World

  • Arab Israelis step up political activity

    For the first time in Israeli history, the Arab parties in the Israeli Knesset have taken an independent initiative which forced (or allowed) the Rabin government to back down on immediate plans to confiscate 53 hectares of Arab land in East

  • A gay May Day in Havana

    HAVANA, May Day — Drag queens danced at the head of the crowd filing past the podium where Raul Castro and other members of the Cuban government and trade unions stood. The crowd cheered; the Coro Gigante de la

  • Governor signs death warrant for Mumia Abu-Jamal

    Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge has signed a death warrant for Mumia Abu-Jamal and set August 17 at 10pm for the execution of this former Black Panther Party spokesperson and award-winning journalist. Human rights groups, labour unions, and

  • Belarus: towards a new dictatorship?

    MOSCOW — Alexander Lukashenko was elected president of Belarus — a republic of 10 million people on Russia's western border — by a big majority last July. He ran as an independent waging a classic "anti-politician"

  • Beijing arrests more dissidents

    During May, the Chinese government threw at least 24 dissidents into jail and detained another 41 in a wave of arrests that followed three petitions by activists and leading intellectuals. The petitions called for the release of

  • Eyewitness report on occupied East Timor

    MELBOURNE — Simon de Faux, a Victorian nurse sent to East Timor as a volunteer for the Catholic Church, was warned by the Australian government not to go public with his first-hand experiences of human rights abuses in East

  • Jakarta hunger strike sparks new alliance

    Prasetyadi Pancaputra, 25, a student from the University of Airlangga in Surabaya, went on a hunger strike in Jakarta, inside the foyer of the national parliament, between May 18 and June 2. He was demanding that the government

  • Threat to Indonesian dissident in Australia

    Threat to Indonesian dissident in AustraliaOn June 1 police in central Java issued the third summons for Indonesian dissident academic Dr George Aditjondro. Police authorities also stated that efforts would be made to extradite

  • Mexican reject Helms bill

    Mexican reject Helms bill The following statement was released by the Institutional Revolutionary Party, Mexico's governing party, on May 14. The National Executive Committee of the Institutional Revolutionary Party express its

  • Filomeno dos Santos not dead

    Contrary to earlier reports, detained East Timorese student Filomeno dos Santos did not die as a result of beatings in Becorau prison. According to investigations by Tapol (British Campaign for Human Rights in Indonesia), Red Cross officials met

  • Yeltsin, Chernomyrdin launch 'party of power'

    MOSCOW — Yes, there are to be parliamentary elections in Russia in December. After repeated indications that the authorities wanted the polls put off indefinitely, or run in conjunction with the presidential election due for

  • Muchtar Pakpahan released

    Muchtar Pakpahan releasedMuchtar Pakpahan, chairperson of the Indonesian Workers for Prosperity Union (SBSI), was released from prison on May 19. Pakpahan was arrested, tried and sentenced to three years' jail in November.