World

  • Letter from the US: Blood and oil

    Blood and oilOne week after I returned from attending the Democratic Socialist Party's convention in Australia, an explosion and fire at the Tosco refinery in the San Francisco Bay Area killed one worker and injured 25.

  • Attack on South African woman activist

    Attack on South African woman activistTwo recent events have pushed the shockingly high incidence of violence against women in South Africa back into the public spotlight. The first was a brutal rape committed on Robben Island,

  • Army planning attack on rebels?

    Army planning attack on rebels? Elements of the Mexican government and several state governments have been stepping up repressive measures against opposition groups. On January 11, Morelos state police arrested three members of the Tepozteco Unity

  • German government woos ex-dissidents

    A minor storm has been created in Germany by seven Green and Social Democratic Party (SPD) members crossing the floor of the Bundestag (the federal parliament) to join Chancellor Kohl's conservative Christian Democrat (CDU)

  • Key issues remain after Hebron agreement

    PLO President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu signed a deal on January 15 that agreed on the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the West Bank town of Hebron. The original sticking point around withdrawal

  • Chilean political prisoners rescued

    Chilean political prisoners rescuedThe mass media in Chile have called it "the escape of the century". On December 30, after a daring helicopter flight by a kidnapped police officer, activists armed with M-16s landed in the

  • Russian voters block nuclear plant

    MOSCOW — In the first referendum of its kind in Russia, residents of an economically hard-hit rural area voted overwhelmingly during December to halt the building of a nuclear power plant. The victory for anti-nuclear

  • Washington tightens the screws on Sudan

    By James D. Thompson Sudan's rebel forces are on the offensive and are reported to have seized large areas in the eastern part of the country. Their success may be due in part to covert backing from the United States government, which has its own

  • Agreement ends Guatemalan civil war

    After 37 years of civil war, the Guatemalan people are feeling as optimistic as they did in 1944, during Guatemala's democratic revolution. The general command of the URNG (Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity), the army and

  • Letter from the US: Terrorists bomb abortion clinics

    TV reports of two bombings on January 16 of an abortion clinic in Atlanta, Georgia, startled the country. A particularly vicious aspect was that the second bomb was set to explode an hour after the first, which was a so-called

  • A tribute to Tony Cabardo

    A tribute to Tony CabardoTony Cabardo, a long-time political activist and fighter for socialism and democracy in the Philippines, died of cancer in Manila on January 19. He was 43e years old and had spent most of his life in

  • The plight of women in East Timor

    A year ago, two East Timorese women, the first East Timorese women to do so, entered the Australian embassy in Jakarta, unsuccessfully seeking asylum in Australia. When Odilia Victor and Maria Sarmento sought refuge, a third