On Sept. 14, the House of Representatives voted 283-138 in favor of a bill calling for construction of 700 miles of double-layered fencing along several sections of the 2,000-mile US border with Mexico: around Tecate and Calexico, California; along most… Read moreHouse passes border fence bill
Hundreds of thousands of Mexicans marked Independence Day on Sept. 16 by holding a massive meeting, which they called the “Democratic National Convention” (CND), in Mexico City’s main plaza, the Zocalo. The crowd voted up plans to carry on a… Read moreMexico: Democratic National Convention declares Lopez Obrador “legitimate president”
On Sept. 6, Chile’s Senate voted 20-13 with two abstentions against a bill introduced by Socialist senator Alejandro Navarro which would have granted conditional release to jailed Mapuche activists. In May, four Mapuche political prisoners ended a 70-day hunger strike… Read moreChile: Mapuche prisoners betrayed
Kyrgyzstan briefly surfaced in the headlines following the case of Air Force Major Jill Metzger of North Carolina, assigned to the US base at Manas, who managed to escape after being kidnapped Sept. 5. But the US media pays little… Read moreKyrgyzstan: Uzbek refugees charge forced repatriation
Freedom’s on the march in the USA’s closest South Asian ally. From the UK’s Independent, Sept. 12, via Common Dreams: In a setback for women’s rights in Pakistan, the ruling party in Islamabad has caved in to religious conservatives by… Read morePakistan: Musharraf caves in on rape law reform
From AP via Qatar’s The Peninsula, Sept. 15 (link added): PARIS — Al Qaeda has for the first time announced a union with an Algerian insurgent group that has designated France as an enemy, saying they will act together against… Read moreAl-Qaeda announces merger with Algeria’s Salafist Group
US researchers writing in the peer-reviewed journal Science maintain that more than 200,000 people have died in Sudan’s Darfur conflict, much higher than most previous estimates. Says Dr. John Hagan of Northwestern University: “We’ve tried to find a way of… Read moreDarfur: 200,000 dead?
As populist leaders in Bolivia and Venezuela are determined to nationalize their oil industries, Colombia’s government is insisting on a privatization plan for its state-run oil company. By selling off 20% of Ecopetrol, Colombia hopes to net some $5 billion… Read moreColombia announces 20% privatization of state oil company
On Sept. 1 in Tucson, Arizona, US District Judge Raner Collins dismissed federal charges against humanitarian activists Shanti Sellz and Daniel Strauss. The two were arrested by the Border Patrol near Tucson on July 9, 2005, while driving sick migrants… Read moreBorderlands activists in legal victory
A small tentative step in the right direction—a little counter-vortex against the general downward spiral of global civilization towards ecological hell, permanent war and petrochemical totalitarianism. From amNewYork, Sept. 13: City puts forth ambitious bike plan After a series of… Read moreNYC bicyclists win another round
An urgent alert from the Iraq Freedom Congress: US Troops raid offices of Iraq Freedom Congress (IFC) in Baghdad On September 7 and 8, U.S occupying troops raided the head office of IFC in Baghdad. The raid came after a… Read moreUS troops raid Iraq Freedom Congress offices
Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe took over the country's airwaves Sept. 10 to defend the military against reports soldiers were behind a string of bombings in the capital, Bogota. In a live half-hour speech during prime-time on all the major networks,… Read moreColombian military implicated in Bogotá blasts
