From Human Rights Watch, May 2, via AllAfrica.com: A criminal court in Cairo today sentenced Huwaida Taha Mitwalli, a journalist for Al-Jazeera and the London-based daily Al-Quds al-Arabi, to six months in prison on charges of “possessing and giving false… Read moreEgypt: reporter gets prison for exposing torture
The Islamic State of Iraq, an umbrella insurgency group consisting of various jihadi factions including al-Qaeda in Iraq, issued a statement May 3 denying the killing of its “emir,” Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, but confirming the death of its official spokesman,… Read moreIraq: Abu Omar al-Baghdadi dead?
A court in Tashkent convicted Umida Niyazova, a human rights activist of distributing Islamic extremist propaganda, and sentenced her to seven years in prison May 1. Niyazova, who was a translator for based Human Rights Watch and wrote for independent… Read moreUzbekistan: rights defender gets seven years
Well, if you consider our “winter fund drive” as extending into April (and the winter did sort of extend into April here in New York City this year, so maybe we can get away with it), we did reach our… Read moreWW4 REPORT meets fund-raising goal, changes address… Thank you!
From the Stop the War Coalition-Philippines, via Focus on the Global South: Stop the War in Mindanao As hostilities between the Philippine military and the Moro National Liberation front escalate in Mindanao, we from the Stop the War Coalition—Philippines, a… Read morePhilippine anti-war coalition: US out of Mindanao
Receiving virtually no international coverage, this past weekend saw an outburst of ethnic violence in Madagascar, with homes and shops of the Indo-Pakistani immigrant community looted in the southwest coastal town of Toliara. A serious escalation is reported April 30… Read moreMadagascar: new terror war front?
Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, has announced his country’s withdrawal from both the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, describing said institutions to no longer be of use to Venezuela. He has also proclaimed his intention to establish an… Read moreVenezuela out of IMF, World Bank
Twenty people have been injured after a bomb exploded in a busy night market in the southern Thai province of Pattani on [May 1]. Officials believe that Muslim fighters carried out the attack as a means of stirring up communal… Read moreBomb hits Thai night market
Morocco and the Polisario Front are to embark on UN-sponsored talks over the disputed territories of Western Sahara, while the Security Council unanimously resolved [May 1] to renew the 220-strong UN peacekeeping operation in the region. [The resolution also calls… Read moreUN brokers talks over Western Sahara
Turkish police have arrested hundreds of left-wing protestors in Istanbul, amid a May Day rally. People were marching toward Taksim Square, to mark the 30th anniversary of the ‘Bloody May Day’—when thirty-four people were killed in a stampede in 1977… Read moreTurkey: hundreds arrested at May Day protest
Several Bangladeshi railway stations have been targeted by a series of small bombs [May 1]. The devices were detonated in the capital, Dhaka, the southeastern port of Chittagong and the northern city of Sylhet, at around 7:30 AM local time…. Read moreAl-Qaeda in Bangladesh?
Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the head of al-Qaeda in Iraq, is reported to have been killed in an “internal battle” between militants in northern Baghdad, the Iraqi interior ministry has disclosed. United States officials have long speculated about rising tensions between… Read moreIraq: Abu Ayyub al-Masri dead?
