NATO air-strikes in Helmand and Nuristan provinces left scores of civilians dead, local officials said. The outrage comes amid reports that the US has opened secret talks with the Taliban.
Prime Minister Maliki broached keeping troops in Iraq after the Dec. 31 deadline—three days after thousands of followers of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr held a militaristic rally in Baghdad to demand complete withdrawal.
Thousands of Aymara protesters took over the city of Puno, demanding an end to a Canadian silver mining project. Peasants from the Bolivian side of the lake have joined the barricades, and the city remains shut down.
Colombia’s mineral code was struck down by the supreme court, citing insufficient protection for indigenous rights. But ecologists fear new environmental protection provisions could be left out of the new bill.
Colombia passed a Victims and Land Restitution Law to compensate victims of the armed conflict. Yet paramilitary terror continues to claim lives across the country as peasants mobilize to reclaim usurped lands.
Israeli army troops shut down Friday anti-wall protests in villages across the West Bank, saying the unarmed weekly demonstrations have been declared illegal under new special “closed military zones.”
The Muslim Brotherhood boycotted a “Day of Rage” protests demanding the ruling military council cede power to an interim civilian body and postpone elections until political parties can be organized.
Bill Weinberg’s purge from WBAI Radio for his political dissent was written up in the New York TImes’ City Room blog under the ironic title “At On-Air Haven for Dissent, a Dissenting Voice Is Silenced.”
Following an activist campaign, British Prime Minister David Cameron’s name has been dropped from the list of honorary patrons of the JNF-UK—accused of complicity in the displacement of Palestinians.
Authorities in Serbia announced the capture of Ratko Mladic, ending a 16-year manhunt for the former military commander of the self-declared Serb Republic in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Jello Biafra, legendary lead singer of the Dead Kennadys, is refusing to cancel a scheduled gig in Tel Aviv, instead offering to “debate” the issue with sanctions advocates. Will he capitulate to activist pressure, as Gil Scott-Heron did?
At least two are reported dead in the Georgian capital Tbilisi as riot police used tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannon to disperse hundreds of demonstrators demanding resignation of President Mikheil Saakashvili.
