From the UPI: ZHEJIANG, China, April 12: Rioting by farmers in eastern China has forced the closure of 13 new chemical factories the farmers claim are poisoning their families and crops. The protests began in the rural village of Huaxi… Read moreChinese farmers revolt against industrial expansion
A dispute over offshore oil and gas rights in waters claimed by both countries as part of their "exclusive economic zone" seems to be behind recent tensions between China and Japan—ostensibly sparked by official Japanese revisionism over its role in… Read moreOffshore oil dispute behind Sino-Japanese tensions
Violence continues to escalate in Nepal, with 64 Maoist guerillas reported killed in a gunbattle with security forces in western Rukum district April 14. (Reuters, April 14) A page 3 story in the New York Times April 12 notes that… Read moreNepal: thousands flee vigilante terror
Following the conviction of Kamel Bourgass, an Algerian immigrant who had been denied an asylum plea, of plotting ricin attacks in London, Britain’s Labor government is under attack for supposedly lax immigration policies. The Tory opposition is charging that Bourgass… Read moreFear in London–and Newark
There is a sleazy underside to what is being protrayed as an important step towards peace in Asia. Visiting New Delhi, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao signed an agreement with India to resolve border disputes dating to the Sino-Indian war of… Read moreTibet betrayed in China-India border deal
"Crouching Tiger, Swimming Dragon," an op-ed in the April 11 NY Times by Nayan Chanda, former editor of Far Eastern Economic Review, notes with alarm that Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao last week signed a deal in Islamabad for construction… Read moreSinophobia in the Indian Ocean—and NY Times
Synchronicity? Just days after WW4 REPORT cited a rare news report on persecution of the Yazidis (also rendered Yezidis or Ezidis), an obscure and ancient religious sect in eastern Turkey and northern Iraq, the Washington Post actually runs a story… Read moreYazidis in the news
The most prominent separatists in Italy have long been the right-wing Lega Nord, who want to create an independent state called "Padania" in the prosperous Po Valley (yet are, ironically, part of Italy’s ruling coalition). But now word comes of… Read moreSardinian separatists crash Berlusconi’s villa
In response to a high-profile petition by historians, C-SPAN canceled its planned broadcast of a speech by David Irving; instead it aired a program (on April 3 and April 4) in which Book TV executive producer Connie Doebele admitted it… Read moreC-SPAN caves in on Irving imbroglio
From the AP, April 1: Washington – The government requested and won approval for a record number of special warrants last year for secret wiretaps and searches of suspected terrorists and spies, 75 percent more than in 2000, the Bush… Read moreWiretaps up under Patriot Act
Writes the NY Post: April 8, 2005 — Two teenage New York girls are in prison as illegal aliens after stumbling into a federal probe of recruiters trying to sign up homicide [suicide] bombers, The Post has learned. The unidentified… Read moreFear in New York City
Scores are dead in Yemen, where security forces are battling Islamist forces led by Badruddin Al-Houthi in and around the northwestern town of Saada. A group of opposition parties is calling for the nation’s pariliament to immediately launch an investigation… Read moreCounter-insurgency in Yemen
