In a pond in Neede (Gelderland province), a reproducing population of fathead minnows has been discovered. This species is native to North America. Probably the pond fish trade brought the fathead minnow from the Americas to Europe. The species has already been observed in Belgium, and there are reports from France of successful reproduction in the wild.
Diagnostic PCR to identify five rare species of Cypriniformes in China: here.
Seven of the eight men who attacked Samiya were arrested, but her family believes their daughter’s rapists have powerful connections and are looking for revenge.
Samiya and he family live in fear and her father, whose story Al Jazeera reported on two years ago, has been imprisoned by a local leader after he sought justice for his daughter.
Al Jazeera’s Steve Chao has this exclusive report from Afghanistan.
Gee, I was unaware that there was an official mayor of Kabul. Because all the time, Hamid Karzai, officially “President”, was unofficially called “the mayor of Kabul”. Though there is lots of corruption in Karzai’s administration, it seems that we will have to wait for a court case about that until there is a serious clash between Mr Karzai and his NATO backers.
100th British soldier killed in Afghanistan this year: here.
This is a video from the USA, an interview with the RAWA women’s organization in Afghanistan.
Private contractors employed by the Defense Department in Afghanistan will continue to outnumber the size of the American troop presence, even after President Obama sends 30,000 more soldiers to fight in the war, according to the military’s most recent contractor count: here.
Ethicist: Obama’s Afghanistan plan falls short of just-war criteria: here.
ADA Calls Afghanistan a Quagmire Worse than Vietnam: here.
Over the past week, Obama’s leading national security officials have dropped any pretense that the administration’s military escalation in Afghanistan is aimed at hastening a withdrawal of US troops, beginning in July 2011: here.
Lesbian Who Fled Army Opens Legal Ground in Canada
By Wency Leung
WeNews correspondent
Monday, December 7, 2009
After fleeing abuse at Fort Campbell, a lesbian now living in Canada is hoping for asylum on the unusual grounds of anti-homosexual persecution within the U.S. military. Her case could affect other claims by asylum seekers from democracies.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia –For months, Pvt. Bethany Smith silently endured taunts and physical abuse from her fellow soldiers at Fort Campbell, Ky., for being a lesbian.
But when she received an anonymous note one day with a threat against her life, Smith decided she had to get out of the Army.
“It said that they were going to break into the supply room and get the keys to my room and beat me to death in my bed,” Smith said, adding that the letter came only a couple months after she learned the Army was deploying her to Afghanistan. “It was at that point that I knew I was more afraid of the people who were supposed to be on my side than people we were supposed to be fighting overseas.”
More than 12,000 service members have lost their jobs because of the U.S. military’s so-called “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. A disproportionate number of those discharges are women, according to 2008 statistics gathered by the Washington-based Servicemembers Legal Defense Network from the government under the Freedom of Information Act.
With the help of an acquaintance, Smith abandoned Fort Campbell and drove for two straight days to Canada, where she hoped to seek asylum.
She crossed the border on Sept. 11, 2007.
More than two years later, Smith, now 21, is fighting to stay in Ottawa, where she works for a call center.
Her efforts to obtain refugee status were boosted in November when a Canadian federal court judge decided her case should be reconsidered by the country’s refugee board, which had earlier rejected her claim.
Smith said she was thrilled with the court’s decision.
“I basically jumped around the room, all happy,” she said.
USA: According to an analysis of statewide data taken from 1998-2001, women in Oregon who made less than $50,000 a year were more than three times likely to report they were discriminated against by health providers because of their insurance status during pregnancy and delivery: here.
Donal Murray expected to tender resignation in front of pope over abuse in Dublin diocese
* Henry McDonald, Ireland Correspondent
* Monday 7 December 2009 12.49 GMT
An Irish bishop is expected to resign later today in front of the pope over the clerical abuse scandal in Ireland.
Bishop of Limerick Donal Murray travelled to Rome where he will tender his resignation from the post.
His departure comes after he was singled out for criticism in the devastating report into clerical child sex abuse in the Dublin diocese, Ireland’s most populous parish.
The Murphy report found that Murray reacted “inexcusably” to one known case of child abuse. He was also criticised for badly handing complaints and suspicions of further abuse of children in the city.
There has been no official reaction from the Catholic church today but the bishop told parishioners yesterday he was “reflecting on the decision he now has to make”.
On Saturday the leader of Ireland’s Catholics, Cardinal Seán Brady, called on all named in the report to act soon in light of the commission’s findings that cover-ups of clerical child abuse had taken place in the Dublin archdiocese.
Brady is due to travel to the Vatican next week to discuss the Murphy report with Pope Benedict.Brady will be accompanied by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, the head of the church in Dublin.
Brady said that he would resign himself if a child had been abused as a result of any failure on his part.
Meanwhile Ireland’s foreign minister, Michael Martin, has expressed “deep disappointment” at the lack of response by the pope to the Murphy report.
The pope’s representative in Ireland, Papal Nuncio Giuseppe Leanza, will be summoned to the department of foreign affairs later this week to explain why he has not responded to the report’s findings.
“I think we will be pointing out that we need a substantive response,” Michael Martin said.
Victims of clergy sex abuse and a group that tracks paedophile priests has called on local Roman Catholic leaders and the Irish government on Monday to publicly detail known connections between the clergy abuse scandals in the US and Ireland: here.
USA: Sex Abuse Victims’ Groups Outraged By Vatican Decision to Clear Accused Priest. Catholic Church Rules Alan Placa Not Guilty; Rudy Giuliani Defended, Employed Friend Accused of Molesting Boys: here.
The General Inspectorate (AID) of the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality on Friday has seized seven rare snakes in Almere. The AID has said so today. The snakes were seized from a private owner in Almere.
The man did not have the proper papers to be allowed to have the snakes. He had three Madagascar ground boas and four Dumeril’s boas. These boa species are internationally protected.
The snakes were taken to a shelter. The ex-owner will be accused of violation of the Flora and Fauna Law.
NOT long ago, the news was full of reports about two male Humboldt penguins at a zoo in Germany that adopted an egg, hatched it and reared the chick together. It seems like every time you turn around, the media spotlight has fallen on another example of same-sex liaisons in the animal kingdom.
In the past few years, the ubiquity of such behaviour has become apparent. This summer evolutionary biologists Marlene Zuk and Nathan Bailey from the University of California, Riverside, published a paper on the subject that included examples from dozens of species ranging from dung flies and woodpeckers to bison and macaques.
That is just the beginning of the story. The burning question is why same-sex behaviour would evolve at all when it runs counter to evolutionary principles. But does it? In fact there are many good reasons for same-sex sexual behaviour. What’s more, Zuk and Bailey suggest that in a species where it is common, it is an important driving force in evolution. …
Same-sex behaviour is not necessarily synonymous with same-sex preferences, which have been observed in only a handful of animals. In 2005, for example, Hans Van Gossum from the University of Antwerp in Belgium and colleagues found that damselflies kept in all-male groups subsequently preferred to court other males rather than females, though this preference could be reversed simply by housing them with females (Biological Letters, vol 1, p 268).
Neither can you necessarily infer anything about sexual orientation from same-sex behaviour. Orientation is tricky to establish because it requires information about the consistency of partner preferences over a long period of time. Examples are thin on the ground, either because they do not exist or because they have yet to be discovered. The most notable include some male bighorn sheep that have been observed to predominantly mount other males throughout their lives, and female Laysan albatrosses – more of which later.
When two female royal albatrosses at a New Zealand breeding colony embarked on a lesbian relationship, there were some raised eyebrows. But when the pair successfully incubated a chick, wildlife experts were delighted – and surprised: here.
Morales supporters celebrate in La Paz as rival candidates concede defeat
* Rory Carroll, Latin America correspondent, and Andres Schipani in La Paz
*Monday 7 December 2009 07.51 GMT
President Evo Morales won a landslide victory in Bolivian elections yesterday bolstering his efforts to empower the country’s indigenous majority under a socialist banner.
Exit polls and an unofficial count gave the country’s first indigenous president an unassailable lead, prompting rival candidates to concede and supporters to celebrate in the capital La Paz.
“This process of change has prevailed,” Morales told a cheering throng from the balcony of the presidential palace. He said the result, following a tumultuous first term that wrought sweeping changes over the Andean country, was a mandate for further transformation.
Opponents said the charismatic Aymara leader would become more radical and polarising and usher in an authoritarian personality cult.
Based on a count of 91% of votes, the polling firm Equipos-Mori gave Morales 63% of ballots, way ahead of a crowded field of nine candidates. His Movement Toward Socialism party won control of both chambers of congress, though in the lower house it was expected to fall just short of a two-thirds majority needed for constitutional changes.
Aymara and Quechua Indians queued from early morning to vote for the former llama herder who has nationalised key sectors of the economy, boosted social spending and clashed with the United States.
Bolivia’s transformation was irreversible and redressed a historic injustice, said Fidel Surco, an indigenous leader and senate candidate for Morales’ Movement Toward Socialism party.
“There is no way back, this is our time, the awakening of the indigenous people. We’ll keep fighting till the end. Brother Evo Morales still has lots to do, one cannot think that four years are enough after 500 years of submission and oppression.”
As well as pensions and subsidies to slums and impoverished rural highlands, the government has championed indigenous languages and traditional community justice, a “refounding” of the state cemented in a constitutional overhaul earlier this year.
“The decision is for change,” Morales said after voting in the central coca-growing region of Chapare.
Inequality and poverty remain extreme, and land redistribution has been cautious, but indigenous voters backed Morales, 50, as an agent of transformation, said Mario Galindo, an analyst with the CEBEM thinktank.
The three political parties that ruled Bolivia for decades were all but wiped out. Within hours of polling stations closing, rival candidates had accepted defeat.
Manfred Reyes, a former army captain and state governor, came second with 27%, and Samuel Doria Medina, a cement magnate, came third with 6%, according to exit polls.
Bolivian Vice-President Alvaro Garcia Linera has revealed that former opposition presidential candidate Manfred Reyes Villa has fled to the US to escape corruption charges: here.
President Evo Morales kept up the dizzying pace of change since his December re-election by dismissing the country’s entire military high command at the weekend: here.
The US authorities continue to harbour Branko Marinkovic, a leader of the Bolivian right-wing opposition accused of financing a terrorist cell to assassinate Bolivian President Evo Morales: here.
The Bolivian general who captured Ernesto “Che” Guevara was placed under house arrest at the weekend in connection with an alleged plot against President Evo Morales: here.
This video is called From Kyoto to Copenhagen, it’s time for climate justice.
Even before the climate summit begins today in Copenhagen, the goal of a legally binding international treaty to limit greenhouse gas emissions has been ruled out: here.
An international group of leading climate scientists has updated the 2007 IPCC report based on the substantial body of scientific research published over the past three years. Their conclusions not only confirm the trends reported in 2007, but in a number of key areas exceed previous expectations: here.
BirdLife is the world’s largest network of conservation organisations, and BirdLife Partners from 19 countries are currently in Copenhagen working to ensure that a new deal is agreed that will tackle the global threats posed by climate change to people and nature: here.
Ahead of Copenhagen Talks, Tens of Thousands Protest Across Europe Calling for Climate Justice: here.
John Rennie’s 7 Answers to Climate Contrarian Nonsense: here.
Top Ten Questions about Climate Change on the Eve of Copenhagen: here.
We turn now to one of Nigeria’s best-known environmental leaders, Nnimmo Bassey. He is the founder of Environmental Rights Action in Nigeria, and he serves as the international chair of Friends of the Earth. He has campaigned against Shell Oil’s presence in the Niger Delta for nearly two decades. Last night he spoke at the opening of Klimaforum09. His forthcoming book is titled To Cook a Continent: Destructive Extraction and the Climate Crisis in Africa: here.
The theft and publication of emails from the Climate Research Unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia in England, containing communications between top scientists, has been used to boost the reactionary campaign backed by major oil producers and corporate lobbyists to deny the existence of global warming: here.
