This week:
1. Tar Sands Ducks
2. Olympic Baby Seal Beatings
3. Victoria’s Wild Fires
4. Capitol Climate Action
5. RNC Snitch behind Bars
6. Snow
7. The Fugees
8. Reply to All
9. Olympic Resistance
Australia Bushfires and Heatwave
Massive devastation in Australian bushfires – 9 Feb 09
An emotional Kevin Rudd, Australia’s prime minister, has described the deaths of scores of people in wildfires as “mass murder”.
The fires spread through rapidly through communities in southern Australia, as desperate residents tried to flee the flames.
Al Jazeera’s Tarek Bazley reports.
At least 128 dead in Australia’s worst ever bushfires + Meltdown, fires as climate emergency hits Australia
By Margaret Rees and Patrick O’Connor
http://www.wsws.org
9 February 2009
At least 128 people have died in bushfires and firestorms which swept through parts of the south-eastern state of Victoria on the weekend. The worst fire disaster in Australia’s history has left a devastating toll, with hundreds injured including dozens with severe burns, more than 750 homes destroyed, and at least 330,000 hectares (815,000 acres) of land razed. The Red Cross has registered more than 3,700 evacuees, but the number of people made homeless is expected to increase substantially.
Australia struggles to battle wildfires + Australian bush fires + Fire Hell
Thousands of firefighters and hundreds of volunteers are battling wildfires in southeastern Australia. In the state of Victoria, dozens have been killed and at least 100 homes destroyed in the blazes. People are busy trying to protect their homes and to avoid the heat, as the temperature reaches record levels. Al Jazeera’s Jayne Azzopardi reports.