Climate ‘is a major cause’ of conflict in Africa

BBC
By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website
Climate has been a major driver of armed conflict in Africa, research shows – and future warming is likely to increase the number of deaths from war.
US researchers found that across the continent, conflict was about 50% more likely in unusually warm years.
Writing in Proceedings of the National Academy [...]

Viewpoint: Young Catholics should not be encouraged to join the Army

Independent Catholic News
By: Catherine Hand
Catherine Hand, from Tideswell in Derbyshire writes:
“I do not think it right that the Army should be allowed to come to a careers evening in our school,” I said as a governor of our local Catholic comprehensive school.  Amazement, surprise and incomprehension greeted me.

Poverty, Global Trade Justice, and the Roots of Terrorism

Yes Magazine
To combat terrorism, we should address the root causes of poverty, says former “economic hit man”
by John Perkins
The following is adapted from Hoodwinked: An Economic Hitman Reveals Why the World Financial Markets Imploded—and What We Need to Do to Remake Them. Random House, 2009:
Navy Seal snipers rescued an American cargo ship captain unharmed and [...]

US warned on deadly drone attacks

BBC
The US has been warned that its use of drones to target suspected terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan may violate international law.
UN human rights investigator Philip Alston said the US should explain the legal basis for attacking individuals with the remote-controlled aircraft.

Nobel Peacemaker Should Make Use of His Prize to Further Middle East Peace

Tikkun Magazine
by: Joshua Stanton
Though typically loath to jump into hypothetical discussions — in this case about where President Obama should donate the 1.4 million dollars he’s set to receive along with Nobel Peace Prize — I wanted to follow up on the insightful articles by Dave Belden and Valerie Elverton-Dixon to suggest that where Obama [...]

Alternatives to war in Afghanistan

National Catholic Reporter
The discussion so far has been mostly about troop levels
By David Cortright
ESSAY
The problems in Afghanistan cannot be solved by military means alone. Even General David Petraeus agrees with that. But what are the alternatives? The Obama administration has been re-evaluating U.S. policy in the region, but the discussion so far has been mostly [...]

Pushing Obama’s vision: A nuclear free world

National Catholic Reporter
by John Dear SJ on Oct. 06, 2009 On the Road to Peace
[Editor's note: Fr. Dear posted this column Tuesday, days before President Obama was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace.]
When President Obama presided over the United Nations Security Council recently to endorse a resolution to limit the spread of nuclear weapons, we [...]

He’s Earned It—for Now

Truth Dig
By Bill Boyarsky
Congratulations to the Norwegians for having the wisdom to give President Barack Obama the Nobel Peace Prize.
He’s earned it. In Obama’s nine months as president, he has put U.S. relations with Russia on a more constructive course; has seen Iran agree to open its nuclear facility near Qom to international inspection; and, [...]

KENYA: What is behind the Mau controversy?

NAIROBI, 29 September 2009 (IRIN) – The continued degradation of the Mau complex – Kenya’s largest water catchment area – threatening everything from the spectacular annual migration of the wildebeest to pastoralism, agriculture and hydro-power generation, has dominated public debate for the better part of 2009. The government’s plan to evict the illegal settlers has [...]

Street Report from the G20

Common Dreams
Short video from Democracy Now
by Bill Quigley
The G20 in Pittsburgh showed us how pitifully fearful our leaders have become.
What no terrorist could do to us, our own leaders did.
Out of fear of the possibility of a terrorist attack, authorities militarize our towns, scare our people away, stop daily life and quash our constitutional rights.
For [...]