The Read International For 7/19/10: US Gives Aid To Pakistan, And Philip Morris Practices Child Labour (The Runthrough)

Photo from AFP

The underreported tension between the United States and Pakistan was helped today by this helping giving of aid :

The US government has announced a major new aid package for Pakistan, with hundreds of millions of dollars to be spent on projects in Pakistan's energy and water sectors.

Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, announced the $500m package at the start of a day-long "strategic dialogue" in Islamabad between American and Pakistani officials.

The money - part of a five-year, $7.5bn aid package approved by the US congress last year - will support a total of 26 projects.

Though the electricity money is certainly welcome for the electrical need Pakistan wants at any time, there is a still a major problem between the US and their tenuous allies. And that is in regards to the Haqquani, who many consider the main threat to the US and NATO in, guess where..........Afghanistan!

Pakistan still has close ties with them, so despite the aid we give them, we still have a major problem of dealing with the others they continue to make deals with.

A sad situation in Salinthia, India today, as a train crash leads to multiple dead in the top international story of the day. And one passenger explains how frightening brush with death:

"At the station my train was just about to pull out when I heard a big scream, 'There's going to be a crash,'" said the man.

"So I clung on to a bar by my feet. Then there was a massive bang. Most of the people in my carriage died in front of me."

The death toll is at 60, but that number is expected to rise.

Back to the Hillary "Middle East War Zone" tour. She is part of the big conference in Kabul!

Some 70 countries are set to attend a historic conference in the Afghan capital Kabul amid some of the deadliest violence of the war.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is among those due to join Tuesday's one-day talks on Afghanistan's future.

They expect to hear President Hamid Karzai call for greater control over foreign aid for reconstruction.

But Afghanistan's key foreign backers are also seeking assurances as they plan to withdraw troops.

Images of the suspected two demons who cause the Uganda bombing that killed so many last week have been released :

Well, what do you know? Child labour is used deep in Kazakhstan for the benefit of harvest tobacco, how lovely .

"From 4 am to 10 – a girl of 12 tells officials at Human Rigths Watch (HRW) - we go to the fields to gather [tobacco leaves]. At 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., we eat and thread [the leaves]. From 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. we gather again. Then thread until midnight, then sleep. Get up again at 4 a.m. And that goes on for a long time. "

What company is behind this heinous thing?......Phillip Morris!

The report also revealed that all the tobacco in this area is purchased by Philip Morris Kazakhstan, a subsidiary of leading multinational Philip Morris International, which sells its products in 160 countries and has a turnover of approximately 90 billion dollars with brands like Marlboro, L & M, Chesterfield, Bond Street.

In recent days, the company wrote on its online site that "Philip Morris strongly opposes child labour." Its spokesman Peter Nixon, reached by the media, said that now the company will strive to prevent the tobacco harvest in Kazakhstan, demanding that suppliers make written contracts with parents and that they are planning surprise inspections.

Jane Buchanan, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, notes that "a company like Philip Morris certainly has the resources to stop these practices" and that in Central Asia and the problem of child labour is well known and " companies should have policies to recognize and eliminate problems with human rights related to their supply " of raw material.

So feel free to call Philip Morris and ask them "Why are they supporting child labor?"

Oh you have to love our American corporations and how they love practicing child labour freely until they get caught.

Your "Read International" for the day.