Quoted from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7382859.stm:

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Malaysia plans women travel curbs

Malaysia plans women travel curbs

The proposal has been criticised as impractical and regressive Women’s groups in Malaysia have reacted angrily to proposed government restrictions on women travelling abroad on their own. State media say the plan would require women to obtain written consent from their families or employers. The Malaysian foreign minister said the move would prevent single women being used by gangs to smuggle drugs. The proposal follows a review of criminal cases where women had been jailed abroad. Outrage Foreign Minister Rais Yatim said 90% of cases where Malaysian women had been jailed by foreign courts involved drugs. He told the New Sunday Times newspaper that a compulsory letter of consent to travel alone would enable women’s families to make sure they were not being tricked by drug smuggling gangs. “Many of these women (who travel alone) leave the country on the pretext of work or attending courses and seminars,” he said. “With this declaration, we will know for sure where and for what she is travelling overseas,” he said. Women’s groups have expressed outrage at the plan. The National Council for Women’s Organisations said it would infringe women’s rights. Another group, Sisters in Islam, said the proposal was totally ridiculous and regressive, and assumed that women were less capable than men of making their own decisions. Campaigners have pointed out that letters of permission to travel would be very easy to forge. In recent years the influence of hardline Islamic groups has been increasing in Malaysia, but it is unclear whether this proposal has any religious motive.

originally published by EarthRights International

EarthRights International’s new report, The Human Cost of Energy: Chevron’s Continuing Role in Financing Oppression and Profiting From Human Rights Abuses in Military-Ruled Burma (Myanmar), documents Chevron’s ongoing role in financing and profiting from the military regime in Burma. This is the first comprehensive report on conditions in the Yadana pipeline region since Chevron acquired Unocal’s interest in 2005, and documents the continued serious human rights violations by pipeline security forces, including forced labor, murder, rape and torture. The report also describes Chevron’s continuing legal liability associated with abuses in the pipeline region. (See ERI’s Press Release on the report.)

The Yadana Gas Pipeline Project represents the single largest foreign investment project in Burma and the single largest source of income for the Burmese military. Run by a consortium including Chevron, Thai company PTT Exploration and Production Public Company Limited (PTTEP), Total (operator), and the Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE), the project does little to benefit the Burmese economy or its people.

Abuses including extrajudicial killings, torture, rape and extortion by pipeline security forces have dramatically increased since the Yadana Project was initiated in the early 1990s. Violations committed in furtherance of the project have included forced labor; forced portering, whereby villagers are made to carry arms and supplies for soldiers patrolling the pipeline route; and forced relocation of entire villages to clear the way for the pipeline and provide ready pools of forced laborers.

The influx of soldiers to the previously isolated region has also caused an increase in illegal hunting, logging, and wildlife trade. The Tenasserim region is one of the largest rainforest tracts left in mainland Southeast Asia, home to wild elephants, tigers, rhinos and great hornbills, to name just a few of the rare and important species that inhabit this region. It is also the home to numerous indigenous peoples, including the Mon, Karen, and Tavoyans. These peoples are experiencing the negative impacts of the environmental destruction as well as the human rights abuses that they must regularly suffer at the hands of the soldiers brought into the pipeline consortium partners, including Chevron and Total.

Learn more about the Yadana Pipeline and EarthRights International

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe’s opposition appeared set to retain its gains in parliament Saturday, as international pressure mounted for the release of results from the presidential vote that longtime leader Robert Mugabe is believed to have lost.

Continue reading at AP / Google

Of everything that bums me out, I think the world’s rapidly diminishing oil supply might take the cake. Even if oil is the source of many of the planet’s current problems, as we transition into a world with ever decreasing supplies, it certainly appears that things will only get worse.

One of the world’s leading peak oil experts is Matt Simmons, energy investment banker, former energy advisor to George W. Bush, and CEO of Simmons and Company International.

Watch him take on John Hoffmeister, CEO of Shell Oil USA.

Oil Firms ‘In Liquidation,’ Says Simmons

Matt Simmons responds to John Hoffmeister

Wanna learn more about Peak Oil?

Here are a couple of useful sites:

Twilight in the Desert - Matt Simmon’s book about the impact of the Saudi Peak

The End of Suburbia - A recent documentary about the impact of Peak Oil on the American way of life. A little slow at first, but the last few chapters are…I guess the word would be…shocking?

Transition Towns - A wiki for towns and cities worldwirde that have taken on the “Transition Model,” creating change at the local level in light of peak oil and climate change.

Nitro-Pak - Starting to feel a little panicky? Nitro-Pak is an online “preparedness” store. Everything you need to stock your fallout shelter, including night vision goggles, gas masks, radiation suits, and of course astronaut ice cream.

Officials from the Chinese Government are to hold a meeting “in the coming days” with a representative of the Dalai Lama, the state-controlled Xinhua news agency reported today.

“In view of the requests repeatedly made by the Dalai side for resuming talks, the relevant department of the central government will have contact and consultation with Dalai’s private representative in the coming days,” Xinhua said, quoting an unidentified Chinese official.

The rare, but not unprecedented contact, follows a recent crackdown in Tibet and global protests against the Beijing Olympic torch relay.

A spokesman for the Dalai Lama, who has been in exile in India since an abortive 1959 uprising against Chinese rule in Tibet, said that no communications has been received from China about any meeting.

“We have no information whatsoever about China wanting to meet representatives of his holiness,” Tenzin Taklha, a spokesman of the Dalai Lama, told Reuters from Dharamsala, the base of the Tibetan government-in-exile. “There has been no communication”.

He added that if the report was true it was “a step in the right direction, as only face-to-face meetings can lead to a resolution of the Tibetan issue.”

Read more at Times Online

In a televised interview tonight, French President Nicolas Sarkoy, facing no less than five journalists, will attempt to improve his image, at a time when little more than one French citizen in four feels that his leadership is going “in the right direction.”

President Sarkozy will attempt to straighten out his image Thursday night during a 90 minute interview, by explaining his current actions and focusing on future reforms.

“I’m expecting a plan for the following weeks and months, which will get us back on track for the reforms which must be made,” declared Prime Minister François Fillon Wednesday.

During this broadcast “Live from the Elysée Palace” which should last around 90 minutes the president will be questioned on a variety of subjects by reporters from France’s leading networks.

Little more than a quarter of French citizens currently feel that the Sarkozy’s leadership is going “in the right direction,” according to an opinion poll made public on Wednesday, which confirms a trend which has ben growing since mid-January. Primary complaints, according to this survey: too much “personalisation” of power, the exposition of his private life, and above all his incapacity to improve French purchasing power.

After having presented reforms already put in place (minimum wage for transportation workers, immigration, justices, special regimes…) Mr Sarkozy will attempt to explain his intentions for future reforms including: government institutions, hospital and health care, welfare, the environment, modernization of the workforce, defense, diplomacy, and others.

One year after his election to the presidency, several public opinion polls witness a strong rejection of his policies by a France which, in the vast majority, feels his first year in power has not fulfilled many of the promises lavished during his campaign,

Public opinion polls of the last days confirm a trend which has been growing noticeably since the beginning of the year and which was confirmed in the victory of the opposition parties in March’s municipal elections.

According to an IFOP-Fiducial poll for Paris match, made public Tuesday, 72% of French citizens are unhappy with Sarkozy’s record, compared with only 28% who claimed they were satisfied. An earlier IFOP poll, for the JDD, posted a record 79% of French considering that in one year, the president had not improved their situation.

The same severe judgement can be seen in a Viavoice poll for Libération: for 59% of those polled , the first year of Sarkozy’s five year term is “a setback”. Only 20% see a success.

According to Frederic Dabi of IFOP, the currant occupant of the Elysée palace has obtained, one year into his presidency, lower public approval rating that ratings than those of all his predecessors, including Jacques Chirac in 1996, coming out of the bitter national strike against increased retirement age.

This article is a translation of the original “Nicolas Sarkozy a 90 minutes pour convaincre” posted by L’Express at 07:43, 24 April 2008

All images courtesy of AFP

China: Ship carrying weapons to Zimbabwe may head home

Paris honors Dalai Lama, Chinese dissident

PARIS — French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s campaign to calm Chinese anger over the Olympic torch’s rough-and-tumble journey through the French capital faces one big obstacle: the French.

Continue reading at online.wsj.com

To get a better understanding of the recent breakdown in French - Chinese relations, I’ve assembled the following timeline of the key events of the past months. If you think I’m missing something, or have anything you’d like to add, let me know in the comments section.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

10 March - Dharamsala, India - Hundreds of Tibetan exiles’ blocked from leaving Dharamsala at the start of a six-month march to Tibet to protest China hosting the Summer Olympics.

11 March - Anniversary of of failed Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule which forced the Dalai Lama into exile in 1959. Tibetan refugees protest worldwide to demand independence ahead of the Beijing Olympics. The U.S. drops China from its list of the world’s worst human rights violators

12 March - Beijing, China - Chinese authorities refuse to grant permits to foreign correspondents and tourists wishing to enter the Tibet Autonomous Region. 25 journalists expelled from tibetan areas.

15 March - Lhassa, Tibet Autonomous Region, China- Protests turn violent when Chinese police block monks from Ramoche Temple from marching to the capital. Ethnic Tibetans hurled rocks and concrete at Chinese security forces, attacked businesses and vehicles owned by Han Chinese.

16 March - Lhassa, Tibet Autonomous Region, China- China closes capital of Tibet. State media reports at least ten people killed. Exiled Tibetan government claims up to 100 killed. YouTube censored throughout PRC after footage of riots posted. BBC, CNN, and YahooNews websites have been regularly inaccessible over past few days.

17 March - China - Broadcasts of CNN and BBC cut by Chinese authorities on several occasions during reports showing footage of events of Tibet.

18 March - Paris, France - International NGO Reporters without Borders calls for boycott of opening ceremony of Beijing Olympics

24 March - Olympia, Greece - Reporters without Borders representatives arrested for unfurling banner during Olympic torch-lighting ceremony. They are charged with “insulting national symbols” under article 361 of the Greek criminal code.

24 March - Jiamusi, China - Human Rights activist Yang Chunlin, leader of the “We want human rights not Olympic Games” campaign sentenced to five years in prison followed by two without civic rights on a charge of inciting subversion of state authority.

6 April - London, UK - Major protests at Olympic Torch Relay including several attempts to extinguish flame. 35 people arrested

7 April - Paris, France - Major protests at Olympic Torch Relay in Paris. Paris officials extinguish the flame at least twice and carry it by bus when protestors try to seize it. National Assembly takes a break from it session to observe passage of the flame. 27 deputies stand on the wall of the National Assembly holding a sign that reads “Respect Human Rights” authorities decide to cut the relay short after thousands of protestors block its path.

15 April - China - Chinese citizens begin organizing an online campaign to boycott French goods.

19 - 20 April - China - Chinese nationalists demonstrate in front of the French Embassy in Beijing and at storefronts of French hypermarket chain, Carrefour, in nine cities across the country chanting “Oppose Tibet Independence”, “Go China” and “Down with CNN”. Carrefour CEO Jose Luis Duran denied reports that the company supports the Dalai Lama and said that it is “taking the situation very seriously” though its earnings have not yet been affected.

21 April - Paris, France - President Nicolas Sarkozy who last month hinted at a possible boycott of the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games, sends letter of apology to wheelchair-bound Chinese torchbearer Jin Jing, saying that he understood the attack on the torch had hurt the feelings of the Chinese people and that such behavior was intolerable.

22 April - Beijing, China - Chinese Foreign Ministry calls for joint efforts by China and France to push for the stable and healthy growth of bilateral relations. Ministry of Commerce defends Carrefour commending the way it runs its Chinese businesses and thanking it for supporting the Beijing Olympics. 99% of Carrefour’s 40,000 employes in China are Chinese and 95% of the products it sells are made in China.

22 April - Paris, France - Dalai Lama named honorary citizen of Paris by Mayor Bernard Danoe

22 April - China responds with statement, “This act is crude interference with China’s domestic affairs and has seriously damaged China-French ties.”

22 April - China says it may recall a ship carrying weapons bound for Zimbabwe after workers refuse to unload cargo in South Africa