World-News

A new study just published in the journal Science confirms a significant decrease in the numbers and variety of pollinating insects in Europe as well as an associated decline of the wild plants they service.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072406H.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=bees
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=bees

Global free trade talks, billed as a once-in-a-generation chance to boost growth and ease poverty, collapsed on Monday after nearly five years of haggling, and resuming them could take years. The suspension of the World Trade Organization's Doha round came after major trading powers failed in a last-ditch bid to overcome differences on reforming world farm trade. The European Union and India firmly pointed the finger at the United States for the final breakdown.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072406A.shtml

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0724-28.htm


Informant: binstock

Sender: info@million-against-nuclear.net

Summer 2006 - Campaign Update for People Who Signed

MORE THAN 420.000 PEOPLE SIGNED HELP US REACH THE MILLION - ASK THREE FRIENDS!

Dear friends for a nuclear-free Europe,

Some time ago you have signed the European petition "1 Million Europeans Against Nuclear Power". We have now gathered well over 420.000 signatures. More and more come in every day, both by website and on paper. This summer, signatures will be gathered in more than 25 European countries in churches, concerts, markets and festivals. Through the websites we are receiving thousands of digital signatures per week!

Nuclear power is still the most dangerous, dirty, expensive, irresponsible and unsustainable energy source there is. Politicians and industry try to convince us there is no alternative, but we know there is: energy saving & massive investments in renewables.

It is very important that many people say NO to nuclear power. But one million is a LOT. Please help us to reach the million and ask THREE of your friends to sign the petition as well! Below you will find an email message which you can easily send to your friends if they haven't signed yet.

If you would like to do MORE (yes please!), contact us at info@million-against-nuclear.net. Translations of the petition are available in Bulgarian, Catalan, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Macedonian, Portuguese, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish, Swedish and Ukrainian. Please see the website http://www.million-against-nuclear.net for more news and downloads.

Thanks...a million!

Frank van Schaik
Wendela de Vries
One Million Europeans Against Nuclear Power

Security agents in Jordan are torturing terrorism suspects on behalf of the United States in hopes of forcing confessions, the human rights watchdog Amnesty International contended in a new report Monday.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072406P.shtml

"The fact that the Court decided the case at all in the face of Congress's efforts to strip the Court of jurisdiction is remarkable in itself. That the Court then broke away from its history of judicial deference to security claims in wartime to rule against the President, not even pausing at the argument that the decisions of the commander in chief are 'binding on the courts,' suggests just how troubled the Court's majority was by the President's assertion of unilateral executive power. That the Court relied so centrally on international law in its reasoning, however, is what makes the decision truly momentous," writes David Cole.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072406O.shtml

An independent investigation has found that imprisoned former congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham took advantage of secrecy and badgered Congressional aides to help slip items into classified bills that would benefit him and his associates.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072406N.shtml

Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, meets Tony Blair in London today as violence in Iraq reaches a new crescendo and senior Iraqi officials say the break up of the country is inevitable.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072406K.shtml

"There is no way to tell exactly how this Middle East upheaval is going to unfold, and making any sort of prediction is a dangerous game," writes William Rivers Pitt. "There are, however, a number of disparate factors threaded through this situation that, if allowed to coalesce, will create an unspeakably dangerous convulsion that will be felt all across the globe."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072406J.shtml

I am helping to start a grassroots movement on behalf of free speech. When enough of us speak out, we can begin to make the needed differences. Please take this action. The children's future and very lives depend on you. Don't let them silence us. Please visit http://www.DontSilenceThePeople.org .

mofmars


Don't Silence The People - visit Don't Silence The People .org

What ever happened to free speech?

Recently Congressional offices began implementing a new technology, called Logic Puzzles, that will effectively block millions of emails from the constituents they represent.

http://www.DontSilenceThePeople.org

In a time when our political culture is increasingly becoming a pay to play exercise, any limit placed on the ability of ordinary citizens to make their voices heard is an unacceptable threat to our democratic principles and First Amendment rights.

A number of members of Congress have already implemented this new technology, and many more will soon. Join us to urge Congress to reject this threat to free speech and free assembly and make sure the people are not silenced. Please visit:
http://www.DontSilenceThePeople.org

And please tell your friends to do the same.

The U.S. Senate will vote later this week on a bill to open eight million acres off of Florida's west coast to offshore drilling. The safety of our oceans, cleanliness of our beaches, and the health and lives of our marine wildlife are in danger!

Click here to write your Senators today to demand that they protect our coasts and urge them to work towards a clean energy future!
http://ga3.org/campaign/OCSJuly2006

A few weeks ago we alerted you to a U.S. House bill that would do away with 25 years of crucial coastal protections and potentially allow widespread oil and gas drilling off our shores.

Despite strong and outspoken opposition from thousands of SOE activists like you, the House voted to pass this disastrous bill which was written by Big Oil's favorite Congressman, Representative Richard Pombo (R-CA).

Now our hopes lie with the Senate, which still has an opportunity to reject Big Oil’s attempt to open our coasts to drilling and to push for real solutions to our energy crisis – solutions that embrace innovative new energy-efficient technologies, cut pollution, and reduce our dependence on oil.

Our coasts and marine waters are destinations for thousands of vacationing families each year, sanctuary for fish and wildlife and a critical part of America's "sea to shining sea" natural heritage. They are the economic lifeblood for thousands of tourism and fishing communities, providing billions of dollars of economic activity and millions of jobs.

Oil and gas drilling would ruin our coasts and beaches. From 1990-1999, 1.8 million gallons of oil were spilled from offshore drilling platforms and pipelines in U.S. waters--an average of almost 500 gallons a day.

Additionally, each offshore operation produces 214,000 pounds of air pollutants each year, and tens of thousands of pounds of mercury have been dumped around Gulf oil rigs.

Click here to urge your Senators to vote NO on opening our precious coasts to drilling! http://ga3.org/campaign/OCSJuly2006

Once you’ve contacted your Senators, please click here to tell at least three friends, family members or co-workers about this urgent issue and encourage them to join you in contacting their Senators.
http://ga3.org/campaign/OCSJuly2006/forward/

Thank you for your continued dedication to protecting our coasts and keeping our wildlife safe.

Sincerely,

Julie Waterman
Campaign Director,
SaveOurEnvironment.org
info@saveourenvironment.org

Evidence that under President Bush, the nation's tax collection agency robs from the poor and turns a blind eye to the rich.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/07/23/the_wealthys_irs.php

Scott Galindez calls on the Democratic Party leadership to stay away from Connecticut and let the people decide between a real Democrat, Ned Lamont, or the "Republican" candidate, Joseph Lieberman.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072406Z.shtml


http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Lieberman

America's Future Foundation
by James N. Markels

07/23/06

But, contrary to NRO's rhetoric, we're not at war. At least not in a constitutional sense. And that's why the Supreme Court, although for somewhat the wrong reasons, got the right answer in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, where a military commission created to preside over a detainee's trial was stricken for being insufficient. During times of war a president is entitled to extra deference while prosecuting that war in order to ensure the best chances of victory. But in order for America to be at war, Congress has to declare it. That's a power expressly designated to Congress by the Constitution. We're not at war because NRO's writers think we're at war, nor because any president insists that we're at war...

http://tinyurl.com/nkxwa


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

http://www.ncc-1776.org/tle2006/tle377-20060723-03.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Boston Globe
by James Bovard

07/21/06

The federal government has inflated the 'No Fly List' to 200,000 names. But the list has nabbed more members of Congress than it has terrorists. US Senator Edward M. Kennedy and US Representative John Lewis have been inconvenienced by it, and anyone named David Nelson is likely to face a major interrogation each time he flies. Federal officials make it very difficult to correct the list, thus tormenting citizens who are guilty of nothing more than having a name resembling a name suspected sometime by some government official...

http://tinyurl.com/qyqvy


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Report

USA Today

07/23/06

The group Human Rights Watch said in a report released Sunday that U.S. military commanders encouraged abusive interrogations of detainees in Iraq, even after the Abu Ghraib prison scandal called attention to the issue in 2004. Between 2003 and 2005, prisoners were routinely physically mistreated, deprived of sleep and exposed to extreme temperatures as part of the interrogation process, the report said. 'Soldiers were told that the Geneva Conventions did not apply, and that interrogators could use abusive techniques to get detainees to talk,' wrote John Sifton, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch...

http://tinyurl.com/fr87s


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Christian Science Monitor

07/23/06

A floundering government campaign to crack down on militias and increasing sectarian killings have many Shiites turning to militias for protection, particularly radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's violent Mahdi Army. The US and British military have stepped up raids on its leadership after growing impatient with the new government's failure to arrest the militia's commanders. But Sunday, two suicide car bombs in the capital and one in the troubled northern oil city of Kirkuk killed a total of 60 Iraqis, as new Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki jetted off to Britain and the US for talks with Prime Minister Tony Blair and President George Bush on Iraq's crumbling security situation. Such violence only strengthens the hand of the militias...

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0724/p06s01-woiq.html



Sectarian break-up of Iraq is now inevitable, admit officials
The Independent [UK]

07/23/06

The Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, meets Tony Blair in London today as violence in Iraq reaches a new crescendo and senior Iraqi officials say the break up of the country is inevitable. A car bomb in a market in the Shia stronghold of Sadr City in Baghdad yesterday killed 34 people and wounded a further 60 and was followed by a second bomb in the same area two hours later that left a further eight dead. Another car bomb outside a court house in Kirkuk killed a further 20 and injured 70 people. 'Iraq as a political project is finished,' a senior government official was quoted as saying, adding: 'The parties have moved to plan B'...

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1193108.ece


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Lexington Herald-Leader

07/21/06

Four U.S. soldiers accused of murdering suspected insurgents during a raid in Iraq said they were under orders to 'kill all military age males,' according to sworn statements obtained by The Associated Press. The soldiers first took some of the men into custody because they were using two women and a toddler as human shields. They shot three of the men after the women and child were safe and say the men attacked them. 'The ROE (rule of engagement) was to kill all military age males on Objective Murray,' Staff Sgt. Raymond L. Girouard told investigators, referring to the target by its code name...

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/15094525.htm


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

18. Juli 2006

Heute entscheidet der Gemeinsame Bundesausschuss, ob künstliches Insulin (kurzwirksame Insulinanaloga) weiter Kassenleistung bleibt. Erwartet wird, dass Insulinanaloga in Zukunft nicht mehr von den Kassen bezahlt werden - basierend auf einer Empfehlung des Institut für Qualität und Wirtschaftlichkeit im Gesundheitswesen (IQWiG), das im Auftrag der Bundesregierung seit 2004 den Nutzen medizinischer Leistungen für den Patienten untersucht. Die Pharmaindustrie lief im Vorfeld Sturm gegen diese Entscheidung und das IQWiG im allgemeinen und griff dabei tief in den Giftschrank...

http://www.lobbycontrol.de/blog/index.php?p=281



Gemeinsamer Bundesausschuss entscheidet gegen die Pharmalobby

19. Juli 2006

Der Gemeinsame Bundesausschuss hat gestern wie erwartet entschieden, dass die Kosten für kurzwirksame Insulinanaloga von den Krankenkassen nicht mehr erstattet werden müssen.

http://www.lobbycontrol.de/blog/index.php?p=282



Lobbyisten hinterfragen freiwilliges Lobby-Register

12. Juli 2006

Auch Lobbyisten stellen den Vorschlag der EU-Kommission in Frage, ein Lobbyistenregister nur auf freiwilliger Basis einzuführen. Dies zeigten zwei Veranstaltungen zur Europäischen Transparenzinitiative heute in Berlin.

http://www.lobbycontrol.de/blog/index.php?p=279

Ein Kommentar

Nach dem Verzicht von Norbert Röttgen (CDU) auf den Posten als BDI-Hauptgeschäftsführer verschärft sich die Debatte über Abgeordnete mit Lobby-Nebentätigkeiten. Besonders im Zentrum steht Reinhard Göhner (CDU) sieht sich selbst Vorbild: „Es müßte im Gegenteil mehr Abgeordnete geben, die neben ihrem Mandat in der Wirtschaft arbeiten“. Aber in einer Demokratie kann die Einbeziehung diverser gesellschaftlicher Interessen nicht durch personelle Verflechtungen von Abgeordneten erfolgen.

Mehr: http://www.lobbycontrol.de/blog/index.php?p=286

19. Juli 2006

Die Staatsanwaltschaft Karlsruhe hat Anklage wegen Vorteilsgewährung gegen den EnBW-Chef, Utz Claasen, erhoben. Claasen habe an Weihnachten sechs Mitgliedern der baden-württembergischen Landesregierung und einem Staatssekretär der Bundesregierung WM-Tickets im Wert von über 2000 Euro geschickt, zusammen mit handschriftlichen persönlichen Wünschen und dem Dank für die gute Zusammenarbeit.

http://www.lobbycontrol.de/blog/index.php?p=283



Weiterer Ex-Politiker bei EnBW

12. Juli 2006

Mit dem ehemaligen baden-württembergischen Sozialminister Andreas Renner (CDU) beschäftigt EnBW in Zukunft einen weiteren Ex-Politiker. Renner soll in Zukunft laut Stuttgarter Nachrichten Konzernbevollmächtigter für regenerative Energien bei EnBW sein.

http://www.lobbycontrol.de/blog/index.php?p=280

Fetisch Lohnnebenkosten

„Es gibt wohl keinen Glaubenssatz, der in Deutschland ähnlich viele Anhänger hat, wie der, dass sinkende Lohnnebenkosten automatisch zu neuen Arbeitsplätzen führen. Seit Jahren richtet sich die Politik an diesem Credo aus…“ Kolumne von Sebastian Dullien in Financial Times Deutschland vom 21.7.06 http://www.ftd.de/meinung/leitartikel/98074.html


Aus: LabourNet, 24. Juli 2006

--------

Der Fetisch der zu hohen Lohnnebenkosten muss entzaubert werden. Die bisherigen Reformen der sozialen Sicherungssysteme sind eher finanzielle Verschiebemanöver, als dass sie ein solides Fundament schafften.

Beitrag von Ursula Engelen-Kefer dokumentiert bei den NachDenkSeiten http://www.nachdenkseiten.de/cms/front_content.php?client=1&lang=1&idcat=7&idart=2010


Aus: LabourNet, 16. August 2006

--------

Mantra »Lohnnebenkosten«

Info-Grafik Sozialpolitik von Johannes Steffen (Arbeitnehmerkammer Bremen) vom 29.08.2006 (pdf) http://www.arbeitnehmerkammer.de/sozialpolitik/doku/01_aktuell/ticker/2006/2006_08_29_info_grafik_lohnnebenkosten.pdf


Aus: LabourNet, 31. August 2006

--------

Das Märchen von den Lohnnebenkosten

Mantra "Lohnnebenkosten"

Info-Grafik von Johannes Steffen, Arbeitnehmerkammer Bremen, in einer Überarbeitung vom 11.12.06 (pdf) http://www.arbeitnehmerkammer.de/sozialpolitik/doku/01_aktuell/ticker/2006/2006_12_11_info_grafik_lohnnebenkosten.pdf


Aus: LabourNet, 13. Dezember 2006

--------

Kapitale Hütchenspieler

„Mal offen, mal verdeckt: Lohnsenkungsstrategien der Unternehmerlobby kommen wie gehabt als Reformvorschläge daher. Es vergeht kein Monat, in dem nicht ein Repräsentant der Unternehmerlobby den angeblich zu hohen Anteil der Sozialabgaben an den Löhnen beklagt…“ Artikel von Hubert Zaremba in junge Welt vom 04.08.2007 http://www.jungewelt.de/2007/08-04/013.php


Aus: LabourNet, 7. August 2007



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Lohnnebenkosten
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Sozialabgaben

You may probably already know that tomorrow is the annual shareholders meeting by Vodafone. Sorry, don't, as yet, know where it is to be held but it could be a great opportunity for a demonstration!! Many of the shareholders are very unhappy with the performance of Vodafone and want to see the back of Sarin. Vodafone aren't doing well.

Trawling through bbc.co.uk and going into business site and looking at Vodafone, all kinds of things came up. Particularly heartbreaking, under the heading "Rural Africa joins mobile revolution"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4036503.stm is a picture of an African woman wielding a hoe under the shadow of a phone mast. "their land surrounds a 50 metre mobile telecommunication transmitter, part of a modern network which is gradually opening up some of Tanzania's poorest and most remote regions to mobile telecommunications.

3 operators, Vodacom, Celtel and Mobitel, are busy rolling out networks while a fourth, Zantel is based on the island of Zanzibar." Siemens is overseeing the building work of base stations in Tanzania. "Mr. Lyakurwa's team of riggers, all of whom are Tanzanian, scale the base stations, installing communications equipment, which link the towers and create a mobile network." There's lots more on this, too much to put on an email, but interesting and horrifying. Many of the very poor can hardly afford to eat, but will soon feel pressurised to buy a mobile. And we can bet the Operators won't tell them about the dangers of the technology - only how good it all is. Still on the bbc.co.uk business, did you know that Hutchison Whampoa which controls the 3UK network is suing one of its partners - the Dutch firm KPN. "We have instituted legal proceedings in London against KPN mobile for breach of contract and to claim damages for that breach" a Hutchison spokeswoman said. AND Hutchison have sent out a circular saying they have acquired the entire issued share capital of Indusind Telecom Network Ltd., (a company incorporated in India) Reading through that, it is interesting to note that one of the vendors is Hinduja TMT, (along with lnNetwork Entertainment, Kumbat and Pacific Horizon. (Is this the Hinduja that Blair and his cronies were associated with and there was a huge embarrassment?)

Where there's muck there's money, and the telecom industry, along with the politicians are very mucky. If you want to read loads and loads on the telecom businesses, use the bbc. site whilst it is still there.

Vivienne B.

"Informieren, die Praktiken der Herrscher transparent machen, da ist die erste Aufgabe des Intellektuellen. Die Vampire fürchten das Tageslicht wie die Pest." Diesen Satz schrieb Jean Ziegler, UNO-Sonderberichterstatter für das Recht auf Nahrung, in seinem Buch: "Das Imperium der Schande" auf Seite 286.

Jeder, der die Mobilfunklügen, die mit großem finanziellen Aufwand verbreitet werden, durchschaut sollte immer an diese Sätze denken und sich - nach seinen Möglichkeiten - an der Aufklärung der Mitbürger, Politiker, Ärzte usw. beteiligen. Die Unwissenheit der Bevölkerung über die Gefahren des Mobilfunks ist nämlich riesengroß! Wir wollen doch nicht tatenlos zusehen, wie die Gesundheit unserer Kinder und unsere eigene dem Götzen Gewinn geopfert wird!

Mit freundlichen Grüßen

Bürgerinitiative Icking zum Schutz vor Strahlenbelastung
G. Pischeltsrieder

AND THAT COULD SPEED UP GLOBAL WARMING WITH 'INCALCULABLE CONSEQUENCES', SAYS ALARMING NEW RESEARCH

By Geoffrey Lean in Manaus and Fred Pearce
The Independent
July 23, 2006

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article1191932.ece

The vast Amazon rainforest is on the brink of being turned into desert, with catastrophic consequences for the world's climate, alarming research suggests. And the process, which would be irreversible, could begin as early as next year.

Studies by the blue-chip Woods Hole Research Centre, carried out in Amazonia, have concluded that the forest cannot withstand more than two consecutive years of drought without breaking down.

Scientists say that this would spread drought into the northern hemisphere, including Britain, and could massively accelerate global warming with incalculable consequences, spinning out of control, a process that might end in the world becoming uninhabitable.

The alarming news comes in the midst of a heatwave gripping Britain and much of Europe and the United States. Temperatures in the south of England reached a July record of 36.3C on Tuesday. And it comes hard on the heels of a warning by an international group of experts, led by the Eastern Orthodox "pope" Bartholomew, last week that the forest is rapidly approaching a "tipping point" that would lead to its total destruction.

The research carried out by the Massachusetts-based Woods Hole centre in Santarem on the Amazon river has taken even the scientists conducting it by surprise. When Dr Dan Nepstead started the experiment in 2002 by covering a chunk of rainforest the size of a football pitch with plastic panels to see how it would cope without rain he surrounded it with sophisticated sensors, expecting to record only minor changes.

The trees managed the first year of drought without difficulty. In the second year, they sunk their roots deeper to find moisture, but survived. But in year three, they started dying. Beginning with the tallest the trees started to come crashing down, exposing the forest floor to the drying sun.

By the end of the year the trees had released more than two-thirds of the carbon dioxide they have stored during their lives, helping to act as a break on global warming. Instead they began accelerating the climate change.

As we report today on pages 28 and 29, the Amazon now appears to be entering its second successive year of drought, raising the possibility that it could start dying next year. The immense forest contains 90 billion tons of carbon, enough in itself to increase the rate of global warming by 50 per cent.

Dr Nepstead expects "mega-fires" rapidly to sweep across the drying jungle. With the trees gone, the soil will bake in the sun and the rainforest could become desert.

Dr Deborah Clark from the University of Missouri, one of the world's top forest ecologists, says the research shows that "the lock has broken" on the Amazon ecosystem. She adds: the Amazon is "headed in a terrible direction".


Informant: NHNE

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/15104674.htm


Informant: NHNE

Now, in federal courthouses from Charleston, W.Va., to Denver, federal officials and state and local authorities are being forced to defend themselves against lawsuits challenging arrests and security policies. While the circumstances differ, the cases share the same fundamental themes. Generally, they accuse federal officials of developing security measures to identify, segregate, deny entry or expel dissenters.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072306C.shtml

Bombs exploded Sunday in Baghdad and the northern oil center of Kirkuk, killing more than 60 people and dramatically escalating tension as the prime minister left for Washington for talks on reversing the country's slide toward civil war.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072306A.shtml

Unexpected Russian opposition to key wording of a U.S.-backed Security Council draft resolution is straining international unity on how to deal with Iran's nuclear defiance, U.N. diplomats said Saturday.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-07-22-russia-iran_x.htm?csp=34


From Information Clearing House

Torture and other abuses against detainees in U.S. custody in Iraq were authorized and routine, even after the 2004 Abu Ghraib scandal, according to new accounts from soldiers.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14155.htm



“No Blood, No Foul”

Soldiers’ Accounts of Detainee Abuse in Iraq

Full report
http://hrw.org/reports/2006/us0706/


From Information Clearing House



U.S.: Soldiers Tell of Detainee Abuse in Iraq

The accounts reveal that detainee abuse was an established and apparently authorized part of the detention and interrogation processes in Iraq for much of 2003-2005. They also suggest that soldiers who sought to report abuse were rebuffed or ignored.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14156.htm

Iraq's parliament speaker Mahmud Mashhadani bitterly criticized US forces in Iraq, accusing them of "butchery" and demanded that they pull out of the country.

http://tinyurl.com/s364c


From Information Clearing House

--------

Iraqi Parliament Speaker: Invasion and Aftermath "Work of Butchers"

The speaker of the Iraqi Parliament criticized the American government's involvement in Iraq on Saturday, likening the invasion and its consequences to "the work of butchers" and demanding that the American authorities disentangle themselves from Iraq's political affairs.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072406D.shtml

Sun, 23/07/06

by Mary Earls

AN APPLICATION to erect a telecommunications mast on the roof of Villier’s Secondary School has been turned down by Limerick City Council recently.

Hutchison 3G Ireland Ltd had applied for planning permission to put a 5m white flagpole on the rooftop of the school with antennae last May.

However, concerned parents, school staff, nearby residents and Cllrs were outraged over the application and the possible adverse health conditions resulting from the mast’s radiation.

The main reasons cited for refusing the mast were health risks and property value.

Welcoming the decision, Pat O’Donovan, PRO with Better Environmental and Safer Telecommunications (BEST) told the Limerick Post this week that he was delighted with the "strong condemnation” of the mast from city planners."It is one of the most detailed condemnations of a mast planning application that I have come across in a long while. I am delighted that Limerick City Council was so broadminded. It was a very detailed refusal, like it wasn’t refused on weak grounds. And that is why I don’t think it will be appealed to An Bord Pleanala, especially with the strong opposition as well. They hit them very hard on the refusal,” he said.

A spokesperson from the planning department at City Hall explained that the application was turned down because the proposed mast, being on a school site and near housing, would "detract from the amenities of the area” and "depreciate the value of the residential properties”.

The mast would also be "potentially prejudicial to public health,”due to its location and proximity to residential areas, according to the planners.

And it would "materially convene” the provisions of two policies of the Limerick City Development Plan.

City planners also believed the development would set "an undesirable precedent for similar development in Limerick city and would be contrary to the proper planning and sustainable development of the area”.

Mr O’Donovan said that this refusal also marks "a change in thinking,” as regards planning for mobile phone masts.

"Before phone masts would just be planted down without question. But now the planners are inspecting every single aspect of a planning application much more seriously. Hutchison 3G will have some neck if they do appeal this application because of the strong wording of the refusal and the level of opposition. Any level minded person wouldn’t take this further,” he said.

He said that they were also delighted that the planning department stated that it would depreciate the value of property - "as this is something that does really affect house prices in an area”.

There was also widespread condemnation over the fact that the Board of management at the school issued a letter saying that they "consented to this planning application based on research and subject to all current Health and Safety guidelines”.

And there were also reports that staff, parents and students at Villier’s School were reluctant to complain about the proposed 3G Mast, because of alleged intimidation.

Mr O’Donovan said at the time that money was the driving force behind the plan as the school would have received a windfall of thousands of euro, if the planning permission was approved.

A student at Villier’s secondary school had told the Limerick Post that many parents were considering sending solicitor’s letters to management holding them directly responsible for any adverse health effects they may suffer from the planned installation of the 3G mast on the school’s roof.

And the student, who doesn’t want to be named, said that the students had planned a protest in September if the planning is appealed to An Bord Pleanala.

Former Mayor, Cllr Michael Hourigan, who attended a public BEST meeting for people who were opposed to the mast, said that he is also delighted with the decision. And he said that he was shocked by the many negative reports of the effect of mobile phone masts on the health and well-being of people living beside them, which he heard at the meeting.

Mr O’Donovan explained that many people attending the meeting who lived in close proximity to a mast talked about the "constant headaches, fatigue, nausea and a sensation of burning in their heads”.

And he claimed that there were also higher instances of cancer and people suffering from other diseases when they lived near a mast.

BEST is continuing to hold protest marches against mobile phone masts around the country - with a recent one in Ennis attracting over 1,000 people, including many Limerick people.

In Limerick the Kilmeedy mast application is still with Limerick County Council, and both the Broadford and Carrigkerry (near Ardagh) ones have been refused by the local authority and are being appealed to An Bord Pleanala.

© Limerick Post Newspapers 2006

http://www.limerickpost.ie/dailynews.elive?id=7528&category=Daily-Sun

http://www.thenewamerican.com/birchblog/index.php?m=07&y=06&entry=entry060720-151018


Informant: Lew Rockwell

http://tjh.elequity.com/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=189

FRANKENFOODS - genetically modified plant foods and livestock
http://tjh.elequity.com/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=191

Dog Food Producer To Avoid Genetically-Manipulated Ingredients
http://tjh.elequity.com/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=193

Safety aspects of genetically modified foods of plant origin
http://tjh.elequity.com/file.php/1/moddata/forum/8/332/20questions_en.pdf

Evaluation of Allergenicity of Genetically Modified Foods
http://tjh.elequity.com/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=195

Monsanto's Modus Operandi
http://www.omega-news.info/monsanto.htm

http://www.timesrecord.com/website/main.nsf/news.nsf/0/CEEB7B690B75DE64052571B20063FA00?Opendocument


From Global Network

http://www.nokilldeclaration.org/pages/1/index.htm


Informant: Sunshine