Good News Agency – Year II, n° 8
Weekly - Year II, number 8
– 27 April 2001
Managing Editor: Sergio Tripi,
Ph. D.
Rome Law-court registration
no. 265 dated 20 June 2000.
Good News Agency carries positive and constructive news from all over the world relating to voluntary work, the work of the United Nations, non governmental organizations, and institutions engaged in improving the quality of life – news that doesn’t “burn out” in the space of a day.
Good News Agency is distributed through Internet to over 2,100 editorial offices of the daily newspapers and periodical magazines and of the radio and television stations with an e-mail address in 27 countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Holland, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, USA, and it is also available in its web site:
It is a free of
charge service of Associazione Culturale
dei Triangoli e della Buona Volontà Mondiale, a registered non-profit
educational organization chartered in Italy in 1979. The Association operates
for the development of consciousness and supports the activities of the Lucis
Trust, Radio For Peace International, The Club of Budapest and other
organizations promoting a culture of peace in the ‘global village’ perspective
based on unity within diversity and on sharing. Via Antagora
10, 00124 Rome, Italy. E-mail: s.tripi@tiscalinet.it
Contents:
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International legislation
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Health
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Human rights
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Science
and technology
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Economy
and development
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Environment and wildlife
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Solidarity
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Culture
and education
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(TOP)
Africa: Parliamentarians come
out in support of children
13 April - Parliamentarians from North, West and Central Africa capped a UNICEF-organised conference on 7-9 April in Nouakchott, Mauritania, with a call for governments and the international community to support, respect and promote children's rights.
The 'Nouakchott Appeal' urges
governments to protect children by ratifying and implementing international
agreements, including the UN Convention on Human Rights and the African Charter
on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. The legislators also called on
governments to adopt new political and budgetary measures so that children's
basic needs in areas such as education, health care and nutrition are met.
Delta Region: female circumcision banned
Nigeria,
13 April – The State House of Assembly of the Delta Region passed a bill
prohibiting female circumcision in the state, with immediate effect. The bill
expressly bans the practice, making it an offence for “any person to allow any
female who is either the daughter or ward to be circumcised or has her genital
organ mutilated”. Offenders will face up to three months in prison, as well as
a fine. (BO)
http://www.misna.org/eng/default.htm
12 April - In response to a request by Uruguay's
President Jorge Batlle, UNDP is supporting a consensus-building process to help
the government transform its policies on public services. The project is being
carried out by the Strategic Studies Center 1815, a civil society organization,
with participation by the United Nations University for Peace.
"This initiative aims to construct a united
platform and to facilitate a fluid dialogue, with a broad and participatory
approach, for defining and implementing state policies on public
services," said Martin Santiago, UNDP Resident Representative, who
emphasized that the issue is an important one on Uruguay's national agenda.
12 April - The administration
of Mexican President Vicente Fox sent a tax reform bill to the Mexican Congress last week that contains strong
environmental protection and cleanup provisions. Environment Minister
Victor Lichtinger said that under the bill, ranching and mining interests would
have to start paying for the water they use, giving them an incentive to
conserve, and the worst-polluting cars would be taxed so that they became the
most expensive cars on the market. Lichtinger said the new administration
would rigorously enforce current environmental laws, pointing out that it had
already begun to clamp down on water-pollution violations by Pemex, the
state-owned oil monopoly.
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10497
http://www.gristmagazine.com/
16 April - Malawi's
parliamentary committee on the environment is devising ways that will enable it
to summon violators of environment preservation guidelines and policies to
parliament for punitive measures, PANA reported on Monday. Chimunthu Banda, the
committee chairman, said that the committee – formed early last year - was
mandated to summon violators of the country's environment policies to
parliament for possible punishment as one way of enforcing environment
policies.
(TOP)
10 April - Migrants Rights
International has just launched a discussion group by email on the World
Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related
Intolerance (WCRX ). Participants, approximately 300, are representatives from
civil society organizations with a special interest and or expertise on
migration issues vis-a-vis the preparations and outcome of WCRX.
http://www.kabissa.org/newsletter.php?id=420
Contact: marequemri@hotmail.com
16 April - The Council of
Churches in Namibia (CCN) has defended the rights of gays and lesbians while
maintaining that the anti-homosexual position of the Bible be followed, the
'Namibian’ reported on Wednesday. This comes in the wake of several attacks by
President Sam Nujoma on gays and lesbians in which he labelled them as ungodly.
In a press statement, the 50 church leaders "rejected any form of
discrimination based on sexual orientation". The statement, issued at the
end of the church group's annual general meeting, said: "The AGM also
stressed that every human being deserves the same protection, human rights and
equality as provided for by the scriptures and the Namibian constitution."
(TOP)
16 April - The central
statistical office in Port Louis has announced that sugar production will reach
620,000 mt this year as compared to 569,289 mt in 2000 and 373,294 mt in 1999,
reports said on Tuesday. It said better climatic conditions last year resulted
in an increase of 31.6 percent in the production of cane: 5,109,500 mt in 2000
as compared to 3,882,597 mt in 1999.
Philippines meeting promotes
eco-industry in Asia
17 April - More than 100
business, government and community leaders from Asia met recently in Manila to
discuss "industrial ecology" strategies to encourage environmentally-friendly
development. Industrial ecology focuses on ways to minimize waste and maximize
efficient use of materials and energy, including recycling. Eco-industry
strategies can help reduce poverty by promoting development while protecting
the environment - and also benefit firms' financial bottom line.
UNDP Resident Representative
Terence Jones underscored the importance of progress in eco-industry as
countries prepare for Rio+10 , next year's meeting to review progress since the
Earth Summit. Participants discussed issues such as regional development and
planning in Asia, advantages in site location, competitiveness and
eco-industrial networking, and environmental perspectives in developing
eco-industry parks.
http://www.undp.org/dpa/index.html
(TOP)
4.S Martina
Hingis to donate award to aid children in Colombia
12 April - Tennis star Martina Hingis has been named
winner of the tenth annual Family Circle/ Hormel Foods "Player Who Makes A
Difference" award. She will receive the honour at a ceremony at the Family
Circle Cup in Charleston, South Carolina on 21 April.
"Martina's work with the World Health
Organization and the United Nations Development Program is truly
commendable," said Susan Kelliher Ungaro, Editor-in-Chief of Family Circle
magazine. "As a recipient of this award, we celebrate her commitment in
making the world a safer and healthier place for children."
"I am very honored to receive this award from
Family Circle magazine and Hormel Foods," said Ms. Hingis. "Children
are our future, and this money will go a long way in helping hundreds of young
children escape from the dangers of living in the streets." She has
decided to use the $20,000 award money to support the work of the Bosconia
programme in Bogotá, Colombia, which helps children living and working on the
streets.
Humanitarian convoy sponsored by UNESCO to mark 15th anniversary
of Chernobyl on April 26
Paris, April 9 - A humanitarian convoy led by French
students and sponsored by UNESCO is on its way to areas affected by the
Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Belarus to mark the 15th anniversary of the
catastrophe on April 26. The convoy, carrying medical, computer and educational
material to hospitals, orphanages and schools, set off on its three-day trip
from UNESCO Headquarters on Saturday after a ceremony attended by UNESCO's
Assistant Director-General for Science, Walter Erdelen, and the Permanent
Delegate of Belarus to UNESCO, Vladimir Senko, who also serves as Ambassador to
France.
Mr Erdelen recalled that 70 percent of the radioactive
fallout from the disaster at the Ukrainian nuclear power station had fallen
into Belarus. He said: “In the contaminated areas, people are still living in very damaged
social and environmental conditions.” Mr Ardelen underlined that “UNESCO was the first United Nations body to work to
alleviate the consequences of Chernobyl”. He hailed the action of the students “who would have only been around 10 years old at the
time of the catastrophe” and said the convoy was an example of “establishing a culture of solidarity.”
Mr Senko thanked the students for their “courageous action” and added: “My country suffered more than others from the
disaster. Today, 20 percent of the national budget is dedicated to fighting the
effects of Chernobyl. Fifteen years after the disaster, the problems remain and
will continue in years to come.”
http://www.unesco.org/opi/eng/unescopress/2001/01-56e.shtml
WFP
launches new emergency operation to feed 2.5 million people in Ethiopia
Addis Ababa, April 10 - The United Nations World Food Programme today launched a US$89.7
million emergency operation to feed 2.5 million small-scale farmers and drought
affected pastoralists in Ethiopia.
WFP, the world's largest food
aid agency, is seeking support from donors to resource some 206,000 metric tons
of food urgently needed to assist people affected by drought and recurring crop
failure.
"For the last twelve
months, WFP requested over 605,000 metric tons of food to assist some 5.7
million people, but this year due to favourable weather conditions, we are asking
for less food aid," said Benedict Fultang, WFP acting Country Director in
Ethiopia.
Although the overall
humanitarian situation in Ethiopia is gradually improving, populations in
several regions of the country remain highly vulnerable. Hit by a series of
drought and crop failure over the last four to five years, pastoralists and
subsistence farmers still need assistance to rebuild their lives.
http://www.wfp.org/prelease/2001/0410.htm
Bill Gates Senior Helps Deliver Life-saving Vaccines
to Mozambique
Maputo, Mozambique 6 April – In a major step towards saving the lives of millions
of children around the world, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization and the Global Fund for Children's Vaccines began the
first round of a global schedule of vaccine delivery, to Mozambique, the first
to reach the African continent.
Bill Gates Sr., Co-chair of the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation, joined Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of the United
Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and President Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique,
at Boane District Health Clinic, 45 kms from the capital city Maputo, to see
infants being immunized with DTP-hepB vaccines against diphtheria, tetanus,
whooping cough and hepatitis B.
http://www.unicef.org/newsline/01pr32.htm
13 April - The International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has given non-food items such as sheets and
tools to 96,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in southern Guinea, Kindia,
Forécariah and Haute-Guinée since September during the first phase of a distribution
exercise. Phase II will target tens of thousands of vulnerable IDPs in southern
Guinea, according to the ICRC.
13 April - More than 1,500
internally displaced persons (IDPs) who had fled to Monrovia from southeastern
Liberia during a civil war in the 1990s were taken back to the area between 27
February and 28 March, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) reported
on Thursday. The operation was organised by the ICRC in cooperation with the
Liberian Red Cross and the Liberian Refugee Repatriation and Resettlement
Committee, ICRC said.
16 April - Morocco had donated
US $150,000 for the victims of the recent flooding in central Mozambique, PANA
said on Wednesday. Handing over the money to Mozambique's Disaster Management
Institute (INGC) in Maputo on Monday, Moroccan Ambassador Abdellatif Nacif said
the gesture was a mark of his country's solidarity with the Mozambican people.
Meanwhile, United States
ambassador to Mozambique, Sharon Wilkinson, delivered a consignment of health
equipment valued at US$ 240,000 to the Manica health centre, 75 km north of
Maputo, reports said. Wilkinson said the US would soon repeat the gesture to
Boane and Boquisso health centres in Maputo province.
Italy supports sewerage
network for Bethlehem area
Monday, 16 April - As part of
a long-term effort to help improve environmental health for Palestinians in the
West Bank and Gaza, the UNDP Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian
People and Bethlehem Water and Sewerage Authority signed an
agreement last week for installation of 24 km of sewer lines. Italy is
providing $2 million for the work, which will expand existing networks to reach
areas not currently served in Bethlehem, Beit Jala, Beit Sahour and the
Al-Dheisheh refugee camp.
This is the third phase of a
project that will complete about 90 percent of the sewerage master plan for the
Bethlehem area, serving over 100,000 inhabitants.
For the earlier work, Italy
provided $5.5 million in funding, UNDP managed the procurement of pipes and
equipment, and Germany provided support for the construction, which was
implemented by German Technical Cooperation (GTZ).
http://www.undp.org/dpa/index.html
Imagine that instead of having
water on tap in your home, you have to walk miles each day to collect it.
Imagine that when you reach the water source it is a muddy hole in a dried-up
river bed. For over a quarter of the world's men, women and children this is
reality.
WaterAid
(Registered No. 288701) is the only charity in the UK that specialises in
providing three things to the poorest people in developing countries: water,
sanitation and hygiene promotion. WaterAid works:
1. With communities -
from planning and construction to maintenance and encouraging community
ownership and responsibility. This is
the key to making a lasting difference
2. By using simple, suitable
and sustainable technology
3. With partner
organisations in fifteen countries in Africa and Asia
4. Efficiently - it
costs us a little over £10 to provide one person in the developing world with
access to safe water for life.
WaterAid has helped over six
million people to gain access to improved water supplies and/or sanitation;
looks forward to a world in which everyone has access to safe water and
sanitation.
http://www.givewater.org/
For Press
enquiries please contact: Email Kerriej@fodorwyllie.com
(TOP)
Rome/Geneva, 12 April
- The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health
Organization (WHO) have published new recommendations to strengthen the process
used to protect consumers from the risk that some genetically modified
organisms (GMOs) could pose for a small percentage of people with food
allergies. They are available on FAO's website at the following address: http://www.fao.org/es/ESN/gm/biotec-e.htm and on WHO's at: http://www.who.int/fsf/GMfood/index.htm
Incorporating the latest scientific information on
allergens, a FAO/WHO Joint Expert Consultation on Foods Derived from
Biotechnology which met in Rome from 22-25 January made recommendations that
would substantially improve the decision-making process and update the allergen
data base used to evaluate the risk of transferring allergens from an existing
organism, or creating new ones in food made from genetically modified
organisms.
http://www.fao.org/WAICENT/OIS/PRESS_NE/PRESSENG/2001/pren0123.htm
Maryland became the first
state to regulate genetically modified fish this week when Gov. Parris
Glendening (D) signed a law that prohibits raising such fish unless they are in
ponds or lakes that do not connect with other waterways. Under the law,
fish growers must also make sure the fish cannot escape by other means, such as
getting picked up and dropped by a bird.
The U.S. Food and Drug
Administration is currently considering whether to allow sales of genetically
modified fish.
http://www.nandotimes.com/healthscience/story/
13 April - The European
Commission is to commit 1.6 million euros (US $1.42 million) to the fight
against meningitis in Burkina Faso and Chad, the EC's humanitarian assistance
office, ECHO, reported on Thursday. The epidemic started in January in each
country. On Wednesday, Burkina Faso's Health Ministry said the disease had
infected 9,623 persons and killed 1,379 people this year. ECHO said Chad's
health authorities had reported 4,117 cases between mid-January and 8 April,
including 393 deaths.
12 April - Contact with nature
may have therapeutic effects, says a professor of occupational and
environmental medicine at Emory University. Writing this month in the
American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Howard Frumkin says that interactions
with natural landscapes, plants, and animals can have a "soothing,
restorative, and even healing" effect. He says natural places may even
cause some diseases to "run their course faster." Harvard
scientist E.O. Wilson writes an accompanying piece in the journal, praising
Frumkin for showing "why it is wiser ... to save the last stand of
old-growth forests in the permanent service of preventive medicine than to cut
them down for the short-term purchase of more pharmaceuticals."
http://www.msnbc.com/news/556098.asp
http://www.gristmagazine.com/
16 April - Health authorities
vaccinated over one million children up to five years old against poliomyelitis
in Luanda at the weekend, Angop reported on Monday. The vaccination programme
was part of a joint effort between the government and the World Health
Organisation. Many children were given doses of vitamin A, which prevents
blindness, the report said.
South Africa: The 39
pharmaceutical companies withdraw their indictment against the South African
Government
Pretoria, South Africa, 19
April - The High Court of Justice has declared concluded the lawsuit cited by
39 pharmaceutical multinationals against the South African Government accused
of having allowed the importation and distribution of low cost anti-AIDS drugs,
duplicated from medicines produced by them. The High Court closed the case
because the 39 pharmaceutical companies have withdrawn the indictment and have
also accepted to cover the costs of the trial.
The event, which highlights
how concern for human beings can and must prevail over commercial interests,
was strongly influenced by international public opinion which reversed the
roles of the trial and considered the pharmaceutical companies not as the
damaged party but, on the contrary, as the accused. The news reported here on
this subject show this event in this perspective. In addition, the other news
reported here on the subject AIDS show that the reactions to this scourge are
including new and increasingly effective measures . (F.G.)
UNAIDS welcomes outcome of
South African court case
Geneva, 19 April – UNAIDS welcomes the withdrawal by 39
pharmaceutical companies and associations of their legal case before the High
Court of South Africa. The case challenged provisions of the Medicines and
Related Substances Control Amendment Act of 1997, whose intent UNAIDS has
consistently supported. The Act’s intent is to
operationalize key elements of the National Drug Policy, including generic
substitution, greater competition in public drug procurement, improved drug
quality, and more rational use of medicines.
UNAIDS further welcomes the
decision by the Ministry of Health to create a joint working group with the
pharmaceutical industry to examine broader public health issues.
http://www.unaids.org/whatsnew/press/eng/pressarc01/SAfrica_190401.htm
13 April - The Malian
government has signed an agreement with four international pharmaceutical
companies to drastically reduce the cost of drugs which suppress the growth of
HIV, AFP reported.
A treatment which used to cost
some US $480 per patient each month will now cost between $60 and $110 monthly,
Malian Health Minister Traore Fatoumata Nafo told reporters on Saturday. The
companies that signed the deal are Boehringer-Ingelheim from Germany,
GlaxoSmithKline from Britain and US firms, Merck and Bristol Myers Squibb.
10 April - The UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has won agreement from six major drug companies to keep cutting prices of Aids treatments for the world's poorest nations.
http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=65180
Cameroon signs up for cheap
AIDS drugs
Cameroon became the fifth
African country on Wednesday to strike a deal with major pharmaceutical
companies to ensure cheap access to AIDS drugs. GlaxoSmithKline, the world's
largest supplier of HIV/AIDS medicines, said the West African country had
reached agreement with five leading drug firms under a UN initiative.
http://www.iclinic.co.za/apr01/reuters/aidsdrugs5.asp
Bangkok,
23 April – A new report released here today by Her Royal Highness Princess Soamsawali reveals
that between 3000 and 5000 HIV-positive children will be born to infected
mothers in Thailand every year unless health measures are taken.
The
report, entitled “Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission
of HIV: Thai Red Cross Zidovudine Donation Programme,” documents this programme, which is under the patronage of Her Royal
Highness. This vital programme has successfully raised funds from public
donations to subsidize the drug for HIV-infected pregnant women. Zidovudine is
a drug that has been shown to significantly reduce the transmission from mother
to child of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
Her
Royal Highness Princess Soamsawali spearheaded the zidovudine donation
programme from the mid-1990s, after realizing the drug was financially beyond
the reach of most infected Thai women. The programme is a partnership between,
the Thai Red Cross Society, the Thai Ministry of Public Health, and the public.
http://www.unaids.org/whatsnew/press/eng/pressarc01/MTCT_230401.html
United Nations to hold first
special session on HIV/AIDS, 25-27 June 2001
The United Nations will hold a
Special Session on HIV/AIDS to galvanize leadership at the highest levels,
intensify international action and mobilize the resources needed to combat the
epidemic. The Special Session, to take place from 25 to 27 June 2001 at UN
Headquarters in New York, will be the first ever to address a public health
issue.
UN Secretary-General Kofi
Annan and high-level government delegations will address:
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The importance of political leadership in developing effective responses
and decreasing the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS
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Encouraging all sectors of society to play a major role
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Increasing resources for treatment, prevention, and care
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Preventing new infections and alleviating the social and economic impact
of the epidemic
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Access to care and the development of new technologies and treatments
that are both effective and affordable
Governments are expected to
adopt a Declaration of Commitment setting targets and timetables. In addition
to statements in the Plenary, four interactive round tables will discuss human
rights, international funding and cooperation, prevention and care, and the
socio-economic impact of HIV/AIDS. These will involve participants from NGOs,
the private sector and other civil society groups. A full programme of press
conferences and special events will provide additional media opportunities.
http://www.unaids.org/whatsnew/mediaadvisory/UNGASS.html
WHO/WTO workshop on pricing
and financing of essential drugs
Experts: affordable
medicines for poor countries are feasible
Høsbjør, Norway, 11
April – Making life-saving medicines more affordable
for poor countries is vital for improving public health. More importantly, it
is realistic, experts said in a three-day workshop that ended today. In
particular, "differential pricing" — companies charging different prices in
different markets according to purchasing power — is a feasible means of achieving this, provided
certain conditions are met. That was a widely held view among a diverse group
of 80 experts from 21 countries and a wide range of professional backgrounds,
participating in a workshop organized jointly by the World Health Organization
(WHO), World Trade Organization (WTO), Norwegian Foreign Ministry and Global
Health Council, a broad-based US organization in the healthcare field.
The
workshop examined in detail ways to reduce pharmaceutical prices in low-income
countries and how to increase financing so that the world’s poorest people can
obtain necessary medicines and healthcare. HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis
featured prominently, but a wide range of other diseases that affect poor
people were also discussed.
http://www.who.int/inf-pr-2001/en/pr2001-20.html
US - Chemists have finally made
synthetic quinine after more than a century of trying, reopening its file as a
potential source of new antimalarial drugs. Gilbert Stork and co-workers at
Columbia University have made quinine from a process called 'total synthesis'.
Malaria remains endemic in Africa,
the Middle East, Asia and South America, and kills more than a million people
each year. Quinine does not by itself cure malaria, it simply interferes with
the growth of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum that is passed on by
mosquitoes. Most of Africa and Asia are afflicted with drug-resistant strains.
‘The ability to build the molecule piece by piece” explains Gary Posner, a
chemist at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, “could be useful in a search
for new, more potent and less toxic variants of the molecule”
http://www.nature.com/nsu/010419/010419-1.html
(TOP)
UK - The BWEA (British Wind
Energy Association) predicts that 2005 megawatts of wind energy will be
operating in the UK by the end of 2005. The turbines, both on and offshore,
will provide enough electricity for one and a quarter million households.
Presentations made at the
CREA (Confederation of Renewable Energy Associations) seminar on Regional
planning targets; rationale, progress and practical implementation now
available at:
http://www.britishwindenergy.co.uk/new.html
www.crownestate.co.uk
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/contentlookup.cfm?SiteKeyParam=CLIMATEREN15
The 5th April Crown Estate announced the release of
eighteen potential sea bed sites for offshore wind farms. Should all the
projects go ahead, their combined electricity generation would power 1.1
million homes each year, equivalent to the output of both Dungeness B and
Bradwell nuclear reactors .
The UK has the largest wind
resource in Europe, with the offshore resource alone sufficient to power the
country nearly three times over.
http://www.britishwindenergy.co.uk/new.html
http://www.offshorewindfarms.co.uk/
A new type of fuel
cell could prove cheap, reliable and robust enough to speed things up.
Developed at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, the prototype
cell converts hydrogen to electricity more efficiently than existing devices,
and at temperatures many engineers consider ideal. Operating at around 160o C,
these devices create higher voltages than PEM cells, and should, once design is
optimised, have greater overall efficiencies.
“If we really decided that we wanted a clean hydrogen economy”, a
researcher at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado, USA
comments, “we could have it by 2010.”
The barriers are now mainly psychological, agrees Stanford Ovshinsky of
Energy Conversion Devices in Troy, Michigan: “What is involved is the task of
changing a huge, powerful, entrenched global industry from a petrol-engine base
to an electric one.”
http://www.nature.com/nsu/010419/010419-5.html
(TOP)
Upton, New York, April 13
(ENS) - The more diverse an ecosystem, the better it can serve to absorb carbon
dioxide - a potent greenhouse gas - from the atmosphere, a new study suggests.
The research has important implications for ongoing international negotiations
over the best way to address global climate change, and the role that so called
carbon sinks should play.
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/apr2001/2001L-04-13-06.html
Washington, April 10 - When
the Oscar-nominated Mexican film Amores Perros opens in movie theaters across
the United States later this month, moviegoers will see graphic scenes of
dogfighting. While these scenes are sure to shock many, The Humane Society of
the United States (HSUS) says the movie depicts an inhumane and illegal
activity that is flourishing in urban and rural areas across the United States.
Executives from the film's
U.S. distributor - Lions Gate International, Inc. - have agreed to work with
The HSUS to educate audiences about dogfighting. Along with assuring moviegoers
that no animals were harmed during filming, the distributor will include The
HSUS' Web site address - www.hsus.org on posters and
advertisements. The Web site features information on dogfighting, including a
comprehensive list of state laws on dogfighting, which is illegal in all 50
states.
Paris, April - The
Paris based OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) is
urging with a coordinated program the removal of subsidies and introduction of
environmental taxes “to prevent irreversible damage to our environment over the
next 20 years”. OECD groups 30 industrialized countries that produce two-thirds
of the world's goods and services.
The call comes in a major review of key environmental
challenges to 2020, to be considered by OECD environment ministers May 16. “Only with such widespread use of economic
instruments will it be possible to tackle the more complex, interrelated and
international environmental problems of the future”, told OECD environment
director Joke Waller-Hunter, “More stringent policies are needed to ensure that
environmental degradation is de-coupled from economic growth”. There would be
nine percent lower SOx emissions, three percent lower methane emissions, and 30
percent less run-off of nitrogen to waterways from agricultural chemicals. The
OECD Outlook is available online at: http://www.oecd.org/env/outlook/outlook.htm
The OECD member countries are
listed at: http://www.oecd.org/about/general/member-countries.htm
Bhubaneshwar, India, April 17 - Thousands of baby Olive Ridley turtles have begun crawling out of eggs laid at the sandy shores of Orissa, one of the world's largest nesting grounds on India's eastern coast, boosting hopes of pulling these turtles back from the brink of extinction “Government efforts to guarantee the turtles' safe passage to the Orissa coast have paid off," said Ardhendu Sarangi, the state forest and environment secretary. “This year was an exceptionally busy year with over a million turtles making their ritual trek to the nesting sites”. According to studies, only one out of every 1,000 hatchlings normally reaches adulthood. Though protected under India's Wildlife Protection Act, during the past five years over 50,000 turtles have either been mangled by fishing trawler propellers or suffocated in fishermens' gill nets, and, by pollution and poachers , high tides and exceptionally strong winds made danger to the eggs, conservationists say.
http://www.planet.ark.com.au/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10506
Clean Up the World (CUW), one
of the world's largest community-based environmental projects, has announced a
formidable partnership with National Geographic Channels International (NGCI) -
helping even more communities to access the tools necessary to conserve and
improve their environment. Chairman of CUW, Ian Kiernan, said that as a global
media partner, NGCI would create many more opportunities for local communities
around the world to make a fundamental difference to the health of their
environment. "Not only does CUW seek to empower people and communities to
improve their own environment, but also to link communities and share the
knowledge they already have," Mr Kiernan said. The CUW project, held in
conjunction with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), is now active
in 124 countries, and NGCI is the fastest-growing global cable network,
broadcasting in 113 countries reaching nearly 100 million homes in 18
languages.
http://www.cleanuptheworld.org/english/whatsnew/default.asp
American Forest’s year 2001: global tree-planting projects
For the 13th consecutive year, American
Forests is planting native trees in global ecosystem restoration projects
across the United States and around the world. In 2001 nearly 4 million trees
will be planted in 52 domestic and international projects (Sarajevo,
Bosnia-Herzegovina; Erzgebirge, Germany; Northen Coast of West Java, Indonesia;
Trees for Tigers, Russian Far East) in cooperation with hundreds of local and
national organizations and agencies.
Complete programme, at: www.americanforests.org
(TOP)
The “Turn Off Violence on TV”
Campaign
(Good News Agency reports this
press release as received by IFLAC’s President, Prof. Ada Aharoni.)
IFLAC: The International Forum for the Culture of
Peace, has launched a new global campaign: “Turn Off Violence on TV”, following
"The Ethical Code of the Media" launched by Sergio Tripi, editor
of the "Good News Agency." This code calls upon the
world media to abide by ethical and objective standards, and to equally
cover the good aspects of life and of human experience.Unfortunately, this
code is often ignored on the electronic media, especially when abominably
violent films are daily projected on television all around the world, which
have a bad influence on society.
The "Turn Off Violence on
TV" campaign calls on world governments, and on the citizens of the world
who abhor violence and regard it as a danger to humanity, to stop its
influence on the electronic media. Citizens of the world are
recommended to write to their local and national television
stations, and to the sponsors and directors of violent films, and to warn them
that they will not watch their films filled with shootings, homicide, blood and
murder anymore. Violence and murder are only a small part of human
experience, and by all means, not the most interesting or beneficial.
Television sponsors were warned that if they do not want to lose their money,
they should air good and exciting films that present the real problems of life,
that build society and not destroy it.
The first responses to
this innovative campaign coming both from TV companies, and from NGO's
and associations, as well as from individuals from England, India, Canada
and Israel, are very promising.
http://techunix.technion.ac.il/~ada/home.html
Kazakhstan boosts women in
politics
16 April - Kazakhstan, with
support from Sweden, has set a bold target of doubling the proportion of women
holding national political offices over the next two years. There are only 13 women in the 115-member
parliament. Among 14 ministers, there is one woman, and out of 80 deputy heads
of regional administrations, only five are women.
Kazakhstan's National
Commission on Family and Women's Affairs is carrying out the initiative with
support from the Swedish
International Development Agency (Sida) (channelled through
Sprangbradan Utvecklingskonsulter AB) and the UN Gender in Development Bureau
in Kazakhstan.
http://www.undp.org/dpa/index.html
former President of Costa Rica
and 1987 Nobel Peace Laureate
(TOP)
Oscar Arias is the symbol of a
small country and a great democracy, a State with no army in the tormented
region of Central America. While President of the Republic, he succeeded in
bringing together at the negotiating table the Heads of State of Nicaragua,
Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras and persuading them to sign his peace plan
committing the signatories to renounce the use of war in the region. Today, as
President of the Arias Foundation, he appreciates the role of Good News Agency
in the creation of a more aware public opinion and agreed to give an interview
to its Publisher and Editor, Sergio Tripi, on the themes of development and on
Good News Agency’s initiative to promote an ethical code of the media.
Sergio Tripi: In spite of the
social progress made in Latin America, there are still very difficult problems
to be solved in various fields. What new values and what process of change will
be necessary to ensure a democratic participation and a life worth of living at
all levels in the Region?
Oscar Arias: The world is
definitely in need of a new set of values for the twenty-first century. I have said many times that I would like to
see a world with more solidarity and less individualism, more honesty and less
hypocrisy, more transparency and less corruption, more faith and less cynicism,
more compassion and less selfishness.
In short, a world with more love.
To ensure democratic
participation, it will be necessary to strengthen civil society and to ensure
that militaries are appropriately subordinated to democratically elected
civilian governments. In addition,
democracy will only survive if it can “deliver the goods,” meaning take care of
the basic necessities of people.
Continued high levels of poverty, combined with government inefficiency
and corruption, tend to make fast-paced and absolute autocratic change more
attractive than democratic change to the majority of people. These are the conditions which lead to
disenchantment and passivity in the population at large and facilitate military
coups. In order for democracies to
survive, they must find ways of growing their economies and satisfying people’s
basic needs.
The key to the basic changes
necessary to development rests with the people. What is being done and what
else will be necessary to do in the field of education and training in Latin
America?
Education is absolutely
fundamental to democracy and to prosperity.
Governments should be investing heavily in education, not only at the
primary level, but at the secondary and tertiary levels as well. As a Costa Rican, I have seen the progress
possible when military spending is cut out of the national budget. Since eliminating our army in 1948, we have
been able to dedicate significant funds to health and education, with the
result that our life expectancy and literacy rates are as high as those of
Europe and the U.S.
Yes, Costa Rica is a vivid
example to the world of a country that, on the basis of a farsighted
constitution, has abolished the armed forces for over half a century and has
fostered the progress for peace. As a former President of the Country, how
would you rate the availability of financial resources that originate from the
abolishment of the expenses for armament?
I partly answered this
question. Today in Costa Rica, spending on security (the National Police Force)
amounts to only five percent of what we spend on education and health. The results can be seen in our healthy and
well-educated population, which has translated into a higher standard of living
and much greater political stability than any of our neighbors in Central America
enjoy. Costa Rica’s success with demilitarization
has led me to campaign for other small, poor countries to demilitarise as
well. So far, Panama and Haiti have
followed Costa Rica’s example. There
are many poor countries in Africa which would also benefit tremendously from
redirecting most if not all of their military spending to alleviate human
suffering and build up their populations’ levels of health and education.
There is an increasing
tendency on part of the developed countries to alleviate the burden of the
foreign debt of the developing countries, with specific social requirements
included in the plans designed for the Highly Indebted Poor Countries. However,
it is still not enough. What else could be done to improve the situation?
The HIPC initiative should be
expanded to include more countries.
Debt-for-nature swaps, as we did here in Costa Rica during my
presidency, hold great promise for simultaneously reducing debt and protecting
delicate ecosystems and environmental treasures. Poor countries should greatly reduce if not eliminate military
spending, which eats away at scarce resources needed for human
development. Foreign aid should be
expanded, for it is in the interest of the wealthy countries to promote human
development, as well as the development of infrastructure, in poor
countries. It is only with this type of
investment, along with major debt relief, that poor countries will be able to
become serious trade partners and to develop sustainable economies.
The ecological balance is a
vital factor for peace and life on the planet, and the Earth Charter will
certainly play a fundamental role to shape human responsibility at a global
level, today so urgent and crucial. What is the contribution of your Foundation
to this objective?
We are proud to be located in
a country which places a very high value on the natural environment. Roughly one third of Costa Rica’s national
territory is under some form of protection, be it in national parks or private
reserves. Eco-tourism is a booming
industry here, and is enjoyed by Costa Rican nationals and foreign tourists
alike. Costa Rica receives more
tourists per capita than any other Latin American country, and that is because
people want to see the beauty of the natural flora and fauna that are so well
protected here.
Although the Arias Foundation
does not work directly in the area of environmental conservation, we do promote
a vision of human development, which puts people at the center of development
policy, and bases development decisions on how they will affect human well-being,
particularly that of the poor, as well as that of future generations.
The three major program areas
of the Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Progress are:
The
Center for Peace and Reconciliation, which works on conflict
resolution, demilitarization, and democratization; The Center for Human Progress, which works to promote equality of
opportunity and gender equity in Central American societies; and The Center for Organized Participation,
which works to strengthen civil society in Central America.
Why are media still not
sufficiently aware of the formidable expression of voluntary service in today’s
society? What evidence will make them more attentive to this profound social
transformation, still not predominant but nevertheless always growing?
I’m afraid that human nature
causes us always to look out for the bad news first; perhaps it is a deeply
ingrained self-defense response. It is
certainly unfortunate that for most of the world, good news seems to wash over
us without soaking in, while we hang upon every bit of danger, violence,
corruption, and scandal. Still, I have
hope that we can work to change our nature and to pay attention to all of the
positive things that happen every day.
The strengthening of civil society and the participation at the grass
roots level in this effort are bound to bear fruit.
Do you think that an ethical
code of the media, of which our Good News Agency is a promoter, a code which
underlines the responsibility of the media in the information and balanced
formation of public opinion, can be received by the media to the point of
accelerating their readiness to consider positive news as worthy of as much
attention as negative news?
I wholeheartedly support the
ethical code of the media, and in fact, I would go even further. I believe that the role of the media is not
only to inform, but also to form--that is, to educate. I feel that it’s unproductive for democratic
societies to shy away from the topic of values. Free speech is certainly a fundamental aspect of democracy, but
there are others as well, that the media ought to keep in view as it goes about
its work of spreading information in free societies. I believe that we would all like to see such values as
solidarity, honesty, transparency, hope, and compassion promoted in our
societies, instead of their opposites: individualism, hypocrisy, corruption,
cynicism, and selfishness. I would like
to see an international media movement that dares to support such positive
values through its collection and dissemination of information to the public.
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