This Nov. 9 BBC report on Sudan’s expulsion of the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Darfur, Wael al-Haj Ibrahim, answers the question of what happened to the residents of a refugee camp near Nyala, who were forcibly relocated by government troops—as… Read moreDarfur: Sudan dispersing refugees
Um, didn’t we just hear identical news about Iraq? If Cambodia was Nixon’s “sideshow” to Vietnam, Afghanistan is Bush’s to Iraq—largely eclipsed from the headlines, even as it goes from really bad to considerably worse… From AP, Nov. 10: KABUL… Read more2007 deadliest year for US in Afghanistan
From the Reporters Without Borders, Nov. 9: Coca grower leader threatens to kill five journalists Reporters Without Borders today condemned death threats made against five journalists in the northwestern province of Tocache by Sergio Gonzales Apaza, the leader of the… Read morePeru: cocaleros threaten journalists
From the LA Times, Nov. 10: Emergency declared in Bay Area oil spill Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency Friday for the San Francisco Bay Area as an oil spill continued to coat some of the state’s most… Read moreWHY WE FIGHT
Three days before the Nov. 7 opening of the Ibero-American Summit in Santiago, a hacker broke into the website of Chile’s presidency and planted the flag of Peru, leaving the site inoperable for some 18 hours. AP reports the intruder… Read morePeruvian cyber-guerillas attack Chile
Uzbekistan’s incumbent President Islam Karimov was unanimously nominated to run for a third seven-year presidential term this December by his Liberal Democratic Party Nov. 6. Karimov is constitutionally barred from seeking a third term, and the New York Times writes… Read moreUzbek despot to become torturer-for-life?
In contrast to their Cold War counterparts of yesterdecade, who openly embraced any dictator who was “our son of a bitch,” today’s neocons often seem to really believe their own rhetoric about how their global project is expanding democracy. This… Read moreGeorgia: Rose Revolution meets the new boss
Ten years after New York City’s notorious Abner Louima case, police in Egypt appear to be emulating the brutal techniques of Rudolph Giuliani’s NYPD. Two Cairo police officers were convicted this week of torturing a man in their custody—after a… Read more“Giuliani time” in Cairo
The Pentagon has, astutely, chosen an African American as first chief of the new Africa Command, Gen. William “Kip” Ward—and his first official visit to the continent was, of course, to chief US ally Ethiopia. Meeting with African Union leaders… Read moreAfriCom chief does Ethiopia; proxy war escalates in Somalia
In our last post on China, we noted that it is now the key nation falling under the rubric of the 1992 Pentagon “Defense Planning Guide” drawn up by Paul Wolfowitz and Scooter Libby which said the US must “discourage… Read moreChina emerges as “peer competitor” —in race for global oil
Six US soldiers were killed in three separate attacks in Iraq Nov. 5, bringing the number of deaths this year to 852—and making 2007 the deadliest year of the war for US troops. The news comes days after the military… Read moreIraq deaths hit record; Congress talks tough, funds carnage
Nearly two dozen high school students in Illinois have been suspended and face possible expulsion for holding a peaceful protest against the war in Iraq. On Nov. 1, students at Morton West High School in the town of Berwyn locked… Read moreIllinois high school students face expulsion for anti-war protest
