Bush has fingered Stephen L. Johnson as new head of the Environmental Protection Agency, replacing Mike Leavitt, who has been nominated for Secretary of Health. As the EPA’s assistant administrator for toxic substances, Johnson has taken some controversial positions. Writes… Read moreBush’s EPA nominee advocates human guinea-pig experiments
We don’t care. But isn’t it pretty damn perverse that this is dominating the headlines, while Darfur (for instance) has disappeared? We never get tired of bemoaning the obvious, I guess…
Brian Grogan, a spokesman for Jan Egeland, the UN emergency relief coordinator, told the UK Guardian that an average 10,000 civilians are dying each month in Darfur, totalling 180,000 over the past 18 months. These are only the victims of… Read moreDarfur: 180,000 dead
World media reported just yesterday that opposition lawmaker Ishenbai Kadyrbekov had been appointed interim president by Parliament following the ouster of Kyrgyzstan’s long-ruling strongman Askar Akayev in a popular uprising. But on March 25, AP reports that a better-known opposition… Read moreMurkier and murkier in Kyrgyzstan
JTA reports that more than 500 scholars have now signed a petition blasting C-Span’s decision to air a talk by Holocaust-denier David Irving. JTA reports, “The petition was organized by the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies in response… Read more500 scholars blast C-Span over Irving
With Afghan opium cultivation up 64% in 2004 over the previous year, far exceeding even the gravest predictions, the Pentagon is broadening the scope of the U.S. mission in Afghanistan to allow direct involvement in drug enforcement. Writes the NY… Read moreU.S. into Afghan opium war
In a gunbattle in a village near the Pakistan border in Afghanistan’s Paktika province, US troops apparently killed Raz Mohammed, described by a US commander as a "high-level Taliban." "Coalition troops were fired on by Raz Mohammed and other Taliban… Read moreU.S. forces kill Taliban bigwig—and, oh yeah, woman, children
After several days of parallel power, in which opposition protesters had seized control of provinicial cities but not the capital, the government of Kyrgyzstan fell March 24. Angry protests broke out in Bishkek, the capital, and crowds repeatedly attempted to… Read moreRevolution in Kyrgyzstan
The Central Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan is divided by a popular uprising in the wake of contested elections, with the government of President Askar Akayev in control in the northern capital, Bishkek, but the southern city of Osh now in… Read moreParallel power in Kyrgyzstan
A powerful bomb tore through a shopping mall in the Christian area north of Beirut March 23, killing three Asian immigrant workers and bringing Lebanon closer to chaos weeks before general elections. (Reuters, March 23) It is the latest outburst… Read moreAnother bomb blast in Lebanon
Palestinian Hillside Poisoned, Likely By Maon and Havat Maon Settlers – by Operation Dove Early this morning, March 22, 2005, the Palestinian shepherds of At- Tuwani discovered that the hillside next to Havat Maon outpost was covered in tiny green… Read moreJewish settlers poison sheep
Traditional Friday jum’ah prayers led by a woman at a mixed-gender service, hailed as an historic first for Islam, were held March 18 at the Synod House of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, a progressive Episcopal institution in… Read moreWoman-led Muslim prayers held in NYC
