Category: News

News

Lisbon Treaty signed

Post author By Susan Paterson
Post date November 3, 2009

Read the NY Times article here

From the NYT: ” The signing raises the prospect of an empowered Europe with an enhanced global stature. The treaty, which may go into effect as early as Dec. 1, creates a permanent presidential post and sets up a more powerful foreign policy chief supported by a network of diplomats around the world. It seeks to make an increasingly unwieldy bloc more workable by putting in place a new voting system, which reflects countries’ population size, while reducing the number of areas where one country alone can block a proposal. It also gives more power to the directly elected European Parliament.

The rulebook the treaty replaces was out of date, created before the bloc began to expand broadly across Europe; it has taken in 12 new nations since 2004.

Some leaders, including President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, insisted there could be no significant further enlargement of the European Union without the Lisbon Treaty in effect.”

You can read more about the Treaty of Lisbon on the Europa site.

The Treaty at a glance.

Tags european union

News Online Resource (Free)

New report from Asia Foundation: Afghanistan in 2009.

Post author By Susan Paterson
Post date October 28, 2009

The Asia Foundation has released its  fifth
survey of the Afghan people -
Afghanistan in 2009: a survey of the Afghan people.
From the Asia Foundation website: "Aiming to provide 
the Afghan citizenry,policy makers and influential actors in 
government, civil society, and
the international community with useful, actionable information, 
the 2009 Survey of the Afghan People is a comprehensive assessment
of national perception in key policy areas. These areas include: 
security, economy, governance, democratic values, and women and society. 
The 2009 fieldwork was conducted during June 17-July 6, 
prior to the August 20 elections, and builds upon previous surveys 
conducted in 2004, 2006, 2007, and 2008. 
Its value can be found in its rigorous methodology and
reliable consistency in measuring public perceptions on a range of
crucial issues each year."

Tags Afghanistan, Asia Foundation

News Online Resource (Free)

2009 Eurostat Regional Yearbook now available

Post author By Susan Paterson
Post date October 20, 2009

The Yearbook presents a statistical portrait of life in the regions of the European Union’s member states, candidate countries and the EFTA countries. A broad set of regional data is presented on the following themes: population, European cities, labour market, gross domestic product, household accounts, structural business statistics, information society, science, technology and innovation, education, tourism and agriculture. Available in 2 parts.

Part 1

Part 2

Tags european union, statistics

News

Update on BC Treaty Commission – Common Table Report released

Post author By Susan Paterson
Post date October 15, 2009

After 16 years of negotiations, the BC Treaty Commission asks Harper to step in – article from Globe and Mail.

The BC Treaty Commission’s annual report for 2009 is available online.

On October 13, 2009, the BC Treaty Commission released the Common Table Report, which captures the 13 days of discussions in 2008 among the governments of Canada and British Columbia and more than 60 First Nations. Included are 21 opportunities the parties agreed to explore further to move treaty negotiations forward.

Tags British Columbia, First Nations

News Online Resource (Free)

Book of Odds

Post author By Susan Paterson
Post date October 13, 2009

The Book of Odds is an online statistical encyclopedia which will launch October 14, 2009. Although not specifically about government publications the topics do include statistics about politics as well as health, accidents, and relationships. Here are some examples:

The average American is more likely to live without ever visiting a dentist than to live without a TV in her home.
A married man is about as likely to cheat on his wife as he is to experience a flight delay.

From the New York Times: “The Book of Odds is a searchable online database of “odds statements,” the probabilities of everyday life. You can search it by keyword or by the odds themselves— for instance, how many things stand a 1 in 142 chance of happening to to you. As a special treat for Freakonomics readers, you can try the beta version of the site by clicking here and entering the username “brownian” and password “motion.”… Some of the items you’ll find include:

Read the full NYT article here

News Website

The U.S. Federal Register(2000-09) now available in XML.

Post author By Susan Paterson
Post date October 6, 2009

From the US GOVDOC Listserv:
The White House, U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) and the National
Archives' Office of the Federal Register (OFR)
achieved a breakthrough in making Government information available
and usable by the public.
GPO converted the text of the Federal Register (2000-2009) into XML
and placed it online in numerous Federal Government portals, which include:

This project began when President Barack Obama challenged Federal agencies
to create a more open and transparent Government.
GPO's Federal Digital System (FDsys), a world-class information management
system for Federal publications, is instrumental
in enabling this enhanced capability for the Federal Register.

The change supplements the official publishing formats with XML,
a form of text that can be manipulated in virtually limitless
ways with digital applications.
For example, people who want to know about the workings of the
Executive branch of the Federal Government
no longer need to sift through the Federal Register in its
traditional Department-by-Department and Agency-by-Agency format.
This new format will allow applications to be developed that
will support user needs and can
rearrange the Federal Register's contents in personalized
ways to match their particular interests.
It will be possible, for example, to download the Federal
Register and easily see what proposed actions
might affect one's community or region, or what actions
might have an impact on one's profession or business interests.

Link to the Federal Register Bulk Data
Repository

News

Report: Hospital beds could run out in 15 states if 35% of Americans get H1N1

Post author By Susan Paterson
Post date October 5, 2009

Read the news story from Docuticker and the full report is from Trust for American’s Health.

Tags health, United States

News

Women’s Rights: 4 Agencies into one at the UN

Post author By Yvonne Chan
Post date September 16, 2009

The United Nations has just announced that it will be consolidating four disparate organizations devoted to women’s/gender issues into a single entity.

“The resolution means the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the Division for the Advancement of Women, the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and the UN International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (UN-INSTRAW) will be merged.”

The aim is for the new body to provide a more streamlined, coherent and “robust” promotion of “the well-being of women, ” gender equality and female empowerment around the world.

As yet the new organization lacks a formal “mission, structure, funding (or) oversight” but Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has been tasked to provide these so that the body can be formed “as soon as possible.”

Tags gender, human rights, United Nations

News Online Resource (Free)

New UN report concludes evidence of war crimes in Gaza Conflict

Post author By Susan Paterson
Post date September 15, 2009

Read the news story from the Vancouver Sun here.

You can read the full advanced edited 575 page report here. The report was just released Tuesday Sept. 15 in advance of the its presentation to the UN Human Rights Council later this month.

Tags United Nations

News Uncategorized

BC’s HST

BC to harmonize sales tax with GST. See the story from the Globe and Mail here. Read Vander Zalm’ reaction and there is a good summary on Darren Barefoot’s site.