the whole story was just a lie, a doctored-video smear job on an important organization. The guy never wore a “pimp costume” and the real, undoctored videos showed that ACORN employees did nothing wrong. But a lie travels around the world before the corporate media bothers to check the facts. …
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May
20
2013
In normal times, an arithmetic mistake in an economics paper would be a complete nonevent as far as the wider world was concerned. But in April 2013, the discovery of such a mistake—actually, a coding error in a spreadsheet, coupled with several other flaws in the analysis—not only became the talk of the economics profession, but made headlines. Looking back, we might even conclude that it changed the course of policy.
Why? Because the paper in …
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May
20
2013
MADISON, WI — DBA Press and the Center for Media and Democracy today released the results of a year-long investigation: “Dissent or Terror: How the Nation’s Counter Terrorism Apparatus, In Partnership With Corporate America, Turned on Occupy Wall Street.”
The report, a distillation of thousands of pages of records obtained from counter terrorism/law enforcement agencies, details how state/regional “fusion center” personnel monitored the Occupy Wall Street movement over the course of 2011 and 2012. Personnel engaged …
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May
20
2013
Pablo Alvarado, 46, normally affable and soft-spoken, bristles when he’s called the Cesar Chavez of day laborers. Despite his accomplishments as director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, he doesn’t see himself as a hero. “I do this work because I love it,” he says. His manner is relaxed but his ebony eyes, deeply set into broad, copper-hued features, reveal fierce determination.
As a child in the farming village of El Níspero in El Salvador, …
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May
20
2013
When it comes to confronting the Israeli government’s actions against the Palestinian people, a massive divide exists between Arab rulers and the general Arab public.
Currently, nearly all Arab governments are willing to normalize relations with the Zionist state, despite a lack of support from domestic populations that remain committed to resistance. Some Arab states, such as Jordan, Egypt, and Qatar, have formally normalized relations with Israel through treaties that have been in effect for decades.
At …
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May
20
2013
Washington – An elite group of federal employees is set to receive cash bonuses despite this year’s automatic budget cuts, according to a report that a Senate subcommittee issued Friday.
The report revealed that members of the government’s highly paid Senior Executive Service – who make up less than 1 percent of the federal workforce – had received more than $340 million in bonuses from 2008 through 2011. The bonuses came on top of annual salaries …
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May
20
2013
Archaeologists just south of Kabul are racing to preserve one of the richest Buddhist historical sites ever found.
The ancient monasteries and statues in Mes Aynak are under threat from a Chinese company which plans to develop the area in order to tap into the world’s second largest copper deposit.
Many fear the $3bn mining contract, Afghanistan’s biggest commercial deal, will lead to the destruction of thousands-of-years old heritage sites.
Click here to see the video. …
May
20
2013
Thousands of workers employed by Dubai’s largest construction company have gone on strike for a second day to back wage demands in a rare labour protest in the Gulf emirate, where trade unions are banned.
Blue-collared labourers employed by Arabtec, the company behind projects including the world’s tallest building Burj Khalifa, did not show up for work on Sunday, said a spokesman for the company, UAE’s labour ministry and workers.
Employees said the strike began on Saturday …
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