The campaign officially opened for Afghanistan’s first post-Taliban parliamentary race Aug. 17, even as violence continues to plague the country. Authorities are still not ruling out the possibility of an attack against a helicopter that crashed near Herat Aug. 17,… Read moreAfghanistan: election campaign opens amid violence, warlordism
An Aug. 16 AFP account, online at TruthOut, reports the claims of former Iraqi prisoners claim on that evening’s BBC Newsnight that British troops abused and humiliated them in the aftermath of the US-led invasion in March 2003. Two brothers,… Read moreIraq detainees charge Brits with torture
Violent clashes between Kurds and police erupted in the north Syrian town of Ein al-Arab Aug. 16, according to the Arab Organisation for Human Rights in Syria (AOHRS). The organization said the violence flared after police halted a march in… Read moreMore Kurdish unrest in Syria, Iran
In the last intallment of a series on the looming disaster in Nepal, Newsday‘s courageous reporter Matthew McAllester Aug. 17 highlights a little-noted ethnic dimesion to the conflict, which is usually portrayed soley in terms of fanatical Maoist guerillas versus… Read moreParamilitary terror, ethnic warfare in Nepal
The Gaza disengagement is being completed, without the armed resistance from settlers that had been feared. Reports AP: “Israeli troops dragged sobbing Jewish settlers out of homes, synagogues and even a nursery school Wednesday and hauled them onto buses in… Read moreGaza disengagement; West Bank “consolidation”
The Abu Dubai-based Information & Technology Publishing‘s online magazine offers an Aug. 14 story by Rhys Jones, “Wronging Iraq’s rights,” that paints a dire picture of the kind of oppressive theocracy that could be enshrined by the new constitution. The… Read moreIraq: new constitution threatens women
The Committee to Defend Women’s Rights in the Middle East offers this commentary from Yanar Mohammed of the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI): Yanar Mohammed: Condemn a constitution of de-humanizing women An era of post-occupation atrocities unfolded to… Read moreYanar Mohammed speaks on Iraq’s pending constitution
Cindy Sheehan, the California mother of a young man killed in Iraq, has now been camped out for ten days in a ditch down the road from George Bush’s ranch in Crawford, TX, demanding the president meet with her to… Read moreCindy Sheehan: America’s conscience?
As the paramilitaries in Mexico’s southern state of Chiapas are re-asserting their reign of terror, their Zapatista enemies, in contrast, are disavowing a return to arms and trying to draw support for their national political mobilization, announced last month. At… Read moreChiapas: Zapatistas host national meetings
A new wave of paramilitary violence is reported from Mexico’s conflicted southern state of Chiapas. Within the last eight weeks, more than 20 Chol Maya families have been displaced from the community of Andres Quintana Roo, in Sabanilla municipality, by… Read moreChiapas: more paramilitary violence
The US company Epi Security & Investigation says it has hired some 1,000 Colombian military and police veterans to work as mercenaries for the US occupation in Iraq. Epi is operating from a house near a US air base in… Read moreEcuador: Iraq mercenaries recruited
At least 18 opponents of the Cuban government were detained in connection with four small protests on or near Havana’s waterfront on July 13. Several hundred government supporters, including construction workers on a job at the nearby Hermanos Ameijeiras hospital,… Read moreCuba: dissident protests attacked
