News stories by Julio Godoy, page 7

The unfolding nuclear catastrophe in Japan, triggered by last Friday's massive earthquake and tsunami, followed by a chain of explosions in atomic power plants, has forced the German government to rethink its own nuclear energy policy.

The mass exodus of immigrant workers from Libya is aggravating the social and economic situation in the migrants’ home nations - from Sudan and Chad in sub-Saharan Africa, to Bangladesh in Asia - according to labour and economic experts.

In terms of economics, the European Union (EU) includes one country - Germany - that is both friend and foe to the 27-member community, and their relationship has turned markedly bittersweet on the road to recovery after the global economic crisis.

Imagine a green wall - 15 kilometres wide, and up to 8,000 kilometres long - a living green wall of trees and bushes, full of birds and other animals. Imagine it just south of the Sahara, from Djibouti in the Horn of Africa in the east, all the way across the continent to Dakar, Senegal, in the west.

For decades, European bank accounts and trusts and the real estate market were havens for dictators seeking safe places to deposit billions of dollars they were stealing from their countries of origin.

European non-governmental organisations combating neo-liberal globalisation find their position vindicated by the ongoing socio-economic and environmental crisis upsetting the world.

The World Economic Forum became a platform this year for bankers to seek to re-assert their traditional power. And once again, it became a forum - in contrast and even opposition to the World Social Forum due to begin in Senegalese capital Dakar next week — where the damaging effects of globalisation and the environmental consequences of unrestrained growth were pushed aside.

The three African states in which political crises have recently erupted — Côte d’Ivoire, Niger and Tunisia — all feature a strong French economic presence as well as close military and political ties to the former European colonial power, with France at times playing a protective role towards elites accused of abuses.

Despite repeated warnings by environmental and climate experts that reduction of fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions is fundamental to forestalling global warming, disaster appears imminent. According to the latest statistics, unprecedented climate change has Earth hurtling down a path of catastrophic proportions.

Wikileaks cables have revealed a disturbing development in the African uranium mining industry: abysmal safety and security standards in the mines, nuclear research centres, and border customs are enabling international companies to exploit the mines and smuggle dangerous radioactive material across continents.