Friday, 03 June 2011 06:24

‘Although the financial press speculates about a downgrade of the US government’s credit rating and default if political impasse prevents the debt ceiling from being raised in time, I doubt anyone really believes that the debt ceiling will not be raised. It is just all a part of the political theater of the next couple of months.

Republicans will blame the budget deficit and accumulated national debt on Medicare and Social Security. Wall Street sees billions of profits in privatizing either, and debt rating agencies will oblige their Wall Street paymasters by opining from time to time that US Treasury bonds might be downgraded unless “entitlements can be addressed and the deficit brought under control.”

Democrats will say that the budget deficit cannot be addressed without an increase in tax revenues, especially from the rich whose incomes have exploded upward while their tax rates have declined. All the while the pressure of an approaching deadline for default will be used to reshape the US social contract, most likely in the further interest of the rich.’

Read more: America at War and the Debt Crisis: Hail Caesar

Friday, 03 June 2011 06:19

‘To the extent that the War Powers Resolution (WPR) authorized President Obama to fight a war in Libya for 60 days without Congressional approval — and, for reasons I described here, it did not — that 60-day period expired 12 days ago.  Since that date, the war has been unquestionably illegal even under the original justifications of Obama defenders, though I realize that objecting to “illegal wars” — or wars generally — is so very 2005.

After making clear that they intended to contrive “some plausible theory” to justify this illegal war, the White House finally settled on the claim that the war in Libya — despite featuring substantial U.S. military action with the goal of destroying a foreign army and removing that nation’s leader — is too small and limited to be a real “war” under the Constitution and the WPR.’

Read more: The War in Libya Growing More Illegal by the Day

Nigerian police have raided a hospital in the south-eastern city of Aba, rescuing 32 pregnant girls allegedly held by a human-trafficking ring. Aged between 15 and 17 years, the girls were locked up and used to produce babies, said Abia state’s police chief. These were then allegedly sold for ritual witchcraft purposes or adoption. But the hospital’s owner denied running a “baby farm”, saying it was a foundation to help teenagers with unwanted pregnancies. The UN organisation for the welfare of children, Unicef, estimates that at least 10 children are sold daily across Nigeria, where human-trafficking is ranked the third most common crime after economic fraud and drug-trafficking. But the BBC’s Fidelis Mbah in the southern city of Port Harcourt says it is very rare for traffickers to be caught and prosecuted. Male babies prized Abia state Police Commissioner Bala Hassan said four babies, already sold in an alleged human-trafficking deal but not yet collected, were also recovered in the raid on The Cross Foundation hospital. The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (Naptip), the organisation charged with fighting human-trafficking in Nigeria, says their investigations show that babies are sold for up to $6,400 (£3,900) each, depending on the sex of the baby. Male babies are more prized, our correspondent says. In some parts of the country, babies killed as part of witchcraft rituals are believed to make the charms more powerful, he says. Human traffickers also put the children up for illegal adoption. Poor, unmarried women face tough choices if they get pregnant in Nigeria, often facing exclusion from society, correspondents say. Natip says desperate teenagers with unplanned pregnancies are sometimes lured to clinics and then forced to turn over their babies. Some of the girls rescued in Aba told the police that after their new-born babies were sold, they were given $170 by the hospital owner. The police said the proprietor of The Cross Foundation, Dr Hyacinth Orikara, is likely to face charges of child abuse and human trafficking. Our correspondent says the buying or selling of babies is illegal in Nigeria and can carry a 14-year jail term. The police carried out similar raids on such clinics in neighbouring Enugu state in 2008. Three years ago, a Nigerian woman was jailed in the UK for trying to smuggle a baby into the country in order to get on the list for a council flat.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13622679

Friday, 03 June 2011 04:49

‘Israel plans to expel 30,000 Palestinians from south of the occupied territories in the course of five years. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has drafted a plan to evict 30,000 Palestinians of the Bedouin community from the Negev desert to expanded areas of existing Negev Palestinian towns such as Rahat, Kseifa and Hura.

The plan is in line with recommendations made by the Goldberg Committee and will be put to vote in the Israeli cabinet in the coming weeks, Israeli daily Ha’aretz reported on Thursday.’

Read more: Israel to Evict 30,000 Palestinians

Friday, 03 June 2011 06:11

‘Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has blasted US President Barack Obama over his failure to fulfill the pledges of change in the United States.

Romney, who eyes the Republican candidacy for US president in 2012, said in a speech in New Hampshire on Thursday that Obama has disappointed American people as he was not able to deliver on his promises of change and modification of federal spending and unemployment, AFP reported.

The multi-millionaire Republican businessman claimed that if he is elected president, he will turn the country into the biggest job creator ever.’

Read more: Barack Obama Failed America: Romney