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The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, which involves 12 Pacific rim nations, seriously threatens indigenous land rights, as well as the natural resources they preserve, said United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Victoria Tauli-Corpuz. In an interview with the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, Tauli-Corpuz said a major issue with the trade deal is 鈥渢he clause of non-discrimination between a local and an international investor ... [it] grants more rights to transnational firms, often at the expense of indigenous rights鈥.
Britain: Austerity killing the poor Cuts to social spending could be killing large numbers of vulnerable people in Britain, Public Health England said on February 16, as new figures show last year featured the largest rise in the national death rate for decades. that the new preliminary figures from the Office for National Statistics show mortality rates last year rose by 5.4% compared with 2014.
Beyonc茅's backing dancers display a "Justice for Mario Woods" sign. In the San Francisco Bay Area in California, where tent cities are slowly re-forming under bridges after being swept away in a 鈥渃leansing鈥 of the homeless ahead of the February 7 NFL Super Bowl, there is still a palpable buzz about Beyonc茅's performance in the Super Bowl half-time show (sorry, Coldplay). In fact, it is a topic with far more currency than the actual dud of a game 鈥 and for good reason.
More than 100 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have launched a petition campaign for the removal of the Kurdistan Workers' Party from the EU list of terrorist groups, . The PKK began an armed campaign for Kurdish liberation against the Turkish state in 1984, although it had been in a peace process until the Turkish government unilaterally ended talks and restarted the conflict last year.
VicForests has been forced to abandon planned logging operations in forest on the Errinundra plateau in East Gippsland after a citizen science survey recorded a large population of protected Greater Gliders. Goongerah Environment Centre conducted a late night survey in forest where logging had just commenced. The survey recorded 15 greater gliders in 800m. The Department of Environment will now create a protection zone for the species. The logging rules require a 100 hectare protected area to be zoned where more than 10 greater gliders are detected in a 1km survey transect.
More than 400 workers from several unions, notably the CFMEU, took their fight straight to billion dollar miner Rio Tinto for its complicity in sacking Australian seafarers and replacing them with foreign workers, who are paid as little as $2 an hour. On February 5 in the Port of Newcastle, five crew members were marched down the gangway of the CSL Melbourne by more than 30 police. Those same police escorted the foreign replacement crew onto the ship to sail it away.
Students, journalists and teachers (JNU) in New Delhi on February 16, demanding the release of an arrested student leader and denouncing violence by Hindu supremacists. The dispute has sparked new allegations that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are cracking down on political dissent in the name of patriotism.
Hundreds of people rallied against the federal government鈥檚 proposed cuts to health care in #These Cuts are Killing Us rallies around Australia. Protesters in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth took to the streets to defend Medicare and against government plans to charge for previously free pathology tests which could lead to doctors having to charge at least $30 for blood tests, MRIs, x-rays, pap smears, urine tests, ultrasounds and more.
When an all-female army of journalists, dressed as schoolgirls, burst into laughter at a 鈥渓unch party鈥 with the Thailand's military junta chief Prayut Chan-o-cha at Government House on January 8, it became the talk of the town. Commentators took to social media to lament the wretched state of Thai media. A senior Thai journalist, Pravit Rojanapuruk, labelled the journalists as 鈥渓apdogs鈥 in a column in the progressive daily Khaosod English.
Let them stay Aboriginal flag banner, Lady Cilento hospital Brisbane.

Baby Asha is facing possible deportation to Nauru. Over the last week there have being ongoing protests outside Lady Cilento children's hospital in Brisbane, with health professionals at the hospital refusing to discharge baby Asha whilst she could be sent to Nauru.

Campaigners

The sale of the former Ballerrt Mooroop Indigenous College site in Glenroy, Victoria has been put on hold indefinitely following a traditional owner settlement claim. Those campaigning to keep it in the public's hands are celebrating the decision, which makes the dream of turning it into a community hub a step closer.

A Pakistani student, Sohail, was paid only 47 cents an hour to work at a 7-Eleven store in Sydney. He is one of 60 workers claiming back pay from 7-Eleven. When another worker, Pranay Alawala, complained about receiving only $12 an hour, his employer said they would tell immigration officials he had been working too many hours, which was in breach of his student visa. He received $33,000 in back pay.