Mozambican Cassava found poisonous, threat to food security

Posted on | mei 2, 2012 | No Comments

A staple crop, known as Cassava, in southeast Africa contains levels of toxins above those recommended safe for human consumption, a new study has found. Levels of toxins in excess of World Health Organisation standards were found in the leaves and tuberous roots of cassava plants being grown in regions with drier climates in Mozambique. The study, funded by AusAID, was led by Dr Tim Cavagnaro and his team from the School of Biological Sciences and Australian Centre for Biodiversity at Monash University in collaboration with scientists in Mozambique.

In sufficient quantities, these compounds can cause poisoning and death in humans and animals when consumed. The low concentrations generally found in cassava to help protect it from pests are considered harmless.
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China’s Twitter Users Focused on Sustainability

Posted on | mei 2, 2012 | No Comments

As published in Collective Responsibility, here is a partial list of some of the Chinese people and organizations who use Twitter and are focused on sustainability and the environment.

Sustainability & Environmentally Focused People

@Alex Wang – China’s environment/energy
@Alice Wong – China, Sustainability, and Innovative Technology
@Alison L – A 15 year old teen from HK supporting The Ian Somerhalder Foundation
@Angel Hsu- PhD in environmental policy at Yale
@Barbara Finamore – NRDC China Program Director
@Bill Fisher – American living in Shanghai & Hong Kong
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Category: media, South-east Asia
Tags: China > Twitter

Singapore: Commute Yong Vui Kong’s Death Sentence

Posted on | mei 2, 2012 | No Comments

His Excellency Dr. Tony Tan Keng Yam, Singapore

Dear President Tan Keng Yam,

I am William Nicholas Gomes, Human Rights Ambassador for Salem News.com. I write to urge you to use your powers as president to commute Yong Vui Kong’s death sentence. Yong, a Malaysian national, was convicted on November 14, 2008, for drug trafficking. I am concerned that if Yong’s request to you for clemency is denied, he may be executed in the near future.

While I opposes the death penalty in all circumstances, Yong’s case raises additional human rights, humanitarian, and due process concerns. While not a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Singapore should at the very least meet the requirements for the imposition of the death penalty set out in the ICCPR as interpreted by the United Nations Human Rights Committee, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, and other UN institutions.
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Category: crime, human rights, Sub-Saharan Africa
Tags: China > ICCPR > Singapore > Tan Keng Yam > UN

Act now: more Palestinian hunger strikers in hospital with serious health problems (VIDEO)

Posted on | mei 1, 2012 | 1 Comment

Yesterday, Palestinian lawmaker and leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Ahmad Saadat was moved to Ramleh prison hospital by the Israeli Prison Service, according to Maan News Agency.

Saadat joined the mass hunger strike which started on 17 April. One day earlier, Muhammad Halas was moved to an Israeli hospital after 12 days without food, according to Maan. More than 60 days ago, Palestinian political prisoners Bilal Diab and Thaer Halaheh went on hunger strike to protest their administrative detention.

Today, I received information that the Israel Prison Service transferred Palestinian hunger striker Ghazi Kan’an from Gilboa prison to hospital as a result of his declining health. All these hunger strikers face severe health threats, including Palestinian lawmaker Jamal al-Natshe. Join the actions in support of the prisoners!
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Category: human rights, Middle East, war & conflicts
Tags: #May1Strike > Addameer > administrative detention > Ahmad Saadat > Gaza > hunger strike > Hungry for Freedom > Palestine > prisoners > West Bank

Eradicate Excess Wealth alongside Poverty

Posted on | mei 1, 2012 | No Comments

The world leaders will discuss sustainable development, the bedrock of 1992 Rio vision this June in Rio+20. A greater political convergence is urged by the UN for the matter because the ‘needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ has not gained much traction since the 1992 conference – largely because countries continued to equate development with economic growth, and sustainable development languished as a fringe environmental concern. Twenty years after Rio 1992, “sustainable development remains a generally agreed concept, rather than a day-to-day, on-the-ground, practical reality,” says a report by the UN High-level Panel on Global Sustainability.