World

Dean Parker, Auckland According to a Herald-DigiPoll poll, released on September 9, the incumbent Labour government of Prime Minister Helen Clark and the opposition National Party are running neck and neck in the lead-up to the September 17 New

Barry Sheppard Any person in the world who is not a stone cold racist or sociopath cannot help but react with visceral disgust, outrage and revulsion at the criminal response of the US government to the catastrophe of New Orleans; and to feel deep

The Public Service Association signed an agreement with the Tongan government on September 3, ending a 47-day-long national strike by public sector workers that brought the country to a standstill. The government agreed to pay the workers wage rises

Alex Miller The Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) has abandoned its plan to mount a legal challenge to the banning of four of its parliamentarians (MSPs) from the Scottish Parliament for the month of September. Colin Fox, Frances Curran, Carolyn

Norman Brewer, Bremen The latest opinion poll suggests that the centre-left Social Democrat-Greens federal government of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder will fail to win enough seats in the September 18 federal parliament election to retain

A new pharmaceutical product to treat cancer, LeokoCIM, has received successful preliminary results in 24 hospitals throughout Cuba, reported the Prensa Latina news service on September 5. Trials will conclude at the end of the year and patents for

The United Nations General Assembly has been "completely turned, its main aim kidnapped", president of Cuba's National Assembly Ricardo Alarcon said on September 9, in a speech read by Cuban ambassador to the UN Orlando Requeijo. Alarcon was denied a

On September 8, at Europe's largest coal port in Rotterdam, the Greenpeace ship Argus blocked cranes from unloading coal imported from South Africa, the US, Indonesia and Australia. Greenpeace is demanding that European governments immediately cease

Stuart Munckton The Venezuelan government seized a Heinz Baked Beans processing plant that was left idle by the company, just days after a similar seizure of an idle maize processing plant owned by Alimentos Polar, the largest food company in

Eva Cheng, Hanoi Around 100 solidarity and left-wing activists travelled here from some 40 countries on August 31-September 2 to join the 82 million Vietnamese people in celebrating their 60 years of hard-won independence. Throughout several days

Survival International reported on September 5 that Bushmen in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve have been threatened at gunpoint by wildlife guards in an attempt to force them to abandon their homes. This is part of a crackdown by Botswana's

Stan Goff I haven't been sure how to respond to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, or its coincidence with the almost 1000 Iraqis who were killed during a panic stampede when a bridge suffered a structural failure. I go back and forth, between