Japanese media report that Tokyo may end its supply support mission for US-led forces in Iraq next year, under pressure from the powerful opposition. Japan has some 210 Air Self-Defense Force personnel in Kuwait, from where they airlift supplies to… Read moreJapan to end Iraq mission in 2009?
From the Iraq Freedom Congress and the Opening for Peace, Equality and Nexus (OPEN), Japan, May 19: Joint Statement to Stop ‘Gender Cleansing’ in Iraq under the name of ‘honor killing’ and other gender-based violence against women, and to Demand… Read moreStop “gender cleansing” in Iraq
The founder and chief commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Manuel “Tirofijo” (Sureshot) Marulanda, has died, the Colombian government announced May 24.”Through military intelligence, we learned Pedro Antonio Marin, alias Manuel Marulanda or Sureshot, the principal chief… Read moreFARC commander Mario Marulanda dead: Colombia
We recently asked if the folks at the Council on Foreign Relations who want to remake US policy on Latin America have Barack Obama’s ear. Here’s a sign that they do. After a too-long period of annoying vagueness, he finally… Read moreObama pledges new direction on Latin America
From Reuters, May 22: Tito Santana, one of the last tribal kings in the Americas, has been driven into exile from his lands deep in the Panamanian jungle by a fight over a hydroelectric project that has divided his tiny… Read moreHydro development exiles indigenous king in Panama
Breaking ranks with the loopiness of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his ilk, Bassem Naeem, health and information minister in the Hamas-led Palestinian administration in Gaza, explicitly acknowledges the historical fact of the Holocaust—while calling out Israel’s manipulation thereof. From The Guardian’s… Read moreHamas condemns Holocaust —Israel threatens a new one
On May 21, as oil prices leaped to an unprecedented $133 a barrel, Big Oil’s biggest executives got grilled on the Senate floor. “Where is the corporate conscience?” Sen. Dick Durbin asked execs from ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP America, Shell Oil… Read moreOil execs play anti-Arab card to rape Alaska
As part of an emergency appropriations bill, the Senate May 22 approved $350 million in drug war aid to Mexico, with an adittional $100 million for Central America, the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Reducing the Bush administration’s request for $500… Read moreCongress scales back “Plan Mexico”
Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega is under scrutiny for supposed links to Colombia’s FARC guerillas. In one “partially decoded” February e-mail supposedly recovered from the computer of late FARC commander Raúl Reyes, fellow FARC director Iván Márquez wrote that Ortega could… Read moreColombian “farcpolítica” scandal hits Nicaragua
In what the Colombian press is explicitly portraying as a “farcpolítica” scandal to rival the “parapolítica” outrage, chief prosecutor Mario Iguarán asked the Supreme Court to investigate three opposition legislators for alleged links to the FARC guerillas. The investigations were… Read moreColombia: seized guerilla computer leads to “farcpolítica” scandal
ETA commander Francisco Javier López Peña AKA “Thierry”—on the run since 1983 and held responsible for ending the last ceasefire—was arrested late May 20 in Bordeaux in a joint operation involving the French Gendarmerie and Spanish Guardia Civil. Arrested with… Read moreETA leader arrested in France
Three Tibetan nuns from Tehor Nyagay Nunnery in Kardze county, Sichuan province, were arrested by Chinese security forces for staging a peaceful protest May 20. The three nuns, identified as Achoe, Soe Choekyi and Tashi Yangtso AKA Taga, marched 20… Read moreTashi Yangtso
