Haiti Deforestation

Even before a magnitude seven earthquake left Port au Prince in near ruin, Haiti was a country in crisis, fiscally and environmentally.


As those two issues are not mutually exclusive. It is the poorest country in the western hemisphere.


It has also nearly been stripped bare of trees.


This video provides the details.

Gay Marriage Trial Starts

Associated Press Writer - San Fransisco (AP)


The first federal trial to determine if the U.S. Constitution prohibits states from outlawing same-sex marriage got under way Monday, and the two gay couples on whose behalf the case was brought will be among the first witnesses.


The proceedings, which are expected to last two to three weeks, involve a challenge to Proposition 8, the gay marriage ban approved by California voters in November 2008.


Regardless of the outcome, the case is likely to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, where it ultimately could become a landmark that determines if gay Americans have the right to marry.


About 100 people demonstrated outside the federal courthouse. Most were gay marriage supporters who took turns addressing the crowd with a microphone. About a dozen gay marriage foes stood in the back of the gathering and quietly held signs demanding the ban remain in place.


Two hours before trial was scheduled to start, the high court blocked video of the proceedings from being posted on YouTube.com. It said justices need more time to review that issue and put the order in place at least until Wednesday.


Over the weekend, Proposition 8's sponsors sought to block YouTube broadcasts. Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker, who is overseeing the trial, had approved the plan last week, saying the case was appropriate for wide dissemination because it dealt with an issue of wide interest and importance.


Rick Jacobs, chairman of the Courage Campaign, a Los Angeles-based gay rights organization, said supporters of same-sex marriage were disappointed with the decision to bar cameras and called on the high court to lift its ban Wednesday.


"It's time that the debate about marriage equality is seen for what it is — a debate over the rights of our friends and families to live their lives freely," he said.


At trial, Walker intends to ask lawyers on both sides to present the facts underlying much of the political rhetoric surrounding same-sex marriage. Among his questions are whether sexual orientation can be changed, how legalizing gay marriage affects traditional marriages and the effect on children of being raised by two mothers or two fathers.


"The case is intriguing, exciting and potentially very significant because it addresses multiple important questions that, surprisingly to many, remain open in federal law," said Jennifer Pizer, marriage director for the gay law advocacy group Lambda Legal. "Can the state reserve the esteemed language and status of marriage just for heterosexual couples, and relegate same-sex couples to a lesser status? Are there any adequate public interests to justify reimposing such a caste system for gay people, especially by a majority vote to take a cherished right from a historically mistreated minority?"


The sponsors of Proposition 8, which passed with 52 percent of the vote, won permission to defend the law in court after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown refused to. The attorney general and the governor are defendants in the case because of their positions in state government.


Lawyers for the measure's backers plan to argue that because same-sex marriage still is a social experiment, it is wise for states like California to take a wait-and-see approach. Their witnesses will testify that governments historically have sanctioned traditional marriage as a way to promote responsible child-rearing, and that this remains a valid justification for limiting marriage to a man and a woman.


While other courts have wrestled with the constitutional issues raised by prohibiting same-sex marriages — the Supreme Court last took a look at the issue 38 years ago — Walker's court is the first to employ live witnesses in the task. Among those set to testify are the leaders of the Proposition 8 campaign, academic experts from the fields of political science, history, psychology and economics, and the two plaintiff couples — Kristin Perry and Sandra Stier, who live in Berkeley, and Paul Katami and Jeffrey Zarrillo, who live in Los Angeles.


Chad Griffin, a political consultant who helped spearhead the lawsuit, said the four were recruited to represent California couples who say they would get married were it not for Proposition 8 because they lead lives indistinguishable from those of other couples, gay or straight, who have jobs, children and a desire for the social stamp of approval that matrimony affords, Griffin said.


"Our story, I think, is pretty ordinary," said Perry, 45, the title plaintiff in the case registered on legal dockets as Perry v. Schwarzenegger. "We fell in love, we want to get married and we can't. It's pretty simple."


The women have been together for almost 10 years and since 2004 have been registered domestic partners, a legal relationship that in California carries most of the benefits and obligations of a full-fledged marriage.

China's empty city

China's economy is continuing to grow despite the global recession, helped by a massive government stimulus package of $585bn.


But doubts remain whether such strong growth can be sustained by public spending alone.


Al Jazeera's Melissa Chan reports from Inner Mongolia, where a whole town built with government money is standing empty.

Google launches new mobile phone

Internet giant Google Inc. has begun selling its own mobile phone, a much-anticipated move aimed at protecting its online advertising empire as people increasingly surf the Web on handsets instead of personal computers.

The Nexus One joins about 20 other mobile devices that already run on Android, the mobile operating system that Google introduced in 2007 to make it easier to connect to its services and other Web sites away from home or the office.

Google designed the touch-screen phone in partnership with Taiwan's HTC Corp., which made the first Android-powered phone and will manufacture this one, too.

Google will handle all sales online and has no plans to let consumers check out the Nexus One in retail stores.

The Nexus One has been in the hands of Google employees for the past three weeks, triggering media speculation and anticipation for the company's first attempt to peddle a consumer electronics device.

Among other things, the Nexus One will offer more ways to customise the phone's home page and use voice recognition technology to perform more tasks, including composing e-mails and navigating Google's mobile mapping products.

The move does escalate the budding rivalry between Silicon Valley's two most valuable companies, Google and Apple Inc., which has sold more than 30 million iPhones in the past 2 and a half years.

Apple announced a deal on Tuesday to buy mobile advertising service Quattro Wireless to counter Google's planned 750 million US dollar acquisition of Quattro rival AdMob.

Both announcements came ahead of this week's International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Google is billing the Nexus One as the first "super" phone in an effort to position the device as a cut above the iPhone and other smart phones such as Research In Motion Ltd's more utilitarian BlackBerry.

But most of the features on the Nexus One are already on other Android-powered phones, and it probably will be a long time before it can offer as many different tools as the iPhone, which boasts more than 100-thousand applications compared with Android's 18-thousand.

Scott Kessler, an Equity Analyst for Standard and Poor's said he did not think the Nexus One would be an "iPhone killer."

"We think that the iPhone is an iconic product that is far ahead of the Nexus One in a variety of different ways," Kessler said.

The Nexus One's $529 price tag is more than twice as much as the most powerful iPhone.

Google is asking consumers to pay more so they can select their own wireless carriers.

That's a departure from the usual sales model in the United States, where mobile phones are typically offered exclusively by specific providers and subsidised by them in exchange for long term contracts.

Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith Interview Barack Obama

US President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Barack Obama, interviewed by Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith.



The interview with Barack Obama is from 2009 Nobel Peace Prize Concert.

The life and times of Benazir Bhutto

Benazir Bhutto ( 21 June 1953 – 27 December 2007) was a Pakistani politician who chaired the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), a centre-left political party in Pakistan. Bhutto was the first woman elected to lead a Muslim state,[4] having twice been Prime Minister of Pakistan (1988–1990; 1993–1996). She was Pakistan's first and to date only female prime minister. She was also the wife of current Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.


Bhutto was the eldest child of former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a Pakistani of Sindhi descent and Shia Muslim by faith, and Begum Nusrat Bhutto, a Pakistani of Kurdish descent, similarly Shia Muslim by faith. Her paternal grandfather was Sir Shah Nawaz Bhutto, who came to Larkana District in Sindh before the independence from his native town of Bhatto Kalan, in the Indian state of Haryana.


Bhutto was sworn in as Prime Minister for the first time in 1988 at the age of 35, but was removed from office 20 months later under the order of then-president Ghulam Ishaq Khan on grounds of alleged corruption. In 1993 she was re-elected but was again removed in 1996 on similar charges, this time by President Farooq Leghari. She went into self-imposed exile in Dubai in 1998.


Bhutto returned to Pakistan on 18 October 2007, after reaching an understanding with President Pervez Musharraf by which she was granted amnesty and all corruption charges were withdrawn. She was assassinated on 27 December 2007, after departing a PPP rally in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi, two weeks before the scheduled Pakistani general election of 2008 where she was a leading opposition candidate. The following year she was named one of seven winners of the United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights.

Chinese Children Sent to Fat Camps

Because 200 million people in China are now overweight, many Chinese families are sending their kids to fat camps.


The camp featured in this video is 1,000 U.S. dollars a month, which is considered a fortune in China. Kids are helped to trim down, eat right, and received daily acupuncture treatments.


Gaining a few pounds has traditionally been viewed as a sign of health in China, but serious obesity causes health problems.

The Israel Lobby

Research: William de Bruijn
Director: Marije Meerman


For many years now the American foreign policy has been characterized by the strong tie between the United States and Israel. Does the United States in fact keep Israel on its feet? And how long will it continue to do so?


In March 2006 the American political scientists John Mearsheimer (University of Chicago) and Steve Walt (Harvard) published the controversial article 'The Israel Lobby and US foreign policy'. In it they state that it is not, or no longer, expedient for the US to support and protect present-day Israel.


The documentary sheds light on both parties involved in the discussion: those who wish to maintain the strong tie between the US and Israel, and those who were critical of it and not infrequently became 'victims' of the lobby.


The question arises to what extend the pro-Israel lobby ultimately determines the military and political importance of Israel itself. Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson (Colin Powell's former chief-of-staff) explains how the lobby's influence affects the decision-making structure in the White House.


With..

political scientist John Mearsheimer, neocon Richard Perle, lobby organization AIPAC, televangelist John Hagee, historian Tony Judt, Human Rights Watch director Kenneth Roth, colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, Democrat Earl Hilliard, Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy and investigative journalist Michael Massing.

Peak Oil Scenario: End of Suburbia

Hosted by Barrie Zwicker. Featuring James Howard Kunstler, Peter Calthorpe, Michael Klare, Richard Heinberg, Matthew Simmons, Michael C. Ruppert, Julian Darley, Colin Campbell, Kenneth Deffeyes, Ali Samsam Bakhtiari and Steve Andrews. Directed by Gregory Greene. Produced by Barry Silverthorn.

Duration: 78 minutes


Since World War II North Americans have invested much of their newfound wealth in suburbia. It has promised a sense of space, affordability, family life and upward mobility. As the population of suburban sprawl has exploded in the past 50 years, so too has the suburban way of life become embedded in the American consciousness.

Suburbia, and all it promises, has become the American Dream.

But as we enter the 21st century, serious questions are beginning to emerge about the sustainability of this way of life. With brutal honesty and a touch of irony, The End of Suburbia explores the American Way of Life and its prospects as the planet approaches a critical era, as global demand for fossil fuels begins to outstrip supply. World Oil Peak and the inevitable decline of fossil fuels are upon us now, some scientists and policy makers argue in this documentary.

The consequences of inaction in the face of this global crisis are enormous. What does Oil Peak mean for North America? As energy prices skyrocket in the coming years, how will the populations of suburbia react to the collapse of their dream? Are today's suburbs destined to become the slums of tomorrow? And what can be done NOW, individually and collectively, to avoid The End of Suburbia ?