World

Peter Boyle Among the cynical circles of Australian foreign policy "experts" committed to Australia playing a neo-colonial role in the Asia-Pacific region, there are some differing views on the Howard government's military intervention in the East

Green Left Weekly's Walter Yoia from Resistance and Cameron Durnsford from the Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network spoke to participants at the World Social Forum — held in Caracas on January 24-29 — about their impressions of the gathering.

Rohan Pearce Since the January 28 testimony of David Kay, the retired head of the US "weapons inspections" team in Iraq, before the US Senate's armed services committee, the war makers in Washington, Canberra and London have been scrambling to

The word "McLibel" has been added to Macmillan's online dictionary, defined as "a British court action for libel (the illegal act of writing false statements about someone) filed by the McDonald's corporation against environmental activists". In

Jenny Francis, Kabul Washington has a dream: following a large turnout at the polls in Afghanistan on October 9, US-backed interim president Hamid Karzai will win free and fair elections, and US President George Bush will claim credit for bringing

James Balowski, Jakarta The official death toll from the massive earthquake that struck densely populated Yogyakarta and parts of Central Java on May 27 now stands at more than 6200, with more than 46,000 people injured — 33,000 seriously.

Patrick Bond, Johannesburg Unless political elites change strategy and tactics in 2006, North-South relations will continue to degenerate. By the end of last year, opportunities ranging from rock concerts to summits and trade negotiations were

Julian Coppens, London "Nothing other than a mighty new political force has been born!", bellowed George Galloway in his closing speech to more than 1500 activists, who assembled on January 25 at Freedom House in London for the founding

Eva Cheng The world was stunned when the Indian Ocean tsunami hit the shores of Asian countries in December 2004. It killed 300,000 people. But "slow-motion" disasters are unfolding every day with a killing power equal to three such tsunamis every

Rihab Charida, Saida Ain El Helweh is the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. In this tightly packed camp the only playgrounds available for children are the narrow alleys where dirty water flows. The only place for the elderly to gather

Leo Zeilig, Johannesburg On May 18, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) led a general strike to protest against low pay, job losses and casualisation. There is growing working-class anger at the levels of poverty and unemployment in

Tania Roth On January 13, the ARD public television's magazine Panorama and the national newspaper Die Sueddeutsche Zeitung (SD) broke the news that in 2003, two agents of the German secret service (BND) stayed in Iraq and worked as informants for