Glorify ’em as heroes and martyrs for war propaganda—then screw ’em. It’s the American way. From NY1, Jan. 17: Supreme Court Rules 9/11 Families Cannot Sue Over Faulty Radios Families of New York City firefighters won’t be allowed to sue… Read moreSupreme Court shafts 9-11 widows
The international community has been attempting to restore peace to West Africa, long torn by multiple inter-related ethnic and civil conflicts. Now, just as Liberia is hailed as a success story—with the country’s first post-war president, and Africa’s first woman… Read moreIvory Coast violence: new “great game” for West Africa?
Suicide bombers killed 26 people in separate attacks in southern Afghanistan’s Kandahar province Jan. 16, heightening fears that Taliban militants are copying the tactics of Iraqi insurgents. An attacker riding a motorcycle blew himself up as a crowd left a… Read moreUS losing control of Afghanistan?
Iraq’s oft-fractious trade unions issued the following joint statement yesterday at the end of a two-day meeting in Amman, Jordan. The meeting was attended by labor representatives from throughout Iraq. A Joint Statement Issued by the Iraqi Trade Unions Concerning… Read moreIraq trade unions protest IMF policy
An alleged commander of a Mexico’s clandestine Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR) and two other suspected guerillas were arrested in the state of Veracruz, officials announced Jan. 12. Gustavo Robles Lopez, 29, and two others were arrested when authorities approached their… Read moreMexico: guerilla suspects arrested in Veracruz
Gee, we can hardly wait for this one. From Reuters, Jan. 15: TEHRAN – Iran is planning a conference to assess the scale of the Holocaust, which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rejects as a myth, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi… Read moreIran plans conference to “assess” Holocaust
There they go again. “We apologize, but I can’t tell you that we wouldn’t do the same thing again,” says John McCain. Why do politicians always talk out of both sides of their mouths like this? What does an apology… Read moreAnti-US protests shake Pakistan
Yet another report of peasant protesters killed by the security forces in (nominally communist) China. Is there any national coordination to the fast-growing peasant movement? Is anyone working in the West to loan them solidarity? From the Jan. 17 New… Read moreMore peasant unrest in China
Two US-based groups that carry out solidarity activities with Cuba, the Venceremos Brigade and Pastors for Peace, confirmed on Jan. 9 that the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has fined hundreds of their supporters a total… Read moreCuba: US targets activists, baseball
Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez weighs in on the accusations that he made anti-Semitic comments in a Christmas Eve speech. OK, maybe the accusations are part of an “imperialist campaign.” But why is anti-Semitism the only form of ethnic hatred which… Read moreChavez refutes anti-Semitism charges
A statement from the Kurdistan Free Women’s Movement—on the German-based website Hezen Parastina Gel, apparently linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerilla movement in eastern Turkey—notes the passing of Comandante Ramona of southern Mexico’s Zapatista National Liberation Army: On… Read moreKurdish women mourn Zapatistas’ Comandante Ramona
For the second time in as many weeks, Pakistan is protesting a deadly US airstrike in the northwest border zone—this time from a drone, and targeting (but missing) the notorious Ayman al-Zawahri. From the London Times, Jan. 15: Airstrike misses… Read moreAnother US airstrike in Pakistan
