This is—potentially—a breakthrough. Can there be a negotiated settlement to the long-standing problem of Tibet? Or, as some have suggested, will there be new CIA “destabilization operations in Tibet, if there is fresh unrest there following the death of the… Read moreDalai Lama envoy in Beijing for secretive Tibet talks
From Africa News Dimension, Feb. 15: Around 10,000 Eritrean-Americans marched from the White House to the Department of State in Washington , DC to urge the U.S. government to ensure the enforcement of the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission’s (EEBC) “final and… Read moreEritreans march in DC for border demarcation
From Reuters, Feb. 14: Militias in Somalia are looting shipments of aid for drought victims and forcing aid drivers to pay bribes, the United Nations said on Tuesday. Attacks by Somali pirates in recent months have caused aid agencies to… Read moreProtein wars in Somalia
“Death to Denmark!” Does it get any more surreal than this? From the foreign press on the escalating anti-cartoon protests: Police clobbered stone-throwing protesters with batons and fired tear gas in the Pakistanian city of Peshawar on Wednesday – Pakistan’s… Read more“Cartoon jihad” escalates
From the London Times, Feb. 12: The CIA’s top counter-terrorism official was fired last week because he opposed detaining Al-Qaeda suspects in secret prisons abroad, sending them to other countries for interrogation and using forms of torture such as “water… Read moreCIA anti-terror chief sacked for opposing torture?
At least it makes the front page of the New York Times. From the Feb. 13 edition: Years After 2 Afghans Died, Abuse Case Falters By TIM GOLDEN FORT BLISS, Tex. In the chronicle of abuses that has emerged from… Read morePentagon impunity in torture-death case
Gee, we sure wish this was getting more headlines! The first paragraph is annoyingly sarcastic (the global protests he refers to, of course, have unfortunately not occurred). But the last paragraph is spot on! Why do so few on the… Read moreTehran’s striking bus drivers: real defenders of Muslim rights
From Reuters, via The Star of Malaysia, Feb. 14 (emphasis added): BEIRUT – Uproar in the Islamic world over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad has prompted many in the Middle East to ask why Muslims have rarely mobilised to address… Read moreArab dissent in cartoon controversy
From AP, Feb. 3: Guatemala’s long-running problem with vigilantes took an unusual turn this week when police arrested seven armed Christian fundamentalists accused of extortion as they distributed religious leaflets and collected money on a local highway. Using the slogan… Read more“Social cleansing” in Guatemala
As Subcommander Marcos and other Zapatista leaders tour Mexico, their home turf in the southern state of Chiapas remains torn by ongoing low-level violent conflcts. Last month, the Good Government Junta El Camino del Futuro, one of the regional Zapatista… Read moreMeanwhile back in Chiapas…
This communique from the TDR-EP, one of the guerilla organizations active in the mountains of Oaxaca and Guerrero, indicates the profusion of armed campesino groups in the region—even if we can question TDR-EP’s claim to command many of them. From… Read moreGuerillas call truce for “Other Campaign”
The Zapatista “Other Campaign” is making its way up the Mexican isthmus. Leaving behind the Maya realms of Chiapas and the Yucatan, in recent weeks it has passed through the states of Tabasco, Veracruz and, most recently, Oaxaca. At each… Read moreZapatista “Other Campaign” reaches Oaxaca
