About 15 percent of the registered voters participated in this primary. Now, you have to understand, in Puerto Rico voting is like a religion. 80 percent of the people normally turn out in elections. And even in primaries, you get 50, 60 percent. So this was an historically low turnout for an election. And in essence, while Hillary got a landslide—she got a landslide of 15 percent of the voters—the overwhelming majority did not participate. I think there are two reasons for this. One is, there are a lot of Puerto Ricans who feel, well, since we can’t vote in November when it counts, why should we then participate in a primary that really is only the buildup to the main event? But the other part of it is the fact that many Puerto Ricans don’t relate to politics in the United States. And, in fact, the independence movement, which is small but is still influential, called for a boycott of the elections, and on Election Day they had perhaps the biggest rally of the entire campaign. Nearly 10,000 people on Sunday marched through the streets of Old San Juan, calling this a colonial charade, the entire process a colonial charade, and urging people to boycott.

Many of the most renowned national parks — Yellowstone, Glacier, Grand Canyon — were formed after the federal government forced tribes from the land. “The national park is a sort of wonderful ideal, but it’s an ideal that was created,” said Karl Jacoby, a professor at Brown University who studies Western history. “There weren’t empty wilderness areas in the United States. They had to be created by the removal of Indians.”

Harvard University is at the centre of an academic and political scandal after three prominent members of its psychiatry department were accused of breaking conflict-of-interest rules by failing to declare millions of dollars in consulting fees from drugs manufacturers.

Of the $25 billion in aid to Afghanistan from 2001 until now, only some $15 billion has been spent, aid agencies say. But for every $100 spent, sometimes only $20 actually reaches Afghan recipients, said the Kabul-based internationally funded Integrity Watch Afghanistan (IWA).
(...) Between 15 to 30 percent of aid money is spent on security for aid agencies, the IWA report said, and 85 percent of products, services and human resources used by agencies are imported and provide few jobs for Afghan workers.
(...) As much as 20 percent of international aid to Afghanistan is spent on so-called technical assistance; jargon for highly paid foreign staff. Some $1.6 billion was spent on technical assistance between 2002 and 2006, the report said.
(...) [holy shit!] Some staff working for the USAID, the U.S. government’s development agency, earn as much as $22,000 a month in Afghanistan, IWA said, or 367 times more than an Afghan teacher.
(...) Some 70 percent of international assistance is not channeled through the government so the Afghan state has no control how it is spent and the money does little to enhance its standing with the people or develop its ability to govern. Even though most of the money coming into Afghanistan does not come through the state, the Afghan government still relies on aid for some 90 percent of its budget.

"This is what I call economic [population] transfer," says Kamal Agarbiyeh, a chair of the Ajami neighborhood committee who is not related to Amina. "They're coming with guns loaded and saying get out or I'll shoot. Except they're loaded with dollars not bullets."

The poll, conducted by the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research, suggested that Abbas would win 52 percent of the vote against 40 percent for Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh if a presidential election were held in the Palestinian territories now. A survey by the same group in March showed Haniyeh leading Abbas by 47 percent to 46.

AUSTRALIA is to lead the way on kick-starting the faltering nuclear disarmament process, with former foreign minister Gareth Evans to co-chair an international commission. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced his plan to establish an international commission on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament after an emotional visit to the Japanese city of Hiroshima this morning.