Ecuador has expelled World Bank representative to Quito, Eduardo Somensatto, on the order of President Rafael Correa. Though Ecuador did not give an official reason for the expulsion, but Correa had protested the Work Bank’s withholding of a $100 million… Read moreEcuador: World Bank booted, legislators flee, Chevron upbraided
TierramĂ©rica reports [April 21] that grassroots organizations in the department of Olancho, Honduras, are fighting both for the enforcement of a partial ban decreed to stop illegal logging, as well as justice punishment of the assassins of two Honduran environmentalists… Read moreHonduras: campesino ecologists under threat
Rodolfo Chávez Galindo, a campesino leader active in the opposition to La Parota hydro-electric complex, was arrested by state police April 21 in the conflicted southern Mexican state of Guerrero, charged with the illegal detention of an engineer from the… Read moreGuerrero: hydro-dam opponent arrested
From Amnesty International, April 24: Amnesty International condemns the harsh sentence handed down today on human rights lawyer Anwar al-Bunni, following an unfair trial that appeared to be politically driven and during which he was not given full access to… Read moreSyria: rights attorney gets five years
Combatants of Hamas’ military wing, Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, have ended their five-month truce with Israel, firing 61 mortars and 30 rockets into Israel [April 24]. The group described the attack as in response to Israel having failed to respect… Read moreHamas militants end truce
From Amnesty International, April 19: Political activist David Venegas was arbitrarily detained by state police in central Oaxaca City on 13 April, and reportedly tortured. He has been charged with serious criminal offences, on the basis of evidence which appears… Read moreOaxaca: Amnesty International alert for arrested activists
Ecuadoran president Rafael Correa announced on April 21 during his weekly radio program that he planned to expel World Bank representative Eduardo Somensatto from the country and would consider legal actions against the lending institution itself. According to Correa, the… Read moreEcuador: World Bank under fire
Agents of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have detained two former Peruvian military officers living in the US who are charged with human rights abuses in connection with an Aug. 14, 1985 military raid that killed 69 villagers—many… Read moreUS detains accused South American rights abusers —on immigration charges
Sixteen protesters have received terms of one to six months in federal prison in connection with a Nov. 19, 2006, demonstration at the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia; they were demanding the closing of the US Defense Department’s Western Hemisphere… Read moreSOA protesters start prison terms
Unknown gunmen shot dead 23 textile factory workers from the ancient Yazidi culture in an apparent revenge killing in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul April 22. Authorities said the gunmen erected a roadblock, forced the workers out of a… Read moreIraq: Yazidi workers massacred in Mosul
At the behest of Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki, US officials have agreed to stop the construction of a wall separating Sunni and Shia enclaves in Baghdad. The 5km, 3.6m-tall wall surround the Sunni neighbourhood of Adhamiya, billed by US… Read moreBaghdad: more walls planned?
The recent military campaign by tribesmen in Pakistan’s northwest borderlands to drive out Uzbek Islamist militants, portrayed as a victory against extremism by Islamabad, may have more to do with mere animosity between Pashtuns and Uzbeks than a rejection of… Read morePakistan Taliban: Osama welcome
