World

At least 18 people were killed on August 12 and 13 by police and military bullets in the Indian-controlled section of Kashmir. Among them was a senior political leader, Sheikh Abdul Aziz of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), a coalition of various pro-independence and separatist, but also pro-Pakistani, organisations based in Kashmir.

The landslide victory by opposition People’s Justice Party (PKR) leader Anwar Ibrahim in the August 26 Permatang Pauh by-election is welcomed in this commentary by Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj, the first federal parliamentarian of the Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM). This is reprinted from http://asia-pacific-action.org.

Witness the massive padlock, tightly hugging its doors. That will tell you all you need to know about Hurricane Gustav and the federal US government’s carefully orchestrated response.

“Hey I have been down to their ‘convergence’ centre and they are really organised … specific plans and hand signals etc.”

On the call of the lawyers’ movement — which spearheaded the pro-democracy movement that brought down the dictator Pervez Musharraf — a two-hour long dharna (sit-in) was held at M A Jinnah Road, Karachi on August 28.

There was one good thing about George Bush’s recent visit to New Orleans — if he comes back, it won’t be as president.

“A lady who’s a leader”, gushed the Weekly Standard’s William Kristol. “I would pull that lever”, declared James Dobson of the anti-choice and homophobic group Focus on the Family.

Reprinted from http://climateandcapitalism.com.

Below is the text of the resolution of the National Coalition for Change (CONALCAM) meeting held in Cochabamba on August 22-23. It is reprinted from Bolivia Rising, &http://bolivirarising.blogspot.com. CONALCAM brings a together the United Union Confederation of Peasant Workers of Bolivia; the Confederation of Indigenous Peoples of Bolivia; the National Federation of Cooperative Miners; the Federation of Neighbourhood Councils of El Alto; the National Council of Ayllus and Markas of Qullasuyu; the National Federation of Bolivian Peasant Women Bartolina Sisa; and the National Confederation of Small and Micro Businesses.

A Rwandan judicial commission of inquiry into the role of France in the 1994 genocide, in which around 1 million Rwandans were killed in 100 days, has called for the indictment of 33 high-ranking French political and military leaders.

Two international activist boats successfully broke the Israeli blockade on the Palestinian Gaza Strip enclave on August 23.

Under pressure from Iraqis opposed to the ongoing occupation of their country, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamil al Maliki released a statement on August 25 calling for the complete withdrawal of all foreign forces from Iraq by 2011.