International inspectors July 15 confirmed that North Korea had shut down the nuclear reactor at its Yongbyon research facility, the fruit of a painstaking diplomatic effort in which the DPRK will immediately start receiving oil aid from South Korea. (WP,… Read more“Bad nuke” closes in North Korea; “good nuke” leaks radiation in Japan
Some 5,000 Israelis participated in a march around Jerusalem’s Temple Mount July 15, in a monthly event led by Orthodox Jewish groups dedicated to the rebuilding of a Jewish temple on the site. The march usually draws far smaller numbers,… Read moreArchaeology wars rage on at Temple Mount
At least 85 people were killed and more than 180 injured by a car bomb and coordinated truck bomb in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk July 16. One car bomb exploded in a crowded market near an office of… Read moreKirkuk terror pushes city closer to brink
With more than 70 killed in bombings over the weekend, Pakistan appears to be lurching towards civil war in the aftermath of the Red Mosque attack. A suicide bomber killed at least 26, including six police, and wounded over 50… Read morePakistan: tribal truce called off amid resurgent terror
From Northern California’s Redding Record-Searchlight, July 13, via BoingBoing.net, which notes “The D.E.A. working with National Guard troops and Blackhawk helicoptors set upon Shasta County, California this week to deal with the domestic terror threat of… pot growers”: John P…. Read moreDrug Czar: pot growers are terrorists
The latest piece of overwrought effluent from Kurt Nimmo once again exemplifies the fundamental flaw with the Conspiracy Industry. Those sources from the mainstream media which support the Conspiracy Theory are taken as gospel truth; those which point the other… Read moreAlert CIA: Kurt Nimmo knows Osama’s fate
Indigenous people in Bolivia are marching cross-country from the lowland city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra to the judicial capital, Sucre, where the country’s Constituent Assembly is meeting. About 400 men, women and children from the tropical zone’s ethnicities,… Read moreBolivia: indigenous march on Constituent Assembly
Katha Pollitt writes for her blog in The Nation, July 13: 2,4,6,8! This Beheading is Really Great! Why is the anti-war movement so lacklustre when 70% of Americans want to bring the troops home by spring and George W. Bush… Read moreKatha Pollitt on Iraqi “resistance”: she almost gets it
Grupo Mexico SAB, the world’s seventh-largest copper producer, said 30% of employees at the San Martin copper and gold mine (Zacatecas state) didn’t report to work July 5 because of a national one-day protest. The strike also halted work at… Read moreMexico: national solidarity strike halts mines
Peru’s National Federation of Miners, Metalworkers and Steelworkers called a nation-wide strike for July 10 and 11, in solidarity with more than 1,500 workers at the Casapalca mine who walked out in May. The conflict has claimed five lives so… Read morePeru: national solidarity strike halts mines
President Evo Morales pledged to personally negotiate with strikers who have shut down Bolivia’s largest tin mine if the 4,800 employees return to work first. Miners at the state-operated Huanuni mine went on strike last week to demand greater administrative… Read moreBolivia: tin miners strike
The National Intelligence Estimate has reached such findings before. Yet more evidence of what an astonishing success the Global War on Terrorism has been. From McClatchy Newspapers, July 11: Calling al-Qaida the most potent terrorist threat to U.S. national security,… Read moreNational Intelligence Estimate: al-Qaeda stronger than ever since 9-11
