Widespread irregularities cast doubt on Iraqi elections

‘Tens of thousands’ unable to cast ballots

Iraqis vote Jan. 30 in the Al-Batawin neighborhood center of Baghdad. The security official is masked to prevent his identification by resistance fighters.

Photo courtesy IRAK

Compiled by Greg White

Feb. 2 (AGR) — Troubling details of the Jan. 30 Iraqi election are beginning to emerge, while many Iraqis are questioning the legitimacy of a voting process held amidst rampant violence and foreign occupation.

As election officials were compiling poll results and checking tallies, Iraqi officials admitted that there was a shortage of ballot papers in some cities with a large Sunni population.

In a Feb. 1 news conference, Iraqi interim President Ghazi al-Yawir said "tens of thousands were unable to cast their votes because of the lack of ballots in Basra, Baghdad and Najaf."

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Climate change more catastrophic than previously thought

Compiled by Jodi Rhoden

Feb. 2 (AGR) -- Human emissions of greenhouse gases could cause global temperatures to rise some 20 degrees Fahrenheit by century’s end, according to results from the world’s largest climate prediction experiment.

The findings, published Jan. 27 in the journal “Nature,” project a potential temperature increase more than double the amount predicted by the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

“The possibility of such high responses has profound implications,” said Dr. David Frame of Oxford University, coordinator of the Climateprediction.net project. “If the real world response were anywhere near the upper end of our range, even today’s levels of greenhouse gases could already be dangerously high.”

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A movement builds to take on Wal-Mart

By Hans Johnson

Jan. 25 -- Until last year, Wal-Mart, the global retail chain known for undercutting local competitors by curbing wages and benefits, enjoyed so much clout that it placed its sprawling warehouse stores practically at will. But grassroots challenges to the healthcare practices of America’s largest employer have stalled its expansion bids, exposing a bullying streak beneath its homey veneer of red, white and blue.

The skirmishes feature charges that Wal-Mart racks up huge profits while covering health care for just 45 percent of its workers and freeloading on taxpayers, who are stuck with the tab for the uninsured and their family members. The conflict pits a wide alliance of interfaith, labor and community groups against a retail chain whose profits topped $9 billion in 2003, with 3,200 outlets and 1.2 million employees in the United States alone.

In defending the very premise of the New Deal and reasserting the notion of a social contract, the campaign to rein in Wal-Mart could define the next decade of progressive organizing, policy and politics.

“The platform that Wal-Mart keeps advocating is bringing in jobs to low-income communities,” says Rev. Michael Pfleger of St. Sabina’s Catholic Church in Chicago. “But low-wage jobs, often without health care, keep families in poverty and keep people in shackles.”

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