The populace of border towns have fled into the bush ahead of feared clashes, as Kenya sends troops into Somalia to hunt down Shabab insurgents. Shabab protested the “affront to Somalia’s sovereignty” and threatened retaliation within Kenya.
Human Rights Watch applauds Obama’s move to send US military advisors to help crush Uganda’s notoriously brutal Lord’s Resistance Army, while Michelle Malkin and other right-wing bloggers decry the intervention.
Greek protesters clashed with police in central Athens after Prime Minister George Papandreou vowed to push through a further round of austerity measures. Some 70,000 converged on Syntagma at the start of a declared 48-hour general strike.
The Solomon Islands' Prime Minister Rick Hou is threatening to "blacklist" the companies involved in a 100-ton oil-spill near a UNESCO World Heritage Site. "The impact on the marine life and the coral is already massive with much of it irreversible," he said. The bulk carrier MV Solomon Trader ran aground a month ago off Rennell Island, while loading bauxite ore in a cyclone. Because of the storm, it took salvage crews several days before they could reach the stricken craft. Compounding the damage, Indonesian-owned Bintan Mining, which chartered the vessel, continued to operate as the oil flowed into the sea, with other ships maneuvering around the wreckage, churning up the oil. Rennell Island, known locally as Mugaba, is home to some 1,840 people, who overwhelmingly rely on fishing for their livelihood. The World Heritage Site covers the world's largest coral atoll. (Photo via Radio Australia)
The Center for Human Rights in Iran announced that rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh had been convicted in absentia by Judge Mohammad Moghiseh of Iran's Revolutionary Court, described as a "hardline" jurist. She refused to appear in court because she was denied the right to choose her own lawyer. Sotoudeh was charged with crimes including "collusion against national security," "propaganda against the state," "encouraging corruption and prostitution," "appearing before the judiciary without Islamic hijab," "disturbing public peace and order," and "publishing falsehoods with the intent to disturb public opinion." Prosecution cited her membership in the Center for Human Rights, the Legam group against capital punishment, and the anti-militarist National Peace Council. (Photo: Center for Human Rights in Iran)
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the relocation of the US airbase at Futenma to Henoko, elsewhere on the island of Okinawa, would continue despite a referendum vote opposing the move. Okinawa prefecture held a referendum vote on whether the US military base should relocate from Ginowan municipality to Henoko. After the final count, approximately 70% of voters opposed the move. The relocation has been 20 years in preparation, and has continued to face opposition over claims of noise from military activity, harm to the surrounding coral reefs, and outrage over a 1995 incident of rape of a 12-year-old Okinawan girl by US servicemen. Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki plans to make a visit to Tokyo to reaffirm the island's position. (Photo via Alwaght)
The US Congress passed long-delayed neoliberal free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea—despite the vocal opposition of unions and progressive forces in all three countries.
Latin American leaders, writers and activists considered Oct. 15 an historic event, because of its global scope—and because of the unusual leading role of a movement based in the United States.
Thousands of Latin Americans joined the global day of action against the current economic system on Oct. 15.
Northern California songster-activist Darryl Cherney returns to his native New York for a sneak preview of his film Who Bombed Judi Bari?—exploring the 1990 terror attack on ecological defenders of some of the last surviving ancient redwoods.
World War 4 Report editor Bill Weinberg, in the third Internet edition of the Moorish Orthodox Radio Crusade, discusses 150 years of social struggle on New York's Lower East Side in light of the Wall Street protests.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International urged the Canadian government to investigate and arrest former US president George W. Bush for his role in torture, ahead of his travel to an economic summit in British Columbia.
