The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) released a statement on June 28 reaffirming its commitment to the Honduran people鈥檚 struggle for a return to democracy one year after the coup that overthrew president Manuel Zelaya.
ALBA is an anti-imperialist alliance founded in 2004 by Cuba and Venezuela. Its members include Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Dominica, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Antigua and Barbuda.
Under Zelaya, Honduras joined ALBA, which suspended Honduras鈥檚 membership after the coup. The regime has since withdrawn from ALBA.
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In 2006, the Victorian government committed to introducing a 鈥渓andmark鈥 Climate Change Bill. At this time, there was growing momentum around the world for legislation that would cut greenhouse gas emissions. This momentum was largely in response to the glacial pace of the international climate change negotiations.
The Punjab government has been given three months to decide the fate of 68,000 hectares of agricultural land. The land is owned by the government and has been cultivated by tenants for more than 100 years.
The tenants have demanded land ownership rights. Despite government promises, the land has not been allotted to them.
The three months鈥 notice was given at the end of a huge peasants rally on June 29 at Okara. The rally was organised by the Punjab Tenants Association (AMP) on the eve of the anniversary of 10 years of the tenants鈥 struggle for land ownership rights.
In her opening remarks as Australia鈥檚 new prime minister, Julia Gillard said she believed climate change was real and was caused by human activity. What she left unsaid was that she doesn鈥檛 believe in doing much to stop it.
Former PM Kevin Rudd鈥檚 rapid nosedive in the opinion polls coincided with Labor鈥檚 April decision to dump its proposed emissions trading scheme until 2013.
The scheme itself was radically flawed, but many people still associated it with action on climate change. More than with any other issue, Labor was punished for its perceived backflip on climate.
The number of 鈥淗igh Net Worth Individuals鈥 (HNWIs) in Australia 鈥 those with more than US$1 million in investable assets, excluding the family home 鈥 soared to 173,600 last year. This, according to the latest World Wealth Report, was an increase of 34.4% on the year before.
The June 30 Sunshine Coast Daily said: 鈥淲hat's more impressive is Australia's ranking in the global population of HNWIs. Out of 71 countries, Australia has the 10th biggest population of HNWIs in the world, in front of Brazil and just behind that millionaire's paradise of Switzerland.鈥
The detention of about 150 asylum seekers in a disused mining camp at Leonora, near Kalgoorlie in remote Western Australia, is a return to the dark days of previous Coalition prime minister John Howard.
Under Howard, asylum seekers were detained at a disused defence department shooting range at Woomera in South Australia. Both cases involve refugees being detained at remote prison camps and only allowed out accompanied by detention centre staff.
25 intrepid activists left on July 2 for Alice Springs as part of a Justice Ride to show solidarity with Aboriginal people fighting against the NT intervention. They will take part in the Defending Indigenous Rights: Land Law Culture convergence in Alice Springs from July 6 to 9.
National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) members at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) began industrial action on June 30 to pressure management to reach agreement with the union on a range of claims. They want reinstatement of job security protections for contract research staff; improved conditions for casual and fixed-term staff; Indigenous employment targets and an increase in paid parental leave from 26 to 36 weeks.
Just after becoming prime minister, Julia Gillard told media on June 24 she could understand 鈥渢he anxiety and indeed fears that Australians have when they see [refugee] boats鈥. She did not cite evidence for this claim. She said that, as PM, she would explain to the Australian people 鈥渨hat we are doing to manage our borders and what we are doing to manage asylum seeker flows鈥.
A Short Border Handbook
By Gazmend Kapllani
Portobello Books 2009
159 pages
Review by Alex Miller
This book, which the author describes as 鈥減art autobiography, part fiction鈥, is hard to assess. Each chapter is divided into two parts. The first part tells the story of a man (presumably Kapllani himself) who crosses into Greece from Albania when the border between those two countries opened in 1991. The second part consists of 鈥減hilosophical鈥 ruminations on issues raised by the story of the first part.
South Australian independent Bob Such announced on June 28 he would introduce a private member's bill into the state parliament that would, in effect, ban the wearing of the burqa or the niqab in banks and government buildings.
Such claimed his bill would not be discriminatory and would target any face covering where security might be a concern. However, all his public statements have specifically raised the burqa and its possible use in criminal activity.
Multicultural affairs minister Grace Portolesi said SA police have said they have no such concerns about the burqa.
The ongoing disaster in the Gulf of Mexico caused by the April 20 explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig has exposed the obscene behaviour of the world鈥檚 fourth-largest corporation, British Petroleum (BP).
Evidence has come from many sources revealing BP was aware of safety concerns, but did nothing about them.
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