At least 27 people were killed and dozens wounded after a suicide car bomber drove into a crowd of mourners at a funeral in Falluja, in the Iraqi province of Anbar, May 24. The funeral was for Allawi al-Isawi, a… Read moreIraq: funeral attack kills dozens
After raiding Democratic Republic of Congo’s Virunga National Park and killing a wildlife officer, the Mayi-Mayi militia are threatening to slaughter rare mountain gorillas, officials said. The attackers looted the three sites—research stations and tourism camps—seizing arms and communications equipment…. Read moreCongo: guerillas threaten gorillas
Even as UN-mediated negotations are set to begin, Morocco has unleashed a new wave of repression against advocates of independence for Western Sahara. The new crackdown began May 7, when Saharawi students at the university of Agadir, Morocco, were brutally… Read moreRights crackdown in Western Sahara —again
From Newsday, May 22: 18 Hours, Three Fatals It was a treacherous 18-hour span in which three people died in separate crashes on Long Island’s highways — and one family survived an ordeal on the LIE. Long Island averages less… Read moreWHY WE FIGHT
Declaring fires set at a police station, an SUV dealer and a tree farm were acts of “terrorism,” US District Judge Ann Aiken May 23 sentenced former Earth Liberation Front militant Stanislas Meyerhoff to 13 years in prison. Judge Aiken… Read moreELF militants convicted of (dubious) “terrorism”
A rampage by the Mungiki gang, which climaxed May 20 with the beheadings of three men, has prompted scores of residents to flee Kianjogu village in Kenya’s Muranga North District. One of the Mungiki leaders, Stephen Kiunjuri, was gunned down… Read moreKenya: villagers flee Mungiki death cult
From the Center for Justice and Accountability via Haiti Action, May 22: Brooklyn, NY — Today, the judge in the mortgage fraud case of former Haitian death-squad leader Emmanuel “Toto” Constant dropped Constant’s plea bargain and ordered him to stand… Read moreHaiti death squad commander’s plea thrown out
International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo announced May 22 that a war crimes investigation will be opened into hundreds of rapes and other violations in the Central African Republic. The investigation concerns the conflict between the former regime of President… Read moreICC to investigate Central African Republic
Talk about non-news. The Democratic majority, after all their hot air, agrees to drop a timetable for troop withdrawal from the war funding bill. The only real news here is how thoroughly the Republicans have set the terms for the… Read moreDems blink, Bush lies, what else is new?
Farmers in southern Iraq are turning to opium cultivation for the first time, the Belfast Telegraph reports. Traditional rice farmers along the Euphrates, outside the southern city of Diwaniya, have now abandoned rice—for which the area is famous—in favor of… Read moreIraq: opium economy takes hold in south
The separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) denied responsibility for the May 22 bomb attack that killed six and wounded up to 100 in the busy Ankara shopping district of Ulus. “We have no connection with the attack,” the PKK said… Read moreAnkara terror: PKK denies it
Pakistani UN peacekeeping troops have traded in gold and sold weapons to Congolese militia groups they were supposed to be disarming, according to a BBC report. These militia groups were guilty of some of the worst rights in during the… Read moreCongo: UN troops trade gold for guns
