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Contacts:

Molly Moore, Environmental Defense Fund, 240.393.0686, molly@sandersonstrategies.com
Erin Greeson, National Audubon Society, 503.913.8978, egreeson@audubon.org
Lacey McCormick, National Wildlife Federation, 512.203.3016, mccormick@nwf.org
Heather Layman, The Nature Conservancy, 703.841.3929, hlayman@tnc.org
Shelley Sparks, Ocean Conservancy, 504.616.9150, ssparks@oceanconservancy.org

Draft plan outlining objectives and criteria for implementing RESTORE ACT released, is a step forward but should prioritize large-scale conservation

(WASHINGTON—May 24, 2013) Yesterday, the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council released its draft plan for restoring the Gulf of Mexico following the 2010 BP oil disaster. Leading restoration organizations released the following statement in response:

Cleanup on Louisiana beaches after the oil disaster.

“The Council has taken an important step in outlining objectives and the criteria for selecting restoration projects in the Gulf, and we thank them for their efforts.

“Ultimately, the project list, yet to be finalized, should reflect a strong commitment to large-scale conservation projects that will restore the natural ecosystems of the Gulf, which are the backbone of the region’s economy and communities.

“We look forward to working with the Restoration Council to continue developing a comprehensive plan that prioritizes projects based on the ecosystem priorities outlined in the RESTORE Act. That means restoring and protecting the natural resources that our communities and economy rely on – from rivers and estuaries to the marine environment.”

A recent bipartisan poll conducted by FM3 and Public Opinion Strategies shows that three-quarters of Gulf coastal voters (76 percent) back using the money collected from the RESTORE Act primarily for restoration of beaches, wildlife habitat, coastal areas, rivers and other waters that affect the Gulf Coast. Voters across every major demographic subgroup of the electorate indicate a strong preference for using these funds for restoration of the Gulf’s lands and waters, including solid majorities in every state.

The Restoration Council directly oversees expenditure of 30 percent of RESTORE Act funds for ecological restoration projects, and must approve state priorities for expenditures for another 30 percent of RESTORE funds. The Council’s four Gulf Coast restoration goals include: restore and conserve habitat, restore water quality, replenish and protect living coastal and marine resources and enhance community resilience.

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USTR has sent witnesses the schedule for its Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership hearing on May 29-30.  There will be 61 witnesses over the two days. Each witness will have 5 minutes to give remakrks, and 5 minutes for Q&A. Most of the civil society groups that work on intellectual property issues will testify on [...]

Istanbul, May 24, 2013--Turkish authorities should reverse on appeal the jail term handed down this week to a Turkish Armenian author and blogger who was convicted of insulting the Prophet Muhammad, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.... Committee to Protect Journalists

This is a summary of an event held at Chatham House on 2 May 2013. The event focused on South Africa’s growth and development and the resulting implications for regional and international engagement.  Event details.

This is a transcript of an event held at Chatham House on 22 May 2013. The panel discussed how the new powers of the present day – Brazil, India, and China – are negotiating their rise in the international system, and also how other key players are attempting to adapt to accommodate or contain them. They also considered the implications of these negotiations for international leadership and global order. Event details and Q&A

The African Union (AU) celebrates its 50th anniversary on 25 May with an extraordinary summit in Addis Ababa, under the theme “Pan-Africanism and African Renaissance”. The AU as it has been known since 2002 is the successor to the Organization of African Unity founded (OAU) on 25 May 1963 when 32 recently independent African countries [...]

Russian General Staff head Gen. Valery Gerasimov on Thursday reaffirmed Moscow's position that U.S. decisions on ballistic missile defense are necessary if the two nations are to agree on further reductions in their nuclear arsenals, ITAR-Tass reported.

"Russia will cut its strategic offensive arms only when it is sure the United States' missile defense system is not threatening its nuclear potential," Gerasimov said during a conference in the Russian capital.

The two nations are required under the New START treaty to by 2018 deploy no more than 1,550 strategic warheads on 700 delivery systems. The Obama administration has regularly expressed its hopes for further nuclear arms control talks, while the Kremlin has focused on resolving stated fears that U.S. ballistic missile defenses being deployed in Europe could target its long-range atomic assets.

The sides have had a flurry of meetings in recent months, but there has been no sign of a deal on Moscow's demand for a legally binding agreement on the targeting issue.

While New START is the "golden standard of such treaties," Russia "will decide whether to withdraw from this treaty or to stay in it" based on decisions made in Washington, the general said.

 

Nuclear specialists said it is unclear if Iran can acquire parts critical for 3,000 high-speed uranium enrichment centrifuges it is thought to be intent on deploying at its Natanz complex, Reuters reported.

The U.N. Security Council has adopted four sets of sanctions aimed at pressuring Iran to stop refining uranium, a process that can generate nuclear-bomb fuel as well as material for peaceful use. Tehran, which insists its atomic activities are nonmilitary in nature, has deployed 509 advanced IR-2M enrichment centrifuges and constituent parts since February, the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Wednesday in its latest safeguards report on the country's nuclear program.

The deployment brings the overall number of IR-2M centrifuges close to 700 and "preparatory installation work" is finished for a significant number of additional machines, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said, noting none have yet entered use. A fifth experimental model dubbed "IR-5" is now in place at Natanz, the agency added.

Eurasia Group specialist Cliff Kupchan said "mastery of a faster machine would make use of a clandestine facility more attractive, as fewer machines and a smaller facility could be used to make a bomb."

Still, it is uncertain if Iran possesses the "resources or wherewithal" to reach its anticipated goal of 3,000 IR-2M centrifuges, according to an analysis of Wednesday's IAEA report by the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington. The IAEA report's data "about the number of actual installed IR-2M centrifuges is highly incomplete" because the organization did not specify how many held rotor assemblies, the document states.

Iran probably has not secured top-quality components for the advanced machines, the Arms Control Association think tank said. "Experts assess that a tripling or quadrupling in efficiency might be realistic, but that it is difficult to estimate until the machines are operating," the group added.

Pictures taken from space support an IAEA finding that Iran has resurfaced an area of its Parchin military installation suspected to have housed nuclear weapon-relevant experiments, the Washington Post quoted a separate ISIS report as saying.

One expert, though, said the alleged studies would not have been "illegal in any way."

"This question has absolutely no relevance to the real issue of whether Iran is currently in compliance with its obligations under international law, including the rules of the [Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty] and its [inspections agreement] with the IAEA," Daniel Joyner, a University of Alabama nuclear law expert, wrote on the Arms Control Law blog on Wednesday.

U.S. State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell on Wednesday said Washington and other capitals would "discuss the IAEA report and look how to best respond to with other members" of the agency's 35-nation Board of Governors, which meets in early June, Agence France-Presse reported. The European Union on Thursday said the IAEA assessment "further aggravates existing concerns on the exclusively peaceful nature of the Iranian nuclear program," Reuters reported.

Iran's envoy to the agency, though, said the new document "is just like the previous ones, with the difference that only some figures have been changed," the Xinhua News Agency reported on Thursday. "The notable message of this report is that the agency has been able to maintain its inspections without any problem and there has been no evidence of diversion to weaponization in Iran's nuclear activities," Ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh added in comments reported by Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting.

Meanwhile, the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday endorsed legislation aimed at further reducing sales of Iranian petroleum to under 500,000 barrels daily, curbing Tehran's ability to use money held in other countries, and imposing penalties on additional industries in the Middle Eastern nation, Reuters reported. The bill is anticipated to face little opposition in the full House.

The U.N. Panel of Experts on Iran sanctions has suggested two Swiss companies might have helped facilitate mineral transactions to assist Tehran in circumventing international economic penalties, Reuters reported separately on Thursday.

This report extracts mentions of children's rights issues in the reports of the UN Special Procedures. This does not include reports of child specific Special Procedures, such as the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, which are available as separate reports.

Please note that the language may have been edited in places for the purpose of clarity

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Read on the web...

Gulf restoration draft plan lacks required priority list, spending allocation plan
By Mark Schleifstein, The Times-Picayune (New Orleans). May 23, 2013.
"The federal-state body that will oversee the spending of billions of dollars in Clean Water Act fines resulting from the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill on Thursday released a “draft initial comprehensive plan” for spending the money on projects that will restore the coast’s natural resources and also benefit the Gulf Coast’s economy…" (Read more)

Extremely active hurricane season possible, acting NOAA administrator says
By Mark Schleifstein, The Times-Picayune. May 23, 2013.
"The 2013 hurricane season, which begins June 1, could be extremely active, with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center issued a pre-season Atlantic hurricane forecast Thursday that calls for 13 to 20 named storms, including 7 to 11 hurricanes. Of those, 3 to 6 could be major hurricanes, Category 3 and above, with winds above 111 mph…" (Read more)

Army Corps of Engineers command change on eve of hurricane season
By Paul Murphy, WWL-TV. May 23, 2013.
"NEW ORLEANS — There was pomp and circumstance on the Mississippi River during a military change of command ceremony on the Army Corps of Engineers sprawling Uptown complex…" (Read more)

Louisiana red snapper anglers get longer season in federal waters
By Todd Masson, The Times-Picayune. May 24, 2013.
"The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Thursday it would lengthen the federal red-snapper season in the Gulf of Mexico to as many as 34 days…" (Read more)

This report extracts mentions of children's rights issues in the reports of the UN Special Procedures. This does not include reports of child specific Special Procedures, such as the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, which are available as separate reports.

Please note that the language may have been edited in places for the purpose of clarity

Read on the web...

Read on the web...

This report extracts mentions of children's rights issues in the reports of the UN Special Procedures. This does not include reports of child specific Special Procedures, such as the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, which are available as separate reports.

Please note that the language may have been edited in places for the purpose of clarity

The following petition has been posted on the White House’s ‘We the People’ site: Less than 1% of printed works globally are accessible to the blind. This is because laws around the world bar printed material from being turned into formats useable by the blind and visually impaired, or for such material to be shared [...]

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Serious electoral flaws and human rights abuses by the Iranian government undermine any meaningful prospect of free and fair elections on June 14, 2013. Dozens of political activists and journalists detained during the violent government crackdown that followed the disputed 2009 presidential election remain in prison, two former presidential candidates are under house arrest, and authorities are already clamping down on access to the internet, having arbitrarily disqualified most registered presidential and local election candidates.

(Beirut) – Serious electoral flaws and human rights abuses by the Iranian government undermine any meaningful prospect of free and fair elections on June 14, 2013.

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Consumers International (CI) has commissioned the production of three papers, the first on the competition chapter by one of our members, and the other two by independent experts, respectively covering the investment chapter and how it affects A2K, and the free flow of information provision and its impacts on privacy.  The papers are now available [...]

A young woman from Eritrea reflects on her country’s day of independence. Today – 24 May – is Eritrean Independence Day, marking a victory won at the cost of many lives and sacrifices. But now, 20 years on, many of … Continue reading →