686

On October 3, North Korea’s foreign ministry issued a statement announcing that US “threats of nuclear war, sanctions and pressure compel the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] to conduct a nuclear test, which is essential for bolstering its nuclear deterrent and as a corresponding measure for defence”. Western spy agencies estimate North Korea has enough plutonium to make up to 10 nuclear bombs.

The Indonesian government recently issued a ministerial decree to implement a citizenship law passed in July. The law will clarify the status of hundreds of Indonesians studying abroad during the alleged 1965 coup attempt who had their citizenship stripped by the Suharto regime after the overthrow of President Sukarno for alleged links to “subversive movements”. People’s Democratic Party chairperson Dita Indah Sari argues that dealing with the exiles’ status should not be an administrative question, but one of justice for victims of Suharto’s New Order regime.

Last year the Chilean polling firm Latinobarometro published results from 20,000 face-to-face interviews in 18 Latin American countries. Venezuelans, more than any other nationality polled, described their government as “totally democratic” and expressed an optimism in their country’s future that outpaced any other. This response sits in stark contrast to what would have been found just a decade earlier if a similar poll had been conducted. To understand this phenomenon we must take a look at Venezuelan politics before President Hugo Chavez came on the scene.

Around 50 people — including the brother of Mulrunji, who died at the hands of police in the Palm Island watch-house in November 2004, many other Murris and representatives from Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation, the Greens, the Democrats and the Socialist Alliance — gathered on October 5 at Jagera Hall to plan a march on state parliament on October 10 to demand justice for Mulrunji.

“Dear reader, civilisation as we know it is coming to an end soon.” This is how the Peak Oil: Life After the Oil Crash website introduces itself. Peak oil is the theory that the world’s oil supplies will soon reach their highest output, their peak, after which there will be a rapid decline in output. The website argues that “the consequences (if true) would be unimaginable. Permanent fuel shortages would tip the world into a generations-long economic depression. Millions would lose their jobs as industry implodes. Farm tractors would be idled for lack of fuel, triggering massive famines. Energy wars would flare.”