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G8 Repression, Nike and Homelessness in Shibuya,  Mad Cow in Korea, US Plans to Make War on Iran, Award-Winning  Palestinian Journlaist Beaten in front of Diplomats , Obama Moves to the Right, and more:

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 JAPAN NEWS
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 (G8) What Does Nike Have to do with Tokyo's Homeless?
 June 27---Like many other foreigners, we arrived in Japan holding stereotypes  of Japan as a prosperous country, not one where tens of thousands of people  live in the streets. Surprised by the level of visible poverty and homelessness we saw, we realized our assumptions were wrong. The next question was how to write about the issues of homelessness and displacement with relation to the policies of the G8 and international financial institutions. Last night the  answer to this question appeared.
 
 Under the bright-as-day glow of bustling Shibuya Square, we had the honor of meeting organizers from Miyashita Park. Used for a wide range of activities by the community and activists during the day, Miyashita Park is home to dozens of people by night. But change is on the horizon for the park: it has been sold by the municipality to Nike.
 http://zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/18038
 
 
 (G8) Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement planned in secret
 The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is a proposed plurilateral trade  agreement that would impose strict enforcement of intellectual property rights related to Internet activity and trade in information-based goods. The agreement is being secretly negotiated by the governments of the United States, the European Commission, Japan, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Canada, and Mexico.
 
 This news comes from a leaked document. Details here
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement
 
 Analysis:  It is not clear yet how far reaching this agreement will be. Some political activists think that beyond confiscations related to intellectual property, it may have implications for activism, with th possibility that activists will also have their files and computers searched-confiscated. That warrants will no longer be required removes yet another form of protection.
 
 (G8) Legal Information for activists coming to Japan
 http://japan.indymedia.org/newswire/display/4544/index.php
 
 (G8) MAINSTREAM MEDIA BLUES
 Repression is reportedly in full force, with independent journalists and
 activists getting turned away at the borders or detained under harsh
 conditions.  Missing from most Japanese news accounts is any of this. Moreover, the myriad causes of the anti-G8 and G8 reform groups are not given any mention at all. So even a relatively decent newspaper, the Japan Times, only presents offcial statements or accounts of the repression, with readers unable to form judgments about the pros and cons of the G8 itself.

 OFFICIAL NEWS AND MODERATE NGOS
 http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/G8_summit_2008.html
 http://www.g8ngoforum.sakura.ne.jp/english/
 
 (G8) [ISO-2022-JP?]G8$Beb%*ec^e%cec0g=vk}@e"-qv!VeaRe#kn94h(B�%$Bj%!<kx;(B/ urgent statement protesting unreasonable detainment of independent media
 http://japan.indymedia.org/newswire/display/4528/index.php
 
 (G8) VARIOUS MOVEMENTS CONCERNED WITH G8
 Movements around the G8 Summit (2008) : the Situation in Japan
 http://japan.indymedia.org/newswire/display/4277/
 
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 GLOBALIZATION
 How to manufacture a global food crisis: The destruction of agriculture in
 developing countries
 
 Walden Bello
 http://japanfocus.org/_Walden_Bello-How_to_Manufacture_a_Global_Food_Crisis__The_destruction_of_agriculture_in_developing_countries
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 "Conservatism" and "Nationalism". The Japan Puzzle
 http://japanfocus.org/_Gavan_McCormack-_Conservatism__and__Nationalism___The_Japan_Puzzle
 
 
 
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 KOREAN MAD COW ISSUE
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 Again the mainstream media misses the point, with coverage of Korean protests focusing on the more eccentric aspects, and no coverage of the deceptions employed by the FTA (Free Trade Agreement) proponents who are hiding behind pseudo science to claim that US beef is safe despite ample evidence by scientists to the contrary.
 The US, Mad Cow and Korea-Japan Consumers
 http://japan.indymedia.org/newswire/display/4507/index.php
 
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 MIDDLE EAST
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 U.S. Escalating Covert Operations against Iran
 NEW YORK - U.S. congressional leaders agreed late last year to President George W. Bush's funding request for a major escalation of covert operations against Iran aimed at destabilizing its leadership, according to a report in The New Yorker magazine published online on Sunday.
 
 The article by reporter Seymour Hersh, from the magazine's July 7 and 14 issue, centers around a highly classified Presidential Finding signed by
 Bush which by U.S. law must be made known to Democratic and Republican House and Senate leaders and ranking members of the intelligence committees.
 http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080629/pl_nm/bush_iran_report_dc
 
 ALSO
 Preparing the Battlefield
 The Bush Administration steps up its secret moves against Iran.
 by Seymour M. Hersh
 http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/07/07/080707fa_fact_hersh
 
 
 Award Winning Palestinian IPS Journalist beaten on return to Gaza in front of Dutch Diplomats
 GAZA CITY - Mohammed Omer, IPS's Gaza correspondent and joint winner of the 2008 Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism, was strip-searched at gunpoint,  assaulted and abused by Israeli security officials at the Allenby border crossing between Jordan and the West Bank on Thursday as he tried to return home to Gaza.
 Omer, a resident of Rafah in the south of Gaza, and previous recipient of the New America Media's Best Youth Voice award several years ago, was returning from London where he had just collected his Gellhorn Prize, and from several European capitals where he had speaking engagements, including a meeting with Greek parliamentarians.
 http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43005
 
 
 And
 http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/2008/06/28/israelis-beat-and-torture-returning-journalist-mohammed-omer/
 
 
 MOHAMMED OMER - Co-Winner of the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism
 http://www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/GellhormPrize/omer.asp
 
 ExPress Freedom - More IPS News on Media Rights
 http://www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/expressfreedom/index.asp
 
 Secret U.S. operation kills Iraqi, strains relations
 By Hannah Allam, McClatchy Newspapers
 http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20080628/wl_mcclatchy/2978626
 
 On the Future of Israel and Palestine
 By Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappe and Frank Barat
 http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/17866
 
 
 US ELECTIONS
 Obama's shift to the [ISO-2022-JP?]Center$Bc`Y(Band the Narrow Authoritarian Spectrum in U.S.
 Politics
 http://zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/18052
 
 
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 ZIMBABWE
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 Mugabe, Britain and the abuses of anti-colonialism
 http://zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/18031
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