World

Federico Fuentes, Caracas Some 500 residents of the township of Cumanacoa, in the state of Sucre — mostly workers and cooperative members directly or indirectly employed by the local sugar processing plant, Central Azucarero Cumanacoa — turned

Rohan Pearce On January 24, Iraqi reporter Mahmoud Zaal was killed during a shoot-out between US occupation forces and Iraqi rebels in the city of Ramadi. He was the second Iraqi journalist to have been killed this year; 35 reporters and other

Meredith Aby, Minneapolis Colombia is the most dangerous place in the world to be a trade unionist. On average, right-wing paramilitary death squads or the military murder three Colombian trade unionists a week. Many more are threatened each day.

Doug Lorimer Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel, who holds the European Union rotating presidency, told the June 9 Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that Iran had until the next meeting of the Group of Eight industrialised countries (G8) to

Jon Lamb Journalists and human-rights organisations within East Timor and internationally are increasingly concerned about the consequences of a new penal code on defamation, which includes the penalty of up to three years' imprisonment for

On August 2, the Traprock Peace Center's Sunny Miller interviewed Mordechai Vanunu, Israel's most famous whistleblower. Once a technician in Israel's power plants, Vanunu was kidnapped from Italy, convicted of treason in a secret trial and jailed for

Rohan Pearce Riots broke out in the Afghan capital of Kabul on May 29 after a US military truck crash. The truck crushed dozens of cars during peak-hour traffic, reported anti-imperialist group Left Radical of Afghanistan. According to LRA, 56

A Scottish Socialist Party statement on January 26 reported that Labour joined with the Tories and Liberal Democrats to vote down an SSP bill to abolish Scottish National Health Service prescription charges. The vote was lost 77 to 44, despite the

Roberto Jorquera On August 15, the people of Venezuela begin to vote on whether to recall their president, Hugo Chavez. The overwhelming majority of polls show that Chavez will defeat the recall bid. The opposition has in fact refused to publish

Michael Karadjis Montenegrins voted for independence for their tiny republic in a referendum on May 21, in a move that essentially formalised an already existing situation. Following the collapse of the former Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia

On January 23, Ford announced a new restructuring plan for its North American operations, which includes the closure of 14 plants and the loss of 30,000 jobs by 2012. It will cut its production by 26% of current capacity by 2008. Ford also plans to

AFGHANISTAN: Women election workers killed Two Afghan women were killed and 13 were wounded on June 28 by a bomb that exploded on a bus filled with election workers travelling to Rodat to register women voters. A Taliban spokesperson claimed