A previously unknown armed group, the Fatherland is First Popular Revolutionary Command (Comando Popular Revolucionario La Patria es Primero), has claimed responsibility for the July 6 assassination of former Guerrero state government secretary Ruben Robles Catalan, whose driver was also… Read moreNew armed group attacks in southern Mexico
A particularly chilling story from Iraq. From the UN news agency IRIN, and available on the website of the Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom (WILPF), July 4: IRAQ: Acid attacks on “immodest” women on the rise For Sumeya… Read moreIraq: acid attacks on “immodest” women
Meeting in Astana, Kazakhstan, July 5, the regional grouping known as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) issued a statement that called on the US to establish a timetable for withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan and elsewhere in Central Asia…. Read moreCentral Asia alliance demands timetable for US withdrawal
Six were killed today as unidentified militants attacked the bitterly contested holy site of Ayodhya in India’s Uttar Pradesh. First, a likely suicide bomber in a jeep blew up an outer security wall; then a group of five others posing… Read moreNew violence at Ayodhya
Claims of civilians wiped out in US air raids, journalists detained by security forces, GIs missing in combat. My, things just look better and better in Afghanistan. Thanks to Lebanon’s Daily Star for this report which, while compiled from wire… Read moreUS kills more civilians in Afghanistan: provincial governor
Is the Russian province of Dagestan going the way of neighboring Chechnya? This July 2 AFP account (online at Qatar’s The Peninsula) makes a disturbingly good case: On Makhachkala’s streets a motorist can get away with speeding, running lights and… Read moreDagestan: next Caucasian domino?
Some 225,000 came out for the Make Poverty History march in Edinburgh July 2, on the eve of the G8 summit about to open at the Gleneagles resort outside the city, as Live8 concerts echoing the demand for action against… Read more200,000 march in Edinburgh
RFE/RL Newsline reports July 1 that a leading Uzbek opposition figure, Muhammad Solih, is seeking to use a visit to Washington to urge the US and European Union to expand their support for “democracy activists” in Uzbekistan. “We do not… Read moreUzbekistan opposition leader does DC
Russia has increased its support for the embattled government of Uzbekistan, announcing that it will soon conduct joint military exercises with the regime of President Islam Karimov. The announcement by Sergei Ivanov, Russia’s defense minister, was broadcast in Moscow after… Read moreUzbekistan tilts to Moscow
Days after a deadly eviction of peasants by paramilitaries, anti-privatization protests are shaking Paraguay. Neither have made any significant international media coverage. Cuba’s Prensa Latina reports June 27 that a national mobilization has coverged on Asuncion, the capital, demanding the… Read moreProtests in Paraguay
A little-reported story from Paraguay on an eviction of peasants from contested lands by the private gunmen of local big land-owners (apparently Brazilians), backed up by the army and police. It is the biotech opponents who are distributing this news,… Read morePeasants killed by Paraguay paramilitaries
If the Iraq war is not about oil, somebody forgot to tell the editors of the New York Times and, it seems, the leadership of the People’s Republic of China. On June 27, the Times runs a front-page story on… Read moreUS oil dominance fuels China’s Unocal bid
