World

The on-again off-again talks among the British and Irish governments and select political parties from northern Ireland move into their summer break without progress. Politicians have hailed the talks as the most historic

Labour chooses new leaderLONDON — On July 18, John Smith became Labour's 14th parliamentary leader. The result was never in any doubt. Smith, from the party's right wing, won the leadership with 91% of the vote in a

LONDON — The Tory government on July 14 announced plans to privatise British Rail. The process, sketched in a 21-page white paper, will begin as early as next year. Under the remarkably vague proposals, BR will retain the

MANAGUA — A meeting of "the representatives of the workers, peasants and the poor of Latin America" was Daniel Ortega's description of the Third Forum of Sao Paulo, held here from July 16 to 19. The Sandinista National

Even though the Labor Party currently holds a majority of seats in the Knesset — with the left liberal coalition Meretz, the Communist Party and the Arab Democratic List — its leader, Yitzhak Rabin, has said that to

East Germans organise for justiceMUNICH — "After the euphoria of the year 1990, many people in eastern Germany feel they are second-class citizens, marginalised politically, economically, socially and culturally",

The Other Economic Summit By Bryan R. Thomas MUNICH — A more positive, "shadow" summit took place some 10 minutes by foot from where the Group of Seven (G7) were meeting. The Other Economic Summit (TOES), sponsored by the German Greens,

Governments of 18 industrialised countries, including Australia, have agreed to provide Indonesia with further loans totalling US$4.8 billion. The biggest lenders are the World Bank and Japan, followed by the other big Western

MUNICH — More than 2000 people from across Europe attended the International Solidarity Conference held here on July 3 in opposition to the G7 Economic Summit. Despite attempts by the conservative Bavarian government to

The Bougainville Interim Government has welcomed the election of Papua New Guinea's new government led by Paias Wingti. The interim government's representative in Australia, Moses Havini, told Green Left Weekly that he believed

Tribunal planned on Timor massacreAUCKLAND — Human rights advocates are planning a "people's tribunal" of international jurists to put Indonesia on trial over violations in East Timor. The hearing is expected to be

'Assistance' for Romanian workers LONDON — The British Conservative government is funding the visit to Romania of union officials from the right-wing Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union. AEEU official Nigel Harris explained that