World

  • Protests against Ramos' new tax law

    A number of activist groups, including the People's Coalition against Vat (KOMVAT) and Kill VAT are planning major protest actions against the Ramos governments' expanded value added tax (VAT) law. The actions are being timed

  • Greenpeace acts against asbestos exports

    Greenpeace acts against asbestos exports ITALY — Eight Greenpeace activists blocked a convoy of four asbestos-contaminated passenger railcars ready for export to eastern Europe on July 4. At the small Casarsa railway station, near the

  • US wavers on Haiti invasion

    "With the president indicating that the military option is still there, we clearly need to be in a position to be ready, should he ask us," said Pentagon spokesperson Dennis Boxx, justifying the massive United States military

  • Bougainvilleans to go to UN

    Bougainvilleans to go to UNThe Bougainville Interim Government's representative to the United Nations, Mike Forster, has announced that it is considering taking the Papua New Guinea government to the International Court of

  • The end of the era of presidents

    MOSCOW — The election on June 23 for the newly created post of president of Belarus signalled dramatic changes in the political life of the former USSR. The ease with which anti-corruption campaigner Aleksandr Lukashenko

  • South African police fire on strikers

    JOHANNESBURG — In the midst of the euphoria and hopes generated by this country's historic first democratic elections, few trade unionists would have believed they would again see police opening fire on strikers with rubber

  • Thailand invites Burma to ASEAN summit

    Burma's repressive military junta has been invited as an observer to the ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations) foreign ministers' meeting on July 22-28 in Bangkok. Many observers see this as the first step towards

  • Indonesian opposition gets organised

    Indonesian opposition gets organisedThe campaign in Indonesia against the closures, in late June, of the country's three major news weeklies has spurred on discussion on how best to advance the development of an organised

  • Capital punishment, US style

    "I regard the death penalty as a savage and immoral institution that undermines the moral and legal foundations of society. I reject the notion that the death penalty has any essential deterrent effect on potential

  • Cuba: surviving the blockade

    July 26 is a special day in the history of the Cuban revolution. On this day in 1953, Fidel Castro led an attack on the Moncada army barracks in Santiago de Cuba. The attack was crushed and Castro was tried and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment.

  • Festival celebrates victory for lesbian and gay rights

    JOHANNESBURG — The coming of democracy here has special significance for the lesbian and gay community. One of the gains, a world first, is a constitutional bill of rights that specifically outlaws discrimination on the grounds

  • Tightening the noose on the Third World

    The patterns of Western capitalist investment in the Third World have been changing rapidly. The result is an even greater dependence of underdeveloped countries' governments, writes CHOW WEI CHENG. Mutual funds have taken over much of the