Days after Fidel Castro told a reporter “The Cuban model doesn’t even work for us anymore,” the government announced plans to lay off more than half a million workers from the public sector.
The rally in Lower Manhattan in support of Cordoba House was far bigger and more spirited than the Islamophobe opposition—but led by a Stalinist cult that supported genocide against Bosnian Muslims.
Cuba’s Fidel Castro, in an interview with The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, warns Mahmoud Ahmadinejad against Holocaust-denial and anti-Semitism.
The 33 trapped Chilean miners may not receive any wages while they are trapped underground, a union official has claimed. The miners are expected to be trapped until year’s end.
The Los Angeles Times sees communist agitators behind the uprising by Central American immigrants in Los Angeles’ Westlake district following the police shooting of a Guatemalan day-laborer.
The so-called “Burn a Koran Day” announced by a Gainesville preacher ignited protests for a second day in a row by hundreds of Afghans, who burned US flags and shouted “Death to America.”
The US State Department has for the first time called for withholding Merida Initiative funds based on human rights abuses in Mexco—but at the same time approved release of $36 million.
Taiwan's Council of Indigenous Peoples signed an agreement with the Pacific Island state of the Marshall Islands aimed at increasing bilateral exchanges to promote Austronesian culture. The agreement seeks to promote cooperation between Taiwan's indigenous communities and the linguistically related people of the Marshall Islands, particularly in the fields of language and preservation of traditional wisdom. The agreement, signed last month, coincides with the opening of the UN International Year of Indigenous Languages, which acknowledges to the critical state of many indigenous tongues, and seeks to promote their protection and use, both at national and international levels. (Photo of Bunum people via Mata Taiwan)
Although before the Deepwater Horizon disaster they won little media attention, government statistics show that more than 100 fires and explosions take place in the Gulf of Mexico each year.
Before Hamas resumed armed attacks this week, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman announced plans to “hermetically seal” the Gaza Strip—to little media attention.
Thousands of coal trucks and other vehicles are backed up for 75 miles on a highway in northern China. In a recent monster-jam on the Beijing-Tibet highway, motorists were immobilized for five days.
Human Rights Watch condemned US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for force-feeding detained migrants. Detained men at the agency's El Paso Processing Center have been participating in a hunger strike since early January. ICE officials said that 11 men are striking, but AP reports the number may be closer to 30. In mid-January a federal judge authorized ICE to force-feed six of the protesters. The detained men have been protesting "rampant verbal abuse and threats of deportation from guards" and long detentions while awaiting a hearing. Most of the hunger strikers are from India or Cuba. (Photo: Hetsumani/Pixabay)
