A telling story in the June 2 New York Times, “Advocacy Group’s Publicity Campaign on Darfur Angers Relief Organizations,” reveals a rift between the Save Darfur Coalition and the aid agencies actually on the ground in Darfur. Save Darfur takes… Read moreSplit between activists and aid groups in Darfur campaign seen
Assyrian Christian leaders in Iraq say the future existence of the country’s dwindling Christian population hangs in the balance as violence continues unabated. According to a report by the Assyrian International News Agency, direct blame has been leveled at Iraqi… Read moreIraq: Assyrian Christians fear genocide
Now, let’s see. A May 26 AP account by Larry McShane on the case of Syed Hashmi, a 27-year-old Pakistan-born US citizen and former Queens resident extradited from England back to New York to face terrorism charges, says he is… Read moreNew Yorker on trial for possession of terrorist rain gear
Security forces in Guyana and Trinidad & Tobago worked closely with US authorities to hunt down the men behind a supposed plot to blow up JFK International Airport in New York City. The arrest of three suspects was announced June… Read moreLatest NYC terror scare linked to attempted coup in Trinidad
The Enawene Nawe, a remote Amazonian tribe in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, are blockading a highway in protest at a series of hydroelectric dams that will destroy their vital fishing grounds. Companies led by the world·s largest soya… Read moreAmazon tribe block roads to halt hydro project
The Guatemalan Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by activists to block the candidacy of former dictator José Efraín Ríos Montt in congressional elections this Sept. 9. However, Supreme Court Spokesman Guillermo Melgar said that that the ruling can be… Read moreGuatemala: court accepts, activists reject ex-dictator’s candidacy
A roadside bomb killed 10 government-hired paramilitary troops in southern Thailand’s Bannang Sata district, Yala province, as they returned from negotiations with Muslim protesters May 31. Almost immediately after the bombing, gunmen opened fire on a group of Muslim villagers… Read moreThailand: paramilitary troops, mosque attacked
Five people, including a local militia jawan (infantryman), were killed May 31 in India’s eastern state of Manipur in fighting with the Kuki Revolutionary Army. The so-called “ultra” ethnic guerilla group apparently attacked a patrol of the 7th Manipur Rifles… Read moreIndia: ethnic violence in east, west
David Phinney writes for Iraq Slogger, May 31: Rumors of labor trafficking and abuse have plagued building contractor now completing the $592 million Baghdad embassy building project, but a State Department Inspector General investigation reported finding nothing untoward. Now an… Read moreForced labor building US Baghdad embassy?
The “Awakening in Anbar” movement, which was started in the conflicted province by local tribes and Sunni insurgents opposed to al-Qaeda’s attempts to impose its leadership, has now spread to all of the provinces bordering Baghdad and been officially renamed… Read moreIraq: “Awakening” movement resists al-Qaeda
Artillery shelling against the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon resumed on Friday, as fighting broke out between the army and Fatah al-Islam fighters. As tanks surrounded the camp, artillery struck the north and north-west entrances of the camp,… Read moreLebanese army resumes bombardment
From the Chinese news agency, Xinhua, June 1: Israeli army fire kills two children in northern Gaza GAZA — Israeli soldiers stationed in northern Gaza Strip shot dead on Friday afternoon two Palestinian children, paramedics and eyewitnesses said. The witnesses… Read moreIsraeli forces kill two children in occupied Gaza Strip
