Toma nota.../Take note...

Liechtenstein: Big Adventures in One of the World’s Smallest Nations

Vaduz, Sept.28.– (...)

Liechtenstein is a funny place. A micro-state sandwiched between Austria and Switzerland, skirted by the mighty Rhine River, its very existence includes a couple of interesting quirks. Covering little more than 60 square miles, just 15 miles from north to south, it’s the smallest country in the world to border two different countries. And one of just two to be doubly landlocked (meaning you need to cross two different countries to reach the sea). 

In some ways, this German-speaking country feels like a medieval kingdom, and perhaps that’s not surprising. Liechtenstein is still ruled by a prince, and the castle he inhabits with his family rests on the flanks of a mountain visible to many of his subjects, who inhabit the spreading valley below, and who number fewer than 40,000 altogether.

LEBANON: A road map to Participatory Democracy

Beirut, Sept. 8.– The past two weeks witnessed the beginning of two important actions that aim at ensuring transparency, access to information, and participatory democracy at the level of public communication within the legislative and executive authorities in Lebanon.

Last week, the General Secretariat of the Lebanese Parliament in partnership with Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) launched the Parliament’s new website that includes updated features and new sections to ensure easier access to information.

The killings of environmental and land rights activists worldwide has tripled over the past decade. The death rate is now an average of more than four per week. Almost none of the killers have faced charges. Front Line Defenders has learned with great sadness and concern about the killing of land and environment defender Joanna Stutchbury, who died on Thursday, 15 July 2021. Initial reports indicate that the woman human right defender was fatally shot in the afternoon as she returned to her home on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya. In the global resource wars, “those people” appear as expendable shadow beings, weighing almost nothing in the grand scheme of things. We are witnessing an epidemic of environmental martyrdom, particularly in earth’s vital but embattled tropical forests.

Nature defenders murdered in record numbers, environmental rights group says

A record 227 people were killed worldwide in 2020 for their defense of nature -- more than four a week on average, and almost three-quarters of them in Latin America, environmental rights organization Global Witness said Sunday.

Sept. 13.– For the second year in a row, Colombia was the country with the highest number of killings -- 65 -- while Nicaragua had the highest per-capita rate, with 12 murders up from five in 2019, the group said in its annual report.

Servicio Secreto de EE.UU. comparte fotos “nunca antes vistas” de los atentados del 11/S

Washington DC, Sept. 10.– A través de su cuenta de Twitter, el Servicio Secretp también anunció la difusión de entrevistas inéditas de “empleados actuales y anteriores del Servicio Secreto que reflexionan sobre el 11 de septiembre y que honrarán las vidas perdidas, incluido Craig L. Miller”, el único agente de la institución que murió en los ataques de Al Qaeda.