An exorbitantly priced “Citibike” bicycle-sharing program named and colonized by Citibank is unveiled in New York—a perverse betrayal of the legacy of Amsterdam’s radical Provos, who pioneered the first bike-sharing initiative in 1967.
A federal judge strikes down provisions of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act in a legal challenge by Chris Hedges. But does the ruling protect journalists, while legitimizing indefinite detention of “advocates of violence”?
Venezuela is demanding the US extradite ex-supreme court judge Eladio Aponte to face drug trafficking charges. Aponte was flown to Miami by the DEA after he accused high-ranking Caracas officials of links to drug-trafficking.
Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli facilities agreed to an Egyptian-brokered deal ending the strikes in exchange for improved conditions and a pledge to release the detainees at the end of their “administrative detention” terms.
Chile’s Supreme Court halted construction of the Cuervo hydroelectric dam in Patagonia pending further environmental studies. Chile needs to double its generating capacity to meet requirements of a planned expansion in the mining sector.
National Police in the service of Antamina company detained 16 campesinos in Peru’s Andean region of Áncash and are holding them at a post on company lands. The arrests follow protests against the mine’s contamination of local waters.
Julia Ward Howe conceived the holiday as an anti-war statement in 1870, in response to the Franco-Prussian carnage. But the pacifists who rescue this legacy from oblivion unfortunately engage in their own historical revisionism…
The US is to resume military sales to Bahrain, suspended due to human rights concerns during last year’s crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, the State Department announced. Rights groups says arbitrary arrests and torture continue.
US military advisors to Yemen, pulled out last year due to human rights abuses by the crumbling regime of Ali Abdullah Saleh, are set to return—as drone strikes continue on territory controlled by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
The Pentagon is this week leading “Eager Lion 2012″—the largest multinational military exercises in the history of Jordan, with maneuvers planned along the Syrian border as well as in the Gulf of Aqaba, across from Israel.
The New York/Hong Kong-based Human Rights in China reports that You Minglei, an independent activist in Nanchang, was arrested on charges of “inciting subversion of state power” after distributing leaflets.
