What a bizarre irony. The international press are playing up the lovefest between the once-implacable enemies who have united to revive the “devolved” government at Stormont for the first time since the power-sharing assembly was suspended in October 2002: new… Read moreUlster: old enemies unite in new government —and opposition
“Socialist villages”? Sounds to us more like keeping a restive population under control to faciliate a stable investment climate for tourism and other capitalist development—akin to the “model villages” the right-wing Guatemalan dictatorship imposed on the Maya peasantry in the… Read moreTibet: China orders forced resettlements
The ugly regime in Uzbekistan is certainly giving Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty all the grist they need for their propaganda mill. May 9: Umida Niyazova fought for democracy and human rights in her native Uzbekistan. But from a cage in… Read moreUzbekistan: dissident released after “forced confession”
A US helicopter opened fire on an elementary school in Diyala province May 8, killing seven students and wounding three, according to Iraqi security sources and local residents. Iraqi sources said the helicopter was fired on from the ground and… Read moreIraq: US kills civilians —again
An air raid killed 21 civilians in Afghanistan’s southern province of Helmand May 8, the provincial governor charged. “Twenty-one civilians, including women and children, were killed” in the raid on a village in Sangin district, Gov. Assadullah Wafa said. AlJazeera… Read moreAfghanistan: air strike kills civilians —again
Transitional government security forces in Somalia have begun seizing and burning women’s face veils in Mogadishu in an attempt to stop insurgents disguising themselves in order to carry out attacks. When the city was under the control of the Islamic… Read moreSomalia: transition government bans hijab
Another bloody entry in Ansar al-Islam‘s bid to extend the “insurgent” terror campaign to Iraq’s (relatively) stable Kurdish autonomous zone. The need to mollify these thugs may explain the increasing conservative Islamist tilt of the supposedly secular Kurdish regional authorities… Read moreIraq: truck bomb in Irbil —Ansar al-Islam strikes again?
Via the Alternative Information Center, May 6: Joint report of B’Tselem with HaMoked—Center for the Defence of the Individual, Summary Utterly Forbidden: The Torture And Ill-Treatment Of Palestinian Detainees In recent years, Israel has openly admitted that ISA (formerly the… Read moreIsrael: rights groups document Shin Bet torture
From AlJazeera, May 7: Two Palestinian were killed and four wounded during clashes between rival factions in Lebanon’s main refugee camp of Ein el-Helweh. Palestinian security sources said the two dead men belonged to the Fatah movement of Mahmud Abbas,… Read morePalestinian factions clash in Lebanon: Fatah versus al-Qaeda?
In a surprise decision, US District Judge Kathleen Cardone in El Paso, TX, threw out all charges against right-wing Cuban militant and former CIA operative Luis Posada Carriles May 8, allowing him to go free days before he was set… Read morePosada Carriles walks free; Cuba protests impunity for “monster of terror”
Veracruz state prosecutors have concluded that 73-year-old grandmother Ernestina Ascencio* wasn’t raped or beaten by Mexican federal army soldiers but died of natural causes, spokesmen said at a news conference in the state capital, Xalapa. Juan Alatriste Gómez, a special… Read moreVeracruz: rape-murder case against soldiers dropped —as victims’ children “disappear”
Eleven anti-Bush protetsers in the Yucatan city of Merida were released on bail of up to 20,000 pesos ($2,000) May 8. They had been arrested on charges of damaging the Municipal Palace and other violations during protests against George Bush’s… Read moreYucatan: Merida starts to release anti-Bush protesters
