Gujjars are on the kill again, and this time with 37 innocents already dead, they seem to be determined to get the demanded Scheduled Tribe (ST) status. Rajasthan government is helpless, as the community wants the status unconditionally. Gujjar riots took 26 lives last year. Complex caste system, redundant Constitutional laws and vote bank politics has made the whole concept of unbiased socio-economic upliftment a parody.

The marathon primaries seem to take a heavy toll on the US election campaigners. Hillary Clinton brought up the assassination of Sen. Robert Kennedy while defending her decision to stay in the race against Barack Obama.

When asked about the calls for her to drop out of the race, she said:

My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don’t understand it.

She obliquely referred to the assassination earlier too at a DC fundraiser on May 7th:

If you look at successful presidential campaigns, my husband didn’t get the nomination until June of 1992. I remember, tragically, Senator Kennedy won California near the end of that process. It has often gone on. And we have a lot to work out here. Because we have to figure out who would be the stronger candidate.

This was enough to make the press freak out, and especially when it was done for the second time. Although Hillary has apologized, the damage is already done. Her remarks are interpreted as airing fears that Barack Obama may be assassinated.

The San Francisco Bay Area Air Quality Management District has imposed a pollution fee of 4.4 cents per ton of carbon dioxide factories, power plants, oil refineries and other businesses emit. Will this help solve global warming? Heavy taxes on emitters will make it complicated for businesses to operate, but it certainly serves as a model and a temporary deterrent the world can follow.

Diplomats from more than 100 countries gathered in Dublin, Ireland, are still hopeful that a treaty banning cluster bombs will become a reality. However, the United States has opposed the ban citing the munitions’ military utility and calling it impractical. A powerful lobby from all opposing countries convincing the manufacturing countries to stop its production is required or the whole Dublin exercise will just be another conference. The United States and other key cluster bomb producers and stockpilers, including China, India, Israel, Pakistan, and Russia, are absent from the Ireland meeting.

The US House of Representatives approved legislation to bring a lawsuit against OPEC calling it a cartel solely responsible for skyrocketing oil prices and global inflation. Gordon Brown too castigated OPEC for holding back oil supplies and keeping the price, which stands at a record $129 a barrel, artificially high. OPEC denies all allegations and refuses to increase the production. However, should OPEC alone be blamed when the world’s oil fields are simply running dry?

Sergeant Matthis Chiroux served in Afghanistan, Germany, Japan, and the Philippines; however he refuses to go to Iraq. Chiroux said in the sun-filled rotunda of a congressional building in Washington: “I stand before you today with the strength and clarity and resolve to declare to the military, my government and the world that this soldier will not be deploying to Iraq. My decision is based on my desire to no longer continue violating my core values to support an illegal and unconstitutional occupation... I refuse to participate in the Iraq occupation.” Unlike thousands of other soldiers who decided to quit, Chiroux vows to stay in the United States and face whatever charges the army levels against him.

Cyclone survivors in Burma are still begging for help. The international community cannot expect anything positive from a government that failed to even warn its citizens of the impending disaster. Also, as the regime in Burma has neither the will nor the capacity to distribute aid fairly, it’s time the international community intervene forcibly in accordance with the “Responsibility to Protect” where states fail to protect their populations from “genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.” But, isn’t it too late?