Sharia courts opened this week in Pakistan’s Swat Valley as part of a peace agreement with tribal militias. But it remains to be seen how much power the local civil government will cede.
Opposition parties this week called for protests across Kyrgyzstan on March 27, amid worsening economic conditions and mounting accusations of government repression.
In a setback for Pentagon plans to install a US military radar base in the Czech Republic, the Prague government temporarily withdrew its proposal to ratify an agreement on the installation.
Bolivia, which kicked out the US DEA last year, applied for US State Department approval to purchase six warplanes with US-made components from the Czech Republic for drug enforcement.
Bolivia has issued a decree nullifying an exploration contract with the French oil major Total signed by rancher Ronald Larsen, leader of the resistance movement to Bolivia’s land reform.
Bolivian President Evo Morales, empowered by his country’s new constitution, began redistributing land to indigenous peasants in the Chaco region—as local ranchers pledged to resist.
The African Union, after initially calling it an “attempted coup,” issued a new statement accepting the military’s installation of opposition leader Andry Rajoelina as president of Madagascar. ExxonMobil, the French Total and Rio Tinto Group have oil and mineral interests in Madagascar, which has rich deposits of iron ore and bauxite. Investors have hailed Ravalomanana’s free-market reforms, while Rajoelina accused him of running Madagascar like a dictator, while letting his people starve. Most of the island’s population lives on less than $2 a day.
Photo: IRIN
The 6th Circuit US Court of Appeals upheld a decision finding former Salvadoran military commander Nicolas Carranza liable for murder and torture during the country's civil war,
The ACLU hailed a decision denying the Pentagon’s appeal of a ruling that it must disclose photographs of apparent detainee abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The US Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals upheld a military judge’s dismissal of charges against Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani in the killing of 24 Iraqis in at Haditha.
At the first International Labor Conference ever held in Iraq, three of the country’s major labor organizations signed a pact in Irbil, announcing formation of a new labor confederation.
The number of immigrants detained by the US has drastically increased over the last decade, according to ICE figures released under the FOIA, with 32,000 now held—a fivefold jump since 1994.
