On the order of President Vicente Fox, thousands of federal police backed up by army troops stormed past barricades in embattled Oaxaca City Oct. 29, seizing control of the city center from protesters who have held it for five months…. Read moreFederal police take Oaxaca City center; at least two more dead
From CTV, Oct. 28: NATO’s top commander apologized Saturday for civilians killed during battles between NATO-led forces and the Taliban militia in Afghanistan this week. The death of a civilian “is something that causes anybody in uniform to lose a… Read moreAfghanistan: NATO blames civilian deaths on “asymmetric warfare”
Brad Will (Bradley Roland Will), 36, a photojournalist for New York City’s Independent Media Center (IMC) was fatally shot Oct. 27 when gunmen opened fire on a protest barricade in the besieged capital of Oaxaca state in southern Mexico. According… Read moreNYC Indymedia reporter killed in Oaxaca; Fox sends in federal police
From Al-Jazeera, Oct. 27: Niger has suspended its plans to deport thousands of ethnic Arab nomads to Chad. The central African country’s cabinet decided against carrying out the deportations after neighbouring countries spoke out against the plan, the country’s communications… Read moreNiger plans ethnic cleansing of Arab nomads
Remember the two immigrant girls who got caught up in a bogus suicide-bomber scare in the New York metro area last year? An update on one in the Oct. 26 New York Times says a great deal about the general… Read moreCleared of terror plot, fighting deportation —and genital mutilation
We have recently been warning of the imminent emergence of a Taliban state in central Iraq. Today the New York Times op-ed page catches up with us. From “What Osama Wants” by Peter Bergen, a senior fellow of the New… Read moreNYT op-ed warns of Iraqi “Taliban” state
Historian Allen Barra provides some all-too-revealing historical perspective on the New York Times op-ed page, Oct. 26: One hundred twenty five years ago, three lawmen – Marshal Virgil Earp and his brothers Wyatt and Morgan – and their friend Doc… Read moreOK Corral shoot-out echoes 125 years later
Mexico’s President Vicente Fox, trying to put a good face on things as he leaves a bitterly divided country as his legacy, boasted to a meeting of businessmen at the National Chamber of Industry that the crises of Chiapas and… Read moreFox: Crisis? What crisis?
The Popular People’s Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO) issued a “call for a popular peaceful insurrection” Dec. 1 if the state’s governor, Ulises Ruiz, has not stepped down by then. The call steps up pressure on president-elect Felipe Calderon, already facing… Read moreOaxaca: APPO calls for “peaceful insurrection”
File under “Well, duh.” From Reuters, Oct. 22: HOUSTON – Halliburton Co , the world’s No. 2 oilfield services group, on Sunday posted a 25 percent rise in earnings, beating Wall Street forecasts, on robust spending by producers on oil… Read moreHalliburton profits soar
Can you say deja vu? How about chutzpah? From BBC, Oct. 24: North warns against Ortega vote Ex-White House aide Oliver North—at the centre of a 1980s scheme to finance Contra rebels in Nicaragua—has warned the country not to return… Read moreOliver North meddles in Nicaragua —again!
Arthur Neslen on the UK Guardian’s Comment is Free blog Oct. 25 outlines various intellectual responses to the ascendance of the frightening Avigdor Lieberman to the Israeli cabinet. One which he overlooks is the “smokescreen” response, put forth by the… Read moreAvigdor Lieberman: “fascism” or “smokescreen”?
