The Caucasus

Eid terror in Ingushetia

A deadly suicide attack on the funeral of a police officer killed the previous day in a firefight with militants may signal a new advance of the Chechen insurgency into the Ingush Republic.

Greater Middle East

Syrian anarchist speaks

The British anarcho-syndicalist website Solidarity Federation runs a statement from a representative of a “group of young Syrian anarchists and anti-authoritarians from Aleppo.”

Europe

Next in Belarus: teddy-bear revolution?

A photographer in Belarus faces seven years in prison for taking photos of teddy-bears that were parachuted into the country by Swedish activists as a stunt.

Afghanistan

Next: nuclear Taliban?

A jihadist attack on Pakistan’s Minhas Air Force Base coincides with a US Congressional report on threats to the “security” of Islamabad’s nuclear arsenal.

Europe

New Franco-Intifada: plus ça change…

The new Socialist president of France, François Hollande, is emulating his reactionary predecessor Sarkozy in his response to a new uprising by immigrant youth.

Planet Watch

Chevron fire: how many more?

From Richmond, Calif., to the Gulf Coast, to the Niger Delta to the Ecuadoran Amazon—how many more disasters until a public seizure of the oil industry is finally at least broached?

Southeast Asia

Geopolitical chess game heats up South China Sea

Beijing's move to set up a military garrison on disputed Yongxing Island—claimed by the Philippines as part of the Paracel chain—is escalating tension in the South China Sea.

North America

Sikh massacre: fascism is not a mental illness

Calling the accused perp in the Oak Creek massacre "insane" misses the point in a fatal way. His atrocity was a political act, and the reply must be political, not therapeutic.