Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s new security plan for Baghdad grants military commanders sweeping powers to arrest people and restrict their basic freedoms of speech and association, Human Rights Watch says in a March 2 statement. On Feb. 13, al-Maliki… Read moreIraq: rights observers protest martial law
On March 2, residents from Um Salamoneh and nearby villages outside Bethlehem joined with international and Israeli supporters in a nonviolent protest against the seizure of Palestinian farmland for construction of Israel’s illegal “separation wall.” The protesters conducted Friday prayers… Read moreWest Bank villagers protest “apartheid wall” land-grab
At least six explosions rocked the Somali capital, Mogadishu, March 2, a day after 35 Ugandan troops flew in as the advance guard of a 8,000-strong African Union “peacekeeping” force. Witnesses said the explosions came from mortar shells, and wounded… Read moreBlasts rock Mogadishu
Some recent gaffes or revelations (depending on your point of view) by Big Names in the media are providing more fodder for the always-eager conspiracy set. First is Seymour Hersh‘s latest in the March 5 New Yorker, “The Redirection: Is… Read moreSy Hersh, Zbiggy Brzezinski embrace conspiracy theory?
As the Darfur genocide enters its fifth year, and nearly two years after UN Security Council Resolution 1593 of March 2005 referred violations of international law in Darfur to the International Criminal Court (ICC), on Feb. 27 ICC prosecutors formally… Read moreUN issues pseudo-indictments in Darfur genocide
Israeli forces re-occupied Nablus Feb. 28 less than a day after withdrawing from the West Bank city. From the afternoon of Feb. 25 to the morning of Feb. 27, Israeli forces imposed a curfew, destroyed ancient structures in the Old… Read moreIsrael re-occupies Nablus, re-imposes siege, curfew
The US and Italian ambassadors to Sri Lanka, Robert Blake and Pio Mariani, were slightly injured in an artillery attack by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on an air force base at Batticaloa, in the island’s east Feb…. Read moreUS ambassador wounded in Sri Lanka; near miss for Cheney in Afghanistan
Thousands of Serbs protested in front of the US embassy in Belgrade Feb. 27 against independence for Kosova, which has been under United Nations control since 1999. The protest, organised by the Serb National Council of Kosovo (SNV), drew some… Read moreSerbs protest Kosova independence; Bosniaks protest Serbia genocide acquittal
Oil rose above $61 Feb. 26 as UN Security Council plus Germany met in London to discuss tightening sanctions on Iran, the world’s fourth largest exporter. Oil prices reached a high of $78.40 on the Lebanon fighting last July, and… Read moreOil prices rise as Iran nuclear deadline passes
In the last weeks of 2006, just before Washington’s new escalation of the propaganda offensive against Iran, the Tehran government announced it is shifting its foreign currency reserves from the dollar to euro—and switching to the euro for oil deals—in… Read moreIran drops dollar for oil deals
Archeologists warn that if the Sivand Dam in Iran’s southern Fars Province is completed, precious relics from antiquity will be lost. The dam is projected to flood a gorge and an archaeological area called the Tangeh Balaghi. By increasing humidity… Read moreIran: ecologists, archaeologists protest dam project
Iran’s successful launch of its first space rocket Feb. 25 made global headlines. Iran’s Space Research Center said the rocket returned to earth by parachute, and did from where in Iran it had been launched or where it landed. The… Read moreRocket launches reveal Iran-Israel arms race
