Obama’s State of the Union address praised the vote for secession in South Sudan—but an inter-imperial struggle for oil and pipeline routes lies behind US support for the referendum.
Obama’s State of the Union address praised the Tunisian protesters—now that the dictator has fled. Meanwhile, his administration connives with other Arab dictators facing protest movements.
Israeli diplomats and Washington lobbyists are scrambling as Ireland, Russia, Peru and even the US State Department make moves towards recognition of Palestinian sovereignty.
President Mahmoud Abbas pledged he will personally face satellite channel AlJazeera to address its release of secret documents from a decade of Israel-Palestinian negotiations.
Supporters of ousted Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri clashed with army troops in the Sunni strongholds of Tripoli and Sidon as his replacement Najib Miqati took office.
Tens of thousands of protesters clashed with police and occupied Cairo’s Tahrir Square, pledging to establish a vigil to demand that long-ruling President Hosni Mubarak step down.
Abu Sayyaf, the most militant wing of the Moro separatist movement in the Philippines’ southern Mindanao region, is suspected in a deadly bus blast in Manila’s financial district.
While media attention remains focused on the return of former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier to Haiti, disputes over the Nov. 28 presidential and legislative elections continue.
At a Haiti press conference, ex-dictator “Baby Doc” Duvalier expressed “profound sorrow” on behalf of his “compatriots who legitimately claim that they were victims” of his regime.
UN human rights commissioner Navi Pillay called on Mexico to determine whether there was complicity by authorities in the mass kidnapping of some 40 Central American immigrants.
Some 7,000 Mexicans have participated in a program through which the Colombian government trains Mexican soldiers and police in techniques for fighting drug cartels.
University of Puerto Rico (UPR) students and their supporters began a series of mass civil disobedience actions, blocking entrances to the Río Piedras campus in San Juan to escalate their protest against a $800 surcharge on tuition.
Photo: CMI-Puerto Rico
