Incidents in Abbasiya. (Source: Signalfire.org)

Source: Report by Salma Shukrallah, Al Ahram

Parties and civil organizations, amongst them Mosharka (national focal point of Social Watch), demand that Egypt's military council and government take responsibility for Abbassiya violence. The groups call for an independent committee to investigate the episode, as they compare it to the infamous 'Battle of the Camel'.

Aung San Suu Kyi. (Photo:NLD)

Source: Mizzima, reproduced by Burma News International

The National League for Democracy (NLD), opposition party banned by the Burmese military regime, plans to take its case to the United Nations Council of Human Rights (UNCHR). Thai-based Burma Lawyers’ Council (BLC, focal point of Social Watch) supports the move, reported Mizzima, a news agency run by Burmese journalists exiled in India.

Members of the new Coordinating Committee of Social Watch. (Photo: Social Watch)

Source: Social Watch

Leonor Briones, of Philippines, and Tanya Dawkins, of the United States, were elected as co-chairs of the Coordinating Committee of Social Watch on 16 July, after the network’s Global Assembly, held in Manila last week. The 15 members of this body were chosen in a gender balanced way and represent Latin America, Europe, Asia, Africa, North America and the Arab region.

Doreen Stabinsky. (Photo: College of the Atlantic)

Source: Third World Network

The last two rainy seasons did not materialize over a major portion of the Horn of Africa. All of Somalia, and large swaths of Ethiopia, Kenya, Djibouti and northern Uganda are now experiencing their worst drought in sixty years, warned Doreen Stabinsky, Professor of Global Environmental Politics at College of the Atlantic in Maine, United States.

Photo: Social Watch

Source: Social Watch

In its 5th Global Assembly held in Manila last week, Social Watch concluded that “the current growth-led economic model is economically inefficient, socially unjust, environmentally damaging and politically unsustainable”. Thus, it pledged to “challenge the prevailing economic paradigm based on GDP growth worldwide” and to further its contribution to “the development of alternative indicators”.