From Scientific American, Aug. 4: In the spring of 2002, a large chunk of the Larsen B ice shelf (LIS-B) on the Antarctic Peninsula broke off and tumbled into the Weddell Sea. A new analysis published today in the journal… Read moreAntarctic ice shelf collapse “unprecedented”
Hundreds have taken to the streets of Mauritania’s capital, Nouakchott, shouting and honking car horns in celebration after the army announced it had seized power and ousted long-ruling President Moawiya Ould Tayeh. Convoys of vehicles with people hanging out the… Read moreCoup d’etat in Mauritania
From the Aug. 1 AP. Rights groups are protesting that 15 Uzbek refugees are to be forcibly repatriated from Kyrgyzstan. But this is after 440 were flown to Romania to seek asylum in Europe last week over the objections of… Read moreUzbek refugees: political pawns
Russia says it is outraged by an interview with Chechen guerilla leader Shamil Basayev broadcast by the ABC TV network, and the foreign ministry summoned a senior US diplomat in Moscow to express its “strong indignation” over the show. In… Read moreShamil Basayev: “OK, so I’m a terrorist”
From Weekly News Update on the Americas, July 31: In a 2-1 decision, a three-judge panel of the Oral Criminal Court in the Chilean city of Temuco acquitted six Mapuche rights activists in a retrial on charges of “terrorist illicit… Read moreChile: Mapuche acquitted of “terrorist” charges
As we recently noted, Paraguay is currently seeing an upsurge of peasant and popular unrest—just as the US has established a new military presence there (ostensibly aimed at chasing down Islamic militants who have supposedly established the country as a… Read moreParaguay: villagers demand Moonie land
The regime of Islam Karimov in Uzbekistan, heretofore attempting to play both sides in the Great Game between Moscow and Washington, appears to have finally and decisively thrown in its lot with the former. From Pakistan’s Daily Times, via AFP… Read moreUzbekistan boots US military
A Muslim-owned store in a Leeds suburb was set ablaze the night of July 22 in what police called a racially motivated attack. No one was injured in the fire, which destroyed a convenience store in the suburb of Harehills…. Read moreRevenge attacks in England
Another attempted multiple simultaneous bombing on the London transit system, which fortunately seems to have failed–but not without sparking another death on the Underground, this time at the hands of the police. (Remember when London “bobbies” famously didn’t carry guns?)… Read moreMore death in London, fear in New York
Terror returns to London July 21st 2005 From The Economist Global Agenda Exactly two weeks after the deadly bombings of London’s transport system on July 7th, Britain’s capital has been hit by a fresh wave of attacks—though with few casualties… Read moreMore London blasts
Arrested for “spreading hatred”? Sounds frighteningly arbitrary and subjective. From UPI, July 20: Pakistan arrests 200 extremist suspects ISLAMABAD — Pakistan has detained more than 200 suspected Islamic militants in a new security crackdown this week. The government of President… Read moreSweeps in Pakistan
We’ve been waiting for London’s famously leftist Mayor Ken Livingstone to state the obvious about the bombings. Finally, he has. Blair, meanwhile, remains in denial, at least officially. We wonder: is he really this deluded, or just sticking to a… Read moreKen Livingstone: Yes, it’s Iraq
