474

Activists stage DIMA protest

BY KATIE NEVILLE MELBOURNE — Reacting to a crackdown on asylum seekers in the Maribyrnong detention centre, 20 activists from the Refugee Action Collective staged a protest action outside the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs'

SPAIN: Millions of students strike

BY MIRIAM MUNICIO More than two and a half million students in the schools and universities answered a strike call all over Spain on November 28, 200,000 of them pouring onto the streets to support demonstrations organised by the Marxist-led

'Throw the whole thing open'

BY SARAH STEPHEN Amnesty International's refugee coordinator, Dr Graham Thom, and former Labor Senator and United Nations Association of Australia president Professor Margaret Reynolds are among those who have backed a call for a royal commission

Human Rights Day rally to oppose war

BY NICK EVERETT SYDNEY — Thousands are expected to attend an International Human Rights Day rally, march and festival on December 9, which organisers the Network Opposing War and Racism say will both oppose the carnage in Afghanistan and express

Detention of children to come under spotlight

BY SARAH STEPHEN Human rights commissioner Sev Ozdowski announced on November 28 that he would conduct an inquiry into the effect of immigration detention on children, in particular investigating whether Australia's detention practices are in

Museworthy: Fanta Babies

Fanta Babies There are all sorts of breasts in the world Girls wearing mud breaststo induce the growth of their own Silicone for the dissatisfied, the sorcerous Hormones for the boys — soft twelve-year-old breasts And in this one very

Training manuals of terror

BY LISA HAUGAARD On September 20, 1996, the Pentagon released to the public seven manuals prepared by the US military and used between 1987 and 1991 for intelligence training in Latin America and at the School of the Americas. From start to

Union condemns Israeli 'apartheid'

BY NOREEN NAVIN SYDNEY — The New South Wales Teachers Federation is in the midst of a bitter dispute over the stance the union has taken on Israel's occupation of Palestine, with the federation's executive standing by its opposition to Israeli

NT Labor embraces zero tolerance

BY GARY MEYERHOFF Drug user advocate groups have long argued that the Northern Territory should replace its methadone reduction program, which only gives opiate users access to the drug for three months, with a long-term methadone maintenance

Anti-abortion law under review

BY PAT BREWER CANBERRA — In a surprise move, John Stanhope, the chief minister of the new ACT Labor government, has announced that he will remove foetal images from a compulsory information booklet shown to women seeking an abortion in the

Balibo Five: the cover-up continues

Cover-up: the inside story of the Balibo FiveBy Jill JoliffeScribe BooksMelbourne, 2001360 pages, $35 REVIEW BY JO ELLIS It was close to dawn on October 16, 1975, when journalists Greg Shackleton, Gary Cunningham, Tony Stewart, Brian Peters and

UNITED STATES: Bush gang threatens war against '40 to 50' countries

BY JOHN PILGER LONDON — Polite society's bombers may not have to wait long for round two. The US vice-president, Dick Cheney, warned last week that America could take action against "40 to 50 countries". Somalia, allegedly a "haven" for al Qaeda,