World

On May 10, British PM Tony Blair finally made his long-awaited resignation statement. Blair will stand down as prime minister with effect from June 27. He will also stand down as leader of the Labour Party, and preparations for the election of the next Labour leader — who will simultaneously become PM — got underway immediately.

Documentary maker Michael Moore has made headlines again with his latest film, SiCKO!, which premiered at the Cannes Film festival on May 23. The documentary is a loaded gun aimed at the US health-care system, which is the most expensive in the world and yet provides the worst cover in the First World, according to the latest World Health Organisation scorecard.

The May 23 advocate (lawyers) solidarity conference decided to build more public support for the advocate’s movement for an independent judiciary and an end to the military dictatorship. The movement erupted after Supreme Court chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry was suspended on March 9. The conference vowed to bring more and more people to future demonstrations and rallies.

Nearly 16 months after the election of indigenous President Evo Morales, vice-president Alvaro Garcia Linera is an authorised spokesperson on the strategic objectives of the unfolding process. In this role, he affirms that his government aims for “a capitalism with a big state presence”. The vice-president spoke to Pablo Stefanoni.

Amidst allegations of intimidation and politically orchestrated violence in the wake of East Timor’s recent presidential election, political parties are preparing for the June 30 legislative election. The ruling party Fretilin, which won a majority of seats in the 2001 constituent assembly election, is facing the prospect of a significantly reduced representation in parliament.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation’s eight-year effort to seek justice for one of its party activists who was kidnapped in 1999 in the north-east Bihar state concluded on May 8 when the alleged culprit — MP Mohammad Shahabuddin — was sentenced to life imprisonment. Chhote Lal Gupta, the victim, is officially presumed dead.

A few months ago, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton would have seemed the least likely Democratic presidential candidate to lead a congressional charge to repeal the authority of Congress bestowed in 2002 upon George Bush to wage war on Iraq.

In the early hours of March 13, the National Liberation Party of Unity (Papernas) regional office in Palu, Central Sulawesi, was attacked by around 30 men. Three Papernas members were hospitalised.

Carora’s streets are much like other Latin American cities — bustling commerce on every corner, traffic, noise, people going about their daily routine. But there is something that distinguishes Carora and the Municipality of Pedro Leon Torres from any other municipality I’ve visited in Latin America, and in particular, any other in Venezuela. The city is on a path to democratise and transform its entire governance system, from the bottom up — led by the current Mayor Julio Chavez (no relation to President Hugo Chavez).

As of 2004, foreign capital controlled 76.6% of Chinese industry, a study produced by academics from Beijing’s Communication University has found. The findings of the report, which was released in March, are consistent with a November 2006 report by the Development Research Centre of the State Council, China’s cabinet.

Thousands of Palestinians joined rallies on May 15 throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territories to mark the 59th anniversary of al Nakba (“The Catastrophe”) — the establishment of the State of Israel and the consequent expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes — as renewed fighting took place between Fatah and Hamas.

“The US military surge in Iraq, designed to turn around the course of the war, appears to be failing as senior US officers admit they need yet more troops and new figures show a sharp increase in the victims of death squads in Baghdad”, the May 13 London Observer reported.