CONGO'S CRISIS

Help Displaced Families Survive

She came here three months ago, fleeing a bloody battle between soldiers in her hometown of Rugari.

With one tiny infant swaddled to her back, another child in tow and whatever meager belongings she could carry, she struggled to reach the Kibumba displacement camp.

But just when she thought she'd found refuge, shots rang out again.

So she found herself trudging down craggy roads and through heavy brush in search of a safe place for her kids.

Now 21-year-old Elizabeth Aziza lives in a tent pitched at an orphanage on the outskirts of Goma, a city in eastern Congo that has seen its population swell by a quarter-million people over the last few months. Nearly all escaped their villages as they were attacked.

Most lost their homes. Many saw their loved ones killed.

Elizabeth has suffered all three.

Today, she spends her days in a crowded communal tent alongside dozens of others - mostly women and children - who were suddenly forced from the lives they'd always known.

She used to grow and sell her own food; now she must depend on others to satisfy that need.

People just like you can help make her days a little easier.

For a year and a half, Mercy Corps has been there for displaced young mothers like Elizabeth.

We're providing clean, fresh water to the orphanage where she lives - more than 10,500 gallons each day.

We're building latrines and furnishing hand-washing stations to help prevent deadly diseases like cholera.

And we're providing firewood and improved cookstoves that protect Congo's fragile environment while helping families meet their most basic needs.

Our 60-person team reaches thousands of people each day with lifesaving assistance. You can help them do even more.

Life in war-ravaged eastern Congo is about surviving until tomorrow. Elizabeth hopes one day to return home and plant her fields once again. Until that day comes, she and her children - and more than a million others who've been displaced - need your help. Please give today.

How You Can Help

$45 furnishes three hand-washing stations that help prevent diseases like cholera.

Donate $45 >

$100 supplies a month's worth of firewood to ten displaced families.
Donate $100 >

$180 provides safe drinking water for 360 people. Donate $180 >

BACHELET CONDENA BLOQUEO ESTADOUNIDENSE CONTRA CUBA

La presidenta de Chile, Michelle Bachelet, condenó este jueves en La Habana el bloqueo económico de Estados Unidos a Cuba, al tiempo que urgió a su levantamiento, reforzando así la postura de otros líderes de la región respecto a las sanciones.

"Chile siempre se ha opuesto a la prolongación de prácticas discriminatorias de comercio", dijo el jueves Bachelet ante una conferencia de empresarios en La Habana, en la segunda jornada de su visita.

"Estoy hablando de una cosa muy concreta: el bloqueo de Estados Unidos contra Cuba, el cual afecta seriamente las condiciones de vida del pueblo cubano siempre y en particular en la crisis actual", añadió.

Bachelet, quien se reunió el miércoles con el mandatario cubano Raúl Castro, también rubricó varios acuerdos de cooperación en áreas como la agricultura y la biotecnología, en la primera visita de un jefe de Estado chileno a la isla desde Salvador Allende en 1972.

Estados Unidos aplica desde casi medio siglo un embargo comercial contra Cuba, para intentar forzar un cambio en el sistema socialista, mientras los cubanos sufren las consecuencias de la crisis económica producto del embargo.

Bachelet es la cuarta presidenta de América Latina que visita Cuba en lo que va del 2009, lo que analistas han interpretado como una estrategia regional para señalarle a Estados Unidos un cambio de actitud hacia la isla.

El mandatario panameño Martín Torrijos, el ecuatoriano Rafael Correa y la argentina Cristina Fernández exigieron previamente en sus visitas oficiales el levantamiento del bloqueo estadounidense.

Bachelet dictará este jueves en la Universidad de La Habana una conferencia sobre desarrollo social en Chile e inaugurará la Feria Internacional del Libro, dedicada este año a su país.

MOTHER'S MILK PROJECT

Mother's Love
by Mavruk Hulis




Human Breast Milk and Goat Milk Analysis Reveals Elevated Levels of Radioactivity Near Indian Point Nuclear Power Station





Contact:Nancy Burton 203-938-3952 cell 203-545-9252NancyBurtonCT@aol.com
Margo Schepart 914-325-4620MargoFrances@yahoo.com



The Mothers Milk Project will reveal to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission at a public meeting on February 12 that milk sampled from humans and goats near the Indian Point Nuclear Power Station shows elevated levels of strontium-90, a fission product known to cause bone cancer, leukemia and diseases of the immune system.





Photo opportunity: Cindy-Lu, a goat whose milk has consistently shown elevated levels of strontium-90 over a multi-month sampling period, will be present with her 4-day-old baby goats, Luna and Dude.





Of 30 milk samples from breastfeeding mothers and goats within 50 miles of Indian Point, nearly all reveal levels of strontium-90 with the highest results occurring closest to the nuclear plant located on the Hudson River in Buchanan, New York.





Of great concern are the sample results revealing the presence both of strontium-90 and a related fission product strontium-89.


As strontium-89 has a short half life, its presence in the milk of lactating mothers alongside strontium-90 provides strong evidence that the radioactivity was recently produced from a nearby source, likely Indian Point.


Representatives of the Mothers Milk Project will present their preliminary findings to the NRC at its meeting on Indian Point license renewal at 1:30 on Thursday, February 12, 2009, at Colonial Terrace, Grand Ballroom, 119 Oregon Road, Cortlandt Manor, New York.

50 BILLION RADIOACTIVE ANTIQUE TOILET

Harvey Wasserman

Why is that $50 billion radioactive antique toilet still in the stimulus bill?February 10, 2009

The infamous $50 billion nuke power loan guarantee package meant to use your money to build new nuke reactors has gone missing from saturation media coverage of Obama’s Stimulus Package.

But it’s still in the Senate version of the bill, it could be voted on this week, and it could kill us all.
Like that $30,000 antique toilet that disappeared into the banking bailout, the corporate media carries not a word about this gargantuan handout to the dying reactor industry.
All the hype about a “nuclear renaissance” will come to naught without this massive taxpayer handout.
But if it goes through, the landscape could be pock marked with lethal new nukes.
We have days---maybe hours---to stop it.
While aid programs to the states, for education and the truly needy are slashed, this gargantuan boondoggle is poised to sail through with virtually no public knowledge.
The loan guarantee package was slipped into the Senate version of the Stimulus Bill by Senator Robert Bennet (R-UT) who proceeded to vote against the overall package.
It is not currently in the House version.
As the two bills are reconciled, armies of radioactive lobbyists will be marching through the Halls of Congress.
They know Wall Street will never pay for new nukes, so that leaves…you and me!
The estimated price of building new reactors has nearly tripled since the beginning of 2007.
It is virtually certain to at least double again before any new nuke could come on line, which could not happen in less than a decade.
Reactors built from the 1960s to now came on line an average of 200% and more over budget.
A French-based reactor construction project in Finland has soared more than $2 billion over budget and is more than two years behind schedule. The Government Accountability Project warns that at least half those who build new reactors are likely to plunge into bankruptcy.
To this day the industry cannot get private insurance to cover the full potential liability of a reactor catastrophe.
But Bennett’s maneuver, supported by Senator Tom Carper (D-DE) would divert billions away from renewables and efficiency, and into these failed terror targets.
Calls and letters are desperately needed to the Congressional leadership---NOW!--- to flush this horrific boondoggle out of the stimulus package.
With White House pressure mounting to get it passed this week, every minute counts.
Numerous major national environmental organizations offer websites from which to sign on and send letters, including www.nirs.org , www.beyondnuclear.org and www.nukefree.org.

The Congressional phone line is 202-224-3121 or (toll free) 800-962-3524.
Do not hesitate: the melt-down you prevent could otherwise kill you; the money re-directed to green alternatives could save our planet…and our economy.

--Harvey Wasserman edits http://NukeFree.org.

His SOLARTOPIA! Our Green-Powered Earth is at http://solartopia.org.

This article was originally published by http://freepress.org.