On Nov. 21, US District Judge Thomas Hogan in Washington declared a mistrial in the terrorism and hostage-taking trial of Juvenal Ricardo Ovidio Palmera Pineda, a high-level leader and former negotiator for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), better… Read moreMistrial in Washington’s FARC terror case
Sarah Ferguson writes for the Village Voice, Nov. 26 (with some very gruesome photos of the autopsy online): The family of slain Indymedia journalist Brad Will has renewed its call for an independent investigation of his shooting, which occurred while… Read moreWho killed Brad Will?
Protesters trying to force out the Oaxaca state governor set fire to government buildings in two days of street fighting that began on the night of Nov. 26, when masked youths broke away from a march by about 4,000 people… Read moreOaxaca: APPO claims six dead in new violence
You know, we hate to disillusion Nursultan Nazarbayev, but his authoritarian state really doesn’t need Borat to give it a bad name. ISCKON is the “Hare Krishna” movement, rather than mainstream Hindus, but that doesn’t make this episode smell much… Read moreHindus persecuted in Kazakhstan?
It is vindicating that French complicity in the 1994 Rwanda genocide is finally coming to light. But it was actually Paris’ tit-for-tat of a judicial order for the arrest of Rwandan military officers following Rwandan charges of French support for… Read moreHistorical truth at issue in France-Rwanda breach
Now this is pretty depressing. Pakistan finally moves to overturn the atrocious anti-woman Hudood ordinances, under which women are punished for “adultery” if they report a rape. The Islamist opposition links backlash against this long-belated bit of progress with (legitimate)… Read morePakistan: rape laws challenged, Islamists exploit backlash
Now here's an hilarious conundrum for the idiot left that cheers on reactionary Islamism as heroic anti-imperialism. Are we supposed to oppose this garbage when conservative Christians do it in the US, but support it when conservative Muslims do it… Read moreIslamo-creationism infiltrates Turkey’s schools
From BBC, Nov. 23: Drivers who get stopped by the police could have their fingerprints taken at the roadside, under a new plan to help officers check people’s identities. A hand-held device being tested by 10 forces in England and… Read moreNext for UK: finger-prints at road stops
From Cuba’s Prensa Latina, Nov. 24 (we’ve annotated, and clarified their typically poor English): Members of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) charged national leaders with genocide and force[d] disappearance at the [federal] Attorney General’s Office [PGR]… Read moreOaxaca: APPO charges Ruiz with “genocide”
From AP, Nov. 25: MEXICO CITY: A violent Mexican drug gang took out a rare, half-page ad in newspapers in which they claimed to be anti-crime vigilantes who wanted to stop kidnapping, robbery and the sale of methamphetamine in the… Read moreMichoacan’s bloody “Family”: anti-narco vigilantes?
General Federation of Trade Unions-Iraq (GFTU-Iraq) Statement on the Merger with the Federation of Workers Councils and Unions in Iraq (FWCUI): GFTU-Iraq’s first convention was centered on the following statement: “The unity of the working class is the path to… Read moreIraq: labor solidarity against sectarian terror
From Reuters, Nov. 25: MADRID – Outgoing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld authorized the mistreatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, the prison’s former U.S. commander said in an interview on Saturday. Former U.S. Army Brigadier General Janis Karpinski… Read moreDid Rumsfeld order Abu Ghraib torture?
