Up to 50 worshippers are dead and twice as many wounded in a bomb blast at a shrine to the 19th century Sufi saint Pir Rakhel Shah at Gandhawa in Pakistan’s conflicted province of Baluchistan March 19. The bomb went… Read moreTerror in Baluchistan
The world is paying little note, but there is a popular uprising underway following contested elections in Kyrgyzstan, a key US ally in Central Asia. On March 20, protesters rallying against President Askar Akayev burned down police headquarters in the… Read moreUprising in Kyrgyzstan
At least six were wounded by a car bomb which wrecked the front of a government building in a predominantly Christian suburb of Beirut March 19. The motive and target of the attack in New Jdeideh were not immediately clear,… Read moreBeirut blast raises civil war fears
Resorting to the sleazy tactic of burying the measure in a budget package to head off a Democratic fillibuster, Senate Republicans passed a major hurdle in opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil exploitation. By a single vote,… Read moreSenate stooges of petro-oligarchy shaft the caribou
A March 18 report on al-Jazeera noted a cruel irony to OPEC’s just-ended conference in Isfahan, where the oil ministers of the 11 member nations agreed to boost production in a bid to bring down global prices. No sooner did… Read moreHyper-priapic OPEC can’t get it down
Over 200 historians at colleges nationwide have sent a petition to C-SPAN to protest its plan to accompany coverage of a lecture by Deborah Lipstadt, a professor of Holocaust studies at Emory University, with a speech by David Irving, the… Read moreHolocaust denial in the news: Lipstadt, Irving…and Ward Churchill
The March 17 attempted assassination of Anatoly Chubais, head of Russia’s state energy monopoly, Unified Energy Systems (EES), and architect of the highly unpopular post-Soviet crash privatization program, has rocked Russia’s political elite. Although Chubais is one of the most… Read moreChubais assassination attempt: inside job?
Condoleezza Rice’s March 18 visit to Afghanistan ironically coincided with evident setbacks for the country’s nascent democracy. President Hamid Karzai announced that parliamentary elections scheduled for May have been pushed back until September due to ongoing logistical chaos. The day… Read moreKarzai postpones Afghan elections
Uighur businesswoman Rebiya Kadeer, freed from a Chinese prison in an apparent deal with Washington, arrived in Chicago March 17, rejoicing at her unexpected release and vowing to work "for the entire Uighur nation." "From this time on, I am… Read moreChina frees Uighur dissident; larger betrayal on rights goes unnoticed
New Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited New Delhi March 16, where she offered India US assistance in building nuclear plants, while admonishing Indian leaders to drop plans to build a pipeline to import natural gas from Iran. Ironically, the… Read moreRice offers Delhi nuclear aid
On March 16, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed a federal lawsuit against Illinois-based Caterpillar, Inc. on behalf of the parents of Rachel Corrie, the 23-year-old American peace activist who was run over and killed by a Caterpillar D9… Read moreRachel Corrie family sues CAT
Authorities at Oregon’s Siskiyou National Forest have closed public access to an area where protesters have been blocking loggers from felling trees in an old growth forest reserve partially damaged by fire. Protesters have been trying to prevent a crew… Read moreFeds seal off Siskiyou National Forest protest zone
