From the New York Times, April 30 (condensed): At Least 18 Arrests Made in Tense Night of a Monthly Cycling Protest Under tense circumstances, the monthly Critical Mass bicycle ride set out last night from multiple locations in Manhattan, in… Read moreNYC Critical Mass crackdown escalates
This year’s North American winner of the Goldman Prize, awarded annually to the most courageous environmental activists on five contients, is Isidro Baldenegro of Chihuahua, Mexico, a Tarahumara Indian who has long defended the forests of the Sierra Tarahumara against… Read moreTarahumara forest-defender wins Goldman award
A group of prominent businessmen in Turkey have issued a call for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s movies to be banned from Turkish TV after the California governor endorsed a call by Armenian-Americans (a sizeable constituency in his state) for April 24 to… Read moreTurks protest Schwarzenegger for bad reason
The recent moves towards peace between India and Pakistan, symbolized by the historic establishment of bus service across the line of control in divided Kashmir, are a welcome development. But the April 6 arson attack on a Srinagar compound where… Read moreKashmir water war
Zacarias Moussaoui, the only man to be charged with a crime related to 9-11 in the U.S., was finally allowed to enter a plea in federal court April 22, and, in his inimitably garbled fashion, pleaded guilty to all six… Read moreMoussaoui pleads guilty (sort of)
Ethnic tensions are rising in southwest Iran’s Khuzistan province along the Iraqi border, where violence has left three dead and injured in recent days. Protests by the region’s Arab minority were sparked by reports that authorities were planning to colonize… Read moreArab unrest, peace protests in Iran
An important victory is reported from the Brazilian Amazon, which has been the scene of recent violence linked to struggles for control of land and resources. From the BBC, April 15: President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has signed a… Read moreVictory in Amazon indigenous struggle
From the San Francisco Chronicle, April 18: A car bomb attack near Baghdad has killed a well-known activist from Northern California who entered war zones to record civilian deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan and secure aid for those caught in… Read moreTrue freedom fighter killed in Iraq
By order of Secretary Rice, the State Department will stop publishing its annual report “Patterns of Global Terrorism,” ceding responsibility for counting and analyzing worldwide terror attacks to the new National Counter-Terrorism Center. The order comes despite controversy over the… Read moreNational Counter-Terrorism Center takes over
At least 20 Kurdish guerilla fighters are dead in an assualt by Turkish army troops backed up by US-made Cobra attack helicopters near the Iraq border, AP reported April 15. Three Turkish soldiers and a village guardsman were also killed… Read morePKK resurgence in Turkish Kurdistan
The death of Pope John Paul II has occassioned a great deal of speculation in the press about the influence of Opus Dei, the secretive ultra-conservative Catholic organization, in choosing his successor. One of the more strictly factual accounts, "Pope… Read moreOpus Dei in the news
Lebanon’s Omar Karami has resigned a second time, after Parliament refused to accept his February 28 resignation. This time Najib Mikati, a Sunni perceived as a moderate, has been chosen to succeed him. Mikati hailed the opposition–especially Druze leader Walid… Read moreLebanon back from brink?
