AUDIO-Questioning Biotechnologies http://www.radiomundoreal.fm/Questioning-Biotechnologies?lang=es

The Conference of Agricultural Biotechnologies in Developing Countries (ABDC-10) organized by FAO will be held in Guadalajara, Mexico, from March 1st to March 4th. The conference will analyze the “opportunities” offered by biotechnology as a way to solve the food crisis suffered by almost a billion people in the world.In parallel, the Network in Defense of Corn, Via Campesina North America and the National Assembly of environmentally affected people of Mexico called to participate in the event “GMOs steal our future”, to be carried out in Guadalajara as well, from February 28th to March 3rd.

However, the ABDC-10 will take place “amid national and international criticism due to the authorization to grow GM corn in Mexico”, stated the organizers of the parallel event.After 10 years of banning GM corn, the Mexican government authorized to experiment with these crops, after a process that according to thousands of peasants, indigenous people, experts and environmentalists was filled with irregularities.

The alternative activities of the social movements will have the support of international networks, such as the ETC Group and GRAIN, organization that promotes food systems based on biodiversity and its control by communities. The organizers of the parallel activities believe FAO´s conference is a “serious” attempt to promote the interests of transnational corporations in the rural and food sectors.While the solutions promoted by peasants and environmentalists “have nothing to do with the use of expensive and patented technologies which are controlled by a few companies”.This kind of technologies impose health risks, and are detrimental to the environment and the biodiversity of the planet. The social movements warn that native varieties of corn are “highly threatened”.

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AUDIO-No Change Honduras: two murders and death squads denounced  http://www.radiomundoreal.fm/No-Change

Nothing has changed for Honduran social activists with the arrival of Porfirio Lobo as president. Persecutions, threats and murders are still commonplace in the Central American country. The Peoples´ National Resistance Front denounced yesterday at a press conference held in Tegucigalpa, capital city of the country, the murder of Vanessa Zepeda and Julio Funes, members of the organization, and the forced eviction of other activists.

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NIGERIA: U.S. Concerned About Yar'Adua's Return http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50454

U.S. officials expressed concern here Wednesday that the return of Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua, after a three-month stay in a Saudi hospital, could destabilise the oil-rich West African country.While his spokesman said that Yar'Adua's vice president, Goodluck Jonathan, will continue for now to serve as acting president, a position to which he was elected by the National Assembly two weeks ago, officials here said the return could result in a significant increase in tensions. 

Yar'Adua's return, however, could mark the first step in a strategy to challenge Jonathan, whose efforts to reassure oil companies, resume an anti-corruption campaign, and restore calm to the country have been well received by Washington and other Western capitals. "We hope that President Yar'Adua's return to Nigeria is not an effort by his senior advisers to upset Nigeria's stability and create renewed uncertainty in the democratic process," Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson said in a statement released here and by the U.S. embassy in Nigeria shortly after his overnight return was reported.

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St. Regis Mohawks Receiving CITGO Heating Fuel http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2010/02/st-regis-mohawks-receiving-citgo.html

HOGANSBURG — Though spring fever is setting in, heating help is still on the way to the St. Regis Mohawk tribe. For the third year in a row, the tribe will receive funds from Venezuelan government-owned Citgo. Qualified applicants will receive approximately 100 gallons of free home heating fuel to help get them through the winter, according to the tribe.Other than the five boroughs of New York City, the tribe is the only community in the state to receive help, according to Citgo officials."It's for tribes in the north for whom heating becomes a survival issue," said David T. Staddon, director of public information for the tribe. "We are the northernmost tribe in the state."

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The Tar Sands Oilympics http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxWxKNFErB0

The London Tar Sands Network and London Rising Tide hold the inaugural Tar Sands Oilympics in Trafalgar Square, London. Corporate contenders RBS, Shell and newcomer BP compete for the chance to wreak environmental havoc in their scramble for Canada's tar sands.

In the process they will lay waste to vast areas of boreal forest, poison First Nations communities and push the planet towards catastrophic climate change.  The race for the most polluting fossil fuel resource on the planet is on. Forget the Winter Olympics in Canada, the real competition for the future of the planet is here.

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Ecuador strongly defends relations with Iran, in spite of black list http://ecuador-rising.blogspot.com/2010/02/ecuador-strongly-defends-relations-with.html

Ecuador's inclusion on an international list of nations accused of lagging in the fight against money laundering is a hypocritical punishment for its relations with Iran, Ecuador's president said during his weekly television address.Under Correa, Ecuador has strengthened diplomatic and commercial ties with Iran, which has opened an embassy in Quito and is forging wider relations across Latin America despite the concerns of Washington.

The United States and its European allies have been trying to pressure Iran to suspend its disputed nuclear program, which the West fears is a cover to build bombs. Tehran says it is for peaceful purposes.“What arrogance! And why? Because we have relations with Iran, that's it; this has nothing to do with the struggle against money laundering”, said Correa during a political rally.The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force, or FATF, comprising governments and regional organizations, named Ecuador this week among Iran and others as nations failing to comply with international regulations against money laundering and financing terrorism.

“We have been blacklisted along with Iran, Ethiopia, Angola and North Korea. We are the financiers of terrorism in the world!” Correa said indignantly. He added “it's a stick so you don't misbehave, naughty boy. You didn't do what I said, don't get involved with Iran. So because you went ahead, we'll put you on the blacklist, that's all.”The FATF said in its report, released on Thursday, that Ecuador had not “constructively engaged” with it and had “not committed” to global standards on money crimes.Correa said Ecuador's two dozen banks had perfectly adequate legislation to protect against laundering and terrorism financing and dismissed the report as “a huge lie.”

Drawing cheers from his audience, Correa asked why nobody had mentioned Brazil, which also has growing ties with Iran and hosted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad late last year. He said international authorities should put pressure instead on rich nations like the United States and Switzerland over money laundering in their financial systems.Ecuador's private bank association also said on Friday it thought the Iran factor was behind the nation's inclusion on the FATF list. It noted a 2009 agreement between Ecuador's Central Bank and some Iranian financial institutions.