World

Since the US and Mexico signed the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994, the number of Mexicans illegally crossing the border into the US seeking employment has risen to 500,000 a year.

In the wake of a narrow loss to the right wing in Maine in a November 3 referendum on whether or not to reverse same-sex marriage equality in the state, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights activists mobilised across the country to raise their voices for equality.

In stark contrast to the surge of pro-lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) activism, and legislative and legal progress in recent months, Maine voters overturned equal marriage rights in a referendum on November 3 by a margin of 53% to 47%.

The article published below is by Santiago Reyes, a representative of the Honduras National Front of Resistance Against the Coup (FNRG) based in Australia. It has been translated from Spanish by Anabel Morales.

United States: UN investigator slams 'shameful neglect' of homeless "A United Nations special investigator who was blocked from visiting the US by the Bush administration has accused the American government of pouring billions of dollars into

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on November 15 that the only “practical solution” to tensions with neighbouring Colombia, which escalated as a result of an October 30 military pact between the US and Colombian governments, is an “immediate” end to the deal.

“There’s no village”, 75-year-old Sam Telly said. “I’m from a hiding place.”

The Guantanamo Bay prison camp is still open and conditions inside it are reportedly worse than before US President Barack Obama took office. It has been reported that the camp will not be closed by the January deadline set by Obama.

More than 200 activists, including a large proportion of youth and women, packed Kuala Lumpur’s Chinese Assembly Hall for the first day of Socialism 2009, an annual conference organised by the Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM).

Ignoring calls from the Washington-based Human Rights Watch to tie the granting of further money to the Sri Lankan government to demands such as resettling the more than 250,000 Tamils imprisoned in detention camps, the International Monetary Fund has granted the regime a further $329.4 million.

The administration of US President Barack Obama has announced it will bring five Guantanamo Bay detainees to the US for prosecution in federal courts.

When General Suharto, the West’s man, seized power in Indonesia in the mid-1960s, he offered “a gleam of light in Asia”, rejoiced Time magazine. That he had killed up to a million “communists” was of no account in the acquisition of what Richard Nixon called “the richest hoard of natural resources, the greatest prize in south-east Asia”.