Randeep Ramesh in New Delhi

Tuesday November 13, 2007
The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/india/story/0,,2210017,00.html

A bloody standoff between Communists committed to emulating China's economic success and farmers opposed to the establishment of a vast industrial zone in eastern India ended yesterday after leftwing activists stormed a series of villages - leading to accusations of murder and rape.

...

Since the beginning of the year villagers have blocked roads and built barricades to keep out the local administration, which, they complained, had been determined to sell off farmland at cheap rates so that a petrochemical hub could be set up. West Bengal has been run for three decades by the Communist party, which has become increasingly business friendly. Returned to power for a seventh term last year on a programme of industrial expansion, Communist leaders have taken their cue from China to attract foreign corporations.

13 Nov 2007 15:09:10 GMT
Source: Reuters
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L13281026.htm
 
By Aweys Yusuf
MOGADISHU, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Somali government forces battling Islamist-led insurgents ordered two more radio stations off the air on Tuesday, as a U.N. envoy said the latest fighting made the country's humanitarian crisis the worst in Africa.
...
"WORST IN AFRICA" Nearly half-a-million civilians have been forced out of the city since February by repeated rounds of violence, and Abdallah said the country's humanitarian crisis was now "the worst in Africa", including Darfur. "It has been like that since the start of the year, and the fighting of recent days has only made it worse," he said. Nearly 90,000 of the recently uprooted have fled to Afgoye, a town on the southwestern outskirts of the capital. A UNHCR spokesman in Geneva said the needs in Afgoye were immense: "People can no longer find space for shelter around the town itself. Many families are simply living under trees." 

13 Nov 2007 16:01:01 GMT
Source: Reuters
 By Peter Apps
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L13170507.htm
 
LONDON, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Climate change will put half the world's countries at risk of conflict or serious political instability, a report said on Tuesday, making the world more unstable unless nations and communities consider problems now. International Alert, a London-based conflict resolution group, identified 46 countries -- home to 2.7 billion people -- where it said the effects of climate change would create a high risk of violent conflict. It identified another 56 states where there was a risk of political instability.
...
GETTING MESSY FAST Unless communities and governments begin discussing the issues in advance, he said, there is a risk climate shift could be the spark that relights wars such as those in Liberia and Sierra Leone in west Africa or the Caucasus on Russia's borders. Current economic growth in developing states could also be hit. "Our experience shows it can be an exacerbating factor of conflict," Smith said. "The question is how well communities and governments handle the risk." Smith said was difficult to isolate current climate-related wars, although climate shift and farming disputes are a factor in fighting in Sudan's Darfur region. He said climate-related open fighting was likely to be limited to the world's poorer regions, but that richer nations in northern Europe or North America would suffer from greater global instability. The good news, he said, was that if groups and officials were able to discuss the issues to help prevent conflict, that would in itself help them deal with the actual problems. "If there are not the institutions and organisations to handle it, people start looking out for themselves and then they start organising for fighting and you can get a very messy situation very quickly," Smith said. "There are literally hundreds of millions of people at risk from conflict from climate change and we have to start talking about these issues." (Editing by Catherine Evans)