Panama | Impressions

Palestine vote

The UN general assembly has just voted overwhelmingly to recognize Palestine as a state. An astounding 138 nations chose to support the path of peace and justice.

Just weeks ago, the vote was expected to be much closer, with Israel and the US lobbying hard to deny Palestine key European support. But in the face of major public pressure and vigorous campaigning by the Avaaz community, countries such as France, Spain, Belgium and Sweden decided to vote yes to statehood for Palestine. In the end, just nine countries ended up on the wrong side of history: Israel, the US, Canada, the Czech Republic, Panama, Palau, Nauru, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands.

Celebrate this historic moment, share this map with everyone.

[Update: This map has been corrected to show New Zealand also voted in favor, rather than abstaining.]

Source: AVAAZ.ORG

Welcome to Statehood, Palestine! (sairasays.wordpress.com)
Why Did Palau, Micronesia, Nauru and The Marshall Islands Vote Against Palestine’s UN Bid? (ginosblog.com)
Nobody Knows Where Countries That Voted Against Palestine Are (mashable.com)
Only 9 Countries Vote Against Palestinians At UN (huffingtonpost.com)
UN general assembly makes resounding vote in favour of Palestinian statehood (guardian.co.uk)
Palestine UN vote reaction: US calls new status ‘counterproductive’ (telegraph.co.uk)
UN: A Decisive Victory for Palestine (commondreams.org)
The World Votes in Favor of Peace for the Palestinians and the Israelis… (zwingliusredivivus.wordpress.com)
Here’s how countries voted on Palestinian statehood today – and Israeli statehood 65 years ago (qz.com)
If we dance with Darwin’s Theory of Survival of the Fetish (am just kidding) fittest Judaic must be the missing half of planet earth population instead of Buddhists, Hindus, Shinto you name it. So what went wrong with the chosen-ones fertility & Vitality rates and old-testament trash? (alakhtal.wordpress.com)

A powerful, magnitude-7.6 earthquake shook northwestern Costa Rica and a wide swath of Central America on Wednesday, September 5, 2012, 10:42 a.m. EDT. It occurred at a depth of about 25 miles and about seven miles southeast of Nicoya, a coastal town with a population of around 15,000 people. Nicoya is about 87 miles (140 kilometers) west of San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica.

A fifty year-old woman died from a heart attack during the quake. At least 20 people were injured. The Red Cross said those numbers could rise as damage assessment teams reached more areas. Power and communications were down across Costa Rica’s capital and in many other areas.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued tsunami warnings for Costa Rica, Panama and Nicaragua, after initially issuing warnings for a larger area. Later on the tsunami warnings was canceled altogether.

The national emergency commission reported the evacuation of government buildings in San Jose and damages to roads and bridges in several parts of the country.