WcP.Observer's blog

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Gaza War has strained the relationship between Israel and Turkey, Israel’s closest Muslim ally. Turkey was the first Muslim country to recognize Israel as a state, and it has built up more than $3 billion in annual trade with Israel, far more than for any other Middle Eastern country. “It’s not a business-as-usual relationship anymore,” said Cengiz Candar, a columnist for Radikal, a Turkish daily. “It’s a very uneasy sort of cohabitation in this region now.”

Israel’s Arab allies stood behind it in the war, but Turkey, a NATO member whose mediating efforts last year brought Israel into indirect talks with Syria, protested every step of the way in a month of angry remarks capped when Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan stalked off the stage during a debate in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 29.

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PARIS – Looking at the shows that kicked off Paris' haute couture week on Monday, you'd never know the world was the midst of the most serious financial turmoil since the Great Depression.

Designers here delivered opulent, flamboyant collections that, instead of reflecting the gloomy economic reality, transported the viewer into a world of beauty and fantasy. "My job is to make women dream," Christian Dior designer John Galliano told The Associated Press. "Of course I'm aware of the credit crunch, but it is not a creative crunch - not at the house of Dior, anyway."

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BELÉM, Brazil, Jan 27 (IPS) - A human banner made up of more than 1,000 people, seen and photographed from the air, sent the message "SOS Amazon" to the world, in the first action taken by indigenous people hours before the opening in northern Brazil on Tuesday of the 2009 World Social Forum (WSF).

The mass message reflects "our concern about global warming, whose impact we will be the first to feel, although we, the peoples of the Amazon, have protected and cared for the forests," Francisco Avelino Batista, an Apurinán Indian from the Purus river valley in the Brazilian Amazon, told IPS.

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China has become the world's third-largest economy, surpassing Germany and closing rapidly on Japan, according to government and World Bank figures. The Chinese government revised its growth figures for 2007 from 11.9 percent to 13 percent this week, bringing its estimated gross domestic product to $3.4 trillion -- about 3 percent larger than Germany's $3.3 trillion for the same year, based on World Bank estimates. Beijing is expected to release its 2008 GDP figures next week.

Although the world's top economies, the United States and Japan, are in recession, the most pessimistic estimates for China's growth in upcoming years runs about 5 percent. That could allow China's GDP to overtake Japan's, currently $4.3 trillion, within a few years. The U.S. economy, the world's largest, was about $13.8 trillion in 2007.

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Many Africans spend 4-hours per day walking, or 1/4 of their income paying for transport. A bike can save this every day, helping to break the poverty trap.

Wooden bikes are fairly common in Rwanda and they’re used pretty much daily for transportation of goods and people. Tom Ritchey got the bright idea that the bikes should be raced as well and now the annual Wooden Bike Classic draws curious tourists from around the world for a chance to watch (and even participate).

The goals of Project Rwanda are pretty simple and they all come back to cycling: building awareness for the country (through events like the Wooden Bike Classic), specialized bike design (real steel bikes for transporting coffee crops), bike distribution, and national pride (through support of the Rwandan National Cycling Team).

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AFP - France spearheaded alarmed reaction from European nations as Israeli tanks and troops pushed into the Gaza Strip, revealing a sharp difference in tone from the official line in Washington.

At least 460 Palestinians have been killed and thousands wounded in an eight-day bombing campaign, according to Gaza medics, as Israeli tanks clashed overnight with Hamas fighters who fired back with mortars and rockets.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said the decision to send ground forces into Gaza after a week of air strikes was a "dangerous military escalation", while Britain called for an immediate ceasefire.

The European Union's new Czech presidency said Israel did not have the right to take military actions "which largely affect civilians," though its launching of land operations in the Gaza Strip was no surprise.  read more »

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WHISTLER, B.C. - Vancouver 2010 Olympic organizers are considering canceling the evening award ceremonies and giving the medals out at sport venues to save money.

Gary Lunn, the minister of state for sport, said that in tough economic times the Vancouver Organizing Committee has to look at its bottom line.

"They are looking at all of their options and that is the right thing to do in today's economic climate . . . They have to prepare for the unknown," he said.

But Whistler Mayor Ken Melamed said residents do not support the cancellation.

"We know there are challenges but this would be a huge blow to Whistler," he said.

Whistler is planning to throw a $18.5-million party, slated to run 24 hours a day for the duration of the Olympics, which will include concerts, shows and celebrations.

The party will be held at Whistler Village and at the Celebration Plaza Olympic venue, the construction of which is due to be completed in September.  read more »