Early on June 25, some 200 agents from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raided Action Rags USA, an international supplier of used clothing and rags in Houston, Texas. The ICE agents executed a federal search warrant at the plant… Read moreHuge ICE raid at Houston clothing company
On June 23 the Mexican daily La Jornada reported that according to “judicial sources” the Mexican Attorney General’s Office (PGR) has information that the Miami-based Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) has maintained ties for at least three years with the… Read moreCuba: is CANF smuggling migrants?
Eight people were arrested June 29 as some 1,500 marched in downtown Tokyo to protest against the G8 summit that opens next week in Hokkaido. Chanting slogans including “Smash the summit,” protesters clashed with riot police who maintained an intimidating… Read moreJapan: police attack anti-G8 protest
Neo-Nazis fired tear gas at the rally following the June 28 Queer Parade at Svobody Square in the Czech city of Brno, sparking a 45-minute melee. Paramedics treated around ten people. Police said 15 anti-gay protesters were arrested. As the… Read moreCzech Republic: neo-Nazis attack gay pride march
Armed Islamic Courts Union fighters assaulted at “cultural boogie” at El-Ghelle village, Balad district, some 30 kilometers north of Mogadishu in Somalia late June 29, residents said. The fighters reportedly opened fire on a circle where drummers, singers and musicians… Read moreSomalia: Islamists attack traditional dance ceremony
Our June issue featured the story “Enough With the Hugo Chávez Hero Worship” by Nikolas Kozloff, in which he calls out the Venezuelan leader for supporting Beijing’s position on Tibet and dismissing the protests against the Olympic Torch as an… Read moreHugo Chávez and Tibet: our readers write
In a national broadcast June 27, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe called for a referendum on holding a new presidential election after the country’s Supreme Court of Justice called for a review of the constitutional change that allowed him to run… Read moreColombia: Uribe consolidating “dictatorship”
A large percentage of Djibouti’s population could face food shortages due to drought, rising prices, declining earnings, and high levels of livestock deaths, according to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net). Some 130,000, including 50,000 in Djibouti’s capital,… Read moreEritrea crisis worsens Djibouti food shortages
A two-year investigation of a 2,000-acre property in Humboldt County’s Lost River area, Operation Southern Sweep went above ground this week as an invading force of 450 federal and state agents descended in convoys of as many as 200 vehicles… Read more“Southern Sweep” raids shake California’s Emerald Triangle
Six local police officers were killed in Culiacán, Sinaloa, June 27 when two carloads of heavily armed men cut off their vehicle in an ambush. The attack came two hours after a shoot-out between armed men and federal army troops… Read moreUS Senate approves “Plan Mexico”; narcos keep up pressure
State authorities in Guerrero, Mexico, have agreed to pay 490,000 pesos (US$48,000) in compensation to 14 indigenous men coerced into having vasectomies. The men will each be paid 35,000 pesos (US$3,400) and given water storage tanks and cement to build… Read moreMexico compensates indigenous men for forced sterilizations
Taking a tip from their counterparts in Colombia, young opponents of President Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua used Facebook to launch a protest campaign—under the slogan “Democracy yes, dictatorship no.” A June 20 protest brought out some 4,000 in downtown Managua… Read moreNicaragua: cyber-savvy youth protest Ortega
