World

The following article is abridged from a July 29 statement by the Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall group

The head of Venezuela's telecommunications agency (CONATEL), Diosdado Cabello, announced the immediate closure of 32 privately owned radio stations and two regional television stations on August 1.

Right-wing, religiously driven sex education policies introduced by the administration of president George Bush Jnr have had disastrous results for the sexual and reproductive health of US youth, a July 17 report by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said.

Siddique Abdullah Hasan is on death row in Ohio. He is one of the Lucasville Five, prisoners railroaded onto death row after a 1993 prison rebellion against abuses by prison authorities. Below, he writes about the July 21 execution in Ohio of Marvallous Keene — the 1000th prisoner to be executed by lethal injection in the US since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.

Months after the murder of prominent journalist Lasantha Wickrematunge in Sri Lanka, more journalists have been attacked as part of the Sri Lankan government’s war on free speech.

The article below is an excerpt from a speech given by a worker from the Vestas wind turbine factory on the Isle of Wight. Since July 20, Vestas workers launched an indefinite occupation of the plant in response to plans to close it by Danish company Vestas Windsystems. The speech is abridged from Savevestas.wordpress.com.

The article below is by Jan Sithole, general secretary of the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions. It first appeared at Pambazuko News.

With the June 28 military coup in Honduras, the agreement for five United States military bases in Colombia and the intensification of a dirty propaganda campaign against Venezuela, “the big question is whether the US will look at launching a war that will undoubtedly spread throughout the region, or whether it will decide to postpone such a scenario and attempt to continue dealing regular blows.

Much of the debate about US President Barack Obama’s push for Middle East peace resembles the proverbial argument about whether the glass is half full or half empty.

The article below is abridged from a July 27 statement by the National Black Fraternal Organisation of Honduras on the one month anniversary of the military coup that overthrew elected President Manuel Zelaya. It is reprinted from Hondurasresists.blogspot.com.

The frosty relations between Colombia and Ecuador got even frostier on July 6 when Colombian officials and lawyers accused members of Ecuador’s government of working for left-wing Colombian guerrillas.

On July 17, 20 members of jailed democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy were arrested after peacefully marching in a crowd of 300 to mark Martyrs’ Day.