N. Korea starts to lend farmland to city workers to solve food shortage | GlobalPost

“Since mid-May, the North started to lend state-owned cooperative farmland to city workers as part of its various efforts to solve serious food shortage problems for city workers,” the North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity said in a press conference, citing inside sources in the North.

City laborers are bearing the brunt of food shortages in the North while farming workers have easier access to farm produce, the group said.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is well aware of growing indignation among citizens over food shortages and in order to quell their anger, the leader is drawing a variety of ideas to help them feed themselves, it said.

The latest farmland renting plan is one of the North’s ideas to help solve food shortages, according to the study group.

Under the plan, one plant worker or state firm employee can borrow up to 826.5 square meters of land belonging to state-owned cooperative farms and they are required to pay about 25 kilograms of corn or 12.5 kg of beans in rent, the group said.

via N. Korea starts to lend farmland to city workers to solve food shortage | GlobalPost.

Bulgarian protesters pelt lawmakers with tomatoes, eggs | News , International | THE DAILY STAR

Bulgarian protesters pelted lawmakers with tomatoes and eggs and chanted “Mafia!” and “Resign!” on Wednesday in a sign of mounting frustration over the new Socialist-led government’s refusal to quit over a security scandal.

Thousands of mostly younger Bulgarians have been staging protest rallies for more than a week demanding the cabinet step down over its bungled bid to impose a media mogul as head of national security, a highly sensitive post, without any debate.

via Bulgarian protesters pelt lawmakers with tomatoes, eggs | News , International | THE DAILY STAR.

‘It is open season on voting rights right now in America’ – The Maddow Blog

Immediately after the U.S. Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act, it was hard not to wonder how long it would take for Republican state lawmakers to begin imposing new voting restrictions on Americans they don’t like. As it turns out, GOP policymakers were apparently already revving their engines, just waiting for the green light that came 24 hours ago.

MSNBC’s Benjy Sarlin noted that the Supreme Court’s majority said the Voting Rights Act “probably wasn’t a deterrent against new restrictions.” Sarlin added, “Oops.”

Quite right. Just yesterday, Republican state lawmakers in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Texas all moved forward, with great enthusiasm, on new election measures intended to make it harder for traditional Democratic voters to participate in their own democracy. It is, as Rachel noted on the show last night, “open season on voting rights right now in America,” thanks to the Republican-appointed justices on the U.S. Supreme Court.

via 'It is open season on voting rights right now in America' – The Maddow Blog.

A Protester’s Guide: Simple Tips

June 30 Cairo, Egypt Demonstration guidelines

Egyptian Streets

On June 30, nationwide protests are planned against Egypt’s President Morsi. Analysts have stated that this could easily rival the number of protesters witnessed during Egypt’s 2011 revolution. So, whether you are protesting against President Morsi, or in support of the President, here are some simple tips that each person going to demonstrate should keep in mind.

  1. Do not go alone. Let your friends and family know where you are going and with who. Ensure they have phone numbers of friends who are joining you in case your phone dies. If you leave without any notice, your family and friends will panic, and this would make it much harder for them to find you if you are arrested or are in an accident.

  2. Search where the demonstration is being held and make note of potential emergency exits and alternate routes in case any dangerous situation arises. When you get to…

View original post 457 more words

FAO – News Article: Locust plague threatens to trigger severe food crisis in Madagascar

Madagascar is in the grips of a largely uncontrolled locust plague and risks a serious food crisis. A large-scale emergency control campaign urgently requires a minimum of  $22 million in funding to start in time for the next crop planting season in September. So far, FAO emergency appeals for Madagascar remain severely underfunded.

By September, FAO expects that two-thirds of the country will be infested by locusts.

Some 13 million people’s food security and livelihoods are at stake, or nearly 60 percent of the island’s total population. Nine million of those people are directly dependent on agriculture for food and income.

via FAO – News Article: Locust plague threatens to trigger severe food crisis in Madagascar.

Three Food Safety Rules Grow Moldy at OIRA as Import-Related Outbreaks Continue | Food Safety News

In January 2011, President Obama signed the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), a set of sweeping reforms that would be fleshed out in rules issued by the FDA. Two and a half years later, only two proposed rules have been released—one on produce safety standards, and the other on preventive controls for human food. The FDA has drafted three other proposed rules that could significantly improve the safety of imports, but they are currently languishing at the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), an office inside the White House that is notorious for blocking, weakening, and delaying the rules that it reviews.

These three rules, described below, are already many months beyond their statutory deadlines, and OIRA has held them well past the 90-day limit established by Executive Order 12866. Whenever these rules finally emerge, we should be alert to the ways that OIRA may have undermined their effectiveness, just as it substantially weakened the FDA’s preventive-controls rule before it was released in February.

via Three Food Safety Rules Grow Moldy at OIRA as Import-Related Outbreaks Continue | Food Safety News.

Morsi Condemnation Of Lynchings Not Enough

Nervana

Egyptians carry the coffin of a Shi'ite victim, who was killed in sectarian violence, after funeral prayers in Cairo

(Egyptians carry the coffin of a Shiite victim, via Reuters)

I wrote this piece for Al-Monitor

My guidebook described it as “the ideal mosque in Las Vegas.” This odd statement motivated me to visit Sayyida Zeinab‘s shrine in southern Damascus. Immediately, I understood what the travel writer meant; the stunning shrine with its golden dome and blue tiles, its spectacular design and elaborate architecture and the happy, animated crowd were simply overwhelming. Yes, it was like a pious version of what we might find in Las Vegas, minus the black garments and religious services. Shiites are always elaborate in their happiness as well as in their sadness; their attitudes, mosques, core theology and historical narrative differentiate them from their fellow Sunnis. These differences are as old as Islam and have fueled a centuries-old conflict that was often bloody and ruthless. Egypt luckily had not experienced what countries like Iraq…

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Police to shift crime fighting focus away from shagging hippies to catching criminals

Pretty revolutionary idea – grin

Pride's Purge

(satire – or is it?)

POLICE forces across the UK are set to radically change the tactics they use to combat crime by shifting their focus and resources away from shagging hippies and smearing murder victims to trying to catch criminals.

The unprecedented plan to fight crime by attempting to catch people who break the law comes after criticism that previous tactics by the police whereby undercover officers had sex with animal right’s activists and spied on families of black murder victims has proven to be ineffective at reducing crime.

The new approach to fighting crime is expected to include the following changes in police tactics:

  • Fewer officers to be deployed in the vaginas of female animal rights activists.
  • Shifts in focus away from the surveillance of the families of black murder victims to the investigation of possible suspects – even in cases where officers suspect the perpetrators may be white.

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2013 Consumer Action Handbook

2013 Consumer Action Handbook.

The Consumer Action Handbook is your go-to guide for planning a purchase, knowing your consumer rights, and filing a complaint.

The new interactive edition of the handbook features additional resources, including:

Downloadable templates for a sample complaint letter (MS Word) and social media will (MS Excel).
Easy access to tools that can help you get updates about product recalls, calculate college costs, check the background of an investment professional, compare health care providers, or conduct a home inventory.
How-to videos on getting a free credit report, protecting your privacy in everyday life, avoiding job search scams, and more.
Infographics to help you navigate a purchase, file a consumer complaint, and understand your credit card statement.

The Gun Report: June 25, 2013 – NYTimes.com

A woman was shot and wounded after an argument escalated while driving on a highway in Woodbridge, Conn., early Monday. The suspected shooter, 20-year-old Patrick Young, was riding north on Route 69 with three women at about 1:30 a.m. when they began to argue. Young ordered two of the women out of the car and opened fire. One of the women suffered gunshot wounds to the hand and upper torso. Young is at large.

via The Gun Report: June 25, 2013 – NYTimes.com.

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