(JurriaanMaessen) – Following up on yesterday’s articleWorld Bank Threatens “Drastic Steps Necessary” if Nations Refuse Population Reduction Implementation, recent reports by the World Bank suggest the “drastic steps” considered necessary are now being implemented.

According to two subsequent documents put out by the World Bank, new guidelines dictate that in order to qualify for World Bank lending, nations must implement population reduction objectives as outlined by the World Bank and UN Population Fund. Read the rest of this entry »

(Guardian) – A three-year investigation by the United Nations will almost entirely exonerate Royal Dutch Shell for 40 years of oil pollution in the Niger delta, causing outrage among communities who have long campaigned to force the multinational to clean up its spills and pay compensation.

The $10m (£6.5m) investigation by the UN environment programme (UNEP), paid for by Shell, will say that only 10% of oil pollution in Ogoniland has been caused by equipment failures and company negligence, and concludes that the rest has come from local people illegally stealing oil and sabotaging company pipelines.

The shock disclosure was made by Mike Cowing, the head of a UN team of 100 people who have been studying environmental damage in the region. Read More Here

(CriminalState) – We declared ourselves free from those who would govern us based on what we could be deceived to believe. A generation weaned on the Age of Enlightenment insisted on government under the rule of law. And governance based on facts, not beliefs.

How’s that working out?

Remember Iraqi WMD? Iraqi ties to Al Qaeda? Iraq’s yellowcake uranium from Niger? Iraqi meetings in Prague? Iraqi mobile biological weapons laboratories?

All those facts are now known to be false. Yet Americans were deceived to do what? Believe. Ground Zero of the True Believers was Washington, DC where those sworn to protect us instead took us to war in Iraq—relying on false beliefs.

If waging war on false beliefs is not proof certain of a Dark Age, what is?

It gets even better. Read the rest of this entry »

See Also: (PressTV) – UN warns of humanitarian crisis in DRC – Read More Here

Also: (MSNBC) – Nigeria lead poisoning crisis ‘unprecedented’ – Read More Here

(WSWS) – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warns that 10 million people across the Sahel region of West Africa could face famine over the next few months. According to the charity Oxfam, eight million in Niger could be affected and two million in Chad. Some 80 percent of Chad’s population depends on subsistence agriculture.

The threat of famine is growing across the region. Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania and even Northern Nigeria are already experiencing food shortages. The strategic grain reserve in Nigeria is 65,000 tonnes short. There are reports of people crossing the Niger border into Nigeria in search of food. This is an area that has experienced communal clashes over resources.

“The Sahel is one of the most destitute regions in the world, and the spectre of hunger is pushing increasing numbers of people from the countryside into the cities, where they are searching for food to feed their families”, said Thomas Yanga of the WFP. Read the rest of this entry »

In the past few days, the wars over the world’s natural resources have been rekindled from the Amazon to the Niger Delta. Read the rest of this entry »

(Guardian) – US president to emphasise democratic goals for African countries during speech to Ghanaian parliament Read the rest of this entry »

With the Obama administration set to oversee significant increases in US security assistance programmes for African countries, Daniel Volman examines the US government’s plans for its military operations on the African continent over the coming financial year. Read the rest of this entry »