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
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
