Signals continue to be mixed on Sudan’s tentative return to Washington’s good graces. On an official visit to the country, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stopped at Darfur’s Abu Shouk refugee camp, which houses some 55,000 displaced people, and demanded… Read moreRice does Darfur
Note that the imposition of the usual neoliberal economic model is sparking the unrest. Yet it is Islamic fundamentalists—not leftists, as in Bolivia—that are best poised to exploit the backlash. From the Guardian: Yemen Riots Over Subsidy Cut Leave 16… Read moreRiots in Yemen
The New York Times today notes the growing cult of Zheng He in China, the 15th-century mariner who led gigantic fleets across the Pacific and Indian oceans in the Ming Dynasty’s brief but impressive expansion of naval prowess. Statues are… Read moreSinophobes fear cult of Zheng He
This is pretty Orwellian. The government says it has the right to hold accused “dirty bomber” Jose Padilla without charge as an “enemy combatant” for the “duration of the conflict.” The “conflict” in question is a completely open-ended undeclared war… Read morePadilla’s lawyer: Indict my client!
Shades of Soylent Green. “The plankton is dying!” From AP July 14, via TruthOut: Scientists Raise Alarm about Ocean Health SEATTLE – With a record number of dead seabirds washing up on West Coast beaches from Central California to British… Read moreMeanwhile, the oceans are dying…
A report in today’s Newsday tells of a meeting at London’s Finsbury Park mosque, where prominent Muslim leaders signed a statement condemning the 7-7 attacks, under a banner reading “A New Beginning.” But there was also a sign at the… Read moreTolerance tested in UK
Another factory forced to halt operation by heroic Chinese peasants protecting their lands from the industrial onslaught. We question how “violent” it is to tear down a security fence. In contrast, the security forces’ response to the rising tide of… Read moreMore militant anti-pollution protests in China
Well, the pending US nuclear aid to India is now official, with India hailed as a beacon of “responsible” nuclear development (which we argue is as oxymoronic as “authentic reproduction,” “corporate responsibility,” “military music,” etc.). This despite the fact that… Read moreIndia gets US nuclear aid; oil issues in background
From Reuters, July 19: UK court convicts Afghan warlord LONDON: A British court has convicted Faryadai Sarwar Zardad, a former Afghan warlord, of torturing and terrorising civilians in his homeland for four years in what prosecutors said was the first… Read moreUK convicts Afghan warlord
Saddam Hussein has finally been indicted by the Iraqi Special Tribunal, for a July 1982 massacre of some 150 Shi’ites at Dujail, a town north of Baghdad. But the ex-dictator’s lawyer Giovanni di Stefano is demanding that the trial be… Read moreSaddam indicted; Iran demands war crimes charges
The Project on Defense Alternatives sends the following press release: New proposal outlines “near-total” troop withdrawal by September 2006; Early exit from Iraq depends on political compromise The United States could safely withdraw almost all its forces from Iraq within… Read moreProject on Defense Alternatives proposal for Iraq: “400 days and out”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) runs a July 13 piece from the Florida Times-Union, “Muslim Leaders Condemning Terror to Deaf?” in which columnist Mark Woods speaks to CAIR’s new chairman Parvez Ahmed and finds that such Muslim condemnations are… Read moreIslam and terror: two Muslim views
