Hmmm, didn’t the Brits just invoke “progress” in Basra to justify their planned withdrawal? From Arab Monitor, March 5: BAGHDAD – In a move to end their Iraqi allies’ uncontrolled violence, US and British troops began yesterday to venture into… Read moreIraq: occupation troops raid secret prison in Basra
For the second time in eight days Feb. 26, teachers from Sections 22 and 59 of the National Education Workers Syndicate (SNTE) clashed over control of Technical Secondary School 172 at Benito Juárez, San Pedro Pochutla municipality, on the coast… Read moreOaxaca: more labor violence at divided schools
Diego Arcos Meneses, an indigenous Chol Maya campesino, has been arrested by Chiapas state police and charged with murder in connection with November’s massacre at the rainforest settlement of Viejo Velasco. The Chol campesino organization Xinich protests his innocence. The… Read moreChiapas: charges in jungle massacre; land conflicts escalate
Frederick Vreeland, a former deputy assistant secretary of state for Near East and South Asia affairs and former US ambassador to Morocco, has an op-ed in the March 3 New York Times on the usually obscure crisis in Western Sahara,… Read moreWestern Sahara makes NYT op-ed page —but not Sahrawi perspective
Twelve Islamic militants were convicted of terrorism-related charges in Morocco March 2, including eight with alleged ties to al-Qaeda who supposedly had volunteered to fight in Iraq. The appeals court in Sale handed down prison terms of two to 15… Read moreTerror convictions, clemency in Morocco
With key pillars of the Coalition of the Willing starting to defect, the US seems to be pressing allies for cannon fodder in some unlikely corners of “New Europe.” Sifet Podzic, chief of the Joint Command of the Armed Forces… Read moreBosnia: no more troops to Iraq
Days after a Russian general unsubtly threatened to nuke Poland and the Czech Republic following the announcement that they would host US anti-missile bases, comes the disturbing news that US radar stations related to the missile defense program are slated… Read moreUS plans anti-missile radar bases for Caucasus
The latest entry in the global wave of anti-Semitism which the left is always trying to tell us is “illusory.” This sort of thing seems to be especially popular in Russia of late. From JTA, March 2: Vandals scrawled swastikas… Read moreVladivostok synagogue vandalized —again
“Zionists are the true incarnation of Satan,” Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced in a lecture to Sudanese officials and intellectuals during his visit to Khartoum March 1. “The Zionist regime is the symbol of hedonism and the incarnation of the… Read moreAhmadinejad does Sudan, bashes “incarnation of Satan”
The Bosnian Serb Republic issued a formal apology Feb. 28 for crimes committed in Bosnia’s 1992-5 civil war, and especially the Srebrenica massacre. But the statement stopped short of using the word “genocide.” (Jurnalo, Germany, Feb. 28) Meanwhile, Sarajevo Univeristy… Read moreBosnia: “genocide creation” apologizes for genocide —almost
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
