Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega announced his government will formally recognize the independence of the breakaway Georgian enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia—becoming the first country other than Russia to do so. The Nicaraguan decree was read in a Sept. 5… Read moreNicaragua recognizes South Ossetia, Abkhazia
Iranian-born, neocon-friendly pundit and “journalist” Amir Taheri has been implicated in fabricated news reports—so take his sneering analysis of Barack Obama’s recently released foreign policy positions as a propagandistic exercise. What he is aghast at we can perhaps take heart… Read moreBarack Obama: the post-GWOT president?
The Democratic Party website ExxonMcCain, delineating the Big Oil connections of several advisors to the GOP candidate, includes the dish on Randy Scheunemann—recently identified by Robert Scheer as a lobbyist for the Georgian government to grease NATO entry, and a… Read moreMcCain’s Scheunemann shilled for Amoco in Kazakhstan
In what appears to be the first use of criminal charges under the 2002 Minnesota version of the federal Patriot Act, Ramsey County prosecutors have formally charged eight alleged leaders of the RNC Welcoming Committee with “conspiracy to riot in… Read moreTwin Cities: RNC protesters face “terrorism” charges
Pakistan opened an investigation Sept. 1 into the killings of five women in Baluchistan who tried to choose their own husbands, after a federal lawmaker from the province defended their deaths, asserting that “only those who indulge in immoral acts… Read moreProtests over “honor killings” in Pakistan
NATO-led forces killed three Afghan children and injured seven in artillery fire Sept. 1 after a patrol came under fire from presumed Taliban insurgents in Gayan district, Paktika province. The rounds fell close to a house where the children were… Read moreAfghanistan: children killed by NATO fire
Georgia on Sept. 2 formally broke diplomatic relations with Russia following its occupation of a “security zone” in the north of the country and its Aug. 26 recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent countries. (AFP, Sept. 2) Russia… Read moreGeorgia breaks relations with Moscow as sabers rattle
Ex-UK prime minister Tony Blair’s sister-in-law Lauren Booth is among ten peace activists who arrived in Gaza by sea last month and remain stuck there, denied entry by both Israel and Egypt. Israeli authorities allowed the boat to dock Aug…. Read moreInternational peace activists stranded in Gaza
Journalist Amy Goodman was arrested in St. Paul, Minn., where she was covering the RNC protests Sept. 1. Goodman was arrested along with Democracy Now! producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar, who are still being held. Ramsey County authorities… Read moreIndependent journalists targeted in Twin Cities repression
On Aug. 27 Mexico’s Supreme Court of Justice voted 11-3 to uphold an April 2007 law in the Federal District (DF, Mexico City) allowing voluntary abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. The Catholic Church and the governing center-right… Read moreMexico: Supreme Court upholds abortion law
On Aug. 21 Alberto Cervantes Juarez, first criminal court judge in Texcoco for the central Mexican state of Mexico, sentenced campesino leader Ignacio del Valle Medina to 45 years in prison for allegedly kidnapping state officials and state and federal… Read moreMexico: new sentences in Atenco case
Most of the 23,000 school teachers in the central Mexican state of Morelos went on strike on Aug. 13 to protest the local implementation of a national plan called the Alliance for Quality of Education (ACE). The teachers, in Local… Read moreMexico: Morelos teachers strike
