Southern Cone
Falklands fracas flares amid Antarctic anxieties
A new war of words between the UK and Argentina over the Malvinas/Falklands follows a similar one last month over a disputed region of Antarctica.
East Asia
Radiation cover-up at Fukushima exposed
Japan’s Environment Ministry is investigating claims that clean-up contractors at Fukushima have illegally dumped contaminated materials in rivers and open areas.
Watching the Shadows
Chuck Hagel: revenge of the paleocons?
Leftists are ironically rallying around Chuck Hagel as Obama's apparent pick for Secretary of Defense—a conservative Republican who is wary of the neocons but close to Big Oil.
Afghanistan
Afghanistan: 20,000 troops to remain?
Gen. John R. Allen, outgoing US commander in Afghanistan, submitted military options to the Pentagon that would keep 6,000 to 20,000 troops in the country after 2014.
Palestine
Settler pogrom at West Bank village
Some 20 settlers rioted in the West Bank village of Jallud, shattering windows, assaulting three residents and vandalizing cars before fleeing the scene.
Southeast Asia
Burma: new airstrikes on Kachin rebels
Burma's army claimed responsibility for air-strikes against Kachin rebel positions in the north—less than a day after the government denied the strikes had taken place.
Iran
Iranian cities evacuated by smog alert
Iranian authorities have advised the 1.5 million residents of Isfahan to leave the city because air pollution has reached emergency levels—while denying rumors of a nuclear leak.
Planet Watch
Quebec: #IdleNoMore protesters block rail line
Protesters with the Idle No More movement, supporting a hunger strike by Chief Theresa Spence of Ontario’s Attawapiskat First Nation, blocked a rail line in eastern Quebec.
North America
Karl Marx and the Emancipation Proclamation
Kevin B. Anderson, author of Marx at the Margins: On Nationalism, Ethnicity, and Non-Western Societies, draws the link from Lincoln's radicalization to the First International.
Palestine
Israel orders Jordan Valley evacuation for training
Israeli forces delivered evacuation orders to around 100 Palestinian families in the northern Jordan Valley ahead of a training exercise, declaring the area a “closed military zone.”
Iraq
Iraq: sectarian attacks, protests
A wave of bomb attacks across Iraq taregted Shi'ite pilgrims, as Sunni protesters blocked highways to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
North Africa
Attack on Coptic church in Libya
Two Egyptians were killed and two injured in an explosion at a Coptic church at Dafniya, near the Libyan city of Misrata. The blast came just as mass was ending.