A month-long campaign launched by Thai-based two organizations - Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) and Forum for Democracy in Burma (FDB) with the support of dozens of campaigns groups around the world - is scheduled to finalize on May 27, 2009, the date the house arrest of Burmese democracy leader is set to expire.

The campaign has already collected 457,588 signatures; however, it is still half of the target - 888,888. Therefore, we urge our supporters to take a minute to support this campaign. The petition signature will be sent to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

We still have a few days left! Please put your signature at http://www.fbppn.net/

The debate around nuclear energy in the Peace River area is no longer peaceful.  Pro nuclear vandals attacked a 40 foot trailer used by nuclear opponents to get their message out, according to a May 22 press release.  The vandals painted swastikas and profanity on the side of the trailer and then threw molotov cocktails to try to further destroy the sign.

Further, they cut the farmer's fence along Highway 743 to get at the trailer.  The horses in the field could have easily gotten onto the highway and been involved in a collision with a vehicle.

The damage to the sign was not bad enough but the molotov cocktails could easily have started the grass on fire and with farm buildings within 200 feet of the trailer the effects could have been easily worse.

This attack on their message came a day after two  nuclear opponents received death threats because of the letters that they wrote to the newspapers voicing their concerns about the potential nuclear reactor in their area and its impacts on their farms. The RCMP are investigating both occurrences.
 
Peace River residents are being asked to be the nuclear sacrifice zone for Alberta yet the local, provincial and national media have provided scant coverage of our concerns. This week, it was vandalism and death threats. Will someone have to be hurt or killed before our struggle becomes newsworthy?

 

In an announcement today, the Asia Pulp & Paper Company, at the request of a supplier, will be accepting pulp from a company that is cutting down 50,000 hectares of tropical rainforest on the island of Sumatra.  This clearcut is right beside the Bukit Tigapuluh National Park, a local release location for the orangutans.

In recent times, this area has had 100 rehabilitated orphan orangutans released there.  The rehabilitated orphans had their mothers killed illegally by local workers on nearby rice plantations.

"It took scientists decades to discover how to successfully reintroduce critically endangered orangutans from captivity into the wild," said Peter Pratje of the Frankfurt Zoological Society. "It could take APP just months to destroy an important part of their new habitat."

A new crisis is brewing in Burma as Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's trial begins today. Streets around Insein Prison are in a state of lockdown, according to The Irrawaddy. Nonetheless, several hundred National League for Democracy supporters gathered outside the Rangoon-area prison, where her latest trial is taking place.

The pro-democracy leader was taken to Insein on Thursday, charged with violating the terms of her house arrest. She faces a maximum of five years imprisonment if she is convicted of harboring John William Yetta, an American tourist who allegedly swam two kilometers across Inya Lake to meet the 63-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

Before the incident, Suu Kyi had been scheduled for release from house arrest on May 27, a prospect that now seems very unlikely. The prosecution has 22 witnesses lined up to speak against her. Meanwhile, the lawyer who applied to defend Aung San Suu Kyi was dismissed from the bar on Friday. An appeal to allow the public to witness the trial was also dismissed.

To follow this breaking news story, visit www.mizzima.com and www.irrwaddy.org

Photo: Scenes from a 2007 protest

We are at a critical point in time, not only in Saskatchewan, but as global citizens to become politically active to ensure a saner path for the future with respect to our planet.

The Uranium Development Partnership (UPD), which is largely a coalition of nuclear industry stakeholders, came out with a glowing report to further develop uranium, build a refinery, build a nuclear reactor, and accept wastes from the U.S. There is also an unstated negotiation with the U.S. to do research on nuclear weapons technologies in Sasktchewan. They make outrageous claims in their report, particularly with respect to building a nuclear power plant here.

The four candidates to succeed Lorne Calvert as leader of the Saskatchewan NDP faced off last night at Western Christian College. Around 200 party members and others listened as the four responded to written questions submitted by those in attendance. 

The questions covered many important issues, and the general response of all four seemed like a repudiation of the neoliberal Blairite policies followed by the NDP governments of Roy Romanow and Lorne Calvert, who were in power in Saskatchewan between 1991 and 2007.

The lawsuit claims that the exclusion list regulations will exempt thousands of projects such as highways, bridges, roads and sewer systems from being scrutinized under legally required federal assessments.  It further claims that the Minister of the Environment is unlawfully been given powers over funding under the Building Canada Fund.

“These changes to the law are like cutting the brake line to make a car go faster,” said Ecojustice lawyer Justin Duncan.  “It is reckless, irresponsible and represents an extremely serious attack on Canada’s environmental assessment laws. None of the US, China or India have gotten rid of environmental assessment oversight in their economic stimulus plans.”