Greenpeace Mexico, Amnesty International and the Tlachinollan Mountain Human Rights Center presented the Sierra Club’s Chico Mendes Award to Mexican winners Felipe Arreaga Sanchez, Albertano PeƱaloza Dominguez, and Celsa Valdovinos on Aug. 9. Greenpeace Mexico Director Alejandro Calvillo asked the… Read moreMexico: persecuted peasant ecologists win Sierra Club award
The East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) is calling for support for a congressional letter to Indonesian President Yudhoyono now circulating in the US House of Representatives. The letter asks Yudhoyono to end ongoing military operations in West Papua… Read moreInvisible terror in West Papua
Mexican authorities say they suspect drug traffickers are to blame in the killing of six people in three communities in the conflicted southern state of Chiapas. The first slayings occurred late Aug. 23 on a highway linking Tapachula with Tuxtla… Read moreNarco violence in Chiapas
China’s bid to purchase the US oil major Unocal foiled by Chevron, which beat the Chinese firm CNOOC to the punch, it is now seeking a stake in the Caspian Basin oilfields of Kazakhstan–where Chevron is a major investor. The… Read moreChina seeks claim in Kazakh oil fields
Dozens of protesters shouted, “Rumsfeld, you fascist, you are the terrorist,” on Aug. 17 as US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld presented a floral offering at the Tomb of the Heroes in downtown Asuncion during a brief visit to Paraguay. The… Read moreParaguayans Protest Rumsfeld
Escalating violence continues to make life unlivable in Haiti, with police forces and foreign “peacekeepers” contributing to the bloodshed–while those who flee to the neighboring Dominican Republic face racist attacks and mass deportations. From Weekly News Update on the Americas,… Read moreLynchings in Haiti; ethnic cleansing in Dominican Republic
Mexico’s Social Development Secretary Josefina Vazquez Mota announced Aug. 19 that the country has lived through a “lost decade” and that poverty levels are slightly worse today than in 1994. In a speech at the National Congress to Combat Poverty… Read moreMexico: NAFTA, transgenic maize impacts assessed
Family representatives and advocates for Jean Charles de Menezes, the Brazilian man shot dead on the London Underground, are accusing Scotland Yard of misrepresenting the circumstances of his killing. A police report leaked to the British press leak reveals that… Read moreReport: Scotland Yard lied in tube killing
A military jury at Fort Bliss, TX, spared an Army reservist prison time but reduced his rank Aug. 18 for abuse of a detainee who later died at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. Prosecutors had asked that Pfc. Willie V…. Read moreNo prison for soldier in Bagram abuse case
A Katyusha rocket fired from Jordan landed near the airport in the Israeli city of Eilat Aug. 19, and at least two more rockets narrowly missed the USS Ashland, a US Navy ship moored at the Jordanian port of Aqaba… Read moreJordan rocket attacks
An Aug. 18 Christian Science Monitor story, online at TruthOut, reports that some 300 small bombs exploded in cities across Bangladesh the previous day, killing one, wounding at least 100, and raising fears of a surge of Islamic militancy. The… Read moreTerror in Bangladesh
The campaign officially opened for Afghanistan’s first post-Taliban parliamentary race Aug. 17, even as violence continues to plague the country. Authorities are still not ruling out the possibility of an attack against a helicopter that crashed near Herat Aug. 17,… Read moreAfghanistan: election campaign opens amid violence, warlordism
