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
Afghanistan’s eastern Zabul province is in the news at the moment because a US Chinook helicopter just crashed there, killing eight soldiers and wounding 14. The Taliban, as usual, claimed it was brought down by one of their missiles, and… Read moreAfghanistan: women fight for right to grow trees
Oh boy. Remember all the jokes about how Bush’s Operation Iraqi Freedom was originally dubbed Operation Iraqi Liberation (OIL). Now life imitates humor as another Orwellian sobriquet is unleashed in Baghdad: Operation Imposing Law. You’d think the Pentagon PR people… Read moreIraq: “Operation Imposing Law” fails to
A hapless economic conscript who was in way over his head is sent up the river—while the architects of the war won’t even face impeachment. From San Diego’s North County Times, Feb. 17: CAMP PENDLETON —- A Marine lance corporal… Read moreCannon fodder gets eight years for Hamdania killing
