Despite Western media and politicians having largely ignored a decade of genocidal warfare that has cost 6 million lives, the recent upsurge in fighting in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has drawn not only media attention, but visits to the region by the British and French foreign ministers and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.
Tony Iltis
The ancient Palestinian coastal city of Acre was the scene of four days of rioting following an incident that took place on the night of October 8, when a mob of Jewish fundamentalists attempted to lynch three Palestinians for the “crime” of driving a car on the Yom Kippur religious holiday.
The case of the Cuban Five, five Cubans who have spent the past 10 years in US jails for the undercover gathering of intelligence on terrorism against their country, provides further evidence of the hypocrisy of US rhetoric about fighting terrorism and supporting human rights.
On September 23, one of Burma’s longest-serving political prisoners, 78-year-old progressive journalist U Win Tin, was released from Insein Prison after more than 19 years. He was one of six political prisoners included in an amnesty of 9002 prisoners declared by the military junta.
Until last months major party conventions, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obamas victory was looking the pretty likely. With his message of change, it isnt hard to see why.
Speaking at the inaugural Ted Wheelwright Memorial Lecture for the Sydney University Department of Political Economy on September 1, Filipino anti-globalisation activist and academic Walden Bello, founding director of Focus on the Global South, contrasted the recent Beijing Olympics with the US Democrats national convention.
On September 2, nine Australian soldiers were wounded one left in a critical condition in an ambush in southern Afghanistan. The Australian Defence Force (ADF) claims the Australian soldiers killed several of the alleged Taliban fighters responsible for the attack.
A Rwandan judicial commission of inquiry into the role of France in the 1994 genocide, in which around 1 million Rwandans were killed in 100 days, has called for the indictment of 33 high-ranking French political and military leaders.
Since the European Union-brokered ceasefire brought the shooting war between Georgia and Russia to an end on August 12, there has been a war of words between Russia and the West.
On August 7, after a week of border clashes, Georgias pro-Western President Mikheil Saakashvili launched a military attack against South Ossetia.
The Beijing Olympic games, which began on August 8, are shaping up to be a perfect reflection of our times — taking place against a backdrop of human rights abuses, terrorism scares and under a blanket of chemical smog.
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