The federal trial of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani woman with alleged ties to al-Qaeda, began in New York. Siddiqui denies the charges and says she was tortured at Bagram air base.
David L. Wilson of Weekly News Update on the Americas was in Port-au-Prince with a delegation when the Jan. 12 earthquake struck the city. Because of limited electricity and internet access, he was unable to send this report out until… Read moreDay Three in Port-au-Prince: “A difficult situation”
A Doctors Without Borders cargo plane carrying 12 tons of medical equipment was turned away three times from Port-au-Prince airport since Sunday night, the group protests.
Thousands of fresh foreign troops arrive in Afghanistan this year, but some aid agencies are voicing concerns that this could lead to the intensification of the conflict.
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.
