World

  • PALESTINE: Talking to Hamas

    Alastair Crooke Almost no-one believes that putting Palestinians on a "diet" will make them more moderate or help to restart a political process with Israel. The diet — a term coined by forumer Israeli PM Ariel Sharon's chief of staff, Dov

  • BRITAIN: Gate Gourmet dispute ends in compromise

    Alex Miller The dispute at airline catering firm Gate Gourmet — which sparked illegal solidarity action by British Airways ground staff, causing massive disruption at Heathrow Airport in August — has ended in a compromise. Under the terms of

  • IRAQ: US military attempts to eliminate Sadr

    Doug Lorimer Since August 5, fierce gunbattles have been fought in the south-central Iraqi city of Najaf between US occupation troops and rebel Iraqi Shiite leader Sayed Moqtada al Sadr's Mahdi Army militia. The heaviest fighting has been around

  • IRAN: Bush's accusations not based on intelligence

    Doug Lorimer The US and three of its European Union allies — Britain, France and Germany (the so-called EU-3) — managed to get an emergency meeting of the 35-member board of governors of the UN's Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency

  • BOLIVIA: World solidarity needed

    Barry Weisleder & John Riddell, Toronto "General jubilation" greeted the Bolivian government's move to take control of the country's hydrocarbon resources on May 1, according to the Cuban daily newspaper Granma. "An impressive multitude [that]

  • PNG forced to cooperate with Howard's 'war on terror'

    Karen Fredericks The Coalition government will start deploying Australian police to Papua New Guinea from early September. This follows the Papua New Guinea parliament's decision on July 27 to finalise legislation giving the 230 Australian police

  • Army unable to end Timor's resistance

    The Suharto regime in Jakarta seems unable to end the resistance to Indonesian occupation in East Timor or bring to an end the international diplomatic controversy about the occupation. The regime continues to pretend that things are

  • UNITED STATES: Auto-workers fight back

    Over the past year, the major US auto-makers have suffered an ongoing profit squeeze. In the first nine months of 2005, General Motors and Ford lost several billion US dollars. These losses, which reflect the increasing competitive pressure within

  • PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Teachers continue strike

    Thousands of teachers across Papua New Guinea launched a nationwide strike on May 10 to demand a 4% pay rise and 7% housing allowance increase. Teachers ignored an Industrial Registrar ruling that the strike was illegal. An agreement was signed by

  • IRAQ: Insurgent militia takes control of Sadr City

    Doug Lorimer Under the headline "3 million Iraqis under militia rule", the July 17 Houston Chronicle reported that rebel Iraqi Shiite leader Sayed Moqtada al Sadr's Madhi Army has taken control of Baghdad's largest neighbourhood in defiance of

  • CHILE: Bachelet wins presidential elections

    Roberto Jorquera The election of the Socialist Party's Michelle Bachelet as president on January 11, with 3.6 million votes (53%), was greeted with street parties throughout Chile. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez immediately rang Bachelet and

  • GREECE: 100,000 protest war on Iraq and Iran

    On May 6, the third day of the European Social Forum in Athens, more than 100,000 people demonstrated against neoliberalism and the possible war on Iran. Many different left groups from across Europe participated in the ESF, the largest contingent