Excerpts from an April 22 editorial in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: A community debate over religious freedom surfaced in Western Pennsylvania last week when Dutch feminist author Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali refugee who has lived under the threat of death… Read moreAyaan Hirsi Ali faces death threats —in Pennsylvania
George Monbiot writes on ZNet, May 12: Request for Climate References People who deny that manmade climate change is taking place have this in common: they do not answer their critics. They make what they say are definitive refutations of… Read moreAlex Cockburn denies climate change; George Monbiot drops gauntlet
Thousands of protesters formed a human chain May 13 in Okinawa, Japan, to protest the US military presence. The human chain symbolically encircled the 17-kilometer perimeter of the Kadena Air Base. Banners demanded a withdrawal of the 22,000 US troops… Read moreProtesters block US base in Okinawa
The First Summit of Latin Americans Migrant Communities concluded May 14 with a “Declaration of Morelia,” named for the city where the meeting was held in Michoacan, Mexico. The declaration called for modifying national and international laws on immigration, calling… Read moreMexico: migrants summit demands greater rights
Gunmen fatally shot a high-ranking Mexican intelligence official as he drove to work at the federal Prosecutor General’s office in Mexico City May 14. Jose Nemesio Lugo, who investigated drug trafficking and illegal migration, was shot several times. The assailants… Read moreMexico: hitmen take out federal police, army jefes
Colombian National Police chief Gen. Jorge Daniel Castro and his intelligence boss Gen. Guillermo Chaves were forced to retire May 14 following cliams that police illegally tapped calls of opposition political figures, journalists and members of the government. “The procedure… Read moreNational Police chief forced out in “Colombian Watergate”
On May 14 at 7 AM, Francisco Puerta, a leader of the Colombian “peace community” of San José de Apartadó, was assassinated by paramilitaries outside the bus terminal in the town of Apartadó, the municipal seat. Two para gunmen approached… Read moreColombia: another killing at “peace community”
Nigeria’s outgoing president Olusegun Obasanjo visited the restive southern Niger Delta region [May 14] to perform a ground-breaking ceremony for a new $8 billion gas plant. Militants in the region have waged an intensifying campaign against the many foreign oil… Read moreNigeria boasts new gas plant —militants abduct manager
Algerian security forces claim to have intercepted three Libyan men, on their way to join “Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb,” the terrorist network’s wing in North Africa. [AlJazeera, May 12] Three Algerian soldiers were killed by a bomb blast in the… Read moreAlgeria: al-Qaeda recruits intercepted?
At least a million people marched in Turkey’s second city Izmir [May 13] against the ruling AK party. Pro-secular, Kemalist Turks fear that the ruling party’s Islamist roots will undermine Turkey’s secular constitution. On [May 12], a bombing in the… Read moreTurkey: secularists march in Izmir —despite terror blast
A car-bombing attack on the offices of the Kurdistan Democratic Party [in Makhmur] killed over fifty people [May 13]. The blast comes as the autonomous and relatively stable Kurdish region in Iraq is in the grips of a fit of… Read moreIraq: more terror in Kurdistan
During a visit to the US-allied United Arab Emirates [May 13], Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for the withdrawal of all US troops from the Persian Gulf region. [Reuters, May 13] He also promised “severe retaliation” to any attack on… Read moreIran: US out of Persian Gulf
