More than 120 international academics and human rights activists have signed a statement protesting the banning of Zanan Magazine—meaning “women’s magazine”—by the Iranian government this month, after 16 years in print. Iranian authorities have canceled the licenses of many publications… Read moreIran: protest banning of women’s magazine
Divided over whether to boycott the polls, Islamist parties were among the biggest losers in Pakistan’s general elections. Islamists participated in the 2002 elections under the banner of the six-party Muttehida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), and secured 66 seats in the National… Read morePakistan elections: Islamists lose —despite intimidation
Turkish troops destroyed five bridges on the Avashin or Blue River in an incursion into Iraqi Kurdistan to hunt PKK rebel fighters, Iraq’s Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Feb. 22. “We don’t expect that a large incursion is taking place,… Read moreTurkey destroys bridges in Iraqi Kurdistan incursion
Earth First! blockades power plant From Everglades Earth First!, Feb. 19: Early Monday morning hundreds of concerned community members from Palm Beach County and all over the nation put their bodies on the line to halt construction of FPL’s West… Read moreBlockade shuts down Florida power plant construction site
From the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), Feb. 21: On Tuesday, February 19, 13 political activists arrested last July in the town of Suchitoto were set free, and all charges against them were dismissed. This… Read moreAll charges dropped against “Suchitoto 13”
From the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), Feb. 21: In a recent visit to the United States, Salvadoran president Antonio Saca expressed concern about the findings of a recent US intelligence report, which predicts that… Read moreNational Intelligence Director: Venezuela to intervene in Salvadoran elections
Henry Okah, a leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), is rumored to have been killed Feb. 18 upon being extradited from Angola to Nigeria. A MEND communique, signed by Jomo Gbomo, said: “Disturbing reports… Read moreOil prices hit new peak on Niger Delta tensions
Airomi Smith, a university student and a leader in Panama’s largest union, the Only Union of Construction and Similar Workers (SUNTRACS), was killed in Colón on Feb. 12 by a gunshot to the abdomen from a police weapon. Smith’s death… Read morePanama: uprising after unionist killed
A delegation of striking miners from Grupo Mexico’s Cananea copper mine in Sonora, Mexico, and of leaders from the US-based United Steelworkers (USW) visited the Capitol in Washington, DC on Feb. 13, to ask the US Congress to withhold a… Read moreMexico: Cananea strikers take message to Capitol Hill
Some 70,000 teachers in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca suspended classes on Feb. 14 to participate in rallies in Oaxaca city and other cities; the rallies were organized by Section 22 of the National Union of Education Workers (SNTE)… Read moreMexico: Oaxaca teachers protest
Techniques that Peruvian military officers learned at the Georgia-based US Army School of the Americas were used in massacres carried out by the Colina Group paramilitary commando in the early 1990s, several former Colina members have confirmed at the trial… Read morePeru: Colina death squad used techniques from SOA curriculum
Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met with Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rakhmon in the Tajik capital Dushanbe Feb. 13, where the leaders of the two Persian-speaking countries issued a joint statement saying they stand for a world without nuclear arms and support… Read moreIran to join Central Asia nuclear-free zone?
