We strongly suspect that the front-page Feb. 19 story in the New York Times—based entirely on anonymous “studies” and quotes from anonymous “officials”—purporting huge hydrocarbon deposits in Iraq’s Sunni center (“Iraqi Sunni Lands Show New Oil and Gas Promise” by… Read moreIraq: oil lure fails to chill out jihadis
Despite a long activist campaign against India’s controversial Sardar Sarovar dam project on the Narmada River, authorities have just announced the project’s completion. From Planet Ark World Environment News, Feb. 1: AHMEDABAD – India completed construction of a highly ambitious… Read moreIndia: completion of Sardar Sarovar dam announced
The Feb. 18 fire bombing that killed 68 mostly Pakistani passengers and destroyed two coaches on the Samjhauta Express about an hour after the train left New Delhi was an obvious attack on one of the most visible symbols of… Read moreIndia, Pakistan pledge “anti-terrorist” cooperation after deadly train attack
Thailand was shaken by a string of simultaneous terror blasts on the Christian New Year, and now again on the Chinese New Year. The Jan. 1 blasts in Bangkok are still murky, but the Feb. 17 blasts in the heavily… Read moreThailand terror and the Year of the Pig
We have noted repteated claims and denials that veterans of the feared Guatemalan counter-insurgency troops known as the Kaibiles are active in Chiapas and collaborating with Mexico’s narco-mafias. But these Kaibiles, caught in the new Chiapas immigration sweeps, seem to… Read moreGuatemalan commandos arrested in Chiapas migration sweep?
Mexican President Felipe Calderón announced Feb. 18 that he is dispatching some 3,300 army troops and federal police to combat narco-traffickers in Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon, two states that border Texas. Nuevo Leon capital Monterrey and the Tamaulipas border town… Read moreCalderón sends troops to border states —but narco-mafia rules
The evangelical Journal Chretién features a commentary Feb. 12 on religious violence in Mexico’s conflicted southern state of Chiapas which is rife with dangerous distortions, and smacks of a propaganda job against the Zapatista rebels. Although writer Aloys Evina begins… Read moreChiapas: evangelicals exploit religious violence for propaganda against EZLN
Enrique Rueda Pacheco, leader of the Oaxaca teachers union Section 22, resigned Feb. 18, saying he was the victim of a dirty campaign against him. He charged the state government with betrayal in failing to follow through on agreements signed… Read moreOaxaca: Section 22 leader steps down
Diego Cevallos writes for IPS, Feb. 2: MEXICO CITY – One of the 12 community radio stations operating legally in Mexico has literally come under fire, and its journalists have received death threats and been arrested; another has received warnings… Read moreOaxaca: community radio under attack
From El Universal, Feb. 7: The Supreme Court voted 7-4 Tuesday to launch an investigation into state and federal police conduct during the arrests last May of some 240 men, women and children in the State of Mexico town of… Read moreMexico: supreme court rules for Atenco inquiry
Given the draconian measures against bird flu in Russia at the moment (ITAR-TASS, Feb. 9), this could be a protest against Chicken McNuggets. From AP, Feb. 19: An explosion hit a McDonald’s restaurant in St Petersburg on Sunday, injuring at… Read moreRussia: gastro-terrorists target Mickey-D’s?
Why isn’t this in the headlines? From the Institute for War & Peace Reporting, Feb. 12: The Taleban have taken control of their second Helmand district in less than two weeks, say district officials. The Taleban captured the police chief… Read moreAfghanistan: Taliban seizing more territory in Helmand
