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
We’ve heard the allegations that the Darfur rebels are operating out of Chad where they receive covert support from the US. Has Sudan now entered this bloody game by grooming a Chadian rebel force on its own territory? EL-GENEINA, Sudan,… Read moreSudan backing Chad rebels?
From AP, Dec. 19: They called the two ladies “Dr. Germ” and “Mrs. Anthrax.” It was a breakthrough when U.S. forces arrested Rihab Taha, a British-educated biological weapons expert, and Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, a former top Baath Party official,… Read moreIraq: “Mrs. Anthrax” freed —from bogus detainment?
From the BBC, Dec. 19: Spanish police have arrested 14 people suspected of being members of an Islamist extremist group, with links to al-Qaeda. The arrests were made in the southern towns of Malaga, Nerja and Seville. Spanish police say… Read moreSpain: more al-Qaeda busts?
Looks like it is back to the bad old days in Iran—the years of revolutionary fervor in the early ’80s when music was banned from the public airwaves. Writes one of our readers: “Too bad the neo-cons are too stupid/sectarian/scared… Read moreIran: president bans Western music
US Vice President Dick Cheney arrived in Afghanistan today to attend the inauguration of the country’s first Parliament in more than 30 years and visit US troops. Cheney joined President Hamid Karzai and other dignitaries at a ceremony to swear… Read moreAfghanistan: warlords dominate new parliament
Glad some hearty souls are keeping the anti-globalization flame alive, even in the post-9-11 world, and even under the heavy hand of the Chinese state. From AP Dec. 17: Police removed hundreds of protesters who staged a sit-in that shut… Read moreAnti-WTO protests rock Hong Kong
