A series of four bomb blasts rocked the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan over the weekend, wounding one person and damaging shops and businesses. One blast was in the Bhutanese capital, Thimphu; the others targeted shops and markets in the… Read moreMaoist terror in Bhutan?
In a statement on its website, the Nigérien Justice Movement (MNJ) claimed a Jan. 22 attack on Tanout in the Zinder district of Niger, in which at least three soldiers were killed, six wounded and nine others, including the town’s… Read moreUranium wars in Niger
Chad’s Alliance for National Resistance (ANR) said Jan. 19 they had shot down an army MI-24 helicopter gunship which attacked their positions at Beda near the Sudanese border. The rebels used a SAM-7 ground-to-air missile. (AFP, Jan. 19) Sudan accused… Read moreUranium wars in Chad?
The US State Department has condemned the Sudanese government for appointing purported Janjaweed commander Musa Hilal as a special advisor to President Omar al-Bashir. Said spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos: “We deplore the government of Sudan’s decision to name him to a… Read moreSudan defends promotion of Janjaweed war criminal
Hundreds of Mexican campesinos, accompanied by 40 tractors, marched in Ciudad Juarez, in the northern state of Chihuahua, on Jan. 18 to launch the “Chamizal to the Zocalo” caravan, a 2,000-km ride to protest the elimination of tariffs on staples… Read moreMexico: NAFTA protests continue
Thousands of members of the National Union of Mine and Metal Workers of the Mexican Republic (SNTMMRM) participated in an eight-hour national strike on Jan. 16 in support of workers at Grupo Mexico’s giant copper mine at Cananea, in the… Read moreMexico: miners strike, teachers march
Guatemalan human rights activist Amilcar Mendez and his wife, Miriam Dardon, began an open-ended hunger strike on Jan. 12 in Guatemala City to protest impunity for the 21,509 homicides that took place in the four-year administration of outgoing president Oscar… Read moreGuatemala: rights activists on hunger strike
Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva met with Cuban president Fidel Castro Ruz on Jan. 15 during a 24-hour visit to Cuba and met twice with interim president Raul Castro, who has headed the government since the summer of… Read moreLula shows Fidel the “love”
Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on a visit to Colombia Jan. 18 that the US is concerned about a Venezuelan military buildup, pointing to “what Mr. Chávez has done militarily in recent years and… Read moreChávez arming Colombian guerillas?
In the wake of his successful negotiation of the release of two hostages held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has launched an initiative for the FARC and its junior counterpart, the National Liberation… Read moreFARC: “terrorists” or “belligerents”?
Two dozen heavily armed special police from the Venezuelan Interior Ministry searched the Hebraica community center in Caracas last month, ostensibly looking for weapons or evidence of “subversive activity.” There were no arrests or seizure of property. The Venezuelan Jewish… Read moreAnti-Semitism in Venezuela —again?
Mexican federal police backed up by the army’s elite Airborne Special Forces Group (GAFES) detained at least six municipal police in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, in a surprise pre-dawn raid on their headquarters Jan. 19. Nuevo Laredo… Read moreNuevo Laredo: federales arrest local police
