A new military operation on Mindanao and growing impetus for a sweeping “anti-terrorism” bill in Manila, both aimed at the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)—which denies involvement in the terror blasts which have targeted markets and other public places, leaving… Read moreMindanao militarized in wake of terror wave
While the Mexican Senate ponders dissolving the powers of Oaxaca’s state government, thousands of activists from the Oaxaca Popular Peoples Assembly (APPO) and the striking teachers union are camped outside, having marched 290 miles cross-country from the conflicted state to… Read moreOaxaca: resistance considers government offer; police fire on students
After rejecting an offer from the federal government to end the five-month standoff in Oaxaca, striking teachers and community leaders are preparing a counter-proposal in the tense negotiations. Meanwhile, thousands of teachers and activists have arrived at the outskirts of… Read moreOaxaca: dialogue continues, military presence grows
As of this writing, some 12 hours after North Korea announced its first test of a nuclear weapon, at an underground site in North Hamgyong province, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has still not moved the hands of the famous… Read moreNorth Korea joins the club —or does it?
The New York Times notes Oct. 6 that charges were dropped against Turkish novelist Elif Shafak, whose fictional character committed the crime of refering to the “Armenian genocide.” But almost simultaneously, charges were brought against another writer, Hrant Dink, who… Read moreTurkish intellectuals in solidarity campaign for persecuted writer
We recently noted a violent struggle in Colombia’s Sierra San Lucas, where army and paramilitary troops, apparently in league with major gold-mining interests, are terrorizing small-scale independent campesino miners from their lands. A similar struggle now appears underway in Bolivia’s… Read moreMiners’ strife in Bolivia leaves nine dead
Especially given the contested presidential elections and the seizure of popular power in Oaxaca—both potential threats to Mexico’s ruling elites—it is ominous indeed to see the evident emergence of Colombia-style death squads linked to the drug trade and (we can… Read moreMore severed heads in Michoacan
Freedom’s on the march. From the Rocky Mountain News, Oct. 3: Arrest over Cheney barb triggers lawsuit A Denver-area man filed a lawsuit today against a member of the Secret Service for causing him to be arrested after he approached… Read moreFree-speech arrest at Cheney appearance sparks lawsuit
A new Pentagon study group called the Iran Directorate has surfaced in recent media reports, drawing analogies to now disbanded (and discredited) Office of Special Plans which pushed for war on Iraq. An Oct. 6 analysis by Daniel Schulman in… Read morePentagon “Iran Directorate” stumps for war
It seems that hubristic neocons, with their ambitions to dismantle Iraq (and, eventually, the rest of the Arab world) are moving in for the kill, posing it as a solution to the sectarian and ethnic strife their own policies unleashed…. Read moreIraq Study Group poses “partition”
Amid the internecine Palestinian violence now rocking Gaza comes a distrubing report from Israel’s YNet Oct. 8 that an entity calling itself the Islamic Swords of Justice, said to be the Palestinian wing of al-Qaeda, shot up and set fire… Read moreAl-Qaeda in Gaza?
Sarah Ferguson writes for the Village Voice, Oct. 5: Rallies Today: World Can’t Wait—for What? Call them the popular front to MoveOn.org‘s dogged efforts to defeat Republicans at the ballot box this November. Today the anti-Bush campaign World Can’t Wait… Read moreMaoists go mainstream
