The Andes
Contradictory legacy of Hugo Chávez
Whether the gains of Hugo Chávez's Bolivarian Revolution will survive his passing depends on how genuinely it is based on popular power, not just that of a charismatic leader.
Author: Bill Weinberg
New York City
WHY WE FIGHT
From Gothamist, March 4: Baby Whose Parents Were Killedin Williamsburg Hit-And-Run Has Died The infant who was delivered prematurely after his parents were killed in a Williamsburg hit-and-run has died, according to Orthodox community leader Isaac Abraham. The child had been listed… Read moreWHY WE FIGHT
Africa
Kenya: land at issue in electoral tensions
Separatists on Kenya's coast are boycotting the elections, claiming their territory was illegally annexed, its lands usurped from the inhabitants and handed out to settlers.
Watching the Shadows
Catholic sex scandal Jewish plot: papal hopeful
Alan Dershowitz calls out papal hopeful Cardinal Maradiaga of Honduras as floating conspiracy theories about how the Vatican sex scandal was instrumented by the Jews.
North Africa
Playing the ‘slavery card’ against Tuaregs
Specious charges that the Tuareg still practice slavery are being used by Mali’s regime—and echoed by the Western media—to justify the mounting wave of ethnic attacks.
Palestine
SodaStream greenwashes occupation of Palestine
Israeli firm SodaStream bills itself as eco-friendly by obviating the need for soda bottles—as it illegally operates on stolen Bedoin and Palestinian lands in the West Bank.
Watching the Shadows
Papal poop-out propels apocalyptoids
The eschatologically obsessed are fixating on the 12th century Prophecy of Malachy, which supposedly foretells Pope Benedict's resignation as a sign of imminent doom.
East Asia
Korea peninsula pawn in New Cold War with China
China responded to North Korea’s nuclear test with a call for “denuclearization” of the peninsula, as the US assists the South in developing long-range missiles.
North Africa
Mali: France’s Chadian proxies to battle Tuaregs?
Troops from Chad have been sent in to take Kidal, the town in northern Mali that remains under the control of Tuareg separatist rebels, as France seeks to avoid confrontation.
Iraq
Iraq: Mujahedeen Khalq camp attacked by rockets
In attack blamed on Iran’s elite Quds Force, Katyusha rockets rained down on the former US military base outside Baghdad now used by “demobilized” Mujahedeen Khalq fighters.
Watching the Shadows
Press was prone on drones, but cover blown
The media are abuzz with reports that the CIA has a secret drone base in Saudi Arabia—but the New York Times and Washington Post admit they sat on the information for two years.
Greater Middle East
Kurdish wild card in Syria conflict
Kurdish militias in Syria—some linked to the PKK—are battling jihadist rebels, but it is uncertain if they necessarily back the Damascus regime.