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BRAZIL: Killings of Indians investigated

On November 29, Brazilian federal police arrested 18 people for crimes against Indians and the environment. During the past decade, an uncontacted tribe known as the Rio Pardo Indians have had their land invaded by land grabbers and loggers. Despite

BOLIVIA: Does MAS offer more to the people?

Pablo Stefanoni, La Paz In a press conference with foreign journalist, just before the December 18 national elections, Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) presidential candidate Evo Morales laid out a number of strategic points for a future leftist

Football champions battle racism

Brotherboys: The Story of Jim and Phillip KrakouerBy Sean GormanAllen & Unwin, 2005269 pages, $29.95 (pb) REVIEW BY PHIL SHANNON For over a decade, two brothers mesmerised hundreds of thousands of football fans with their skills of hand and foot

Loose Cannons

Reject an Iraq run by... "The enemy in Iraq is a combination of rejectionists, Saddamists and terrorists. The rejectionists are by far the largest group. These are ordinary Iraqis, mostly Sunni Arabs, who ... reject an Iraq in which they are no

Close Pine Gap!

This November, the federal government had the opportunity to give three year's notice to terminate the agreement which permits the United States base to continue operating at Pine Gap. It didn't, and several peace activists have decided to travel

TANZANIA: British water company sues impoverished country

British water company Biwater has taken legal action against the Tanzanian government after the company was kicked out of Tanzania earlier this year, two years into a US$100 million water privatisation contract. Biwater had failed to meet the

Write On: Letters to the Editor

Women's choice In Volume 167 (1997) of the Medical Journal of Australia, obstetrician Richard Henshaw reviewed the literature comparing surgical abortions and medical abortions using RU486. He observed that, in relation to safety, efficacy,

Preventative detention heralds police state

Sarah Stephen Preventative detention orders will allow state police to detain those whom they suspect of intending to commit a terrorist attack. However, they are also designed for those against whom there is no evidence, or not enough, to bring a

VENEZUELA: Chavistas win all National Assembly seats

Gregory Wilpert, Caracas Chavez's party, the Movement for the Fifth Republic (MVR), won 114 or 68% of the 167 seats in the new National Assembly, according to preliminary results that MVR deputy William Lara announced on December 4. Pro-Chavez

Scott Ritter: Iraq war 'deliberate deception'

Trent Hawkins and Nathan Verney Many pro-war politicians attribute the failure to locate weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to mistakes made by Western intelligence agencies. For Scott Ritter, former chief United Nations weapon inspector in Iraq

Our Common Cause: Make the IR legislation Howard's poll tax!

Alex Miller A Scottish miner was walking home one night with a bunch of pheasants he had poached from a local landowner's estate when the landowner appeared and demanded that the miner hand over the pheasants. "Why should I hand them over to you?",

Beware the road to tyranny

[The following abridged letter was read out by Tony Kevin at a rally, organised by the ACT Network Opposing War and Racism, protesting the terror laws on November 28.] Dear Mr Howard, You are reported as saying that the federal government will