• New Libyan regime pledged to support Human Rights

A Libyan delegate sparked outrage after telling a United Nations human rights panel that gay people threaten the future of the human race.

The unnamed official made the remarks as violence based on sexual orientation was being discussed.

His outburst came despite the new Libyan leaders promising to respect human rights following the downfall of Colonel Gaddafi.

Outburst: Libya were only reinstated to the 47-nation United Nations Human Rights Council in November. It is separate from the General Assembly

Libya were only recently restored to the 47-nations UN Human Rights Council.

The delegate said that the topics being discussed ‘affect religion and the continuation and reproduction of the human race’, the non-governmental organisation UN Watch reported.

He also claimed that Libya would have opposed a resolution that denounced violence on the grounds of sexual orientation last… Continue reading →

While London accuses Argentina of colonialism, a look at the history and the international law shows Britain has always been a notorious colonizer whose dark practice persists in the present.

Last week, British Prime Minister David Cameron lashed out at Argentina for a “colonial” attitude on the South Atlantic Malvinas islands (the Falklands), which the British illegally occupied in 1833.

However, according to the United Nations’ Special Committee on Decolonization, which is in charge of implementing the Declaration on Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, Britain has colonized the islands along with nine other territories, and should return them to its true owners.

Moreover, the committee’s list of colonies contains only 16 entries, ten of which — Bermuda, Malvinas, Anguilla, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Montserrat, Turks and Caicos Islands, Gibraltar, Pitcairn and Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha — are colonized by Britain.

Earlier this week,… Continue reading →

How have unmanned drones changed battlefields and military budgets?

The business of drones, the unmanned aircraft which can either spy or attack, is projected to be a $7bn industry next year. This is not much in the $1.6tn big picture of military spending, but it is the economics that has the world’s biggest defence spender interested. In harsh economic times, drones make sense.

To keep one 24-hour reconnaissance mission in the air would take eight traditional manned planes, as many as 15 pilots, and about 96 mechanics; but the same mission using drones would need just three aircrafts, with four pilots on the ground and just 35 mechanics.

On this episode of Counting the Cost, we take a detailed look at the cost of defence spending on drones and exactly what else a drone is capable of.

Also on the show, a… Continue reading →