From the air, the Indonesian island of Yamdena, with its lush rainforests and turquoise coral reefs, looks like an idyllic tropical paradise. But timber contractors are moving in to cut the trees, and Yamdena's inhabitants fear
-
-
Calls for Queen to waiveLONDON — We are not amused. Elizabeth Windsor, her family and other animals, look set to feel the cold wind of financial uncertainty. Well, not so much a wind really, more of a fiscal breeze.
-
The people of Angola have decisively rebuffed the bid for power by the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) in presidential and parliamentary elections held on September 29 and 30. The ruling Popular
-
An Athens football stadium was packed to capacity with 40,000 people on October 6, and another 20,000 gathered outside, all in solidarity with bus workers, who have been on strike since July. The strikers, who have been
-
Some abortions legal in Fiji The Fiji Court of Appeal has ruled that doctors can perform abortions in "good faith" to save women from becoming "physical or mental wrecks", the Fiji Times reported on October 2. In September, director of
-
Papua New Guinea's Australian-supplied Iroquois combat helicopters and their Australian and New Zealand "civilian" pilots have again been involved in a serious abuse of human rights, the Solomons Star newspaper has revealed. One
-
The US Congress tightened the economic stranglehold on Cuba on September 24 when it approved legislation designed to close loopholes in the 30-year blockade. Presented by Democrat Robert Torricelli and dubbed the "Democracy for Cuba Act", the bill
-
Amnesty calls for inquiry into killing of Kurds Amnesty International has called for an immediate, independent and impartial inquiry into the events in Sirnak between August 18 and 21, when at least 15 civilians, including five children, were killed.
-
Palestinians on hunger strike Palestinian prisoners from major Israeli detention facilities began an indefinite hunger strike on September 27 to protest against deteriorating conditions of detention. The strike was formally announced by
-
Reports of bodies floating in the white Nile, summary executions and widespread torture in the besieged southern Sudan city of Juba, have prompted the human rights organisation, Amnesty International, to launch an emergency
-
Sources in Indonesia have told the human rights campaign Tapol that eight East Timorese eyewitnesses to the Santa Cruz massacre in November, who have been in hiding in Jakarta since late August, are being hunted down by Indonesian security forces.
-
New independence group in Kanaky A new movement has been formed to achieve New Caledonia's independence from France. The Congress Populaire — the Popular Congress of the Kanak People — was launched after a two-day meeting on the eastern