This July 30 Chicago Tribune story is suddenly much more relevant, since Fidel ceded executive powers—just one day after it appeared! The existence of groups like Elizardo Sanchez’ Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation (about which more below)… Read moreIndependent Cuban dissidents to Uncle Sam: No, gracias!
A story on new international interest in Cuba’s offshore oil rights made the front page of the New York Times in May. But very interesting that the London Times gives it similar top billing Aug. 5, just as Fidel has… Read more“Scramble” for Cuba’s oil
The undiscriminating nature of aerial warfare is producing some surreal ironies in the Israel-Lebanon mess. As we have noted, Israel appears to be loaning military support to Iraqi Kurds due to mutual enmity for the Arabs, leading Arabs and Turks… Read moreIronies of war: Israel kills Kurds, Hezbollah kills Arabs
From La Jornada, Aug. 1, via Chiapas95 (our translation): Guerilla groups will “not permit the imposition” Chilpancingo, Guerrero, July 31 — The guerilla organizations Revolutionary Workers Command “Mexico Barbaro”; the Comando Jaramillista Morelense “May 23”; the Popular Revolutionary Command “Fatherland… Read moreMexico: guerillas pledge to resist Calderon
A communique in support of prisoners from the village of San Salvador Atenco, being held at Santiaguito prison in Mexico state. Via Chiapas95, Aug. 1 (our translation): SANTIAGUITO PRISONERS DENOUNCE ATTACK BY GUARD AGAINST POLITICAL PRISONER published by Radio Pacheco… Read moreMexico: Atenco prisoners protest attack
From the Spanish news service EFE via Chiapas95, Aug. 1 (our translation): Women of the Popular Assembly of the State of Oaxaca (APPO) today took by force the installations of the [state-owned] Oaxacan Television and Radio Corporation, which operates one… Read moreOaxaca: women seize TV station
We hate to say it, but we sure called this one. Now to all of you who told us the anti-Semitism in The Passion of Christ was just a product of our paranoid imaginations—how would you like your crow prepared?… Read moreMel Gibson’s Holocaust series pulled
We have noted a growing number of Turkish writers to face prosecution for their words. The latest is, especially perversely, charged in connection with a work of fiction. From The Guardian, July 24: In Istanbul, a writer awaits her day… Read moreAnother Turkish writer faces persecution
Note, of course, that her work was banned. From Middle East Times, July 31: ANKARA — Duygu Asena, a renowned Turkish journalist and writer who devoted much of her work to promoting women’s rights, has died at the age of… Read moreDuygu Asena, Turkish feminist writer, dies at 60
As hundreds of thousands or even millions of supporters marched and rallied in and around Mexico City’s giant Zocalo plaza on July 30, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), presidential candidate of a center-left coalition in Mexico’s July 2 elections, called… Read moreMexico: Lopez Obrador begins “permanent” protest
On July 27, US District Court Judge Terry J. Hatter Jr. of Los Angeles ordered the government to free Southern California Muslim community leader Abdel-Jabbar Hamdan, a Palestinian who has spent two years detained on an immigration violation. Department of… Read moreUS judge orders Palestinian freed
The first one we’ve all heard about. From DPA, July 30: Muslim charged in Jewsh center shooting A Muslim man who allegedly killed a woman and wounded five others inside a Jewish community centre in Seattle, Washington, gained entry by… Read moreJew-haters reap Lebanon windfall
