From El Universal, Aug. 12 via Chiapas95: SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, CHIAPAS — A judge has imposed long prison terms on 50 indigenous defendants convicted of carrying out one of the most heinous crimes in past decades – the… Read moreChiapas: Acteal killers get 25 years
One year after the hysteria that followed the London bombings, we are treated to yet another terrorist scare emanating from the UK, with the alleged plot to blow up airliners mid-flight by mixing combustible liquids, supposedly discovered in the nick… Read more2nd Circuit upholds subway searches
Lopez Obrador, the leftist presidential candidate who is leading militant protests in Mexico to challenge what he calls a fraudulent defeat in the July 2 elections, takes his case to the New York Times op-ed page Aug. 11: Recounting Our… Read moreLopez Obrador takes case to NYT op-ed page
Protesters held four people captive for hours Aug. 11, charging they were behind the assassination of a protester in the conflicted southern Mexican state of Oaxaca. The Federal Agency of Investigation said protesters were finally induced to turn the captives… Read moreOaxaca: escalation follows assassination of activist
What a conundrum. The Pakistani state has long cultivated Lashkar-e-Taiba to make trouble in India-controlled Kashmir. But now it seems to have gotten out of control, and Islamabad, under pressure from Washington, has been induced to crack down. Yet every… Read morePakistan: Lashkar leader under house arrest
Note that this is being portrayed openly as a tit-for-tat to counter-balance the scheduled execution of those convicted in the Bali bombings. Note also that the Indonesian military itself has been accused of enflaming the Sulawesi violence through proxy militias…. Read moreIndonesia: Christian militiamen face execution
Received from the Iraq Freedom Congress: Lets Make Zaafaranyia a Safe and Peaceful Town For decades, people in the town of Saafaranyia, like all other Iraqi cities lived together in peace away from any kind of hatred and it was… Read moreIraq: civil resistance repudiates sectarian cleansing
Received from Houzan Mahmoud of the Worker-Communist Party of Iraq: Appeal to all human rights, labour and political organisations worldwide Support the protest movements of people in Kurdistan! Urgent action required to support thousands of people in Iraqi Kurdistan demanding… Read moreIraq: protests rock PUK zone
Iraq’s northern Kurdish autonomous zone, heretofore an island of relative stability, now also appears to be infected by the sectarian strife tearing apart the rest of the country. This attack took place in Basra, but the struggle for control of… Read moreIraq: PUK drawn into sectarian warfare
Another heroic blow by the Iraqi resistance… against Shi’ite pilgrims. From the Los Angeles Times, Aug. 11 (links and annotation added): NAJAF, Iraq — A suicide bomber struck Thursday at a checkpoint near a revered Shiite Muslim mosque here, killing… Read moreNajaf: Shrine of Ali once again target of sectarian warfare
For all of the endless talk about religion as a cause of war in the Middle East, it is rare that a media account mentions the actual resources that are being fought over. This welcome exception from the Los Angeles… Read moreIsraeli air-strikes on irrigation works; designs on Lebanese water seen
From The Forward, Aug. 11: JERUSALEM — Young Israeli activists are fighting back against Hezbollah — with a boycott on smoking hash. Hashish, or oil resin from marijuana plants, is one of the primary recreational drugs available in Israel. It’s… Read moreIsraeli stoners boycott Hezbollah hash
