Thousands of internally displaced in Somalia’s central town of Beletweyne are on the move again following 10 days of fighting between rival Islamist militias.
Bill Weinberg, author of Homage to Chiapas: The New Indigenous Struggles in Mexico, looks back on both on the gains and defeats over 16 years of the Zapatista rebel movement.
In a third account from stricken Port-au-Prince, David Wilson reports “young men with crowbars” working to rescue trapped victims, but still sees little sign of the authorities.
Reports rose of looting and vigilantism among desperate survivors as Port-au-Prince awaits the deployment of 1,200 US troops. The 9,000-strong UN force has increased patrols.
The Taliban carried out a daylight assault on government centers and civilian targets in Kabul, creating panic and sparking gun battles in the heart of the city.
The Supreme Iraq Criminal Tribunal sentenced Ali Hassan al-Majid to death by hanging, finding him guilty of having ordered the Kurdish town of Halabja gassed in 1988.
As a force of 10,000 US troops begins to arrive in Haiti, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega raised fears about a new Yankee occupation of the stricken Caribbean nation.
Haitian nationals already present in the United States have been granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and will be allowed to continue living and working in the US for the next 18 months.
Shell Oil and Malaysia’s state-run Petronas finalized a contract to develop Iraq’s giant Majnoon oil field, and pledge to massively boost output.
Mexico’s National Defense Secretariat announced the mobilization of 860 army troops to Tijuana in anticipation of reprisals following the capture of kingpin Teodoro García Simental.
The body of José Luis Romero, a Mexican journalist kidnapped in December, was found on a roadside in Sinaloa state. Romero covered police and crime issues for a local radio station.
The Honduran Congress voted to put off an amnesty for coup leaders until a new congress convenes after the president-elect Porfirio Lobo Sosa takes power later this month.
