One witness said the fireball that followed the derailment was "like an atomic bomb"

bbc.co.uk - July 7, 2013

Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper says the part of Lac-Megantic affected by Saturday's crude oil explosion looks like a "war zone".

At least five people died when runaway wagons packed with crude oil derailed and blew up early on Saturday.

Some 30 buildings had been completely incinerated by fires which engulfed the historic centre, said Mr Harper.

Police are trying to find 40 missing people: a nearby bar was said to have been crowded at the time of the blast.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi protest in front of the Republican Guard headquarters in Nasr City in Cairo, Egypt, Monday. Officials said more than 51 people were killed in clashes at the site.  (Photo: Khalil Hamra AP)

usatoday.com - by Sarah Lynch - July 8, 2013

Pro-Morsi supporters say security forces fired on them; the army claims people stormed a military building in Cairo.

CAIRO — At least 51 people were killed and more than 300 injured when Egyptian soldiers and police clashed with Islamists early Monday at a sit-in by supporters of former Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi, raising the specter of civil war.

Interim leader Adly Mansour issued a statement Monday expressing "deep sorrow" over the deaths and calling for self-restraint in the interest of the nation.

Significantly, the statement from his office echoed the military's version of events, noting that the killings followed an attempt to storm the Republican Guard's headquarters.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

nytimes.com - by David D. Kirkpatrick - July 8, 2013

un.org

The Millennium Development Goals Report - 2013
(64 page .PDF report)

1 July 2013 – Thirteen years after the world set the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), countries have made big strides to meet the eight anti-poverty targets by their 2015 deadline, says a United Nations report released today, which stresses that the unmet goals are still within reach, but nations need to step up their efforts to achieve them.

“In more than a decade of experience in working towards the MDGs, we have learned that focused global development efforts can make a difference,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says in the report's foreword, in which he urges for accelerated action to close development gaps.

“Now is the time to step up our efforts to build a more just, secure and sustainable future for all.”

earth-policy.org

Full Planet, Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity

Chapter 4. Food or Fuel?

by Lester R. Brown

At the time of the Arab oil export embargo in the 1970s, the importing countries were beginning to ask themselves if there were alternatives to oil. In a number of countries, particularly the United States, several in Europe, and Brazil, the idea of growing crops to produce fuel for cars was appealing. The modern biofuels industry was launched. 1

This was the beginning of what would become one of the great tragedies of history.

Chapter 4. Food or Fuel?
http://www.earth-policy.org/books/fpep/fpepch4

Full Planet, Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity
http://www.earth-policy.org/books/fpep

( ALSO SEE - http://resiliencesystem.org/chapter-5-eroding-soils-darkening-our-future-full-planet-empty-plates-new-geopolitics-food-scarcity )

thinkprogress.org - by Joe Romm - June 30, 2013

(SEE LINKS BELOW FOR 2004 STUDY, 2005 STUDY, AND 2013 CRYOSAT ARTICLE)

Scientists predicted a decade ago that Arctic ice loss would bring on worse western droughts. Arctic ice loss has been much faster than the researchers — and indeed all climate modelers — expected (see “CryoSat-2 Confirms Sea Ice Volume Has Collapsed“).

It just so happens that the western U.S. is in the grip of a brutal, record-breaking drought. Is this just an amazing coincidence — or were the scientists right and what would that mean for the future? I ask the authors.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

A view of Dresden on the morning of 5 June, before the Elbe had crested. Flickr/tigion

sei-international.org - by Marion Davis - June 7, 2013

The floods now devastating Central Europe, and severe floods in Norway last month, are part of a pattern of increasingly frequent disasters that require new approaches to risk management. 

As of June 6, the floods in Austria, Germany, Slovakia and the Czech Republic had killed at least 16 people, and damages were so severe that some said they could exceed the more than €21.1 billion cost of the historic 2002 floods in the region.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Scenes of jubilation in Cairo's Tahrir Square after Egypt's army issues an ultimatum to President Mohamed Morsi to resolve the country's political crisis. The announcement is made on state television by the head of Egypt's armed forces, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Helicopters fly over the square with huge Egyptian flags hanging below them. Pro-Morsi supporters hold a counter-demonstration at Cairo's university

President retains US backing and refuses to bow down to two-day ultimatum from the head of the nation's armed forces

guardian.co.uk - by Patrick Kingsley - July 1, 2013

Egypt was thrown into fresh turmoil on Monday when President Mohamed Morsi's aides indicated he would not give in to the threat of a military coup just hours after the army gave him two days to placate the millions who have taken to the streets calling for his departure.

Watch Are Latest Protests a Game-Changer for Egypt's Politics? on PBS.

SEPTEMBER 25: Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi speaks at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting on September 25, 2012 in New York City. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

huffingtonpost.com - By HAMZA HENDAWI, SARAH EL DEEB and MAGGIE MICHAEL - July 1, 2013

CAIRO — Egypt's military issued a "last-chance" ultimatum Monday to President Mohammed Morsi, giving him 48 hours to meet the demands of millions of protesters in the streets seeking the ouster of the Islamist leader or the generals will intervene and impose their own plan for the country.

The military's statement, read on state TV, put enormous pressure on Morsi to step down and sent giant crowds opposing the president in Cairo and other cities into delirious celebrations of singing, dancing and fireworks. But the ultimatum raised worries on both sides the military could outright take over, as it did after the 2011 ouster of autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

internationalrivers.org - June 25, 2013
by Susanne Wong and Peter Bosshard

Renewables 2013 - Global Status Report
(178 page .PDF report)

The staggering growth in renewable energy has the potential to fundamentally change the way we generate and use power. Previously dismissed as marginal technologies, renewables have become “increasingly mainstream and competitive with conventional energy sources.” This is the conclusion of a new report on the global status of renewable energies by the REN21 Network.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

ABOUT - REN21 - http://www.ren21.net/

huffingtonpost.com - By MAGGIE MICHAEL, SARAH EL DEEB and HAMZA HENDAWI - June 30, 2013

CAIRO — Hundreds of thousands of opponents of Egypt's Islamist president poured onto the streets in Cairo and across much of the nation Sunday, launching an all-out push to force Mohammed Morsi from office on the one-year anniversary of his inauguration. Fears of violence were high, with Morsi's Islamist supporters vowing to defend him.

Nationwide, the rallies were among the most gigantic Egypt has seen in nearly 2 1/2 years of continuous upheaval, including during the square-packing, 18-day uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak in early 2011.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

cnn.com - by Reza Sayah and Greg Botelho - June 28, 2013

(CNN) -- Egyptian troops canvassed streets Friday after a fresh spate of violence in the volatile North African nation, hoping to prevent a repeat of the bloody, chaotic revolution of two years ago, a military spokesman said.