Newswire

Tens of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands of people have come out onto the streets of the cities and towns around Egypt to say down with the regime, the people want regime change. Follow live updates below:

At 12.30am Egyptian time on January 28, the plug was pulled in Egypt on all internet traffic for all major internet providers. Egypt is almost entirely offline. The move was made to stop people organising protests through social media sites like twitter and Facebook. See Live updates below...

Guardian Live updates for Jan 28 protests | Live video from Cairo via satellite Al Jazeera | Event: Melbourne rally Sun Jan 30

Action on sustainable energy must not be deferred by the floods, but rather must be built into rebuilding the flood-impacted regions of eastern Australia, says the Sustainable Energy Association of Australia (SEA).

‘Climate action must not be a casualty in climate-related disasters,’ says Prof. Ray Wills, SEA Chief Executive.

SEA is especially concerned about the changes in funding solar initiatives. Around the world, growth in renewable energy investments is now greater than any other energy investment – except for Australia.

Australia has appeared before the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.

The universal periodic review is a new process by which every nation is held to account by other countries for its human rights record.

For Australia's turn, 50 countries have made 120 recommendations. (List of Advance Questions PDF)

The ruling means that the Bushmen can finally
use a vital well. ©Survival

SURVIVAL INTERNATIONAL -- In a momentous decision, Botswana’s Court of Appeal on 27 January quashed a ruling that denied the Kalahari Bushmen access to water on their ancestral lands.

With support from Survival International, the Bushmen appealed a 2010 High Court judgment that prevented them from accessing a well which they rely on for water. The panel of five Appeal Court judges has found that:

- the Bushmen have the right to use their old borehole, which the government had banned them from using

Is it achievable? You bet! All it takes is the political and social will to make it happen says two US researchers who have just published a study of the material resources and technology required to power the world 100 per cent by carbon emission neutral alternative energy technologies. It would also save 2.5 million to 3 million lives a year through slashing water and air pollution and simultaneously slow global warming and the problems of climate change, and develop secure, reliable energy sources and at costs comparable with what we spend on energy today.

Australia Day on January 26th marks the day Europeans began their occupation of Aboriginal land. The process of occupation and colonisation has been a devastating one for the indigenous occupants of Australia. Mainstream Australia celebrated the day by proudly waving the flag on their cars, clothing or even draping themselves in the "Cronulla cape". Others were “relaxed and comfortable” as John Howard urged us years ago and attended bbq's or the beach. However many Australians attended events that called for justice for Indigenous Australia and to reject the idea that January 26th is a day that all Australians should “celebrate”. In Tasmania 400 people marched to demand a change to our national day. In Belgrave in Melbourne others attended a Survival Day concert. In Sydney hundreds marched in Redfern against the Intervention before attending the 2011 Yabun Festival. Hundreds also marched Brisbane at an invasion day rally.

Rising Tide Newcastle: MEDIA ALERT Clive Hamilton, the founding director of the Australia Institute, will join Rising Tide and Greens MP David Shoebridge in a panel of speakers in Newcastle this Friday, January 28 to support the seven climate activists being pursued for $525 000 in ‘victims’ compensation’ by Port Waratah Coal Services (PWCS). The defendants will be in court on Monday January 31st and Thursday February 3rd in Newcastle.

Dear friends

We want to bring to your notice that trains carrying highly radioactive nuclear fuel rods removed from nuclear power stations pass regularly through the main site of the Olympic Games 2012 in East London.

If the casing housing the rods were breached, high-level radiation would be released, which nuclear scientists have calculated would cause thousands of deaths downwind in a built-up area such as East London, and require mass evacuation.