UN chief voices concern over recent developments to Israeli official

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today voiced his concerns over the situation in Gaza and recent developments on the ground to Israeli Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Ehud Barak, as the two met at United Nations Headquarters.

Talks between Ban and Argentine official focus on dispute with United Kingdom

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today took note of Argentina’s concerns regarding the Falkland Islands (Malvinas) during a meeting at United Nations Headquarters with the country’s Foreign Minister, Jorge E. Taiana.

Darfur: recent fighting leaves 1,500 displaced and without aid, UN reports

Over 1,500 people have been displaced by increased fighting in the western part of Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region and very few agencies have been able to provide them with desperately-needed aid due to lack of security, the United Nations reported today.

Haiti: senior UN official stresses need for realistic goals before rainy season starts

The United Nations remains strongly committed to doing everything possible to help the people of Haiti but is realistic about what it can accomplish before the rainy season begins in earnest on 1 May, said a senior official with the world body.

Today on New Scientist: 24 February 2010

All today’s stories on newscientist.com at a glance, including: Earth’s nine life-support systems, a hard look at the IPCC’s headline findings, and the real-life Avatar

Detroit Demonstration on March 4: Fund Education, Not Banks & The WarMachine

FUND EDUCATION, NOT BANKS & THE WAR MACHINE

Students, youth, educational workers and community activists are all
joining together to participate in the National Day of Action to Defend
Education on Thursday, March 4 2010. The politicians and administrators say that there is no money for education and social services. They contend that there is no alternative to the massive layoffs of teachers, clerical workers, custodians, social workers and counselors.

However, everyone knows that there is plenty of money and resources for wars, bank bailouts, mass incarceration of people of color and the poor. We must take a stand to demand that local, state and federal governments fund education, not military occupations and wealthy financiers.

We must demand the end to privatization of public education and the
usurpation of local control and self-determination. Education is a
fundamental human right, not a privilege for the rich and powerful.

Join us on March 4 for a march and rally from Wayne State University to the New Center area.

Please note: The people of Michigan will pay $18.7 billion for Total
Defense Spending in FY2010. For the same amount of money, the following could have been provided:

–1,924,702 Scholarships for University Students for One Year OR

–7,037,020 People with Health Care for One Year OR

–338,748 Music and Arts Teachers for One Year OR

–3,372,216 Students receiving Pell Grants of $5550 OR

–150,871 Affordable Housing Units OR

–264,394 Elementary School Teachers for One Year

See http://www.nationalpriorities.org/
for
more ways that your money is wasted on war.

Rally at Gullen Mall on the Wayne State University Campus in Detroit, MI — 4 p.m.
March to Cadillac Plaza and Detroit Public Schools Headquarters —
4:30 p.m.
Picket and Rally Outside Cadillac Plaza and the Fisher Building (Grand Blvd. & 2nd Ave.) — 5 p.m.

Join us on March 4 for a march and rally from Wayne State University to the New Center area where we will demand:

– Full funding of public k-12 education and the restoration of music,
arts and sports programs;
–The reduction of class sizes to 16 students in all schools;
– A halt to all tuition hikes in higher education and the rolling back
of recent tuition increases;
– Increased funding for breakfast and lunch programs in all K-12
educational institutions;
– Stop the privatization and charterization of public schools;
– Restore state funding for the Michigan Promise Scholarship, not a
phony tax credit;
– Increase funding for state universities and community colleges and university workers;
– Stop layoffs of secondary school, community college and university
workers;
– Rehire all workers laid off in the current crisis;
– Hands off unions and student organizations;
– Fire the DPS Emergency Financial Manager; restore local control to Detroit Schools;
– Increase African-American, Latin@, Middle Eastern and Native American enrollment in higher education

Sponsored by FIST Detroit, the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice (MECAWI) and the Moratorium NOW! Coalition To Stop Foreclosures, Evictions & Utility Shutoffs. Endorsement list in formation.

For more more information:
313-671-3715;
313-559-7074; 248-990-0275;
email: fist.detroit@gmail.com ;
or see: www.defendeducation.org

UN chief voices concern over recent developments to Israeli Defense Minister

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today voiced his concerns over the situation in Gaza and recent developments on the ground to Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, as the two met at United Nations Headquarters.

Caught between Ukraine and Majorca

EU Foreign Minister Catherine Ashton is absent from the meeting of EU defence ministers in Majorca today - the first to be held since the Lisbon Treaty came into force.

AFP reports that the defence ministers will be considering increased permanent structured co-operation, where several member states can move cooperation on common security and defence policy forward on their own under the terms of the Treaty, with the say-so of only a qualified majority of member states.

However, Lady Ashton has been double booked, and will instead attend the investiture ceremony of the new Ukranian President, missing discussions on how Lisbon will impact on defence cooperation. One EU diplomat said they has been really looking forward to hearing Ashton’s views, “Especially as, thanks to the treaty, the opportunity is there to reinforce Europe’s defence, to give it more visibility”.

Another rather snippy EU diplomat also said, “Her predecessor Javier Solana didn’t miss a single meeting of this type with the defence ministers. Something has changed in the order of priorities.” Jean Quatremer describes Ashton’s “empty-chair policy” as “all the more infuriating” because NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen is to attend.

Spain, current holder of the EU Presidency, has made relaunching EU defence strategy one of its priorities of its six month term. The Spanish Defence Minister Carme Chacon has said that one of the issues defence ministers are working towards is “progress towards a European armed force; step by step, but that is our objective.” She has that objective in common with Germany, whose Foreign Minister said earlier in the month that the creation of a European army should be the long term goal of common security and defence policy.

With various EU defence ministers dreaming of a European army, the US yesterday made more noises about Europe’s unwillingness to contribute to NATO, with Defence Secretary Robert Gates saying that the “pacification of Europe” has gone too far and is “an impediment to achieving real security and lasting peace in the 21st [century]”, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calling for an “honest discussion” of European defence spending.

Ashton’s decision to make a ceremonial visit to the Ukraine rather than discuss co-ordinated EU defence policy will not doubt be frustrating for the French and Germans, who have been talking about a Franco-German security policy driving EU defence, but is a telling reminder to the outside world of the EU’s preference for pomp and ceremony over dealing with the challenges of the here and now. For one, the US’ patience is clearly running out.

GM and farming technology ‘key to fighting climate change’

Lord Smith tells National Farmers’ Union that climate change ‘could provide opportunities for novel crops and systems’

Rebecca Smithers, consumer affairs correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 24 February 2010 06.00 GMT

Genetically modified oilseed rape, one of the four main commercial GM crops. The Environment Agency is encouraging GM and other precision farming methods in order to combat the problems agriculture will face from climate change. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty
The government’s drive to push controversial genetically modified crops up the national agenda will receive a further boost today, when former cabinet minister Chris Smith will tell farmers that the technology has a key role in helping the UK beating climate change.
Lord Smith, former culture secretary under Tony Blair and now chair of the Environment Agency, will say that both GM crops and new technologies to support “precision farming” - including nanotechnology - could help tackle growing climate pressures such as water shortages.
Addressing delegates at the National Farmers’ Union’s (NFU) annual conference in Birmingham, Lord Smith will tell farmers that climate change “will create new demands on land and environmental resources” and “could provide opportunities for novel crops and systems”.
Intense lobbying by food companies, the growing significance of climate change, recent international food crises and shortages and a major independent Royal Society report have all helped to give the government the authority to put GM back on the national agenda. The controversial technology was the focus of intense campaigns including destruction of GM crop trials by environmentalists in the 1990s, and last month came under renewed attack from academics and organic food campaigners at the Oxford Real Farming Conference.
Lord Smith will say: “We can already see wildlife following climate change – the mayfly is now found some 40 miles further north than before and warmer winters and wetter summers are thought to be a major factor in the rapid decline of pollinating insects with UK bee populations, in particular, falling by 10-15% over the last two years.
“The reliance on seasonal weather patterns means that farming will follow climate change too. My own personal view is that we probably need to be readier to explore GM options, coupled of course with proper environmental safeguards, in adapting to the changes that the climate will bring.”
The GM industry now involves 14 million farmers in 25 countries who are growing 134m hectares of GM crops around the world. This is a 7% increase compared with last year.
Lord Smith will recommend more use of new technology: “New tools and technologies are becoming available, nanotechnology for example, as well as the use of satellites, IT and other tools to support precision farming. We need to understand the environmental implications of novel approaches in order to embrace them and be clear how they will help us achieve long-term goals.
“We need to ensure that science is at the forefront of development and innovation and that effective knowledge transfer means farmers can adapt and innovate. Innovation has already seen British agriculture adapt to the economic challenges it has faced over the last 15 years or so and I know it will do so into the future.”
Organic farmers have been more resistant to the use of GM than “conventional” farmers represented in the membership of the NFU, although the latter broadly agrees that any such developments must be subject to proper scientific evaluation.
Yesterday Paul Kelly, founder of Kelly’s Turkeys, told the conference: “GM has had a terrible press and consumers are very confused. But it is only a matter of time before we are feeding our turkeys GM feed.”
As well as exploring the potential of new crops and technologies, Lord Smith will underline the need for agriculture to become more water efficient as climate change ushers in longer, hotter, drier summers.
On the opening day of the conference yesterday, the Conservatives set out plans to prevent development on top quality farmland, reform the body which delivers EU subsidies to farmers and set up a review of red tape as part of efforts to back British farming.
The Liberal Democrats also set out proposals to improve delivery of subsidies by the Rural Payments Agency, which in 2006 left farmers without EU grants after problems with its computer system.

Newborns’ blood used to build secret DNA database

Texas state health officials secretly transferred hundreds of blood samples taken from newborn babies to the federal government to build a DNA database, reports Ewen Callaway