UN expert calls for guidelines to protect vulnerable people against 'land grabs'
Olivier De Schutter, UN special rapporteur on the right to food, calls for consensus before talks this month on land governance, as commercial pressures mount
Governments should be wary of speculation and concentration of ownership when land rights are transferred to investors to "develop" farmland, a UN expert has warned before key UN negotiations on land governance.
"We must escape the mental cage that sees large-scale investments as the only way to develop agriculture and to ensure stability of supply for buyers," said the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter, amid concern among civil society groups about "land grabs".
Medics jailed for treating Bahrain protesters win fight for retrials
By Richard Hall
Thursday, 6 October 2011
A group of Bahraini medical staff who were handed lengthy jail terms for their alleged support of pro-democracy protests in the country have had their sentences overturned.
Appearing to buckle under international pressure, Bahrain's attorney general ordered re-trials in a civilian court for the 20 doctors, nurses and paramedics who treated injured protesters during demonstrations against the ruling Sunni al-Khalifa dynasty.
Ali al-Boainain, the attorney general, said in a statement that "the accused will have the benefit of full re-evaluation of evidence and full opportunity to present their defences."
Violence as Greeks take to streets over layoffs
The Irish Times - Thursday, October 6, 2011
DAMIAN Mac CON ULADH in Athens
VIOLENCE RETURNED to central Athens yesterday, as thousands of Greeks took to the streets in protest at a government programme to remove 30,000 civil servants from their posts by Christmas.
The 24-hour strike and associated protest demonstration through Athens was called by the country’s public sector and private sector trade union federations.
Lawyers, doctors and nurses also participated in the strike, ministries and government agencies were shut, trains stood still and planes were grounded.
Returned Namibian skulls ignite anger, not peace
MICHELLE FAUL WINDHOEK, NAMIBIA
Tuesday's return of 20 skulls taken to Germany more than a century ago for racist experiments also has fuelled anger about current injustices by a people decimated when they rebelled against German colonisers.
Historians say the genocide committed by German soldiers in what they called South West Africa was a precursor to the Nazi holocaust of the Jews.
The Herero people numbered more than 85 000 and were the most powerful and richest with herds of tens of thousands of cattle roaming a third of the country when Germany began its colonial adventure here.
Historians say the genocide committed by German soldiers in what they called South West Africa was a precursor to the Nazi holocaust of the Jews.
The Herero people numbered more than 85 000 and were the most powerful and richest with herds of tens of thousands of cattle roaming a third of the country when Germany began its colonial adventure here.
Comet's water 'like that of Earth's oceans'
Comet Hartley 2 contains water more like that found on Earth than prior comets seem to have, researchers say.
A study using the Herschel space telescope aimed to measure the quantity of deuterium, a rare type of hydrogen, present in the comet's water.
The comet had just half the amount of deuterium seen in comets.
The result, published in Nature, hints at the idea that much of the Earth's water could have initially came from cometary impacts.
India unveils world's cheapest tablet computer
India plans to provide the tablet computers, which cost $50, to students at a subsidized rate of $35. Critics say the greater need in rural areas is for teachers.
October 6, 2011
India on Wednesday unveiled the Aakash, which means "sky" in Hindi, and billed it as the world's least-expensive tablet. The plan is to distribute thousands of the computers in coming months to students at a government-subsidized rate of $35.
It has taken several years to develop, faced a lot of skepticism and received help from taxpayers given the state's actual cost of around $50.
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