Speaking to the Caracas-based Union Radio, Archbishop Roberto Luckert Leon of Coro, vice president of the Venezuelan bishops’ conference, charged that the newly established Reform Catholic Venezuelan Church is a ploy by the government of President Hugo Chávez to divide… Read moreVenezuela: bishops bash Bolivarian Catholics
The government of Peru issued a statement saying it formally “rejects” recent comments by Bolivia’s President Evo Morales about the supposed installation of US bases on Peruvian territory. Lima has called its ambassador in Bolivia, Fernando Rojas, to discuss the… Read moreEvo charges: US plans bases in Peru
Panama’s Supreme Court has overturned a 2004 pardon of anti-Castro militant Luis Posada Carriles and three other right-wing Cubans—Pedro Crispin Remon Hernandez, Gaspar JimĂ©nez Escobedo, and Guillermo Novo Sampoll—charged with plotting to kill Fidel Castro at the 2000 Ibero-American summit…. Read morePanama expunges Posada pardon
A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit has released declassified portions of a June 20 decision that a Combatant Status Review Tribunal had improperly designated a Chinese Uighur detained at Guantanamo Bay as an… Read moreUighur detainees faced Chinese torture methods at Gitmo
While the world media have moved on, Tibetans continue to defy authorities by launching protests in their homeland. According to “confirmed information” received by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD), several local Tibetans have been severely beaten… Read moreTibet: protests, repression continue —outside media spotlight
Mongolia imposed a four-day state of emergency in the capital, Ulan Bator, after the opposition Democratic Party claimed fraud in last weekend’s elections and violent protests broke out. Military vehicles patrolled the streets, five people were killed, and the headquarters… Read moreMongolia: mineral struggle behind unrest?
Since January, some 4,000 Black Mauritanians have returned home from Senegal, as part of an ongoing repatriation process run by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). More than 25,000 Mauritanian refugees still wait in Senegal, having been pushed across… Read moreMauritanian refugees wait in Senegal
A UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter belonging to US-led coalition troops was shot down by small-arms fire south of Afghanistan’s capital Kabul July 2. The crew apparently survived, but Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters… Read moreAfghanistan: the next Iraq?
Thousands of workers at the Iran Khodro Car Manufacturing Company are reported to be on strike. The protest began in the form of hunger strike on June 28, and expanded across the company, with thousands of workers joining protests and… Read moreAuto workers strike in Iran
Over a five-day period ending June 24, ICE Fugitive Operations Teams carried out a series of coordinated sweeps through southeast Wisconsin, the Chicago metropolitan area, southwestern Kansas and central Nebraska, arresting a total of 158 people, of whom fewer than… Read moreMore ICE “fugitive” raids in Midwest
On June 26, ICE agents executed a federal civil search warrant at an aircraft manufacturing plant in Arlington, Wash., arresting 32 of the company’s workers—16 women and 16 men—on administrative immigration violations. Two of the workers are from El Salvador;… Read moreICE raids Washington aerospace plant
