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IRAQ: Billions of reconstruction funds missing

Doug Lorimer The October 16 Boston Globe reported that about half of the US$5 billion in Iraq reconstruction funds disbursed by the US occupation authority in the first half of this year cannot be accounted for, according to an audit commissioned

IRAQ: Deadly diseases running rampant

Doug Lorimer According to a report compiled by the Iraqi health ministry, the US-occupied country faces a soaring death toll from preventable diseases including typhoid and tuberculosis. The report, released on October 13, notes that Iraqi's

OUR COMMON CAUSE: A call to arms for a 'rainbow convergence'

PM John Howard designed the Pacific Solution to hold the people of the Tampa behind walls of razor wire. The Aboriginal political leadership now calls on the good people of this land to support the call from the refugee-rights movement to take a

PALESTINE: Peace activists attacked

Kim Bullimore, West Bank On September 29, Kim Lamberty and Chris Brown, international peace activists from the Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT), were attacked and severely beaten as they escorted Palestinian children from Tuba in the Hebron region

On the Box

As it Happened: Cuban Missile Crisis Declassified — Compiles historic images and eyewitness accounts from the United States, Russia, Cuba, Germany and the Vatican. SBS, Saturday, October 30, 7.30pm. Unprecedented: How Bush won Florida —

Journalist vilified for telling truth on Iraq

Pip Hinman Author and filmmaker John Martinkus, who was kidnapped in Baghdad by Iraqi resistance fighters on October 16, has been accused by foreign minister Alexander Downer of deliberately putting himself in danger, and of "giving comfort" to

In brief: GERMANY — 40,000 protest General Motors

Nearly 40,000 people protested across Germany on October 19, trying to stop General Motors from axing one-fifth of the European work force, and possibly closing a plant. The biggest protest was in the north-western town of Bochum, home to one of GM's

Forum discusses Greens and the left

Tony Iltis, Melbourne While "Is the left going green?" was the topic for a forum organised by the New International Bookshop on October 21, the discussion was more focused on whether the Greens were going left. Two of the panelists were Greens

Raise up Anti-flag

The Terror StateAnti-FlagFat Wreck ChordsUS$10 from . Review by James Vassilopoulos Punks across the USA are debating, organising, building websites, thrashing and rocking against Bush. Bands that are part of this movement include NOFX, Green

UNITED STATES: Unionists mobilise for anti-war march

Leslie Feinberg, New York "We have called on the anti-war and peace movements to join us on October 17 and they are coming by the tens of thousands", Million Worker March leader Clarence Thomas explains, "because the war in Iraq, just like the

In brief: BRITAIN — Thousands protest Iraq war

Around 75,000 anti-war protesters flooded London's streets on October 17, in a protest called to coincide with the European Social Forum meeting in that city. The protesters carried signs emblazoned "Troops out!" and "Blair must go!". The media has

VENEZUELA: Coup plotters convicted

Stuart Munckton On October 15, news website Venezuela Analysis <http://venezuelaanalysis.org> reported that eight local politicians and business people from Tachira state had been found guilty of rebellion for their role in the April 2002