Jorge Huenchullan, a Mapuche leader detained Feb. 17 in a violent police operation in Temucuicui, Chile, was transfered to Algol prison after a court in Collipulli declared him a fugitive from justice. The court cited an outstanding arrest order against… Read moreChile: Mapuche leader arrested
Ecuador’s Economy Minister Ricardo Patiño announced Feb. 28 that the previous day’s congressional vote to reduce debt service assignments in the $9.8 billion national budget by $283.4 million has spurred the government’s debt restructuring plans. Patiño said an auditing commission… Read moreEcuador to reduce debt payments; protests push constitutional reform
Our February issue featured the story “Presidents in the Dock: An End to Africa’s Reign of Impunity?” by Michael Fleshman, a reprint from the UN publication Africa Journal. Our February Exit Poll was: “Why are Africa’s ex-dictators Charles Taylor (Liberia)… Read moreThe vagaries of international justice: our readers write
As the Darfur genocide enters its fifth year, and nearly two years after UN Security Council Resolution 1593 of March 2005 referred violations of international law in Darfur to the International Criminal Court (ICC), on Feb. 27 ICC prosecutors formally… Read moreUN issues pseudo-indictments in Darfur genocide
Israeli forces re-occupied Nablus Feb. 28 less than a day after withdrawing from the West Bank city. From the afternoon of Feb. 25 to the morning of Feb. 27, Israeli forces imposed a curfew, destroyed ancient structures in the Old… Read moreIsrael re-occupies Nablus, re-imposes siege, curfew
Anti-Semitic acts continue to increase in France, according to a new report by the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF). The annual document reports that violence and threats against French Jews increased dramatically in 2006 over a year… Read moreAnti-Semitic attacks rise in France, UK and worldwide
Police are seeking 10 men, including several tribal elders, accused of pressuring a Pakistani woman to hand over her teenage daughter as payment for a 16-year-old poker debt. Nooran Umrani of Hyderabad says that, despite paying off her late husband’s… Read morePakistan: girl was poker debt bride
The US and Italian ambassadors to Sri Lanka, Robert Blake and Pio Mariani, were slightly injured in an artillery attack by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on an air force base at Batticaloa, in the island’s east Feb…. Read moreUS ambassador wounded in Sri Lanka; near miss for Cheney in Afghanistan
Thousands of Serbs protested in front of the US embassy in Belgrade Feb. 27 against independence for Kosova, which has been under United Nations control since 1999. The protest, organised by the Serb National Council of Kosovo (SNV), drew some… Read moreSerbs protest Kosova independence; Bosniaks protest Serbia genocide acquittal
Anti-war marchers took to the streets in London and Glasgow Feb. 24 to demand the return of all troops from Iraq, and an end to plans to replace the UK’s Trident nuclear missile system. Organizers from the Stop the War… Read moreMuslim alliance in UK peace marches
Oil rose above $61 Feb. 26 as UN Security Council plus Germany met in London to discuss tightening sanctions on Iran, the world’s fourth largest exporter. Oil prices reached a high of $78.40 on the Lebanon fighting last July, and… Read moreOil prices rise as Iran nuclear deadline passes
In the last weeks of 2006, just before Washington’s new escalation of the propaganda offensive against Iran, the Tehran government announced it is shifting its foreign currency reserves from the dollar to euro—and switching to the euro for oil deals—in… Read moreIran drops dollar for oil deals
