Amazing! Finally the light bulb goes on! Why, this man should be director of national intelligence! Oops, he already is! Of course we were warning before Bush went into Iraq that destabilization of the country could spark regional or even… Read moreNegroponte: Iraq could spark regional war
Hugo Chavez threatens to cut oil to the US at the same time that he makes it available at a subsidized rate to low-income US consumers. Capitol Hill Republicans go apoplectic that a developing country could stand up to Uncle… Read moreChavez threatens to cut off oil to US
A rather ironic way to note the 20th anniversary of the “People Power” revolution that ousted longtime dictator Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines. Those who marched in Manila to commemorate the revolution over the weekend did so in defiance of… Read moreState of emergency in Philippines
From AP via the Glasgow Herald, Feb. 27: Tens of of thousands of demonstrators, including ministers and politicians of all stripes, united in a show of force against racism and anti-Semitism yesterday, marching through the capital after the torture and… Read moreFrance: torture-killing sparks anti-racist march
From DPA, Feb. 26: A bomb blast Sunday at a Shiite shrine in the southern city of Basra injured four people, a security source said. The incident at a shrine to Imam Ali in central Basra, 550 kilometres south of… Read moreIraq: another Shiite shrine bombed
Would be rather a Phyrric victory if, four years and counting after Operation Enduring Freedom, the US wound up losing control of both Pakistan and Afghanistan simultaneously. From VOA, Feb. 27: Hundreds of Afghan forces – backed by tanks and… Read moreStandoff at Afghan prison
Is Pakistan’s Islamist military government going to fall—to even more radical Islamists? Just what the world needs—a nuclear-armed Taliban. Of course the repression will only enflame things. Dictators always seem to learn that lesson too late. From Pakistan’s Dawn Feb…. Read morePakistan: tear gas in Lahore
Hey, its all just good, clean fun compared to what they do to the civilian population. From Mercopress, Feb. 21: Colombian Army “basic training” exercises for recruits that involved scorching with a branding iron, beatings, near-drowning and sexual abuses ended… Read moreColombia’s army chief sacked in brutal hazing ritual
The latest escalation of the secret war in West Papua is even more eclipsed from the news than usual by the current hideous escalation in Iraq. But, as we witnessed in India last month, tribal peoples armed with bows and… Read moreProtests halt West Papua mine operations
Did anyone catch this one? The headline from Canada’s Global National reads “Protecting Canada’s Arctic sovereignty.” Protecting it from whom? Well, it turns out Washington was peeved by Ottawa’s highly symbolic dispatchal of armed icebreakers up to the Northwest Passage,… Read moreCanada asserts sovereignty over Northwest Passage; unsubtle message to Washington
Pretty funny to see George Bush accusing the liberal Democrats of racism and Hillary Clinton playing the xenophobe. Is there really any reason to be wary of the port management contract being turned over to a firm from the United… Read moreNuclear link to Dubai port controversy
From AP, Feb. 23: “We want the correspondent!” shouted two gunmen who pulled up in a pickup truck, fired into the air and then killed the Al-Arabiya newswoman and two of her colleagues. Al-Arabiya’s Atwar Bahjat, whose face is widely… Read moreIraq: another journalist killed
