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Aug 15'45: V-J Day but Korea divided; Aug 15'10: US-S Korea military drills..Korea-South-North tension increased
Top: 15 August 1945. American servicemen and women gather in front of "Rainbow Corner" Red Cross club in Paris to celebrate the unconditional surrender of the Japanese. Bottom: 14 August 1945. Residents of Oak Ridge (one of the three main sites of the Manhattan Project), TN, fill Jackson Square to celebrate the surrender of Japan.
Surrender of Japan, Tokyo Bay, 2 September 1945: Japanese representatives on board USS Missouri (BB-63) during the surrender ceremonies. Standing in front are: Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu (wearing top hat) and General Yoshijiro Umezu, Chief of the Army General Staff.
The U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington leaves for joint naval and air drills with South Korea at a naval port in Busan, South Korea, July 25, 2010. South Korea and the United States on Sunday began their large-scale joint military drills off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula as scheduled.
Tensions between North and South Korea are boiling. read more »
Pacific Ocean. Endangered sei, sperm whales being hunted plea for mercy. Whaling fleet with 200+ crew set sail, mid-June 2010
A former Japanese whaler comes forward to the Guardian UK. Read 'Mr. Whale's' testimony
A Japanese whaling fleet left port this week with a quota to kill 260 whales in the North Pacific. Three harpoon ships and two research vessels left ports in Japan yesterday, carrying more than 200 crew. The fleet aims to kill 100 minke whales, 100 sei whales, 50 Bryde's whales and 10 sperm whales before late August. read more »
Tokyo. Who's on trial, face jail? Whalers - hunting quota cut in half - cut antiwhaling Ady Gil (Earthrace) in half
In Tokyo court on trial today stands a New Zealander detained in Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary waters when delivering a citizen’s arrest. An international case all about whales. Who is guilty: whalers who killed 507 whales? Or anti-whaler who risked his life and lost his boat to have helped save 528 whales? The 1000-ton whaling vessel Shonan Maru 2 who cut 17-ton-fibreglass anti-whaling boat in half? Key witnesses are missing: the slaughtered whales packaged for the meat market and the saved whales [some are being hunted to extinction] who are free and happily enjoying the blue oceans and nursing their offspring. Remember, oceans and sea life do not only belong to all of us regardless of cultural background, but more so to our children, and children’s children. If the anti-whaler is guilty, who is not? The Ocean is dying...
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McCain vs McCain. Daughter Meghan against Sen. John McCain, calling AZ anti-illegal immigration law "license to discriminate"
Meghan McCain has come out against the controversial Arizona anti-illegal immigration law, despite her father's - Sen. John McCain - clear defense of it.
A demonstrator is taken into custody for blocking a street at a federal detention center in Broadview, Ill., to stop deportations from being carried out. Some protesters chanted “Illinois is not Arizona”.
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It's McCain vs. McCain. Meghan McCain criticizes Arizona's anti-illegal immigrant law, as dad Sen. John McCain defends it. As Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) makes the rounds on television, standing up for the Arizona immigration law that has sparked protests and outrage nationwide, his daughter calls it "a license to discriminate." "Let me say up-front that I do not support the bill that was signed by Governor Jan Brewer," Meghan McCain wrote in her Daily Beast blog on Wednesday. "I believe it gives the state police a license to discriminate, and also, in many ways, violates the civil rights of Arizona residents."
Sen. McCain, however, feels the law will not become corrupted, as his daughter fears. "I do not want any discriminatory behavior, and I've talked to a group of lawmen," the senior senator from Arizona said on CBS' "The Early Show" Tuesday. "They think they can implement this law without racial profiling." read more »
Turn clock back 25 years to legalize commercial whaling? 2,039,621 whales killed, <3k fin escaped hunting, protector in cell
Left: Captain Paul Watson & 'Steve Irwin'. Top R: Skipper Pete Bethune. Ignoring 6 crew in sight, the 750-ton iron-and-steel ship Shonan Maru 2 sliced 17-ton fiberglass ecoboat Earthrace/Ady Gil into two when it was idle in the water, waiting to be refueled, 6 crew sitting on the deck, chatting.
Fin whale, the 2nd largest mammal on earth: size comparison against an average human. Scientists calculate that 2,039,621 whales were killed in Antarctica's Southern Ocean during the decades of industrial whaling, including roughly three quarters of a million fin whale.
Top L: In 2006, Iceland killed the endangered fin whale for the 1st time since the 1980s. Top R & Bottom R: free & imprisoned Pete Bethune, skipper of Ady Gil / Earthrace.
Captain Paul Watson leads Sea Shepherd, volunteers & ocean guardians, spending 8 months per year at sea, fighting illegal whalers, sealers, and shark and dolphin fishermen. The latest Sea Shepherd Whale Defense campaign cut Japan whalers’ quota in half & saved 528 whales. 750,000 fin whales, the 2nd largest creature, were killed in the S. Hemisphere alone between 1904-79, & less than 3,000 currently remain. IWC's compromise would legalize commercial whaling. The endangered fin whale would continue to be a target. read more »
Legal battles for Earth: Amazon defenders & James Cameron stall dam; Malaysian Judge gives lands back to rainforest community
Avatar director James Cameron played a part in halting an industrial development project that threatens indigenous people of the Amazon.
Palm oil plantation. Inset: deforestation by a logging company around a Penan village in the Middle Baram region in Sarawak.
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The Avatar director and one of its stars have played a part in halting an industrial development project that threatens indigenous people of the Amazon. Earlier this week, we brought you the story of James Cameron and Sigourney Weaver's trip to Brazil to raise awareness of the indigenous communities’ battles to stop the massive Belo Monte Dam on the Xingu River in the Amazon rainforest. We are now happy to report that the Dam Project Auctions have been canceled, and both stars are now in Washington DC for meetings with US Government officials.
Judge Antonio Carlos de Almeida Campelo granted a preliminary injunction (urgent) seeing “danger of irreparable harm” considering the imminence of the auction. The decision is the result of the assessment of one of two public civil actions filed by federal prosecutors dealing with irregularities of the enterprise. It focuses specifically on the lack of regulation of Article 176 of the Federal Constitution of Brazil, which requires the issuing of an ordinary law for the use of hydraulic potential on Indian lands. read more »
Sushi-cide tragedy. Eat bluefin tuna (97% gone) to extinction? Oceans at our mercy. We have a choice...
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The Economist magazine calls CITES suppress- ion of debate on bluefin tuna dis- honorable: IT WAS a moment of some drama when delegates assembled in Doha came to vote on a ban in the trade in bluefin tuna on March 18th. The previous evening many represent- atives of the 175 member nations of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) had been at a reception at the Japanese embassy. Prominent on the menu was bluefin tuna sushi. On the agenda the next day at the CITES meeting was a proposal to list the bluefin tuna as sufficiently endangered that it would qualify for a complete ban in the trade of the species (The Economist supports such a ban). read more »
US bailout tab: $3 trillion. Why not rescue Arizona's heritage of Nature? Prevent entire state parks to close due to budget cut
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Arizona decides to close most state parks
Facing a multibillion-dollar shortfall, the state will shut 13 parks by June. Several had already been closed. Wrestling with a multibillion-dollar budget deficit, Arizona decided Friday to close nearly all of its state parks, including the famed Tombstone Courthouse and Yuma Territorial Prison. The State Parks Board unanimously voted to close 13 parks by June 3. Eight others had already been closed, and the decision would leave nine open -- but only if the board can raise $3 million this year. The action represents the largest closure of state parks in the nation, although several other states are considering similar moves.
21 of 30 state parks will be closed: The Arizona State Parks Board voted unanimously Friday to begin shuttering state parks, a move that will leave the parks system with fewer than one third of its properties open by June 3 read more »
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