Oceania
ISIS in Sydney?
Internet and media slueths scramble to identify the faction behind the jihadist flag raised by the militant in the Sydney hostage crisis—which follows Austrailian air-strikes on ISIS.
Author: Bill Weinberg
Greater Middle East
New Syrian rebel coalition: tilt to Turkey
Syrian rebels announced formation of a new Revolutionary Command Council at a meeting in Turkey—dominated by conservative Islamists but excluding Nusra Front and ISIS.
Greater Middle East
Nazi fugitive trained Syrian torturers: report
The Simon Wiesenthal Center says Alois Brunner, the world's most-wanted Nazi fugitive, died a free man in Syria, where he trained interrogators for sucessive regimes.
Iraq
Bedfellows get stranger in war on ISIS
Iran launched air-strikes against ISIS targets in Iraq, the Pentagon admitted. Meanwhile, it appears that NATO ally Turkey opened its territory to ISIS forces attacking Kobani.
Afghanistan
Afghan opium boom again breaks record
For a second consecutive year, Afghan opium cultivation broke all previous records, according to the latest report from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.
Southeast Asia
Worldwide despots: Orwell still dangerous
Protesters in military-ruled Thailand have been silently reading 1984 in public to outwit a ban on gatherings—leading to the book itself being banned. Egypt could be next.
Iraq
Rojava revolution speaks in New York City
A forum at New York's City College featured a Skype link to Saleh Muslim, political leader of the Kurdish resistance at Kobani, and vividly described life in the besieged autonomous zone.
Central America
Nicaragua: opposition mounts to canal scheme
With work about to begin on an inter-oceanic canal through Nicaragua, campesinos who stand to be evicted for the mega-scheme pledge resistance and warn of a "massacre."
Iraq
Kurdish revolution: what odds for survival?
Will the anarchist-oriented Rojava Kurds ultimately be crushed in deference to Washington's NATO ally Turkey—or coopted into imperial clients? Is a third revolutionary option possible?
South Asia
India sterilization abuse: genocide by other means
The death of at least a dozen peasant women in a Chhattisgarh sterilization program comes in the context of a brutal counterinsurgency campaign against the Naxalite guerillas.
Palestine
Eschatology escalates at Temple Mount
Amid new unrest at the Temple Mount, Israeli Housing Minister Uri Ariel alarmingly said that Israel will eventually replace al-Aqsa Mosque with a Jewish temple.
East Asia
Hong Kong: paradoxes of dissent
As protests continue in Hong Kong, a new film profiles Joshua Wong and other young leaders of the movement, highlighting contradictions—including in their stance towards the West.