Afghanistan
Afghan opium production hits new record high
The UN’s latest Afghanistan Opium Survey finds that the country produced record levels of poppy in 2013—despite $7 billion in US eradication efforts.
Day: December 1, 2013
Watching the Shadows
Gitmo detainees to fight release to Algeria
The attorney for two Algerian detainees being held in Guantánamo Bay said the two will oppose their release back to Algeria, citing fear of torture and persecution there.
The Andes
Colombia: violent eviction at Cúcuta squatter camp
The feared Colombian National Police anti-riot force was mobilized to evict an encampment of campesinos who had been displaced from their homes by political violence.
The Andes
Colombia: threatened indigenous group leader slain
Two gunmen assassinated Juan Álvaro Pai, traditional governor of the endangered Awá indigenous people, in an incursion into their reserve in Colombia’s Nariño department.
The Amazon
Ecuador: deadly clash in anti-mining operation
Indigenous leaders in Ecuador's rainforest accuse the army of forging evidence in the death of a Shuar man during an operation against outlaw gold-miners.
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China’s Third Plenum Signals New ‘Paramount Leader’
from chinaworker.info
“More market, less freedom, and much more power to Xi Jinping”—this was the verdict of Beijing-based journalist Ola Wong, on the decisions of the recently concluded third plenary meeting of the CCP’s 18th Central Committee. Third Plenum meetings have a special status in China’s authoritarian system, because of the key 1978 meeting (11th Central Committee’s Third Plenum), which sealed the triumph of Deng Xiaoping over Mao Zedong’s designated heir Hua Guofeng and launched the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) onto the path of pro-capitalist “reform and opening.” Expectations among the capitalists in China and globally have accordingly been high.
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