by Noel K. Gallagher | Portland Press Herald

PORTLAND, Maine - Oakhurst Dairy owner Stanley Bennett welcomed the news that Monsanto was divesting itself of its controversial dairy hormone business, after taking on the agribusiness giant in an expensive David-and-Goliath legal battle five years ago.

by Dan Glaister | The Guardian UK

Facing five charges of distributing illegal drugs, [Charles Lynch, the proprietor of Central Coast Compassionate Caregivers] was found guilty in a Los Angeles courtroom of selling 100kg (220lb) of marijuana. He faces between five and 85 years in prison; his lawyers intend to appeal.

"...it is, I think, fairly clear that in future a human body, from the moment of conception, will not be regarded merely as something which must be left to grow in accordance with natural forces, with no human interference beyond what is required for the preservation of health. The tendency of scientific technique is to cause everything to be regarded as not just a brute datum, but raw material for the carrying out of some human purpose." - Bertrand Russell, 1931

By Barbara Ehrenreich - July, 31 2008

Suicide is becoming an increasingly popular response to debt...Death is an effective remedy for debt, along with anything else that may be bothering you...And try to think of it too from a lofty, corner-office, perspective: If you can't pay your debts or afford to play your role as a consumer, and if, in addition -- like an ever-rising number of Americans -- you're no longer needed at the workplace, then there's no further point to your existence...The alternative is to value yourself more than any amount of money and turn the guns...in the other direction. It wasn't God, or some abstract economic climate change, that caused the credit crisis. Actual humans...did that...

Ahni

In recent years, the Peguis First Nation, a community of 7,200 in northern Manitoba, has been faced with a drug abuse epidemic. Last fall, [...t]he northern community opted to enact a bylaw that stipulates banishment as a penalty for anyone caught dealing drugs, and that requires all band members to pass a drug-screening test.

Northern and Indian Affairs Canada (INAC) is not impressed.

Jack Woodward and the Beaver Lake Cree aim to change Canadian law -- and their success likely would throw a huge wrench into Alberta's tar-sands oil production.

The suit pits the Beaver Lake Cree band against the governments of Canada and Alberta, asking the court to rule invalid the government authorization for thousands of petroleum projects on the band's core territory.

NAIROBI - More than 14 million people in the east Africa region require urgent food aid due to drought and spiralling cereal and fuel prices, aid agencies say.

July 21, 2008 | Intercontinental Cry

The Indigenous Municipality of Tilcara, in northern Argentina’s Quebrada de Humahuaca district, has ratified legislation that prohibits open-pit metal mining...

"...what Rome Resources cannot do in their country of origin, their subsidiary Uranio AG and Uranios del Sur, will attempt to do in...[Argentina]."

By NICHOLAS BAKALAR - New York Times

The rapid rise in tuberculosis cases in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union is strongly associated with the receipt of loans from the International Monetary Fund, a new study has found...[T]hey found that the increase in tuberculosis mortality followed the lending; each 1 percent increase in credit was associated with a 0.9 percent increase in mortality. And when a country left an I.M.F. loan program, mortality rates dropped by an average of 31 percent.

Israeli lawlessness threatens a grave West Bank water shortage.

By john teevins

Somewhere between 15 and 18 years ago I wrote my first batch of songs. The lyrics to the chorus of one of them are as follows: "we the abused we stand accused - of crimes committed against us"

I am a 39 year old survivor of physical, emotional and sexual violence and I am a full time smoker. I have been and still am receiving focused, trustworthy, loving and professional help for the first time in my life and the positive results are astounding.

Burma, the survivors of cyclone Nargis have suffered greatly since General Than Shwe kept aid workers from reaching the vast majority of these people in the delta. How are they surviving? You would not believe it...

"Education in a scientific society may, I think, be best conceived after the analogy of the education provided by the Jesuits. The Jesuits provided one sort of education for the boys who were to become ordinary men of the world, and another for those who were to become members of the Society of Jesus. In like manner, the scientific rulers will provide one kind of education for ordinary men and women, and another for those who are to become holders of scientific power. Ordinary men and women will be expected to be docile, industrious, punctual, thoughtless, and contented. Of these qualities probably contentment will be considered the most important. In order to produce it, all the researches of psycho-analysis, behaviourism, and biochemistry will be brought into play."

In light of recent aggressive efforts by Canada's "national newspaper" the Globe and Mail to promote the concept of psychological difficulties as "mental illness" here is some more critical views. The belief that personal problems in the abstract constitute a "disease" is a very reactionary notion.

TORONTO -- Canadian security officials kept a close watch on aboriginal rights protests across the country last summer, fearing violence and disruption, according to newly declassified government documents.

Intelligence reports obtained by National Post reveal for the first time how the Canadian government tracked "ongoing and planned protests" by First Nations and their supporters from British Columbia to the Maritimes.