Here is the Tuesday, July 8th, 2008 edition of interesting reads from around the world.
Iraq Calls For US Pullout Timetable
Iraq’s prime minister has for the first time publicly called for a US troop withdrawal timetable. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Monday that a military agreement the two countries are negotiating should include provisions for the withdrawal of American troops. More from Al Jazeera. It should be interesting to see how this plays in the US Presidential election.
G-8 Agrees Climate Change Deal to Halve Emissions
Leaders of G-8 agree to adopt goal of at least halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. 2050? And they are calling this a breakthrough. I shudder to think what their definition of failure is. The UK Guardian has all the bloody details.
Meanwhile, African leaders have pressed the Group of Eight (G8) industrialised nations to control oil and food prices. This story from Al Jazeera. And a video report on the summit from the Associated Press:
India Won’t Accept Carbon Emissions Targets
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said emphatically that India would not accept any targets that may be set by international bodies reducing its carbon emissions. Full details in The Hindu. Prime Minister Singh is to meet with US President Bush and other G-8 leaders tomorrow. On the table for US-India talks is the US-India Nuclear Agreement. More this story also from The Hindu.
India Suspends Maize Exports Until October 15, 2008
The Indian Government has already banned exports of wheat, non-basmati rice, edible oil and pulses. This just further puts pressure on global food markets but India is thinking of its own food security. To me, this reads as a repeat of the 1930s when countries acted to protect their own interests and thereby exacerbated the Stock Market Crash of October 1929 and turned it into a world-wide depression that lasted over a decade. India is the sixth largest supplier of corn in the world so its retreat from the global markets is not insignificant. Couple this with the mess in Argentina and we have a real crisis on our hands. This follows a very worrisome report out of China earlier this week that China faces a grain shortage. All About Feed has the details on this story.
China faces serious challenges in ensuring it will have enough grain to feed its population in the decades to come, according to Premier Wen Jiabao.
Industrialisation, urbanisation and a growing population are boosting grain demand while “shrinking arable land, water shortage and climate change is an increasing constraint on output,” Wen told a cabinet meeting.
“The long-term demand and supply will be balanced but tight and ensuring grain security faces serious challenges,” he said.
The meeting approved a mid- and long-term grain security plan that aims to keep the nation’s annual grain output above 500 million tonnes by 2010 and increase production to more than 540 million tonnes a year by 2020.
Litvinenko Murder Intrigue Resurfaces
The murder of former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko was carried out with the backing of the Russian state, Whitehall sources have told the BBC.
Sondhi Limthongkul’s Corporatist Vision for Thailand
With Thailand now of its second month of intense political protests, opposition leader Sondhi Limthongkul is proposing reforms that to me sound rather corporatist. Sondhi Limthongkul, the core leader of the People’s Alliance for Democracy, has called for a “New Politics.”
The New Politics turns out to be a startlingly reactionary proposal to move Thailand’s parliamentary system towards a form of appointed corporatism, or what might be called a selectoral democracy. Thirty percent of MPs would come from elections, perhaps one per province, and the rest of MPS would derive from various occupations and associations. Sondhi says the proportion is not fixed, it’s up for debate.
The rationale for wanting to dismantle Thailand’s electoral system is evident: pro-Thaksin forces keep winning elections. And as Thaksin is said to represent everything bad about Thai politics, he can not be allowed to wield power directly or indirectly. Thus, for Sondhi, and it would seem the PAD leadership as whole, there is now a need to bring about a revolution in political representation.
The full story in the Asia Sentinel.
Taiwan Exports Rise to Record Levels
Taiwan’s exports in June rose 21.3% from a year earlier to a record high of US$24.35 billion on rising demand from parts of Asia and Europe, the government said July 7. The June figure compared with a 20.5% rise to $23.60 billion recorded in May. More from Industry Week.
11 Bodies Found in Tijuana Over 3 Days
As a Colombian, I have seen this all before and it is worrisome that it is happening now in Mexico. What we have endured in Colombia is not something that I would wish on anyone. It is thus that I say with alarm that Mexico’s drug wars require serious attention. We will see bombings. Drug mafias will stop at nothing and only a strong response from the state and civil society can stop them. They will infiltrate politics. They can buy anything and anyone. Act now.
Police discovered the tortured and burned bodies of six men in an empty lot Monday morning, ending a period of relative calm in this border city beset by drug war violence.
Eleven bodies have been discovered since Saturday in violence believed to be drug-related, including the corpse of a woman found in a barrel, state and federal authorities said.
The weekend tally pushed the city’s death toll this year to more than 260, compared with about 152 homicides at this time last year, and underscored authorities’ difficulties curbing organized crime.
The full story from the Los Angeles Times. A 71% rise in drug-related homocides in Tijuana is not something to be taken lightly.
Syria To Restore Diplomatic Ties with France
Syria’s top diplomat in London says Damascus will soon send a new ambassador to Paris and end a freeze on diplomatic ties. Sami Khiyami says a new representative will likely be sent to France in the very near future. Syria has not had an ambassador in Paris since 2006. The report is from Haaretz.