Morocco’s leading independent human rights group called on the government Aug. 29 to start talks to try to end a hunger strike by prisoners from Morocco-occupied Western Sahara who are demanding better conditions. The Moroccan Human Rights Association (AMDH) said… Read moreWestern Sahara prisoners on hunger strike
The group of New York cyclists who join the monthly Critical Mass Bike Ride is asking Mayor Michael Bloomberg to join in so he can see first-hand how they’re treated by police. They also say they are going to launch… Read moreNYC Critical Mass to Bloomberg: Join us!
One man was killed and five officers were injured during clashes between Kurdish protesters and police in southeastern Turkish city of Batman Aug. 29. The violence flared after some 1,000 Kurds marched to demand the release of the bodies of… Read moreKurds clash with Turkish police, one dead
Expounding its ideology in a lengthy manifesto, the group “al Qaeda in Iraq” says the insurgency is stronger than the US admits and vows to “destroy the American empire.” The group says in an e-book which surfaced on the Internet… Read moreAl-Qaeda in Iraq vows to “destroy the American empire”
A Reuters report Aug. 18 depicts the situation in the Sinai Peninsula escalating to a small counter-insurgency war between Egyptian security forces and Bedouin Islamic militants. A landmine damaged an Egyptian police vehicle in northern Sinai Aug. 27, injuring a… Read moreEgyptian security forces hunt Bedouin militants in Sinai
Despite repeated denials by Prime Minister Tony Blair that the Iraq war made the UK a target for terrorists, a letter from Michael Jay, the Foreign Office permanent under-secretary, to the cabinet secretary, Sir Andrew Turnbull—obtained by the UK Observer—makes… Read moreUK Foreign Office: It was Iraq
A forthcoming book by former FBI consultant claims al-Qaeda has acquired a stockpile of nuclear weapons, that some are already planted in major US cities, and the group is actively seeking more. Citing documents purportedly seized in Afghanistan, author Paul… Read moreAl-Qaeda ready to go nuclear?
The Economist writes in its Aug. 18-25 issue that last week, in a landmark speech in Diyarbakir, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan became the first Turkish leader ever to admit that Turkey had mishandled the Kurdish rebellion in the country’s… Read morePKK ceasefire in Turkey; new attacks in Iran
After more than 20 years in captivity, 404 prisoners of war have returned home to Morocco, the last of more than 2,400 freed by Western Sahara’s Polisario Front independence movement. Two privately chartered planes carrying the prisoners, some of them… Read moreLast Moroccan POWs freed by Western Sahara guerillas
From The New Standard, Aug. 24: Responding to last month’s bombings in the London subway system, transit officials in New York City decided to hand one of the nation’s largest defense contractors $212 million to dramatically increase surveillance efforts throughout… Read moreLockheed gets subway surveillance contract
AP Aug. 24 reports that Iraq’s southern marshlands—drained by Saddam Hussein—are showing signs of rebirth; former residents are returning, and hunting and fishing are reviving. A new U.N. report sums up the progress, saying satellite imagery shows the marshes have… Read moreIraq marshlands: tentative recovery
On Aug. 24 unknown gunmen fired shots at an Oslo restaurant owned by the family of a Pakistani-born woman comedian who has won notoriety for lampooning conservative Islam. Shabana Rehman, the 28-year-old comediene whose sister owns the restaurant, called the… Read moreJihadis have no sense of humor
