Articles by The Independent
We found 293 results.
Pesticide Linked to Bee Deaths Should Be Suspended, MPs Told
Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor and Josephine Forster – The Independent,
31 Jan 2011
A new generation of pesticides is implicated in the widespread deaths of bees and other pollinators and should be suspended in Britain while the Government reviews new scientific evidence about their effects, MPs were told yesterday [26 Jan 2011]. Neonicotinoid pesticides are linked by “a growing weight of science” to insect losses, and the assessment regimes for them are inadequate, the Labour MP Martin Caton told the House of Commons.
→ read full articleFreedom Is Not Compatible with Government’s Initiation of Force against Innocent People
Robert Higgs – The Independent Institute,
31 Jan 2011
In yesterday’s [25 Jan 2011] New York Times appears an op-ed article by Edward L. Glaeser, a professor of economics at Harvard. Glaeser’s article is remarkable because arguments in favor of freedom, insisting that economic analysis implicitly rests on a moral presumption that individual freedom has fundamental value, do not appear every day—or every month—in “the newspaper of record.” So, I am glad to give two cheers to Glaeser, one for his theme and another for his courage in placing the argument in such a hostile outlet.
I cannot give Glaeser a third cheer, however, because toward the end of the article he inserts a concession that I find wholly inconsistent with the rest of the argument.
A New Truth Dawns on the Arab World
Robert Fisk – The Independent,
31 Jan 2011
The Palestine Papers are as damning as the Balfour Declaration. The Palestinian “Authority” – one has to put this word in quotation marks – was prepared, and is prepared to give up the “right of return” of perhaps seven million refugees to what is now Israel for a “state” that may be only 10 per cent (at most) of British mandate Palestine.
→ read full articleNew Jerusalem Settlement Hits Peace Process
Catrina Stewart in Jerusalem – The Independent,
24 Jan 2011
Israel is moving ahead with a project to build 1,400 new homes in predominantly Arab East Jerusalem, a development that critics claim will deliver a death knell to the already faltering peace process.
→ read full articleThe Brutal Truth about Tunisia
Robert Fisk, Middle East Correspondent – The Independent,
24 Jan 2011
Bloodshed, tears, but no democracy. Bloody turmoil won’t necessarily presage the dawn of democracy. The end of the age of dictators in the Arab world? Certainly they are shaking in their boots across the Middle East, the well-heeled sheiks and emirs, and the kings, including one very old one in Saudi Arabia and a young one in Jordan, and presidents – another very old one in Egypt and a young one in Syria – because Tunisia wasn’t meant to happen. Food price riots in Algeria, too, and demonstrations against price increases in Amman. Not to mention scores more dead in Tunisia, whose own despot sought refuge in Riyadh – exactly the same city to which a man called Idi Amin once fled.
→ read full articleIke Was Right All Along: The Danger of the Military-Industrial Complex
Rupert Cornwell – The Independent,
24 Jan 2011
Fifty years ago, President Eisenhower warned of the danger of the ‘military-industrial complex’. The huge budget and reach of America’s modern defence industry has proved him correct.
→ read full articlePrivate Memo Exposes US Fears Over WikiLeaks
Guy Adams in Los Angeles – The Independent,
10 Jan 2011
The White House has instructed every US government department and agency to create “insider threat” programmes that will ferret out disgruntled or untrustworthy employees who might be tempted to leak the sort of state secrets recently made public by the website WikiLeaks. A 13-page memo detailing the new policy urges senior civil servants to beef up cyber security and hire teams of psychiatrists and sociologists who can “detect behavioural changes”. They will then monitor the moods and attitudes of staff who are allowed to access classified information.
→ read full articleGermany Admits Enslaving and Abusing a Generation of Children
Tony Paterson in Berlin – The Independent,
20 Dec 2010
Government agrees up to €120m in compensation for three decades of post-war ‘Nazi-era’ brutality in foster homes.
→ read full articleNorway Accused of Funding Abuse in Burma
Andrew Buncombe, Asia Correspondent – The Independent,
20 Dec 2010
State pension fund invested billions in energy projects, report says. The Norwegian government has been accused of complicity in illegal land seizures, forced labour and killings, by investing national funds in international companies that operate inside Burma on projects where widespread abuses are alleged to have taken place.
→ read full articleUK: Labour Put Limits on Iraq Inquiry to Keep the US Happy
Nigel Morris – The Independent,
6 Dec 2010
Gordon Brown’s Government secretly promised to limit the extent of the Iraq war inquiry to prevent damage to the United States, the leaked cables disclosed. The pledge – made last September as the Chilcot inquiry into the war started – threatens to damage the credibility of the investigation, which is due to report in the new year.
→ read full articleNow We Know. America Really Doesn’t Care About Injustice in the Middle East
Robert Fisk – The Independent,
6 Dec 2010
It’s not that US diplomats don’t understand the Middle East; it’s just that they’ve lost all sight of injustice. Vast amounts of diplomatic literature prove that the mainstay of Washington’s Middle East policy is alignment with Israel, that its principal aim is to encourage the Arabs to join the American-Israeli alliance against Iran, that the compass point of US policy over years and years is the need to tame/bully/crush/oppress/ ultimately destroy the power of Iran.
→ read full articleThe Religious Excuse for Barbarity
Johann Hari – The Independent,
29 Nov 2010
Why are we sitting silently while our treatment of many of our animals regresses to the standard of the sixth century? If you are engaged in an act of cruelty, there is an easy, effective way to silence your critics and snatch some space to carry on. Tell us all that your religion requires you to do it, and you are “offended” by any critical response. Erect an electric wire fence around your nastiest actions and call it “respect”.
→ read full articleNone Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest: A World without Birds
Kate Ravilious – The Independent,
22 Nov 2010
Could we be facing a future without birds? Our reliance on pesticides has cut a swathe through their numbers. We must act now.
→ read full articleHubble: Why the World-Famous Telescope Will Go Out in a Blaze of Glory
Nick Harding – The Independent,
22 Nov 2010
When it blasted off 20 years ago, few thought it would succeed. But it showed us a universe we didn’t know existed.
→ read full articleA Worse Record than Saddam’s
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown – The Independent,
1 Nov 2010
Now imagine good Muslims worldwide, who know all about universal rights, but can see that there is no universal accountability, that Third World despots are made to pay while others earn millions writing autobiographies and lecturing the world on good leadership and governance…. Hundreds of savvy, smart, keenly aware young people email me from various Muslim states asking: “What’s the point? They say one thing and do the opposite. They say they want to help us and kill our people. Why should we trust the British and Americans?”… What do our army commanders and American leaders advise me to tell these disenchanted Muslims?… Those who took us into this war are not obliged to explain themselves, not liable. In that they are worse than the dictator they toppled. Not comfortable that thought, but true.
→ read full articleHaiti Was Forgotten Too Soon
The Independent, Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Nov 2010
It was only 10 months ago that the international spotlight was focused on the misery of Haiti after an earthquake killed at least 200,000 people. But 10 months is a long time in the aid world. Recent reports of an outbreak of cholera, which has already killed more than 250 people, are a reminder that once the spotlight of attention shifts, disaster-stricken countries are too often left more or less to their own devices. That this contagious disease has already moved into the overcrowded capital, Port-au-Prince, claiming several lives there, is another ominous development.
→ read full articleThe Shaming of America
Robert Fisk – The Independent,
1 Nov 2010
Robert Fisk delivers a searing dispatch after the WikiLeaks revelations that expose in detail the brutality of the war in Iraq – and the astonishing, disgraceful deceit of the US.
→ read full articleObama’s Robot Wars Endanger Us All
Johann Hari – The Independent,
18 Oct 2010
The drones have killed some jihadis. But the evidence suggests they create far more jihadis than they kill – and make an attack on me or you more likely with each bomb.
→ read full articleObsession with Growth Is Asset Stripping the Planet
John Lichfield in Lyon – The Independent,
27 Sep 2010
Obsession with economic growth and the greed of financial speculators are destroying efforts to conserve the world’s diminishing resources. British and French speakers from radically different backgrounds, and with sharply contrasting styles, found themselves singing an unlikely political duet at the Lyon environment forum. Big business, they said, must be stopped from “asset stripping” a failing planet.
→ read full articleHow the CIA Ran a Secret Army of 3,000 Assassins
Julius Cavendish in Kabul – The Independent,
27 Sep 2010
The US Central Intelligence Agency is running and paying for a secret 3,000-strong army of Afghan paramilitaries whose main aim is assassinating Taliban and al-Qa’ida operatives not just in Afghanistan but across the border in neighbouring Pakistan’s tribal areas, according to Bob Woodward’s explosive book.
→ read full articleCountries Lay Claim to Arctic in Battle for Oil and Gas Reserves
Shaun Walker in Moscow – The Independent,
27 Sep 2010
Nations laid out their claims to territory in the polar North yesterday [22 Sep 2010] and the vast untapped mineral wealth that lies under the Arctic Ocean. Shrinking polar ice has opened up new opportunities, with five nations – Russia, Canada, Denmark, Norway and the US – claiming jurisdiction over parts of the polar region which could contain as much of one quarter of the world’s undiscovered reserves of oil and gas.
→ read full articleSuffocating the Poor: A Modern Parable
Johann Hari – The Independent,
20 Sep 2010
Today, I want to tell you the story of how our governments have been torturing and tormenting an island in the Caribbean – but it is a much bigger story than that. It’s a parable explaining one of the main reasons how and why, across the world, the poor are kept poor, so the rich can be kept rich. If you grasp this situation, you will see some of the ugliest forces in the world laid out before you – so we can figure out how to stop them. The rubble-strewn island of Haiti is now in the middle of an election campaign that will climax this November.
→ read full articleFreedom, Democracy and Human Rights in Syria
Robert Fisk – The Independent,
20 Sep 2010
Ribal al-Assad gives a rare insight into the dynasty that has shaped modern Syria.
→ read full articleDo Vitamin Supplements Really Work?
Prof. Jeya Henry – The Independent,
20 Sep 2010
From the regulation of the metabolism, the conversion of fats to energy, the formation of bones and teeth, through to the production of sperm, vitamins play an essential role in most cellular processes.
→ read full articleSettlers Reveal Deep Disdain for Events in Washington
Donald Macintyre in Kiryat Arba, West Bank – The Independent,
6 Sep 2010
Yaniv Mor, 30-year-old father of a one-month-old baby girl, and a settler was blunt: “We don’t care about Washington. Nothing will come out of it, like always. This is a war of religions – we want everything, they want everything. There is no way there will ever be agreement. That is the reality.”
→ read full articleThree Degrees Is At Least One Too Many
The Independent, Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Sep 2010
It is fittingly ominous that 2010, year of the next big climate change conference, has been the hottest in recorded history. The heat rises inexorably yet the world dithers and looks away. None of the excitement that surrounded the opening stages of the climate summit at Copenhagen last year looks like materialising this November at Cancún in Mexico.
→ read full articleViolence Breeds Violence. The Only Thing Drug Gangs Fear Is Legalisation
Johann Hari – The Independent,
30 Aug 2010
A chief of the Mafia Cruenza, one of the biggest drug gangs in the 1980s, was recorded expressing his gratitude for the war on drugs as ‘good for business’.
→ read full articleRed Shirt vs. Yellow Shirt: Thailand’s Political Struggle
David McNeill in Lamphun – The Independent,
23 Aug 2010
The supporters of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra are massing again.
→ read full articleIraq: Torture. Corruption. Civil war. America Has Certainly Left Its Mark
Robert Fisk – The Independent,
23 Aug 2010
When you invade someone else’s country, there has to be a first soldier – just as there has to be a last.
→ read full articleThe Management Consultancy Scam
Johann Hari – The Independent,
23 Aug 2010
“We were proud of the way we used to make things up as we went along”, he says. “It’s like robbing a bank but legal”.
→ read full articleYour Mobile Phone May Be Bugging You, Hackers Warn
Stephen Foley – The Independent,
16 Aug 2010
A British internet security company has demonstrated how to turn the Palm Pre into a secret bugging device, ideal for corporate espionage, and issued a warning that many other popular smartphones are also vulnerable to hackers.
→ read full articleA Prison That Stains US Moral Authority
The Independent, Editorial – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Aug 2010
The first case to be tried under the new commissions is that of child soldier Omar Khadr, who was 15 years old when he was accused of throwing a grenade which killed a US serviceman in Afghanistan in 2002. Mr Khadr’s trial has been condemned by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, who stress that it is America which has led the world in recognising that children caught in war zones in Africa must be treated as victims and not combatants. The Khadr case serves only to confirm the alternative legal universe in which Guantanamo exists.
→ read full articleHackers Turned Gatekeepers: Digital Vigilantes with a Moral Code
Stephen Foley – The Independent,
9 Aug 2010
Legions of tenacious computer savants are fighting to get at our personal data. But these cybermen and women are actually helping to make the web a safer place.
→ read full articleExclusive: Caught in America’s Legal Black Hole
Robert Verkaik – The Independent,
9 Aug 2010
Guantanamo still holds 176 detainees, and one of them is about to stand trial – in a test of Barack Obama’s resolve to embrace the rule of law.
→ read full articleAnd Now For Some Good News
Johann Hari – The Independent,
9 Aug 2010
We’ll never know the names of all the people who paid with their limbs, their lungs or their lives for the goodies in my home and yours.
→ read full articleHas The Internet Just Sold Its Soul?
Stephen Foley in New York – The Independent,
9 Aug 2010
Google stood accused last night [5 Aug 2010] of betraying the founding principles of the internet, as it readied a deal that will abandon key parts of its support for “net neutrality”, which has guaranteed equal access to the worldwide web since its inception.
→ read full articleIsrael Has Crept Into the EU Without Anyone Noticing
Robert Fisk – The Independent,
9 Aug 2010
I’m not comparing Israel and Hamas. Israel is the country that justifiably slaughtered more than 1,300 Palestinians in Gaza 19 months ago – more than 300 of them children – while the vicious, blood-sucking and terrorist Hamas killed 13 Israelis (three of them soldiers who actually shot each other by mistake).
→ read full articleCatalonia Votes to Ban All Forms of Bullfighting in Nationalist Move
Anita Brooks – The Independent,
2 Aug 2010
Animal rights groups are celebrating, but fans say the ruling is nothing but a desire to be un-Spanish. In a tense, historic vote, Catalonia’s regional parliament yesterday banned Spain’s “national fiesta” – bullfighting, handing a victory to animal rights activists, who predicted the start of a bloodless era across the country.
→ read full articleCameron Uses Turkish Visit to Launch Ferocious Attack on Israel
Catrina Stewart in Jerusalem – The Independent,
2 Aug 2010
David Cameron signalled a toughening stance on Israel yesterday [27 Jul 2010] by comparing the besieged Gaza Strip to “a prison camp” and urging Israel to end its three-year blockade. Mr Cameron’s comments will carry additional diplomatic weight because they were made in Turkey, which has threatened to sever ties with Israel after its deadly assault on a flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza.
→ read full articleHopes and Prospects, By Noam Chomsky
Johann Hari – The Independent,
26 Jul 2010
For example, he uncovers the story of why Haiti is so poor, and could be shaken to pieces by an earthquake that would have killed only a handful in California. It’s a story of man-made earthquakes, one after another. The country was the first to rebel against slavery and to cast off the whip-hand – and was brutally punished by the French Empire. Every time it has begun to rise to its feet, it has been kicked back down, with the American Empire taking over to topple its elected leaders (the last was put on a plane at gunpoint in 2008) and stifle any moves towards development.
→ read full articleExposed: The Truth about Israel’s Land Grab in the West Bank
Catrina Stewart in Jerusalem and David Usborne – The Independent,
19 Jul 2010
As President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meet, a report reveals 42 per cent of territory is controlled by settlers.
→ read full articleSo That’s OK Then. It’s Fine to Abuse Young Girls, As Long As You’re a Great Film Director
Johann Hari – The Independent,
19 Jul 2010
Roman Polanski admitted his crime before he ran away and, for years afterwards, he boasted from exile that every man wanted to do what he did. He chuckled to one interviewer in 1979: “If I had killed somebody, it wouldn’t have had so much appeal to the press, you see? “But… fucking, you see… and the young girls. Judges want to fuck young girls. Juries want to fuck young girls. Everyone wants to fuck young girls!” But this is not enough, it seems, for the Swiss government to return him to the US to face trial. They have found a legalistic loophole that enables them to let him go – while admitting “national interests” may be a factor.
→ read full articleDeep-Sea Mining Adds to Fears of Marine Pollution
Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor – The Independent,
5 Jul 2010
Concerns about large-scale marine pollution, fuelled by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, are set to be heightened by a new development in exploitation of the oceans: deep-sea mining. The Chinese government has just lodged the first application to mine for minerals under the seabed in international waters, in this case on a ridge in the Indian Ocean 1,700 metres (more than 5,000ft) below the surface.
→ read full articleHow Goldman Gambled on Starvation
Johann Hari – The Independent,
5 Jul 2010
Speculators set up a casino where the chips were the stomachs of millions. What does it say about our system that we can so casually inflict so much pain?
→ read full articleVictory for Anti-Whaling Campaigners
Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor – The Independent,
28 Jun 2010
The controversial attempt to scrap the 24-year-old international moratorium on commercial whaling collapsed yesterday, to the delight of anti-whaling campaigners and the frustration of Japan, Norway and Iceland, the three countries which continue to hunt whales in defiance of world opinion.
→ read full articleA Victory for the Whalers, a Defeat for Humanity
Philip Hoare – The Independent,
28 Jun 2010
The IWC’s decision to retain its ban on whaling does not mean that the killings will stop. Quite the reverse.
→ read full articleFighting Talk: The New Propaganda
Robert Fisk – The Independent,
28 Jun 2010
Journalism has become a linguistic battleground – and when reporters use terms such ‘spike in violence’ or ‘surge’ or ‘settler’, they are playing along with a pernicious game.
→ read full articleThe Deadly Closing of the Israeli Mind
Ilan Pappé – The Independent,
14 Jun 2010
The decline in Israel’s reputation since the brutal attack on the Gaza flotilla is unlikely to influence the country’s leaders.
→ read full articleEnd of Moratorium on Whaling Threatens More Blood in the Seas
Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor – The Independent,
7 Jun 2010
The moratorium on commercial whaling, one of the world’s major environmental achievements, is in danger of being abandoned after 24 years at a meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) which begins this week in Morocco.
→ read full articleWestern Leaders are too Cowardly to Help Save Lives
Robert Fisk – The Independent,
7 Jun 2010
It is a fact that it is ordinary people, activists, call them what you will, who now take decisions to change events.
→ read full articleLoneliness Can Be a Companion, Too
Susie Rushton – The Independent,
31 May 2010
When does pleasant solitude tip over into loneliness? At what point does pottering about the house turn painful and tinged with blue thoughts? For me, there’s a clear time frame.
→ read full articleHow Flossing Can Save Your Life
Simon Usborne – The Independent,
24 May 2010
We know it helps stop tooth decay – but new research shows that good oral care can prevent heart disease, diabetes and even dementia.
→ read full articleOnline Protest Drives Nestlé to Environmentally Friendly Palm Oil
Martin Hickman – The Independent,
24 May 2010
Food giant bows to Greenpeace campaign and vows to cut its ‘deforestation footprint’.
→ read full articleThe Ocean Is a Rich Blue. But Suddenly We See What This Crisis Is All About
David Usborne – The Independent,
10 May 2010
There may be few indicators to the scale of the US oil slick from land, but from the air it is a different story.
→ read full articleThe Chance Discovery That Averted Ecological Disaster
Steve Connor – The Independent,
10 May 2010
How the hole in the ozone layer was discovered by UK scientists a quarter of a century ago.
→ read full articleVisible from Space, Deadly on Earth: The Gas Flares of Nigeria
Daniel Howden in Yenagoa – The Independent,
3 May 2010
Shell’s activities in the West African country are under scrutiny.
→ read full article‘I Listen as a Lost People Tell of Their Woes in a Kind of Trance’
Robert Fisk – The Independent,
26 Apr 2010
Other men among my guests have darker tales. They fled to Malaysia, then to Thailand, were imprisoned in Bangkok, then shipped to the Philippines and imprisoned again. The problem, these nations discovered, was that the Palestinians couldn’t be deported home. They didn’t have a home, for some reason. Malaysia does not recognise Israel – Malaysian Christians can travel to Jerusalem only with government permission – and so the authorities in Kuala Lumpur could not negotiate with the men who control “Palestine”.
→ read full articleAlmodovar Leads Celebrity Protest in Support of Civil War Case Judge
Anita Brooks in Madrid – The Independent,
19 Apr 2010
Spain’s crusading magistrate Baltasar Garzon already enjoys the support of many international human rights advocates as he faces trial for daring to investigate Franco-era crimes. Now he also packs star power.
→ read full articleHOW WIKILEAKS SHONE LIGHT ON WORLD’S DARKEST SECRETS
Archie Bland – The Independent,
12 Apr 2010
Against all of that criticism, Wikileaks can set a record that carries, as Abu Dhabi’s The National put it, “more scoops in its short life than The Washington Post has in the past 30 years”. By earning its place as the natural destination for anyone with sensitive information to leak who does not know and trust a particular journalist – so far, despite numerous court actions, not a single source has been outed – Wikileaks has built up a remarkable record.
→ read full articleSCIENTISTS STUMPED AS BEE POPULATION DECLINES FURTHER
AFP – The Independent,
5 Apr 2010
The decline in the US bee population, first observed in 2006, is continuing, a phenomenon that still baffles researchers and beekeepers. Data from the US Department of Agriculture show a 29 percent drop in beehives in 2009, following a 36 percent decline in 2008 and a 32 percent fall in 2007. This affects not only […]
→ read full articleFEARS GONORRHOEA BECOMING UNTREATABLE
Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor – The Independent,
5 Apr 2010
World Health Organisation Concerned About Disease’s Resistance to AntibioticsThe World Health Organisation is to meet next week to consider the growing threat from a sexually transmitted infection which has developed resistance to most known antibiotics. Gonorrhoea is the second most common sexually transmitted disease in the UK after chlamydia with 16,629 cases recorded in 2008. […]
→ read full articleENGLAND: MINISTER SIGNALS BAN ON CIRCUS WILD ANIMALS
Martin Hickman – The Independent,
26 Mar 2010
Wild animals are to be banned from circuses, ending hundreds of years of performing elephants, tigers and lions in the big top, the Government will say today. In response to a public consultation. Environment minister Jim Fitpatrick said he was ‘minded’ to bring in a ban after 94 per cent of people backed the idea. […]
→ read full articleWHALING: THE GREAT BETRAYAL
Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor – The Independent,
23 Mar 2010
Outrage as Secret Deal Set to Sweep Away International MoratoriumThe moratorium on commercial whaling, one of the environmental movement’s greatest achievements, looks likely to be swept away this summer by a new international deal being negotiated behind closed doors. The new arrangement would legitimise the whaling activities of the three countries which have continued to […]
→ read full articleTHE POPE, THE PROPHET, AND THE RELIGIOUS SUPPORT FOR EVIL
Johann Hari – The Independent,
19 Mar 2010
This enforced ‘respect’ is a creeping vine: it soon extends from ideas to institutions. What can make tens of millions of people – who are in their daily lives peaceful and compassionate and caring – suddenly want to physically dismember a man for drawing a cartoon, or make excuses for an international criminal conspiracy to […]
→ read full articleGREECE PLEADS WITH US TO STOP THE SPECULATORS
Rupert Cornwell in Washington – The Independent,
10 Mar 2010
Papandreou calls for new rules in talks at Oval Office on his country’s debt crisis. George Papandreou, the Greek Prime Minister, used a visit to the White House yesterday to press President Barack Obama for tighter regulation of the speculative trading blamed for intensifying the country’s debt crisis. Mr Papandreou set out his case at […]
→ read full articleONCE AGAIN, A NATION WALKS THROUGH FIRE TO GIVE THE WEST ITS ‘DEMOCRACY’
Robert Fisk – The Independent,
8 Mar 2010
Democracy doesn’t seem to work when countries are occupied by Western troops.In 2005 the Iraqis walked in their tens of thousands through the thunder of suicide bombers, and voted – the Shias on the instructions of their clerics, the Sunnis sulking in a boycott – to prove Iraq was a "democracy". There followed the most […]
→ read full articleTHE CRISIS IN HAITI SHOWS WE NEED A NEW APPROACH TO NGOS
Paul Collier – The Independent,
8 Mar 2010
A hybrid agency run by government and donors could better direct aid.In responding to the Haitian earthquake, Non-Governmental Organisations are the heroes of the hour. Even before the disaster Haiti had 10,000 of them, more per head than anywhere else in the world. They were providing most of the country’s schools and health clinics. As […]
→ read full articleFURY AS EU APPROVES GM POTATO
Martin Hickman and Genevieve Roberts – The Independent,
4 Mar 2010
Critics claim plant could spread antibiotic-resistant diseases to humans.The introduction of a genetically modified potato in Europe risks the development of human diseases that fail to respond to antibiotics, it was claimed last night. German chemical giant BASF this week won approval from the European Commission for commercial growing of a starchy potato with a […]
→ read full articleGOLDMAN SACHS: THE GREEK CONNECTION
Stephen Foley in New York – The Independent,
15 Feb 2010
Investment giant’s role in eurozone debt crisis falls under spotlight.Goldman Sachs, the giant investment bank, is today at the centre of the row over the Greek government’s finances, amid recriminations over complex financial deals that allowed the eurozone nation to skirt its debt limits. With European finance ministers meeting in Brussels today and tomorrow to […]
→ read full articleOBAMA’S SECRET PRISONS IN AFGHANISTAN ENDANGER US ALL
Johann Hari – The Independent,
12 Feb 2010
He was elected in part to drag us out of this trap. Instead, he’s dragging us further in.Osama bin Laden’s favourite son, Omar, recently abandoned his father’s cave in favour of spending his time dancing and drooling in the nightclubs of Damascus. The tang of freedom almost always trumps Islamist fanaticism in the end: three […]
→ read full articleGLOBAL WARMING MAKES TREES GROW AT FASTEST RATE FOR 200 YEARS
Steve Connor - The Independent,
10 Feb 2010
Forests in the northern hemisphere could be growing faster now than they were 200 years ago as a result of climate change, according to a study of trees in eastern America. The trees appear to have accelerated growth rates due to longer growing seasons and higher concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Scientists have […]
→ read full articleHITCHENS HAS NO CLOTHES: A RESPONSE TO ‘VIDAL LOCO’
Dr Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, MA DPhil (Sussex) – The Independent,
7 Feb 2010
In his February Vanity Fair hitpiece, Christopher Hitchens argues that the post-9/11 world has driven Gore Vidal ‘Loco’ – the signs, he says, were always there, but 9/11 and events thereafter ‘accentuated a crackpot strain that gradually asserted itself as dominant.’ Hitchens begins his missive with Gore’s take on 9/11 itself, in which he ‘insinuated […]
→ read full articleTHERE’S REAL HOPE FROM HAITI AND IT’S NOT WHAT YOU EXPECT
Johann Hari – The Independent,
5 Feb 2010
When people live so close to the edge, even small price increases can break them. In the weeks after a disaster like the Haiti earthquake, journalists always search for an upbeat twist to the tale. You know it by now – the baby found alive after a week under wreckage. But this time, a shaft […]
→ read full articleYOU DON’T HAVE TO BE BIPOLAR TO BE A GENIUS – BUT IT HELPS
Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor – The Independent,
3 Feb 2010
Study reveals that high-achievers are far more likely to be manic depressives. Scientists have for the first time found powerful evidence that genius may be linked with madness. Speculation that the two may be related dates back millennia, and can be found in the writings of Aristotle, Plato and Socrates. Aristotle once claimed that "there […]
→ read full articleISRAEL FEELS UNDER SIEGE. LIKE A VICTIM. AN UNDERDOG
Robert Fisk – The Independent,
2 Feb 2010
Anyone who is anyone in Israel will come to Herzliya this week for a conference about the state of the Jewish nation. Our correspondent joined them and found a climate of unprecedented insecurity – and paranoia.So the propaganda war is on. Forget Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and the 15,000 Lebanese and Palestinian dead. […]
→ read full articleWHY DOES THE US TURN A BLIND EYE TO ISRAELI BULLDOZERS?
Robert Fisk – The Independent,
2 Feb 2010
Most of the West Bank is under rule which amounts to apartheid by paper."Palestine" is no more. Call it a "peace process" or a "road map"; blame it on Barack Obama’s weakness, his pathetic, childish admission – like an optimistic doctor returning a sick child to its parents without hope of recovery – that a […]
→ read full articleNO RELIEF FOR THE PALESTINIANS WHILE ISRAEL ENJOYS IMPUNITY
Andrew Phillips – The Independent,
1 Feb 2010
The West should now look to the imposition of escalating cultural and economic sanctions on Israel.To visit Gaza for a third time in five years still induces a gut reaction of pity, depression and anger – pity at the hopeless, helpless plight of the Palestinians; depression about their future and, ironically, that of Israel too; […]
→ read full articleTHE EX-GAY FILES: THE BIZARRE WORLD OF GAY-TO-STRAIGHT CONVERSION
Patrick Strudwick – The Independent,
1 Feb 2010
Is homosexuality a form of mental illness? A small but evangelical band of psychotherapists believe that it is – and they’re on a mission to ‘heal’ the afflicted. Patrick Strudwick enters the bizarre world of gay-to-straight conversion. In Britain today therapists are trying to convert gay men and women to heterosexuality. I know this, because […]
→ read full articleSAVE THE ELEPHANT: IVORY TRADING IS SET TO RESUME
Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor – The Independent,
26 Jan 2010
Britain urged to oppose demands from Tanzania and Zambia to lift ban on tusk sales / Conservationists fear the move would intensify slaughter of elephantsTwo African countries are trying to open a new breach in the worldwide ivory trade ban, which conservationists fear could lead to more African elephants being slaughtered by poachers. Environmental campaigners […]
→ read full articleTHE AGE OF THE KILLER ROBOT IS NO LONGER A SCI-FI FANTASY
Johann Hari – The Independent,
22 Jan 2010
You can’t appeal to robots for mercy or empathy – or punish them afterwards.In the dark, in the silence, in a blink, the age of the autonomous killer robot has arrived. It is happening. They are deployed. And – at their current rate of acceleration – they will become the dominant method of war for […]
→ read full articleSTOP TREATING THESE PEOPLE LIKE SAVAGES
Andy Kershaw – The Independent,
21 Jan 2010
Haitians have faced their tragedy with dignity and stoicism – not that you would know it from the way the disaster has been reported.Just a couple of hours before the earthquake hammered poor Haiti, I was reorganising my bookshelves at home. In the Haiti section I came across a lovely old volume I’d bought from […]
→ read full articleYEMEN ‘CANNOT CONTAIN AL-QA’IDA’
Donald Macintyre – The Independent,
12 Jan 2010
The author ventures into the new stronghold of extremism – and finds out why the battle against terror is failing.The governor of a key province in the front line of Yemen’s struggle against al- Qa’ida has admitted that the government’s control in his area is "not strong", and says that no extra troops have been […]
→ read full articleTHE LOVE THAT STILL DARE NOT SPEAK ITS NAME
Daniel Howden – The Independent,
11 Jan 2010
In the week that two Malawians go on trial for violating anti-gay laws, Daniel Howden finds that their experience is all too common in a continent of legalised homophobia. A whispering campaign is under way in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, accusing Paul Semugoma, a doctor, of being a predatory homosexual, actively recruiting younger men into his […]
→ read full articleAMID DARK TIMES, MEET THE MOST INSPIRING PEOPLE OF 2009
Johann Hari – The Independent,
30 Dec 2009
Newsman Wes Nisker said if you don’t like the news, make your own. These people did.It was a dark year, 2009, sealing a dark decade. It began with the world in economic free-fall and the Gaza Strip being bombed to pieces (again). We watched the vicious crushing of a democratic uprising in Iran, a successful […]
→ read full articleAFTER THE CATASTROPHE IN COPENHAGEN, IT’S UP TO US
Johann Hari – The Independent,
23 Dec 2009
Every coal train should be ringed with people refusing to let it pass.Buried deep in our subconscious, there still lays the belief that our political leaders are collective Daddies and Mummies who will – in the last instance – guarantee our safety. Sure, they might screw us over when it comes to hospital waiting lists, […]
→ read full articleIT’S THE PROTESTERS WHO OFFER THE BEST HOPE FOR OUR PLANET
Johann Hari – The Independent,
19 Dec 2009
They’ve ensured the corporate lobbyists punching holes in the deal are shamed.At first glance, the Copenhagen climate summit seems like a Salvador Dali dreamscape. I just saw Archbishop Desmond Tutu being followed by a swarm of Japanese students who were dressed as aliens and carrying signs saying "Take Me To Your Leader" and "Is Your […]
→ read full articleINDEPENDENT APPEAL: THE AFGHAN PEACE MISSION
Kim Sengupta – The Independent,
13 Dec 2009
In Farzah a group of rural elders is trying to break the cycle of tribal violence.The ambush was lethally effective. Bursts from a Kalashnikov shattered the windscreen of a flatbed truck. Abdul Munna, the driver was shot through the head, yet somehow managed to open his door. But he was dead by the time his […]
→ read full articleAMERICA IS PERFORMING ITS FAMILIAR ROLE OF PROPPING UP A DICTATOR
Robert Fisk – The Independent,
5 Nov 2009
As in Vietnam, Karzai is going to rule over an equally tiny island of corruption.Could there be a more accurate description of the Obama-Brown message of congratulations to the fraudulently elected Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan? First the Palestinians held fair elections in 2006, voted for Hamas and were brutally punished for it – they still […]
→ read full articleMR. BLAIR WOULD BE THE WRONG PERSON TO REPRESENT THE EU
The Independent,
28 Oct 2009
The former Prime Minister’s Qualities and the Job Description Are at Odds After two weeks of mounting speculation, the Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, has ruled himself out as a candidate for one of the European Union’s new top jobs. In a BBC interview he said that he was "committed" to his current job and "not […]
→ read full articleTHE TOXIC PRICE PAID BY THE POOR IN PROCESSING OUR WASTE
The Independent, UK,
19 Sep 2009
The Trafigura episode is part of a far wider scandalThe saga of Trafigura and the poisoning of Abidjan is, first and foremost, the tale of a single company’s grotesque – and possibly criminal – irresponsibility. But this episode is also a lurid illustration of the wider scandal of Western companies and nations dumping their harmful […]
→ read full articleWE’RE BEING LIED ABOUT PIRATES
Johann Hari – The Independent,
13 Apr 2009
Who imagined that in 2009, the world’s governments would be declaring a new War on Pirates? As you read this, the British Royal Navy – backed by the ships of more than two dozen nations, from the US to China – is sailing into Somalian waters to take on men we still picture as parrot-on-the-shoulder […]
→ read full articleEUROPE?S SECRET PLAN TO BOOST GM CROP PRODUCTION
Geoffrey Lean, The Independent UK,
29 Oct 2008
Gordon Brown and other EU leaders in campaign to promote modified foods. Gordon Brown and other European leaders are secretly preparing an unprecedented campaign to spread GM crops and foods in Britain and throughout the continent, confidential documents obtained by The Independent on Sunday reveal. The documents – minutes of a series […]
→ read full articleCRIMEAN PENINSULA COULD BE THE NEXT SOUTH OSSETIA
Askold Krushelnycky in Sevastopol, Ukraine (The Independent UK),
16 Sep 2008
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