A deadly explosion at the Abadan refinery has crystalized the precarious situation facing Iranian oil workers, who are mobilizing to demand an end to neoliberal measuresthat deny them the right to unionize.
Ana Fabricia Córdoba, a leader of displaced Afro-Colombians seeking return of their usurped lands, was slain by an unidentified gunman on a city bus in Medellín. Her daughters received a phone threat that they would “end up the same way.”
The mosque in the village of Maghayer near Ramallah suffered damage and threatening graffiti in a pre-dawn vandal and arson attack—with scrawled slogans calling it a “price tag” by Israeli settlers.
Ecuador sent the army into jungles along the Colombian border to crack down on illegal small-scale mining operations—as the government moved ahead with new mining contracts with industry majors.
Thousands of Israelis marched in Tel Aviv in support of a return to the 1967 borders—as the IDF fired on protesters attempting to cross the Golan Heights ceasefire line from Syria, leaving several dead.
Two undocumented migrants being held at a jail in the border town of Tapachula in Mexico’s southern Chiapas state were hospitalized after 21 days on hunger strike—despite a new law that supposedly protects migrants’ rights.
Hugo Chávez and the US State Department alike denied claims touted by neocon think-tanks that Iran is establishing missile bases in Venezuela. But the State Department sanctioned Venezuela’s state oil company for aiding Iran’s energy sector.
Refugees fleeing the violence in North Africa continue to die at sea, prompting an investigation by the Council of Europe—and a move by Italy and France to rewrite the EU’s policy that permits internal passport-free travel.
After days of fierce fighting in Sanaa, President Ali Abdullah Saleh has reportedly fled the country for Saudi Arabia. Amid the chaos, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninusla seized control of the southern town of Zinjibar.
Thousands of families have been displaced in weeks of fighting between the Ahlu Sunna sufi militia and fundamentalist Shabab insurgents in central Somalia. Drought conditions in the countryside have worsened the plight of the displaced.
Chinese authorities have tightened security across Inner Mongolia province after days of unrest, which began when a Mongol herdsman was killed by a coal truck as a group of traditional herders sought to block a convoy from crossing their lands.
Former Maoist rebels and indigenous protesters demanding greater rights under the new constitution have staged weeks of civil strikes across Nepal, repeatedly shutting down large areas of the country, including Kathmandu.
