A suicide bomber struck during Friday prayers at a Shi’ite mosque in Musaib, south of Baghdad, killing nine worshippers and injuring 15 the day after Iraq’s parliament approved a pact allowing US troops to remain until 2011. The mosque was… Read moreIraq: suicide attack at Shi’ite mosque
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi of the right-wing BJP arrived in Mumbai Nov. 28 to pay public last respects to police officers killed fighting the militants who attacked India’s financial capital, and announce Rs 1 crore ($2 million) compensation to… Read moreBJP exploits Mumbai terror
In what the New York Times somewhat hyperbolically calls a "clash," US Border Patrol vessels have over the past two weeks stopped at least 10 Canadian fishing boats in the Bay of Fundy between Maine and New Brunswick. Canada has responded by beefing up its Coast Guard patrols in what is being termed a "disputed gray zone" between the two countries' territories. The maritime dispute dates back to the 1783 Treaty of Paris that ended the American Revolution, and is one of several between the US and Canada—including fishing waters at Dixon Entrance between Alaska and British Columbia, and areas of the petroleum-rich Beaufort Sea, near the Arctic Ocean. (Map: ResearchGate)
Oil prices rose above $75 a barrel for the first time since November 2014, as Libya's National Oil Corporation declared force majeure at its principal oil ports, which continue to be battled over by rival armed factions. Prices for West Texas Intermediate crude rose to $75.27 a barrel before dropping back down to $72.73. After years of depressed global oil prices, analysts are again talking of a possible new "oil shock." Growing tensions between the US and Iran, and other factors, were also cited. Libya's Union of Oil and Gas Workers meanwhile issued a statement saying that the country's oil is the collective property of all Libyans, and should be removed from all political, regional and tribal disputes. (Photo: Libya Observer)
Yemeni police in the capital Sana Nov. 27 opened fire on thousands of opposition protesters, wounding 23, three critically, rally organizers said. The Interior Ministry said the troops only fired in the air to disperse the crowd, and warned in… Read moreYemen: police fire on opposition protest
ABC News’ Political Punch blog notes that Samantha Power—the Pulitzer-winning Harvard professor booted from the Barack Obama campaign in March for calling Hillary Clinton a “monster”—has re-emerged as a member of the president-elect’s transition team. Power is listed as a… Read more“Humanitarian” interventionist Samantha Power back on Obama team
Czech Green Party MP Olga Zubová wrote an open letter to US President-elect Barack Obama, asking him to review the US commitment to the planned military radar base on Czech soil for the proposed “missile shield.” “For the Czech Republic… Read moreCzech Green Party MP asks Obama to reconsider missile shield
On Nov. 11, Poland’s Independence Day, the extreme right group National Radical Camp (Oboz Narodowo-Radykalny-ONR) marched in Warsaw, in its second public show of strength this year. ONR also marched in June to commemorate the 1936 anti-Jewish pogrom in Myslenic…. Read moreNeo-Nazis, anti-fas clash in Warsaw
On the morning of Nov. 11, some 150 French police—including elite anti-terrorist forces—raided a farm at Tarnac in the Millevaches plateau and arrested nine young people, who ran the local grocery store. Four days later, the nine were sent before… Read moreFrance: autonomist youth targeted in Tarnac Nine case
President Hamid Karzai openly called for a timeline for NATO to withdraw from Afghanistan. At a Nov. 26 news conference with NATO secretary general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Karzai rhetorically asked: “How long will this war go? Afghanistan can’t continue… Read moreAfghanistan: Karzai demands withdrawal timetable
President George Bush hailed the Iraqi parliament’s approval of a landmark accord for US troops to remain in the country in three years—but a popular referendum on the deal was included in the legislation. As part of political bargaining before… Read moreIraq: SOFA will have to pass referendum
The Indian navy seized two Pakistani merchant ships, asserting that they were used to drop off the Mumbai attackers in a series of small boats. According to Indian news agencies, intelligence sources pinpointed one particular cargo vessel that had stopped… Read morePakistani merchant ships seized in Mumbai attacks
