China: Catholics, coal, chemicals

Posted 3 May 2006 19:57 GMT

Countries	China, Vatican City
Topics	Development, Disaster, Environment, Governance, Religion, Economics & Business

China

China Confidential's Confidential Reporter gives a second look at rapidly-deteriorating relations between the Communists in Beijing and the Catholics in the Vatican, preceded with one long dire post: at least twenty-four dead in a coal mine collapse in the Northwestern province of Shaanxi this past weekend, and toxic dumping in the Southwestern of Guangdong.

“Booming China is also Polluting China—an environmental nightmare on a scale that few foreigners can appreciate,” writes the anonymouse blogger. “On this note, officials in southern China reported Saturday that a chemical factory illegally discharged waste water into a river, affecting the drinking supply of about 40,000 people.”

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Updates about Western Europe

10 February 2012

Labor

Elsa Doladille writes [fr] on the Educators Without Borders blog : ” While the Guéant Bill in France aims at toughening the conditions for foreign students to obtain a work permit, Germany encourages the integration of students from abroad in their workforce.”

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Human Rights

Pierre Vicari [fr] had this to say about the results of a survey [fr] which appeared on the site Lefigaro.fr, “To the ignoramuses who say that PACS and marriage are the same thing: No! A PACS does not provide any of the same rights as marriage! In addition, you intolerant people who do not want equality for all human beings, please tell us why because so far, despite the years that this debate has been going on, nobody has been able to put forth any real arguments.”

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Georgia

As parliamentary elections approach this year in Georgia, to be followed by a presidential vote in 2013, allegations against Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire opposition politician, have appeared on the Internet. The alleged exposé of life in the Ivanishvili household by American teacher Patrick Downey, formerly employed by the businessman turned politician, have been met with skepticism from other expatriates in the former Soviet republic, and not least because of claims also made against Georgia in general, the U.S., and [his ancestral homeland of] Ireland. Downey had sought asylum or residency in the latter, according to a video blog, “[…] in light of recent uncontrolled and willfully ill-advised policies concerning the mass emigration of non-Irish persons to Ireland […].” Ivanishvili has responded by saying that Downey “is suffering from psychological problems.”

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8 February 2012

Religion

Hanan Ben Rhouma of Saphir News reports [fr] that: “The first Muslim public cemetery in France was open in Strasbourg on Monday, February 6. In a sense, it is a unique cemetery of that kind because it is the first to be managed by local public authorities based on the Alsace-Moselle Accord of 1801 [fr], which does not exist anywhere else in France.”

• Abdoulaye Bah

Italy

On the blog Presse-citron, Jean-Marie Le Ray wites about”Volunia” [fr], the new search engine in 12 languages invented by Professor Massimo Marchiori of the University of Padua (Italy) : “this is a new concept of navigation of our times I think a test, a laboratory of ideas , also with a prospective vision of the Semantic Web, which relies heavily on “voluntary and spontaneous” interaction with the user. In a sense, it is a participatory search engine trying to put the future in perspective in order to adapt the current search process better [fr]. “

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Bulgaria: Thousands Take Part in Anti-ACTA Protests

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Great article,great job.Even though we have much bigger problems in Bulgaria than ACTA i feel...
Next time we will be there again :)