Battling Child Labor in Cocoa and Cotton Fields

Posted on | februari 4, 2012 | No Comments

As I mentioned in my recent post, Decreasing Child Labor in 2012, child labor continues to hold some 215 million children in its firm grasp. While the fight to this practice has received increased attention, it is a long and hard battle. One of the largest and most public arenas where the fight against child labor is waged is in agriculture. According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), two-thirds of children aged 5-17 work in agriculture. Two massive consumer industries that continuously profit off the backs of child laborers are the cocoa/chocolate, and cotton/garment industries.
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Drug War: U.S. and Mexico share protected witness central to murder of U.S. agent and investigation of Tamaulipas governors

Posted on | februari 4, 2012 | No Comments

This is complex and important story for several reasons. Soto Para is a big “catch” in the drug war and he is emerging both as being the reason behind the murder of American immigration agent Jaime Zapata and as the informer regarding the possible corruption of the three Tamaulipas governors. The story also reveals more about the growing cooperation between the U.S. and Mexico governments in their use of informants in the drug war. Translated by CIP intern Michael Kane.

La Jornada: Miguel Ángel Soto Para, founder of the Los Zetas cartel, is one of more than 50 protected witnesses who U.S. and Mexican authorities have shared. According to officials involved in the national security cabinet, he was being transported by agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) when they were attacked on a highway between Mexico City and Querétaro, resulting in the death of the American, Jaime Zapata.

Category: crime, drugs, Latin America
Tags: cartel > drug > drug war > Los Zetas > Mexico > Tamaulipas

(Islamist) opposition wins big in Kuwait

Posted on | februari 3, 2012 | No Comments

Checking the boxes. (AFP)

Kuwait’s Islamist-led opposition has made significant gains in the Gulf state’s fourth parliamentary election in six years. Opposition candidates won 34 of the 50 seats in the National Assembly, with 23 of them going to Sunni Islamists.Liberals won nine seats. Women did not win any. There were four women in the last parliament, but Ayesh al-Rasheed, a journalist and 2009 candidate, felt “women wouldn’t have won the four seats in the last election had they not had government support.”
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Category: election, Middle East
Tags: Kuwait > Salafists

No need for registering new political parties in Tanzania?

Posted on | februari 3, 2012 | No Comments

CCK’s chairman Constantine Akitanda and the party secretary general Renatus Muhabi displays a sample of their party’s flag to journalists and other onlookers.

Although he did not suggest a stoppage of such registrations but he warned that a good number of registered parties will wither away through a process of ‘natural attrition’, and therefore paving way to the consolidated parties particularly the Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (CHADEMA).
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Category: politics, Sub-Saharan Africa
Tags: Akitanda > CCJ > CCK > CCM > CHADEMA > Kijamii > Mapinduzi > Tanzania

NEPAL: People are not taking it, there patience is running out

Posted on | februari 3, 2012 | No Comments

People have lost their patience regarding the crisis situation of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) cooking gas. Many confrontations have been seen in various locations from past few days with people trying to fight and get hold of the LPG for their daily household. Today morning high security was seen near Bishnumati Kalimati junction with the arrival of LPG at the BABA gas distribution center. People rushed in when they saw the gas truck. The crowd gathered so much that immediately police had to be called just to control the situation.
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