An article in Ha’aretz Jan. 30 says that Israeli Attorney General Menachem Mazuz has approved the government’s application of its 1950 Absentee Property Law to confiscate about one half of Palestinian-owned land in East Jerusalem. Thousands of Palestinians who live… Read moreIsraeli Attorney General Approves E. Jerusalem Land Grab
Following an agreement with Indian authorities, Burma has turned its guns on the Naga separatist rebels it had previously sheltered–bringing the war to its own soil. Fighting is said to be raging in the jungle along the border with India… Read moreBurma attacks Naga rebels
The separatist insurgency that has been shaking Paksitan’s Baluchistan province–strategically bordering Afghanistan–since the beginning of the year seemed to have come out of nowhere. Finally, a Jan. 29 account in the BBC sheds some light. It seems the natural gas… Read moreGas operations at root of Baluch insurgency
In a little-noted but potentially ominous move, Halliburton has announced that is pulling out of Iran, where it has long maintained oil industry maintenance services, exploiting loopholes in the sanctions. The company’s CEO Dave Lesar said "the business environment currently… Read moreIran: Halliburton out, Air Force in?
Former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter argues in a Jan. 25 piece for al-Jazeera that the so-called "Salvador Option" for Iraq has already been used. He writes that in the months after Paul Bremer took over the Coalition Provisional Authority… Read moreRitter on the “Salvador Option”: already in place?
Bahrain’s Gulf Daily News reports that Iraq’s elections are taking place under a "climate of fear," with at least 30 killed Jan 27 alone in roadside ambushes, twin suicide attacks in Samarra and fighting on Baghdad’s Haifa Street, which seems… Read more“Climate of fear” for Iraq elections
The US is petitioning the UN Security Council not to prosecute Darfur war criminals–just another piece of Washington’s ongoing campaign against the International Criminal Court, which could one day be used against US troops or political leaders. Meanwhile, a report… Read moreAirstrikes hit Darfur village; UN: “not genocide”
They did it again. On Jan. 24, the Supreme Court ruled 6-2 that police sending a drug-sniffing dog into a car in a traffic stop is constitutionally permissible, even in the absense of any evidence of drug use. The ruling… Read moreSupremes deal blow to Fourth Amendment
The recent slaying of a Coptic Christian family in New Jersey is being linked by many (on somewhat specious evidence) to Islamic extremists (typical headline: "Jihad in Jersey City"). An attempt by Newsday to shed some historical light on Coptic-Muslim… Read moreJihad in Jersey City?
More violence in Pakistan’s semi-autonomous Northwest Tribal Areas. This time rival clans in a land dispute in Miranshah, North Waziristan, decided to settle scores with live fire in the middle of a crowded market, leaving seven dead. (Bahrain’s Gulf Daily… Read morePakistan: unstable, nuclear
I generally like Hobsbawm, but there has always been a contradiction in hisworks between his enthusiasm for the ultra-democratic movements of theEnglish Civil War (Diggers, Levellers, etc.) and his allegiance to theBritish Marxist soft-on-Russia crowd. This piece reflects that ambivalence,and… Read moreHobsbawm on “exporting democracy”
America’s own homegrown Mickey Maoists, the Revolutionary Communist Party, have found their latest cause celebre in the Maoist insurgency in Nepal (see their special report). Meanwhile, a new Amnesty International report takes both the guerillas and government forces to task… Read moreNepal insurgency: Amnesty International rips both sides
