In a new communique, the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) denounces Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s escalated campiagn against narco-trafficking as a “farce” and a “mere pretext to augment the already disproportionate militarization of rural Chiapas.” The communique, signed by Subcommander… Read moreChiapas: Zapatistas protest narco-militarization
Enrique Rueda Pacheco, leader of the Oaxaca teachers union Section 22, resigned Feb. 18, saying he was the victim of a dirty campaign against him. He charged the state government with betrayal in failing to follow through on agreements signed… Read moreOaxaca: Section 22 leader steps down
Diego Cevallos writes for IPS, Feb. 2: MEXICO CITY – One of the 12 community radio stations operating legally in Mexico has literally come under fire, and its journalists have received death threats and been arrested; another has received warnings… Read moreOaxaca: community radio under attack
From El Universal, Feb. 7: The Supreme Court voted 7-4 Tuesday to launch an investigation into state and federal police conduct during the arrests last May of some 240 men, women and children in the State of Mexico town of… Read moreMexico: supreme court rules for Atenco inquiry
Given the draconian measures against bird flu in Russia at the moment (ITAR-TASS, Feb. 9), this could be a protest against Chicken McNuggets. From AP, Feb. 19: An explosion hit a McDonald’s restaurant in St Petersburg on Sunday, injuring at… Read moreRussia: gastro-terrorists target Mickey-D’s?
Why isn’t this in the headlines? From the Institute for War & Peace Reporting, Feb. 12: The Taleban have taken control of their second Helmand district in less than two weeks, say district officials. The Taleban captured the police chief… Read moreAfghanistan: Taliban seizing more territory in Helmand
Afghanistan’s eastern Zabul province is in the news at the moment because a US Chinook helicopter just crashed there, killing eight soldiers and wounding 14. The Taliban, as usual, claimed it was brought down by one of their missiles, and… Read moreAfghanistan: women fight for right to grow trees
Oh boy. Remember all the jokes about how Bush’s Operation Iraqi Freedom was originally dubbed Operation Iraqi Liberation (OIL). Now life imitates humor as another Orwellian sobriquet is unleashed in Baghdad: Operation Imposing Law. You’d think the Pentagon PR people… Read moreIraq: “Operation Imposing Law” fails to
A hapless economic conscript who was in way over his head is sent up the river—while the architects of the war won’t even face impeachment. From San Diego’s North County Times, Feb. 17: CAMP PENDLETON —- A Marine lance corporal… Read moreCannon fodder gets eight years for Hamdania killing
You’d think if the global warming skeptics were so secure in their position, they wouldn’t have to resort to such subterfuges. Ian Sample writes for The Guardian, Feb. 2: Scientists and economists have been offered $10,000 each by a lobby… Read moreScientists offered $10,000 to dispute climate study
The Guardian reported Feb. 16 that the WHO has logged a sharp jump in polio cases in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province after the parents of 24,000 children refused to allow health workers to administer the “infidel vaccine,” which local… Read morePakistan: jihadis target health workers
Days after bomb blasts and insurgent attacks in Iranian Baluchistan, more terror in Pakistani Baluchistan. To what extent is this a Baluch ethnic insurgency, and to what extent a Sunni fundamentalist jihad? Or is it both? One shudders to think… Read moreBaluchistan terror: Pakistan’s turn again
