On 29th July we interviewed Fionuala Cregan on the Paraguayan crisis, its background and the Latin American context in which it takes place. She is based in Argentina and works with the Latin America Regional Office of Church World Service. She has also written for the Irish Times on Paraguay and has extensive research on the impact of agribusiness on Paraguayan peasants' lives. She has been a long term supporter of LASC. The views expressed here are her own. We hope that this interview will give a better insight into the developments in that country.

Related Links: Paraguay: Obama's Second Latin American Coup | LASC statement on the Paraguayan Coup | Paraguay: Election ends six decades of one-party rule (WSWS) | Don't fence us in: Modern-day land grabs | Irish times article on coup | LASC website

"Is there a safe way to frack? Probably: but not profitably; and
certainly not within the geology of a little emerald isle. "
- Greg Palast, investigative Journalist

Related Links: Poland and Fracking - Lessons to be Learned - Ban Fracking In EU | Counties and Townlands in the Fracking Zones - Are You Living in a Facking Zone? Find Out Here. | Response to the article 'Frank Convery, Yvonne Scannell, Fracking and Local Credibility in Ireland' | Fracking Ireland - Business Group Accept €20,000 From Tamboran | Local Fracking Talk Brings Revelations | Open letter to the members of the 31st Dáil Éireann. Hydraulic Shale Gas Fracturing - Tamborans claims - Chemicals involved in the fracking procedure

On the 20th of April 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oilrig blew out in the Gulf of Mexico, killing eleven men instantly, then destroying 600 miles of coastline.On 9 September 2010, a natural gas pipeline exploded in San Bruno, California, burning eight to death, one of several recent pipeline explosions in the USA. In 1992, in Chicago, a gas pipe leaked and 18 houses exploded, incinerating three people. What do these deaths have to do with plans for “fracking” for natural gas in Ireland? Everything. It was my job to investigate these three explosions, the Deepwater Horizon and California explosions as a reporter for the UK news show Dispatches, the earliest as a US government investigator. In all three cases, the deaths were preceded by the same reassurances about the safety of drilling and piping that I read now in the debate about fracking in Ireland. First, the Deepwater Horizon. Eleven men died when the 'mud' – drilling cement meant to cap the wellhead – failed and methane gas blew out the top of the pipes and exploded. The Shannon Basin is not the Gulf of Mexico, but your safety will be just as dependent on Halliburton’s mud.

Charles Taylor’s sentencing to 50 years’ imprisonment on 11 counts of war crimes is undeniably momentous. However, with Sierra Leoneans still suffering abject poverty and remaining in dire need of aid, it must be questioned for whose benefit the costly War Crimes Court really is, writes EMMA PURDY

Related Links: Charles Taylor (wiki) | Blood diamond (wiki) | The other end of blood diamond trade | Information on Sierra Leone

The Special Court for Sierra Leone will conclude this year on a triumphant note, with former Liberian president Charles Taylor now the first ex-head of state convicted by international justice since the 1946 Nuremburg trials.

The 64-year-old was found guilty this April of arming and supporting Revolutionary United Front rebels in exchange for illegally mined blood diamonds and thus “aiding and abetting” the country’s brutal civil war. He was sentenced on 30 May to 50 years’ imprisonment, having been held “criminally responsible” by judges after a protracted four-and-a-half-year trial.

From the outset in January 2008, after Taylor boycotted the initial 2007 proceedings, the trial was lauded as the first ever of a former African head of state in an international court. Taylor was the Court’s 11th defendant from a total of 21 indictments since its establishment in January 2002, its remit being to try “those who bear the greatest responsibility for serious violations of international humanitarian law” during the 11-year conflict.

Agricultural investment or land-grab in Sierra Leone?

The seventh annual Rossport Solidarity Camp gathering is taking place in Erris, Co. Mayo from the 1st-4th June. You are invited to take part in workshops/discussions, skillshares, music and fun!

Come up to Mayo this June bank holiday!

Related Links: Rossport solidarity camp website | Shell to sea website | Rabbite's rush to give away our exploration rights could cost us bilions | conservative Oireachtas committee finds that state should double tax take on gas and oil finds Threats of eviction for rossport camp. | shell admits funding niger delta warlords | Police amassing at James Price Point

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As the leaders of the global diamond industry gathered in Vicenza, Italy for the annual meeting of the World Diamond Council, Palestinians remained trapped in a surreal nightmarish existence under the cosh of a diamond-funded, nuclear-armed belligerent regime: "The Israeli forces used [taser guns] and I have bruises on my arms and legs. I saw them open a protester's mouth by force and spit in it, and they spit in my face as well. While being under custody, a police officer of Ramle district addressed both me and another female activist while being cuffed with verbal sexual harassment, threatening to rape us. I have to admit I burst in tears ."

Related Links:
De-Beers asked to remove blood diamond display from Tower of London | No Valentine for Kimberley Process | Israeli Blood Diamond Campaign claims another victory | Two global diamond retailers resort to censorship over Israeli Blood Diamonds issue | Marilyn Monroe launches ‘Boycott Israeli Blood Diamonds’ campaign in Dublin | Kimberley Process (wikipedia) | Amnesty US page on conflict diamonds