World

  • TONGA: Public servants threaten new strike

    TONGA: Public servants threaten new strike A Tonga Public Service Association meeting on February 24 decided to go on strike if the government fails to meet its demands. The union is calling for the 40% balance of agreed upon wage increases to be

  • VIETNAM: Communist youth website launched

    Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union has launched a new website in the lead-up to its 75th anniversary on March 26. The site will include information on the activities of the youth union, the Vietnam Union of Youth Associations and the Ho Chi

  • RUSSIA: Mayor bans gay pride march

    The US-based Human Rights Watch has condemned a plan by the mayor of Moscow to ban the city's first ever gay pride march. Organisers have been anticipating 5000 participants for the May 27 parade. A spokesperson for the mayor told reporters on

  • PHILIPPINES: 'Arroyo's crimes against the people persist'

    Max Lane On March 3, Philippines President Gloria Arroyo lifted the state of emergency that she had declared a week earlier. Arroyo claimed she had successfully prevented a coup, yet no details of this coup attempt have been made public. The week

  • IRAN: No evidence for US charges

    Doug Lorimer In an 11-page report on Iran's nuclear program circulated on February 27 to the governing board of the UN's Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency in advance of its March 6 meeting, IAEA director-general Mohammed ElBaradei

  • INDONESIA: Protests demand Freeport mine closure

    Zoe Kenny On February 25, the five-day blockade by several hundred West Papuan villagers of the sole access road to Freeport's Grasberg mine was called off. The villagers achieved their modest goal of retaining the right (although formally illegal)

  • UNITED STATES: South Dakota's all-out abortion ban

    Elizabeth Schulte, Chicago In the most sweeping anti-abortion measure in 10 years, South Dakota state senators voted on February 22 for a bill that will ban virtually all abortions. Under the bill — which states that human "life begins at the

  • ZIMBABWE: MDC versus MDC

    Bernie Stephens, Harare With the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) divided down the middle, President Robert Mugabe would have celebrated his 82nd birthday in February with temporary respite. The MDC split in the lead-up to last

  • GERMANY: Venezuelan solidarity groups meet

    Around 100 solidarity activists from 17 cities met on February 25 in Bielefeld to discuss solidarity with the Venezuelan revolution. The meeting discussed the possibility of forming an umbrella organisation later in the year, and decided to deepen

  • Bush go back!'

    'Killer Bush go back!' PAKISTAN — Labour Party Pakistan activists defied a ban to demonstrate in Lahore and Karachi on March 2 against the visit of US President George Bush. The protesters chanted 'Killer Bush go back' and 'Hands off

  • CUBA: Statistics show US #1 human rights violator

    Cuba's National Office of Statistics has calculated that between 1959 and the end of 2004, the US caused US$80 billion of damage to the island's population through its economic blockade. According to a foreign ministry report on the statistics, which

  • PALESTINE: Israel invades Balata refugee camp

    Harrison Healy, Nablus Over several days beginning on February 19, the Israeli army conducted a series of incursions in the Balata refugee camp, claiming it was trying to track down 16 Palestinian resistance fighters. According to camp residents,