Talk about non-news. The Democratic majority, after all their hot air, agrees to drop a timetable for troop withdrawal from the war funding bill. The only real news here is how thoroughly the Republicans have set the terms for the… Read moreDems blink, Bush lies, what else is new?
Farmers in southern Iraq are turning to opium cultivation for the first time, the Belfast Telegraph reports. Traditional rice farmers along the Euphrates, outside the southern city of Diwaniya, have now abandoned rice—for which the area is famous—in favor of… Read moreIraq: opium economy takes hold in south
Pakistani UN peacekeeping troops have traded in gold and sold weapons to Congolese militia groups they were supposed to be disarming, according to a BBC report. These militia groups were guilty of some of the worst rights in during the… Read moreCongo: UN troops trade gold for guns
Egyptian authorities detained 39 members of the Muslim Brotherhood. Eleven were arrested May 20 in the southern province of Beni Sueif on charges of holding “a secret meeting.” Fourteen more were detained in dawn raids May 21 in the province… Read moreEgypt: sweeps of Muslim Brotherhood
Pakistani security forces clashed with militants at an al-Qaeda camp near the Afghan border May 22, leaving at least three dead. Maj.-Gen. Waheed Arshad, an army spokesman, said that after receiving reports about the training camp in North Waziristan, tribal… Read morePakistan: security forces raid al-Qaeda camp in Waziristan
Syria distanced itself May 22 from the Islamist militants battling Lebanese army troops for control of Tripoli’s Nahr al-Bared refugee camp. “We renounce Fatah al-Islam,” said Foreign Minister Walid Muallem. “Members of the group are wanted by the Syrian security… Read moreLebanon: Syria or al-Qaeda behind Fatah al-Islam?
Two months after the detention of a group of young people protesting the visit of President George Bush to the southern Mexican city of Merida, Yucatan state, five remain behind bars, unable to pay bail which has been set at… Read moreYucatan: five anti-Bush protesters still behind bars
Renewed violence in Dili left one dead as Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos-Horta was sworn in May 20 as East Timor’s president. UN police to fire teargas and warning shots, and arrested 42. Following the first election since independence… Read moreEast Timor: violence at presidential transition
A ship carrying tons of UN aid has refused to leave Kenya for Somalia following the May 19 pirate attack on an aid ship. The pirates failed to seize the ship, but one crew member was killed. It was the… Read moreSomalia: protein pirates strike again
Patriarch Alexy II, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, gave Russian President Vladimir Putin an icon May 17, as a token of appreciation for his contribution to the unification of the Moscow-based Church and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside… Read moreRussian Orthodox reunification: more fodder for West Bank conflict?
Lebanese security forces fought militants linked to al-Qaeda in the northern city of Tripoli and at the adjacent Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared early May 20, leaving at least 10 dead, including four police. Witnesses said gunmen from the… Read moreLebanon: army clashes with al-Qaeda?
Colombia’s President Alvaro Uribe has ordered his military to intensify efforts to free hostages in the hands of the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC)—asserting that they are being held in “concentration camp” conditions “more cruel” than those of the Nazis…. Read moreColombia: Uribe calls for military raids to rescue FARC hostages
