Monday, August 1, 2011

Morocco protests continue despite repression

Thousands of Moroccans today responded to the call of the Movement February 20 and returned to appear in major Moroccan cities to demand more democracy and social justice, repeated demonstrations every Sunday for several weeks. In Rabat, hundreds of protesters of all ages, organized a march from the central square of Bab Al to the seat of Parliament, where they staged a peaceful sit-in despite the provocations of about 20 protesters monarchist to the police prevented from reaching to their adversaries.

The strong social protest in Israel

Social protest hardens into Israel after the events of Saturday, about 150 000 city employees are on strike Monday. "We called for a strike day. Town halls are closed to the public, the garbage collectors have not picked up the garbage," said Shlomo Buhbut, president of the Union of Local Authorities.

"If the government does nothing we do not exclude the possibility of other support actions in the coming days," he warned. In addition, a call for a strike of twenty-four hours of the employees was launched Monday by Internet users through the social networking site Facebook. Some 24,000 Israelis have announced that they would not go to work, said the media, which have not been able to measure whether the initiative had been followed.

Obama condemns repression in Syria

The U.S. President Barack Obama condemned the crackdown on the opposition demonstrations in Syria and actions announced in the coming days to isolate the government of the Arab nation. Obama's message was released after hospital officials and human rights groups said Sunday that at least 121 people were killed and hundreds injured in the Syrian city of Hama, a Syrian army raid against protesters.

Famine: Heavy rain aggravates the situation in Somalia

It sounds paradoxical, but heavy rains have exacerbated the problems in Somalia. The heavy rain destroyed makeshift huts in camps, which have saved the starving because of drought. The UN speaks of twelve million people in need Mogadishu - In the capital Mogadishu over the weekend went down heavy rainfall, where the huts stood up to the tens of thousands of refugees barely.

The residents were sitting on the night drenched in the cold. Because of the drought in the region, although rain is desperately needed, but the brunt of the rainfall destroyed many houses. Her entire family had a sleepless night, said the mother of five Lul Hussein. The situation of hungry people is catastrophic in other East African countries, and it is in the opinion of the United Nations getting worse.

Iranian Woman forgives man who disfigured his face with acid

Ameneh Bahrami, an Iranian woman who was blinded and disfigured in 2004 by an acid attack, perpetrated by a man who refused to marry, today forgave his attacker and prevented received the law of retaliation. "Ameneh Bahrami, a victim of acid attack, at the last moment he forgave his assailant Majid Movahedi and waived his right to claim retaliation, to be applied today," the prosecutor of Tehran, according to a report ISNA news agency.

Lampedusa: 25 found dead aboard a migrants boat

The Italian Coast Guard Monday found 25 bodies on board a boat migrants on arrival in the Italian island of Lampedusa, officials said the port. The bodies were discovered when the passengers were transferred to a ship the Coast Guard. The boat also included 271 people alive who were crammed aboard, including 36 women and 21 children.

It was not immediately possible to clarify the reason of the death of passengers, all young men. Thousands of people fleeing Libya, most immigrant workers from Africa, arrived in Lampedusa in recent weeks. Hundreds of them drowned when the boats used by migrants are often in poor condition and the unfavorable weather.

Syria, London: "Hypothesis military away" Assad praised the army and "patriotic"

To stop the bloody repression in Syria at the hands of the regime of Bashar al-Assad does not exclude an intervention the British military, like the one in Libya. "This is not a remote possibility," said Foreign Minister William Hague, for the first time since assuming excluded so far by other Western countries.

Meanwhile, Germany, after Italy, has requested an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the situation in Syria, where, in yet another bloody day yesterday, more than 130 people were killed by security forces, 100 of them in the city of Hama (Read). This was announced yesterday by the German delegation to the UN spokesman Alexander Eber, adding that the meeting could take place already in the day today.

U.S. debt: an agreement and concessions

New York Correspondent - If all goes as hoped the White House, the Republican majority in the House of Representatives, Democrats and their counterparts in the Senate, the U.S. will avoid a default Tuesday, August 2. The agreement on raising the U.S. national debt, Sunday, July 31 at night, after a negotiation with a line, should be adopted by Congress.

However, much more than saving the planet from a new financial earthquake potentially dramatic, the first question that preoccupied the American commentators, once the agreement announced, was to identify which, politically, the winner. The deal is indeed seen as a product of Washingtonian politics.