From the BBC, Jan. 3: Hundreds of Indian tribespeople have blocked a main road in Orissa state, a day after police opened fire during protests over a planned steel mill. At least 12 tribals and a policeman died in clashes… Read moreIndia: tribal peoples massacred in Orissa
From Editor & Publisher, Jan. 3: NEW YORK The Iraq conflict has become the most deadly conflict for journalists to cover in the Committee to Protect Journalists’ (CPJ) 24-years history, the group’s most recent analysis shows. A total of 60… Read moreIraq war most deadly for journalists
Multiple ethnic struggles in Indonesia made headlines over the New Year’s weekend. On Jan. 2, local police announced they have detained at least one man in connection with the New Year’s Eve bombing at a Christian market in Palu, Central… Read moreIndonesia: corporate-military terror in West Papua revealed
Iraq’s largest oil refinery has been shut down following death threats to tanker drivers. The threats followed a steep government-ordered rise in the price of petrol earlier this month. The oil ministry said the shutdown at the Baiji refinery was… Read moreIraq: oil sector crisis deepens, ethnic cleansing continues
A disturbing clip from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency: Chavez makes anti-Semitic slur Venezuela’s president said in his Christmas speech that “the descendants of those who crucified Christ” own the riches of the world. “The world offers riches to all. However,… Read moreAnti-Semitism in Venezuela?
From the Financial Times, Dec. 28: Colombian insurgents have killed 28 soldiers in the deadliest attack on the military since President Alvaro Uribe was elected three years ago, setting the stage for heightened tensions ahead of elections in May. The… Read moreFARC wipes out 28 troops on coca-eradication mission
From the New York Times, Dec. 28, via IHT: A recent series of indictments and revelations about corrupt federal agents has rocked the attorney general’s office here and undermined one of President Vicente Fox’s few solid accomplishments: the creation of… Read moreNarco scandals shake elite Mexican federal police force
From Newsday Dec. 28, via Sikhnews: From Queens to a rural district in his native India, word of the Yellow cab driver’s death spread quickly Tuesday. Gurbaj Singh immigrated five years ago to Richmond Hill, where he lived and died…. Read moreWHY WE FIGHT
From The Scotsman, Dec. 26: French police said about 100 vehicles were burned overnight, which marked an average weekend tally for urban violence and did not signify a flare-up of violence after riots last month. Some French regions have banned… Read moreFrance: car burnings back to “average”
One of the real signs of hope in Afghanistan is that the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), until recently active only in the refugee camps in Pakistan, has been able to establish an open presence in the… Read moreAfghanistan: fund drive for RAWA orphanages
For the second time this year, Republicans resorted to the sneaky tactic of slipping a provision to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil drilling into a big appropriations package. Last time, it passed the Senate but the… Read moreRepublican blackmail fails to open ANWR
More ironically positive developments in the José Padilla case. First, his lawyers demanded that the Justice Department charge him with a crime, rather than hold him in military custody indefinitely as an “enemy combatant.” Now that the Justice Department has… Read moreAnother ironic victory in Padilla case
