Richard Fidler: Defiant Quebec Students Reject Government Offer

Quebec college and university students are now in the 13th week of their militant province-wide strike while voting by overwhelming majorities to reject a government offer that met none of their key demands. After a 22-hour bargaining session involving ministers of the Charest government, university and college heads, and leaders of the major trade-union centrals, the student leaders agreed on May 6 to put the offer to a vote of their respective membership without recommending acceptance. If the offer were accepted: The 75 per cent hike in tuition fees, now spread over seven years, but indexed, would remain, albeit with slightly liberalized access to scholarships and loans, and provision for repayment of loans geared to future income. A provisional committee would examine university budgets and propose possible cuts. Each dollar cut would go to reducing incidental fees not related directly to tuition, admission, registration, sports services, technology, etc. The committee would include four students, but also fourteen other members: 6 university rectors, 4 trade union representatives as well as 2 representatives of business, 1 from the ministry of education, and a chair with a tie-breaking vote, the latter four all designated by the minister of education. The committee would table its recommendations by December although if necessary its mandate could be extended by one more year. It might then be replaced by a permanent committee appointed by law, its composition undetermined at this point. Pending the provisional committee's conclusions, the students incidental fees would be deferred. However, these fees would apply retroactively to the students in any amount the committee is unable to cut from current expenses.   

Azadeh Ansari: Israel Nothing More than a Mosquito to Iran!

While seeming to tone down the rhetoric, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad nonetheless spoke of "crimes" of the "Zionist regimes." Ahead of upcoming nuclear talks, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad downplayed the threat Israel poses to Iran, comparing it to an annoying bug. "Israel is nothing more than a mosquito which cannot see the broad horizon of the Iranian nation," he said Saturday in northeastern Iran's Khorassan province, according to the semi-official Fars news agency. Ahmadinejad said "regional states" were being duped into buying billions in arms from "arrogant and imperial powers," driven in part by all the talk surrounding a potential war involving Iran and Israel, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported. Such military purchases, he said, are unnecessary because there is no war on the horizon between those two nations. The Iranian president alluded to "rulers" who sold "their oil" for $60 billion worth in arms, though he did not mention by name either the purchasing or selling country. Saudi Arabia is in the midst of a 20-year, $60 billion arms deal with the United States, including nearly $30 billion for F-15 fighter jets announced late last year. Ahmadinejad has long questioned the existence of the "Holocaust" and, months after taking office in October 2005, he participated in a lengthy protest called "World Without Zionism" and has repeatedly derided Israel. "With the force of God behind it, we shall soon experience a world without the United States and Zionism," he said then, according to another IRNA report!

PRESSTV: Malaysian Tribunal Finds Bush Guilty of War Crimes!

A symbolic War Crimes Tribunal in Malaysia has found former US President George W. Bush and several other members of his administration guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The second "Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal", part of an initiative by former Malaysian premier Mahathir Mohamad, in a unanimous vote on Saturday found Bush and seven of his associates, including former Vice President Dick Cheney and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld guilty of torture and war crimes. The court also heard evidence from former detainees in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, of torture methods used by US soldiers during their captivity in prisons run by American forces. A former inmate, Abbas Abid appeared in a scarf fearing reprisals. He enacted how US troops subjected him to electric shocks, beatings and sexual abuse over a number of months. High ranking former UN officials present in the courtroom expressed frustration over the evidence. "The UN is a weak body, and it is corrupted by member states, who use the Security Council for their own interests. They don't respect the charter. They don't respect the international law. They don't respect the Geneva Conventions," former UN Assistant Secretary General, Denis Halliday told Press TV. "As long as they continue to use the UN, it's going to be somehow redundant, possibly a dangerous and certainly corrupted organization," Halliday went on to say. Meanwhile, Mahatir remains determined to bring Bush and his cohorts to justice.   

Susan Aarde: EPA Grossly Misrepresents Toxicity Of CorexitIi

Quite incredibly, the EPA issued a positive report on May 1, 2012 regarding the safety and toxicity of various dispersants used in the BP Gulf Oil Spill. Included in this assessment was the use of Corexit. This report "indicated that all eight dispersants had roughly the same toxicity, and all fell into the "practically non-toxic" or "slightly toxic" category. Scientists found that none of the eight dispersants displayed endoctrine-disrupting activity of "biological significance." The same report went on to say that "dispertant-oil mixtures were generally no more toxic to the aquatic test species than oil alone." The first question that jumps out for those who have researched this subject with any degree of thoroughness is how this recent report fails to reconcile with previous studies performed by the EPA. Here is some test data retrieved from the EPA website that was posted previously to the BP Gulf Oil Spill. "The dispersant (Corexit 9500) and dispersed oil have demonstrated the following levels of toxicity per the EPA website link that follows: (1) 10.72 parts per million (ppm) of oil alone will kill 50% of the fish test species in a normal aquatic environment within 96 hours. (2) 25.20 parts per million of dispersant (Corexit 9500) alone will kill 50% of the fish test species in a normal aquatic environment within 96 hours. (3) 2.61 parts per million of dispersed oil (Corexit-laden) alone will kill 50% of the fish test species in a normal aquatic environment within 96 hours. This data diverges from the recent report to such a significant degree that the results which were just posted at the EPA GOV website under the title of "The BP Oil Spill: Responsive Science Supports Emergency Response" must be seriously scrutinized. What is the buying public to make of such conflicting data? 

Lawrence Sinclair: Will Obama Come "Out ," Next??

Sinclair News reported in October 2011, after Barack Obama spoke at the Annual Human Rights Campaign Gala Dinner in Washington, DC, that Obama would eventually come "OUT" in support of Gay Marriage when it became politically necessary. When the LGBT and HRC members made it known this week they would with-hold further campaign contributions until Obama publicly took a position on Gay Marriage, it became politically necessary. Never ever dismiss the financial means available from the LGBT community. After all Obama told the "Lady Gaga" worshiping crowd of intolerant activists for tolerance, "I am committed to seeing the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) go into the history books as he did with 'don't ask, don't tell.' Today's official announcement by Barack Obama that his 'evolving' position on Gay Marriage has finally reached the point where he now supports it, is by no means a surprise. A day after voters in North Carolina approved a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, President Obama told ABC News that "same-sex couples should be able to get married." Obama has said for years that his views on gay marriage were "evolving," and his announcement of support for same-sex marriage comes three days after Vice President Joe Biden said he's "absolutely comfortable" with two men or two women getting married. Just a few weeks agoObama loyalist MSNBC and his former Green Czar Van Jones laid the groundwork for what will be in the end an Obama 'coming OUT' party.     

Ron Paul: Ron Paul Fights to End Miltary Aid for Israel!

Presidential hopeful Ron Paul has condemned a plan being considered in the United States House of Representatives that would allow the US to continue aiding in the defense of Israel by equipping the Jewish state's military with added weaponry. From Washington, DC on Wednesday, Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas) attacked the contents of an act currently up for discussion that, if passed, would reestablish America's major role in Israeli affairs Rep Paul fears, however, that it would do more harm than good for all nations involved. To House Speaker John Boehner, Paul said that HR 4133, the United States-Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation Act of 2012, "is another piece of one-sided and counter-productive foreign policy legislation." This bill's real intent seems to be more saber-rattling against Iran and Syria," insisted Paul, and it undermines US diplomatic efforts efforts by making clear that the US is not an honest broker seeking peace for the Middle East." "The bill calls for the United States to significantly increase our provision of sophisticated weaponry to Israel, and states that it is to be US policy to 'help Israel preserve its military edge' in the region,"added the congressman. The bill itself was created to reaffirm America's "commitment to Israel's security as a Jewish state,""provide Israel with the military capabilities to defend itself," "expand military and civil and civil cooperation" and encourage Israel's neighbors to recognize Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state, among other matters according to the official synapsis included in the legislation. When I served as the Intelligence Operations Officer in our 4th US Armored Division in Goeppingen, Germany, I had the occasion to hear General Sherrer's comment on our "ally Israel". While I showed him the cable of Israel's sinking of our USS Liberty, he said: "With friends like Israel, we have no need of enemies!!"  
 

Richard Schiffman: The Fukushima Nuclear Plant's Slow Recovery!

Despite the Japanese PM's optimistic assessment of Fukushima, experts have new worries about the plant's recovery. In December, Japan's prime minister, Yoshihiko Noda, declared that "a cold shutdown" had been achieved, and that the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was now over. "Today, we have reached a great milestone", Noda told the Japanese people in a televised address. "The reactors are stable, which should resolve one big cause of concern for us all." But Mr Noda's optimistic assessment appears to have been premature. Nuclear engineer and former power company executive Arnie Gunderson compared the prime minister's statement to President George Bush declaring "mission accomplished" on the deck of the USS Lincoln in 2003. Gunderson calls the situation at Fukushima "a long battle, far from over." Even Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), which owns the Fukushima facility, says it will take another 40 years to fully decommission the reactors there, a project which poses unprecedented engineering challenges. But the company's own tests disclose a more immediate danger. Rising radiation levels within one of the reactors, the highest recorded so far, and evidence of a leak in the critical cooling system demonstrate that the situation is still far from stable. Tepco revealed at the end of March that protective water levels in the containment vessel of Reactor No 2, were far shallower than had been expected, which might mean that the uranium fuel rods there are no longer completely submerged, and are heating up. The Japan Times reported on 29 March that radiation inside the vessel has reached 73 sieverts per hour, high enough to administer a lethal dose to a human in a matter of minutes, even to disable the robotic devices which are sent regularly into the reactor to monitor what is happening there.