World

  • 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

  • Democracy: a precondition for Palestinian survival

    Nobody today questions the absolute need for a peaceful settlement of the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis. There is, however, a growing awareness that the current peace process fails to meet the needs of the

  • Bikini people reject N-waste plans

    Bikini people reject N-waste plans On May 16 the Bikini people of the Marshall Islands rejected a proposal to store nuclear waste on one of their islands contaminated by US nuclear testing in the 1950s. After two days of intense discussion

  • 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

  • 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.

  • Protests against British arms deals with Indonesia

    Protests against British arms deals with Indonesia LONDON — Between now and the 20th anniversary of the Indonesian invasion of East Timor on December 7, 1995, activists will be stepping up the campaign to stop the export of Hawk jets and other

  • Basques' struggle for self-determination

    Travelling from Madrid to the Basque region in the far north of Spain, I could feel a change in the political atmosphere. In the narrow cobblestone streets of Bilbao, colourful posters advertising upcoming rallies plastered the