North Africa
Mali: Tuareg autonomy at issue in new fighting
UN "peacekeepers" have been drawn into fighting between Tuareg separatist rebels and pro-government paramilitaries as northern Mali remains divided.
Greater Middle East
Kurdish forces drive ISIS back from Kobani
Kurdish forces continue to drive ISIS back from Kobani, and have retaken more than 100 villages from the jihadists since pushing the last of them out of the urban center.
Neither East Nor West
Anarchist contingent at recent anti-Putin demonstration in Moscow. With the war in Ukraine and renewed US-Russian rivalry, the need has emerged for a "neither-nor" position of the kind some anarchists and anti-authoritarians took in the Cold War—building solidarity between anti-war and… Read moreNeither East Nor West
Death of literacy; rise of digital totalitarianism
As penmanship is dropped from grade-school curricula nationwide, we go deeper into a digital dystopia in which people "text" instead write, and "surf" instead of read, degrading the skills of literacy until all communication ultimately becomes impossible. We were lured… Read moreDeath of literacy; rise of digital totalitarianism
Southeast Asia
Harsh abuses seen in Burma opium war
Despite a democratic opening and hopes for peace with ethnic insurgencies, horrific accounts of rights abuses continue to emerge from Burma's opium-producing hinterlands.
Watching the Shadows
US: Egyptian lawyer gets 25 years on terror charge
Adel Abdel Bary was convicted in New York of his role in the 1998 African embassy bombings. His extradition had been challenged before the European Court of Human Rights.
Iraq
ISIS and atrocity pornography: politics of horror
The ISIS immolation video reveals a totalitarian cult, but Jordan and other regimes in the anti-ISIS coalition are also despotic—while Syria's pro-democratic forces are betrayed.
The Amazon
Peru: Achuar protesters seize Amazon oil-field
Hundreds of Achuar indigenous protesters occupied 16 wells at Peru's biggest oil bloc, halting production to demand better compensation for use of their lands by Pluspetrol.
The Andes
Colombia: whither FARC’s future?
While Colombia's right fears incorporation of the FARC into a new rural police force, rebel leaders protest that the army continues offensives against them—despite peace talks.
The Andes
Colombia: peasants detain soldiers… again
Residents of La Emboscada hamlet, Cauca, detained 36 army troops for several hours after a local resident was shot when he tried to run an army checkpoint.
Central America
Panama: Ngöbe-Buglé set deadline to stop dam
Indigenous leaders give the government until Feb. 15 to cancel a dam they've protested for years. Meanwhile, a former president who promoted the dam has fled the country.
Southern Cone
Chile: two found guilty in Horman murder case
After more than 41 years, two military officers have been brought to justice for the murder of two US citizens in the army's 1973 coup.