US pilots targeting a farmhouse in the northern town of Baiji where they apparently believed insurgents had taken shelter killed a family of 12, Iraqi officials said Jan. 3. The dead included women and children whose bodies were recovered in… Read moreIraq: US air strike wipes out civilian family
Days after Russia sparked a brief crisis in Europe by cutting off gas to Ukraine (and therefore points west), comes another sign of Moscow using petro-politics in a bid to restore its lost Great Power status. Under the five-year deal… Read moreGazprom eyes stake in Iran pipeline
From the Jerusalem Post, Jan. 1: The United States government reportedly began coordinating with NATO its plans for a possible military attack against Iran. The German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel collected various reports from the German media indicating that the North… Read moreNATO prepares Iran attack?
From the BBC, Jan. 3: Hundreds of Indian tribespeople have blocked a main road in Orissa state, a day after police opened fire during protests over a planned steel mill. At least 12 tribals and a policeman died in clashes… Read moreIndia: tribal peoples massacred in Orissa
From Editor & Publisher, Jan. 3: NEW YORK The Iraq conflict has become the most deadly conflict for journalists to cover in the Committee to Protect Journalists’ (CPJ) 24-years history, the group’s most recent analysis shows. A total of 60… Read moreIraq war most deadly for journalists
Multiple ethnic struggles in Indonesia made headlines over the New Year’s weekend. On Jan. 2, local police announced they have detained at least one man in connection with the New Year’s Eve bombing at a Christian market in Palu, Central… Read moreIndonesia: corporate-military terror in West Papua revealed
Following a meeting with representatives of Haitian political parties on Dec. 30, Max Mathurin, president of the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP), announced the postponement of the presidential and legislative elections previously scheduled for Jan. 8. “Following our work schedule, some… Read moreHaiti: vote postponed a fifth time
On Dec. 24 a hired killer shot to death Kaiowa Guarani indigenous leader Dorvalino Rocha at his community’s makeshift roadside encampment in Antonio Joao municipality, in Brazil’s Mato Grosso do Sul state. The killer shot Rocha in the chest after… Read moreBrazil: Guarani leader murdered
On Dec. 21, police agents from Chile’s militarized Carabineros Special Forces attacked the Mapuche community of Juan Paillalef in Cunco commune in the 9th region (Araucania). The attack came as community members were protesting a decision by the Ministry of… Read moreChile: Mapuche community attacked
The "Other Campaign," a tour of Mexico by leaders of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), set off from the Chiapas village of La Garrucha on New Years Day—the anniversary of the Zapatistas' 1994 uprising. Rebel leader Subcomandante Marcos, at… Read moreZapatistas begin national tour; violence continues in Chiapas
On December 16 the Mexican League for the Defense of Human Rights (LIMEDDH) reported that a campesino active in the environmental movement in the southern state of Guerrero, Diego Bahena Armenta, hasn’t been seen since November 8, when he was… Read moreMexico: peasant ecologist kidnapped in Guerrero
A group of 25 US Catholic peace protesters held a three-day fast starting on Dec. 12 near the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to protest the situation of 500 male Muslim detainees held there for three years as… Read moreUS protesters fast at Gitmo
