World

  • What's driving the wave of corporate mergers?

    There has been such a big wave of domestic and cross-border corporate mergers and takeovers in the last few years that some commentators have started comparing their importance with the merger wave that took place in the US around the

  • MEXICO: Zapatistas march for indigenous justice

    MEXICO CITY — The leaders of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), headed by Subcomandante Marcos, are to emerge from Chiapas, the southernmost Mexican state where they led their famous 1994 uprising of the region's

  • ISRAEL: Why Barak lost

    Contrary to the impression created by the international news media, Ariel Sharon did not win the February 6 Israeli prime ministerial election by a landslide. In fact, he won just 37% of the eligible vote — the lowest of any of his

  • SOUTH AFRICA: Welcome to the 'new' Johannesburg

    BY PATRICK BOND  JOHANNESBURG — If you had a choice, which city would you choose to host the 2002 “World Summit on Sustainable Development” — also known as Rio+10 — in which 60,000 delegates will jaw-jaw about the world's social and

  • TURKEY: Currency dealers force lira plunge

    International money traders have subjected the Turkish lira to sustained attack, forcing it to plunge 28% against the US dollar on February 22, sparking fears of a deep economic crisis in the country. The lira's collapse was the

  • SOUTH KOREA: Cops storm Daewoo Motors occupation

    SEOUL — A detachment of 4200 riot cops stormed Daewoo Motors' Bu-pyung plant on February 20, ending an occupation by about 500 striking workers and their families. The Bu-pyong workers began their strike on February 16, in

  • IRAQ: US escalates 'hidden' war

    The February 16 bombing of Baghdad by US and British warplanes was a calculated signal by US President George W. Bush's regime that it will continue - and escalate - the genocidal war against the Iraqi people begun by the US

  • IRAQ: Communists condemn Washington's 'bloody policy'

    The bombardment of Baghdad by US and British warplanes on February 16 proves that "George W. Bush's administration is maintaining the US government's bloody policy against the Iraqi masses", a statement issued by the politburo of the Worker Communist

  • BRITAIN: Rights groups protest anti-terrorism law

    Human rights advocates are outraged by new legislation redefining the concept "terrorism", allowing for the banning of organisations considered terrorist and reversing the burden of proof, which was passed by the British

  • ZIMBABWE: Mugabe escalates harassment of critics

    Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) have escalated the violent harassment and repression of their critics. Mugabe faces a presidential poll in 2002. He will be

  • BRAZIL: Taking back the land

    Eron Domingos de Rocha used to work in a shoe factory in the Franca district of Sao Paolo. He earned 220 reales a month there (about US$110) — not enough, he says, to "allow you to survive". Then he met an organiser with Brazil's

  • PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Anger at government's pay hypocrisy

    Workers in Papua New Guinea have threatened to take action to have an increase in the minimum wage restored after it was revealed that members of parliament, ministers, judges and top public servants were secretly awarded massive pay