Arabuko Sokoke is a costal forest to the North of Mombasa. This fascinating forest wilderness is nestled beside the beaches of Watamu. The forest is a world apart from the beaches and reefs with an untold wealth of natural beauty. The air is filled with butterflies and birds, the trees alive with monkeys and the forest floor home to many smaller mammals.
Large population of Critically Endangered antelope found in threatened Kenyan forest
Pictures captured by scientists reveal hidden wildlife hotspot
July 2011. A previously unrecorded population of Africa’s most critically endangered forest antelope has been found living in a highly threatened forest in Northern Kenya, scientists can reveal.
Conservationists are calling for the immediate preservation of the Boni-Dodori forest after camera traps set up by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), the Kenyan Wildlife Service (KWS), Whitley Wildlife Conservation Trust (WWCT), National Museums of Kenya and the WWF discovered a new population of Aders’ duiker (Cephalophus adersi), a very rare small forest antelope.
Aders’ duiker (Cephalophus adersi) is classed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and there are no individuals held in captivity. The antelope was formerly only known from the coastal forest of
Zanzibar Island in Tanzania and the Arabuko – Sokoke forest, near Malindi in Kenya.
Population estimates show that in the last 20 years the number of Aders’ duikers has fallen by around 80% from 5000 individuals to around 1000, too few to be sure of the continued survival of this species. The Aders’ duiker is endangered due to loss of habitat and hunting; as the numbers have declined the habitat has also fragmented into isolated patches, further increasing the risk of extinction. The Aders’ duiker is a conservation priority in Kenya and ZSL and partners are supporting the work of the Kenya Wildlife Service to protect this highly endangered animal.
July 201. A rare and beautiful sea snail has been found by a Cornwall Wildlife Trust volunteer in Polzeath, North Cornwall. This is the first sighting of such an unusual creature in over 3 years, according to the Environmental Records Centre of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.
Violet sea snail
A violet sea snail, which gets its name from its vivid colour, is an oceanic drifter with a mucus bubble raft which supports them on the ocean surface. They travel with their prey in tropical and semi tropical ocean drifts therefore arriving in Cornish waters must be quite a shock! Once in a while they wash up in this part of the world, often with other exciting drifters such as goose barnacles and the infamous Portuguese Man-of -War jellyfish.
Marine scientists from the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, have witnessed a remarkable feeding frenzy of seabirds and dolphins off the Land’s End peninsula in southwest Cornwall: here.
Mr Netanyahu unveiled a package of reforms aimed at lowering housing costs last week but it failed to placate protesters, who have also raised other concerns such as the cost of petrol and childcare.
Protester Stav Shafir said: “It is a great success, people are marching in the streets and have been living in the streets for two weeks.
“People are choosing to determine how they want to live. We want affordable housing, health, education and welfare.”
Addressing a rally of 50,000 people in Tel Aviv, activist Daphni Leef said: “Public housing isn’t a dirty word.”
150,000+ demonstrate for social justice in Israel: here.
Thousands protest in Israel over house prices and low salaries. Demonstrations in 12 cities including Tel Aviv and Haifa prompt Binyamin Netanyahu to consider cancelling parliamentary recess: here.
Morocco Pictures: Pro-reform demo in Casablanca today: here.
The former managing editor of the News of the World was arrested today on suspicion of phone hacking and inappropriate payments to police: here.
Civil-service union PCS leader Mark Serwotka called today for the release of comedian and activist Jonathan May-Bowles, who was jailed for throwing a foam pie in the face of Rupert Murdoch: here.
Former British intelligence officer Ian Hurst said he was shown evidence that his emails were intercepted and later faxed to the News of the World’s Dublin office: here.
When he worked at The Times, Robert Fisk witnessed the curious working practices of the paper’s proprietor, Rupert Murdoch. Despite their jocular exchanges, the writer knew he couldn’t stay: here.
Alex Salmond accused of pandering to Rupert Murdoch: here.
USA: Frank Rich: Murdoch and O’Reilly are ‘Thugs’: here.
Michael Wolff on the state of the Murdoch empire and its Mob-like structure: here.
61-year-old man arrested in connection with phone hacking is believed to be ex-News of the World editor Greg Miskiw: here.
The head of the panel that will review the Norway gunman‘s psychiatric evaluation says that it’s unlikely the suspect will be declared legally insane.
Dr Tarjei Rygnestad, who heads the Norwegian Board of Forensic Medicine, on Sunday said that Anders Behring Breivik appears to have been in control of his actions.
In Norway, an insanity defence requires that a defendant was in a state of psychosis during the crime, meaning he lost contact with reality to the point that he’s no longer in control.
“It’s not very likely he was psychotic,” Rygnestad told Associated Press.
The board must review and approve an evaluation conducted by two court-appointed psychiatrists before a judge decides whether Breivik can be held criminally liable.
Thousands of flowers were laid outside Oslo Cathedral today in memory of the 77 people killed by Anders Breivik on July 22: here.
Norway Sounds Alarm Bells About Growing Right-Wing in Europe. Frank Viviano, New America Media: “Even among the ostensibly sane, you hear words quite similar to Breivik’s in Europe today. Substitute ‘Jews’ for ‘Muslims‘ in his rants, and terrible echoes sound. They also sound in the curva, the soccer-stadium bleacher sections favored by Italian Ultras, violently nationalist fans who scream racist epithets at the black and Arab players of rival teams, and attack their fans with clubs and knives. They sound in the rhetoric of xenophobic political parties, from Italy to Scandinavia, whose votes in national elections over the past decade have expanded at a pace unprecedented since the 1930s”: here.
Anders Breivik used anger against women to cast himself as a crusader, believing feminism is destroying the West from the inside and creating space for Islamism, says Michelle Goldberg: here.
By Kristin Engh Førde, Kilden, Norway – The disciplining and control of women and the feminine are intimately related to notions of cultural and racial purity. As a result, racist ideologies are almost always also misogynist and anti-feminist: here.
Norwegians speak out: rulers’ Islamophobia paved way for terror attacks: here.
Monica Nkechi Okpe, a Norwegian socialist and trade unionist, spoke to Socialist Worker about how workers can stop the racists: here.
Norway’s ambassador: More restrictive societies not an answer to terror: here.
Opinion: “Identical reactions to Oklahoma and Norway tragedies expose society’s racism.” Hamid Dabashi: here.
Writers Cited in Breivik Manifesto Have Spoken at US Military Colleges as Anti-Terrorism Experts: here.
Henry A. Giroux, Truthout: “As in Norway, most of our domestic acts of terrorism have been committed by homegrown Americans, not members of an extremist Islamic group. Gary LaFree, director of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, echoes a warning from our own Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which has repeatedly insisted, ‘that Right-wing Conservative extremists would be among the groups most likely to commit an act of mass violence in the United States’”: here.
Video: Far-right Russians cite Breivik as a ‘hero’: here.
German security official warns of Breivik copycats: here.
Britain: Public relations monitoring group Spinwatch warned yesterday that right-wing think tanks have understated the rise of Islamophobia on the far right: here.
USA: David Yerushalmi, the Man Behind an Anti-Shariah Campaign: here.
Britain: EDL leader demanded debate on killing David Cameron and archbishop. Alan Lake ran a far-right website where he discussed execution of political and religious leaders and predicted Islamic enclaves: here.
Slide Show: 12 Parties of Europe’s Far-Right Resurgence: here.
Accused Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik praised four Australian conservative leaders in his 1500-page manifesto, abc.net.au reported on July 26: here.
Geert Wilders and the German and Swedish extreme right: here.
On July 23, Belgium implemented a legal ban on wearing the Islamic burqa in public. Under this anti-democratic measure any woman wearing a burqa in public can be fined €137.50 (nearly $200) and faces up to seven days in jail: here.
Italy has pressed ahead with a controversial ban on face-veils, with a parliamentary commission approving a draft ban on Tuesday: here.
A survey of small mammals from a forest site on the tropical island of Sulawesi, Indonesia … has turned up between two and four shrew species believed to be new to science. Although more DNA testing is needed to determine exactly how many separate species the new shrews constitute, the discovery is a reminder of how much still remains to be learned about wildlife in the tropical forests of Southeast Asia.
Researchers from McMaster University in Ontario and the Museum of Zoology in Bogor, Indonesia conducted a week-long study of small mammals on Sulawesi’s Mt. Tompotika in April of this year. Recently released preliminary results of the study document finding four rat species previously found in other parts of Sulawesi, as well as between two and four shrews.
One of the shrews is currently classified as belonging to a known species, but further research might show the Mt. Tompotika variety to be a separate species. The others are all new to science, and are probably found only on Sulawesi.
All of the shrews found in the Mt. Tompotika survey belong to a group known as white-toothed shrews, an assemblage of more than 160 small mammals scattered over much of Europe, Asia, and Africa. While most white-toothed shrews live on the ground, some species frequently climb into trees. Like other shrews they are predators, feeding mainly on insects and other invertebrates.
Because of their small size, shrews are more easily overlooked than many mammals by scientific surveys. The discovery of at least two, and possibly up to four new species on Mt. Tompotika shows the extent to which knowledge about these creatures remains incomplete. It is likely many more shrew species remain undiscovered, especially in tropical sites like Tompotika.
“Tompotika is a remarkably rich and distinctive place for biodiversity,” said a newsletter publication of the Alliance for Tompotika Conservation, referring to the mountain site where the shrews were found. The conservation organization reports that this single tropical site is now known to be home to at least nine animal species that occur nowhere else in the world. “As the area gets more scientific attention,” the Alliance says, “that number is sure to rise.”
Looking at the entire island of Sulawesi, where Tompotika is located, an even more pronounced pattern of unique and rare species emerges. Over 60% of the mammals on Sulawesi are endemic, meaning they are found nowhere else in the world. These range from the large babirusa—a forest-dwelling pig with spectacular tusks—to tiny and secretive mammals like the newly discovered shrews.
Yet as with most other Indonesian islands, biodiversity on Sulawesi is under severe threat. Only about 20% of Sulawesi’s original forest cover remains, with much of the rest having succumbed to logging, mining, and agricultural development. This means the last intact sites, like Mt. Tompotika, are especially important from a conservation standpoint.
Despite the urgency of preserving Sulawesi’s last stands of tropical forest, the island has received less attention from researchers and conservationists than nearby larger Indonesian islands. So far the bulk of international attention to conservation in Indonesia has focused on Borneo and Sumatra—the two largest islands in the archipelago nation, which are home to highly charismatic animals like the tiger and the orangutan.
As researchers learn more about the unique plants and animals of Sulawesi, more international conservation groups may turn their attention to this extraordinary and imperiled island. Increased efforts to protect the forests of Sulawesi will help ensure a future for hundreds of species found nowhere else, including the newly discovered shrews that can now be added to the island’s list of endemic animal life.
Endangered Sumatran Tiger Dies in Trap While Bulldozers Rip Rainforest Nearby (VIDEO) : here.
An investigation released today reveals that Auckland [New Zealand] based company Cottonsoft is sourcing its toilet paper from rainforests in Indonesia, home of the critically-endangered Sumatran tiger: here.
Greenwashing doesn’t wash with us – we’ll continue to expose the truth about deforestation in Indonesia: here.
As July came to an end, the United States central government had come up against its congressionally mandated debt ceiling. Without an agreement to raise that debt ceiling – last set at $14.3-trillion – the U.S. central government will be unable to borrow money to pay its bills. The consequences could be extremely serious – soaring interest rates, a collapse of the U.S. dollar, not to speak of social security stipends, pensions and salaries going unpaid.
The barrier to raising the debt ceiling comes from the sudden rise of a new right-wing in the Republican Party. The 2008-2009 Great Recession has not yet, unfortunately, led to the creation of a mass new left in the United States.
Instead, anger against capitalism has been politically captured by the far right in the so-called “Tea Party” movement. Deeply reactionary and with barely disguised racist undertones, the Tea Party conservatives have a simple answer to the ills facing the U.S. – too much government, too many taxes.
This simplistic message captured first the Republican Party, and then the House of Representatives, last year’s congressional elections seeing the House fall under the control of a Tea Party dominated Republican Party.
These Tea Party Republicans will not countenance raising the debt ceiling unless big steps are taken to deal with the U.S. deficit. And they are insisting that this happen without any increase in taxes.
There is an enormous deficit problem in the U.S. central government. The $14.3 trillion debt figure, so much in the news, is the result of a decades-long practice of spending, every month, far more than comes in from revenues. The chart on this page documents this clearly. Through all of the 1980s and most of the 1990s, deficits as a percent of receipts became quite high, twice reaching annual rates of 30 percent. For comparison’s sake, that would be like an individual making $3,000 a month, and every month supplementing that with about $1,000 on a credit card.
In the context of the economic boom of the 1990s, there was a brief reversal of this trend, the last four years of the Bill Clinton presidency and the first year of the presidency of George W. Bush actually seeing revenues exceed expenditures. But from 2002 to the present, there has been a return to deficit spending, peaking first during the height of the Iraq war, and then soaring in the context of the 2008-2009 recession. At its peak in 2009, deficits soared to 70% of revenues. Remember that person bringing in $3,000 a month? Now s/he would be taking out cash advances of $2100.
But is it really credible to try and fix this problem without tax increases? The key taxes that need to be addressed are not those paid by individual, but rather those paid by corporations.
In the 1950s, corporations paid 39% of all income taxes. By the 1970s this had fallen to 25%. In the first nine years of the 21st century, the figure was 19%. Making corporations simply pay the share of income tax they did in the 1950s, or even the 1970s, would make a huge dent in the deficit. And in 2011, corporations have the money to pay new taxes. Story after story in the press documents that Corporate America is sitting on record piles of cash.
The Tea Party Republicans will not look at these facts. Instead they are insisting on reducing the deficit strictly through cuts in expenditures. After President Obama’s dramatic speech to the U.S. July 25, CNN commentators summarized what that means – cuts to “the Big Three: medicare, medicaid and social security.”
But the United States is in a whole other league. Fully 43% of all money spent on arms in the world is spent by the United States government. It means that instead of 8%, a shocking 20% of its budget goes towards the military. But the military establishment is barely part of the discussion for the Tea Party right wing.
Here’s the big problem. If the Tea Party right wing won’t talk about raising corporate taxes and cutting the bloated military budget, neither will President Obama.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, the New York Democrat who is the majority’s message man, said Sunday “there’s no final agreement” on a debt ceiling deal and Democrats and Republicans were still wrangling over the trigger mechanism that would precipitate automatic cuts if both sides can’t ultimately agree on specific cuts: here.
Honduras: Wealthy Landowners Attempt to Quash Farming Collectives. Andrew Kennis, Truthout: “While 2011 has been a year filled with killings of activist farmers in the conflict-ridden region, August was an exceptionally violent month during what has been an exceptionally violent year…. Why is this violence occurring? What is the root of the conflict? Is the depiction of the situation in Aguan given by the Honduran government – only recently recognized internationally by the Organization of American States – an accurate reflection of what is going on? Bajo Aguan campesinos, as well as researchers and activists who have been visiting the region for decades worth of collective time, provided Truthout first-hand testimony in an effort to shed light on an otherwise largely overlooked, underreported and ongoing human and land rights catastrophe”: here.
Jewish Telegraphic Agency: The announcement by Honduras President Porfirio Lobo, that his country will next month vote at the UN in favor of Palestinian independence, aroused angry reactions at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem. Israeli officials expressed surprise and disappointment at Lobo`s “ingratitude”, evoking the “close relations” between the Israeli Army and its Honduran counterpart. This was, in effect, an oblique half-admission of Israeli involvement in the 2009 coup that toppled Lobo`s left-leaning predecessor – an involvement hotly denied at the time: here.
TEGUCIGALPA, Jan 30, 2012 (IPS) – Last Friday marked two years since the inauguration of Porfirio Lobo as president of Honduras, amidst accusations of corruption, an unprecedented crime wave, and his lowest approval rating yet: here.
The Drug-War Femicides. Pastili Toledo, Project Syndicate: “The number of women murdered is increasing in most of Central America and Mexico. In some countries, such as Honduras, the increase is four times that of men. Moreover, many of these murders are committed with extreme violence – sexual savagery, torture, and mutilations – by perpetrators (often involved in organized crime) acting with a high degree of impunity… In Latin America, all of these crimes are known as ‘femicides’: murders of women precisely for being women”: here.
Honduras Prison Fire: Most Inmates In Deadly Blaze Were Not Convicted, Report Says: here.
