The Fatah and Hamas factions met at the official Muqata compound in the Palestinian capital Ramallah today, with President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh attempting to calm the situation after armed clashes between their supporters claimed at least… Read moreThree-way war for Palestine?
Just as a resolution was in sight in the Mohawk stand-off in Ontario, a re-escalation—due to an angry backlash from Caledonia’s white residents. From the Toronto Globe & Mail, May 23: Caledonia, Ont. — Violence erupted at the site of… Read moreOntario: violence flares at Mohawk blockade
From the New York Daily News, May 24: Call for justice in SUV rage Dad whose family was mowed down rails at suspect brothers “They came here like animals,” seethed Michael Celentano. Standing yesterday on the front yard of his… Read moreWHY WE FIGHT
From the New York Times news service, May 23: LONDON Amnesty International assailed the United States’ use of military contractors in Iraq on Tuesday as “war outsourcing” that may be fueling human rights abuses. “War outsourcing is creating the corporate… Read moreAmnesty protests torture “outsourcing”; Koppel wants “mercenary army”
How do they keep a straight face when they tell us we’re fighting for freedom in Iraq? From Reuters, May 24: LONDON: Police yesterday dismantled a long-running anti-war protest opposite the Houses of Parliament, carting away placards showing graphic images… Read moreLondon: police take down anti-war camp
How interesting. In an implicit acknowledgement that their hardcore Islamophobe policies are backfiring in Chechya, the Russian authorities are embracing the indigenous peace-loving Sufi tradition as an alternative to the violently intransigent Wahhabism imported from the Arab world. But this… Read moreChechen Sufi revival —between Russian occupation and Wahhabis
A heartwarming addendum to a horribly tragic story. Newsday‘s May 24 coverage of the funeral notes that the late Amber Sadiq was the product of mixed Pakistani-Dominican (and Muslim-Catholic) marriage. Repudiating New York’s usual tabloid-enflamed culture of law-enforcement-as-personal-vengeance, Amber’s father… Read moreWHY WE FIGHT
Top officials from Mexico’s official National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) say that 23 cases of sexual abuse and rape have been documented following the violent clash between protesters and police in San Salvador Atenco. At a press conference, CNDH inspector… Read moreMexico: abuse charges mount in Atenco case
On May 19, four Mapuche rights activists resumed their open-ended hunger strike at the Hernan Enriquez hospital in Temuco, in southern Chile’s Region IX (Araucania). Mapuche activists Juan Patricio Marileo Saravia, Florencio Jaime Marileo Saravia and Juan Carlos Huenulao Lienmil… Read moreChile: Mapuche resume hunger strike
After protesting for several weeks with no answer to their demands, on May 18 more than 1,000 Chilean high school students demonstrated in Santiago to press for free public transportation, free university entrance exams and improvements in the quality of… Read moreChile: police attack student marchers
Boogie for your right to defy gringo imperialism, y’all. From Reuters, May 23: CARACAS – Among the shabby high-rise tenements overlooking Venezuela’s capital, hip-hop beats rather than the usual gunfire kept the Caracas neighborhood of Pinto Salinas awake one night… Read moreVenezuela: the hip-hop revolution
From Upside Down World, May 24: The nullification of Occidental Petroleum’s oil-drilling contract by the Ecuadorian government has generated mixed reactions in the Americas. Ecuador’s oil minister revoked the California-based oil giant’s contract last week for allegedly not informing the… Read moreEcuador boots Oxy
