4th Day of Riots in Swedish Capital
Hundreds of youths have been rioting for the fourth day in a row in Stockholm, Sweden, protesting against police brutality and inequality. The riots appear to have been instigated by the police shooting of a 69-year-old man in the Stockholm suburb of Husby this month, in which Police said was an act of self-defense, but it has triggered accusations of police brutality. Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt blamed the violence on “hooliganism” and appealed for calm. According to local media reports, a police station in another suburb was set on fire, but no one was injured in the incident. Two schools,…
U.S. Marines are Deployed to Italian Base, Foreign Minister Bonino Confirms
Italian Foreign Minister Emma Bonino confirmed on last Wednesday that 200 American troops were being moved from Spain to the Sigonella Base in Sicily for fast deployment, in case of escalating violence in Libya. Speaking at a joint session of the House and Senate foreign commissions in Italian Parliament, Bonino said the transfer was in accordance with bilateral agreements between Italy and the United States, after leftist lawmakers complained they had not been told about the deployment. The country has been battling with increasing insurgent activity since Muammar Gaddafi was removed from power and killed by rebels in 2011. On…
Women’s Rights Law Blocked by Mullahs in Afghanistan
The Afghan Law on Elimination of Violence Against Women has been blocked by religious lawmakers in Afghanistan, claiming it violated Islamic principles. The law has been in effect since 2009 as a Presidential decree and it was being brought before the parliament, because the lawmaker and women’s rights activist Fawzia Kofi wanted a parliamentary vote to prevent its potential reversal. Unfortunately, it was entirely withdrawn by the conservative opposition. The law criminalizes domestic violence against women, child marriage and forced marriages. It also bans the traditional practice of selling and buying women to settle disputes. It specifies that rape victims…
Al-Nusra Say They are Ready to Fight Hezbullah in Syria
Jabhat Al-Nusra, a Sunni Muslim extremist rebel group trying to topple the regime of Bashar Al-Assad in Syria, declared that they are ready to fight Assad supporter Hezbollah. As the Syria’s brutal two-year war drags on and it has grown more sectarian and more likely to spill over into neighboring countries. Lebanon and Iran could be pitting Hezbollah militants against Al Qaeda-linked jihadists who have flocked to Syria from across the Muslim world. Al-Nusra, recently swore allegiance to Al Qaeda, is part of the many factions of Syrian opposition. As reported by Progressive Press on May 13, the opposition is…
BP and Shell HQs Raided by European Commission on Oil Price Fixing Suspicion
Two of Britain’s biggest oil companies’ London headquarters were raided by EU investigators yesterday, over allegations that customers have been ripped off at the petrol pump for years. The officers from the European Commission’s competition authority searched BP and Shell’s offices, to look for evidence of price rigging. In the wake of the Libor interest rate manipulation scandals, the EC has launched an investigation on what could be the next price fixing scandal by these big oil companies conspiring to inflate oil prices and, in turn, the cost of petrol. The Commission stated that the anti-competitive co-operation may also have…
U.S. and Canada to boycott Iran’s Disarmament Presidency in UN
U.S. and Canada jointly announced, their ambassadors will boycott Iran’s looming presidency of the UN disarmament conference where Tehran will be at the helm for five weeks. The presidency of the disarmament conference follows an alphabetical rotation among the 65 member states. Tehran will assume the presidency of the conference from May 27 until June 23. U.S. Mission to the United Nations spokesperson, Erin Pelton, issued a press release today stating “Iran’s upcoming rotation as President of the Conference on Disarmament (CD) is unfortunate and highly inappropriate. The United States continues to believe that countries that are under Chapter VII…
Syria: U.S. Media Drops The Ball As They Did Just Before Iraq War
The know-it-all U.S. mainstream media are pushing a black and white narrative of an extremely complex conflict in the Middle East, again. Just as they did prior to the Iraq War, they are following the White House’s story of a “big, bad dictator, killing his own people with chemical weapons”. The reasons for this shortfall of honest reporting vary from incompetence to laziness, but there could also be a more sinister agenda: helping the U.S. government to propagate its plan to either invade or intervene in Syria. After all, Americans will always be more sympathetic to victims who are suffering…
Happy Mother’s Day (video)
Happy Mother’s Day, Progressive Press readers! We hope you are having a wonderful Sunday. In honor of the day, we want to share this video with you. Mother’s Day has its origins as a peace holiday. In 1858, Ann Jarvis, a young mother from West Virginia, started organizing Mother’s Work Days. After the Civil War, they focused on reconciling former enemies of the Union and Confederacy, and honoring mothers who had lost family in the war. Inspired by the work of Ann Jarvis, and the traditional British day of Mothering Sunday, social activist Julia Ward Howe championed the cause of a…
Guatemalan Dictator Montt Found Guilty of Genocide (Video)
On Friday, former Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos Montt was found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity for his role in the slaughter of thousands of innocent civilians in the 1980s. This is the first time ever a former head of state has been found guilty of genocide in his own country. He is sentenced to 80 years in prison. Montt’s defense attorneys insist that the decision is illegal and are preparing legal challenges to the ruling, while the prosecution says the decision is binding. Rios Montt, now 86, took power after a coup in 1982, in the midst of…
CO2 in the Air Reached its Highest Level in Human History
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced today that for the first time in human history, atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) level reached 400 parts per million, meaning concentration of carbon dioxide gas in the Earth’s atmosphere is the highest ever. Climate Central, an independent climate research organization, explains that a rise in CO2 emissions would bring greater atmospheric warming and exacerbate the effects of climate change. Research also shows the effects would be irreversible as CO2 molecules can remain in the atmosphere for hundreds of years. According to Climate Central researcher and writer Andrew Freedman, the last time CO2…
U.S. Sends Millions of Dollars Aid to Syria While Cutting Meals for Poor American Children
The Obama administration is providing $100 million in new Syria aid, U.S. officials said Wednesday, bringing the total U.S. aid to $510 million since the civil war began in that country more than two years ago. I am all for foreign aid, and feel terrible for the innocent displaced people, not only in Syria but all over the world. (Yes, there are others around the world dealing with similar civil wars and displacement, but of course our focus is on the Middle East. I will let you conclude on the reasons.) Common sense begs the question: If we are unable…
Iran Media Crackdown Intensifies as the Election Looms
The Committee to Protect Journalists, a New-York based independent, nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom worldwide, reports on Iran’s intense crackdown on independent media ahead of the country’s presidential election in June. According to the analysis done by the organization, Iran currently has at least 40 journalists in prison, the second-highest total in the world and a figure that reflects the government’s continuing determination to silence independent coverage of public affairs. Sherif Mansour, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa Coordinator said that Iranian officials were “determined to silence independent coverage of public affairs” in anticipation of the upcoming election. He…
London Conference On Somalia: UK, IMF and Others
More than 50 governments attended a meeting in London on Tuesday – co-hosted by David Cameron, the British Prime Minister and Somali President Hassan Sheikh. About a year from the first such UK-hosted meeting of international backers, significant advances on both the political and security fronts have been made. A government has been installed and more territory grabbed back from the control of al Shabaab Islamist militias. A senior UK diplomat said however, that the gains remained “very fragile”. Speaking after the international conference on Tuesday, Prime Minister David Cameron pledged support to Somalia, saying the challenges faced by the…
War With Syria Signifies A War With Iran: Resolution 65
On April 17th, while the entire U.S. media was focused on the chase for Dzokhar Tsarnaev, the 2nd terrorist suspect in the Boston Marathon attacks, the Senate introduced Resolution 65, affirming that the U.S. will fully back Israel in the instance of war with Iran. The Resolution goes beyond affirming U.S. commitment in preventing a nuclear Iran. It ensures that the United States will ‘authorize the use of military force, diplomatic, military, and economic support to Israel in its defense of its territory, people, and existence.’ Meaning, the U.S. will go to war with Iran if Israel does. This resolution…
Of Massachusetts And Men: The Burial of Tamerlan Tsarnaev
I realize that, by writing this, I am bringing unnecessary tsuris into my life. So be it. Since when did we become a gaggle of punk haters (read: not punk-haters)? If I understand this correctly, many of you would like to have the body of Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev “fed to the sharks” or “mutilated….desecrated” or “incinerated” or “shipped to Russia”. Are we in agreement so far? OK. I’d like to know what I’m missing here because I don’t think this is how we, as Americans, behave. This is not how we treat the dead; yes, even that dead…
Israel Strikes Syrian Armed-Forces Sites (Video)
On Friday and Sunday, Israel carried out the second and third strikes on Syria this year, significantly increasing the country’s involvement with the civil war and bloodshed in Syria, the BBC reported Sunday. Israel has claimed responsibility for an earlier strike on Syria in January, and says that the target of the strikes were weapons headed to the hands of Hezbollah in Lebanon. All of the strikes have caused casualties and widespread damage. The New York Times reported that one of the targets was a shipment of Iranian-made Fateh-110s missiles. Iran and Hezbollah have both backed President Bashar al-Assad in the…
Morphees : Shape-shifting Smartphones (Video)
Are you ready for a shape-shifting smartphone? Ready or not, shape-shifting smartphones and mobile devices are making their way from research labs to the consumer marketplace. Last month, led by Anne Roudaut, a group of computer scientists from University of Bristol in the UK presented the “Morphees” as Transformer-like mobile devices of the future. The six prototypes, developed by the researchers, could change the shape of your mobile phone into a gaming controller or even a stress ball. The prototypes were made out of various materials like plastic, paper and wood, along with shape-changing materials and shape-memory alloys. The concept…
May 1st is International Worker’s Day, Here’s Why it Matters:
In case you’ve missed it, today (5/1) is International Worker’s Day, also known as May Day. In America, the biggest holiday for workers is Labor Day, which falls in September. May Day is the international worker’s equivalent of labor day. Around the world, protests and demonstrations have shown the extent to which workers are outraged and are showing their ability to flex their collective muscle. In Istanbul, Turkey, demonstrators caused a city-wide shut down. In Greece, striking union workers shut down train and ferry services. In Jakarta, an estimated 150,000 workers marched on the capital, demanding an increase in pay and…
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