World

Eva Cheng In the last two years, protests in China have been on the rise and they have become increasingly violent. From 8700 in 1993, the number of "mass incidents" jumped to 32,000 in 1999, 50,000 in 2002, 58,000 in 2003 and 74,000 last year.

New Zealand Education Institute-Te Riu Roa (NZEI) members have offered solidarity to support striking teachers, health workers and public servants in Tonga. Tonga's 1400 teachers are among the 3000 public servants who began a national strike four

Alex Miller According to an August 11 press release issued by the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP), police figures show that religious hate crimes in London, targeted primarily at the Muslim community, have risen by almost 700% compared to 2004 in

Alex Miller Eyewitness reports and CCTV footage leaked to Independent Television News (ITN) have contradicted initial police reports about the shooting to death on July 22 of Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes. Sir Ian Blair, the

Norm Dixon For more than eight months, rich Western governments have refused to respond to successively more urgent appeals by aid agencies and the United Nations for emergency assistance to avert mass starvation in the drought-ravaged Sahel region

Alex Miller Strike action by 1000 British Airways baggage handlers and ground staff brought BA flights at London's Heathrow Airport to a standstill on August 11. The BA staff walked off the job in support of 675 workers who had been summarily

The South African Municipal Workers Union "suspended" its week-long strike on August 15 despite the wage dispute between it and South Africa's mainly ANC-controlled local councils remaining unresolved. SAMWU is demanding increases of up to 9%, while

Beyond Chutzpah, the new book by Jewish-American anti-Zionist Norman Finkelstein, on the misuse of anti-Semitism by Zionism, has been blacklisted by a number of bookstores in the US. The book provides a critical analysis of pro-Zionist Harvard law

Doug Lorimer Speaking four days after Iran reactivated its uranium conversion facility at Isfahan, US President George Bush told Israeli state television on August 12 that the US was determined "to make sure that Iran does not have a [nuclear]

Julie Webb-Pullman The Cuban Five, anti-terrorist fighters jailed in the US since 1998, had their convictions reversed on August 9 in an historic and unanimous decision by three judges of the US Court of Appeals Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta.

Charlie Jackson The prequel to the war in Iraq began in the northern summer of 2002 when neo-conservatives within US President George Bush's administration met at his ranch outside Crawford, Texas. The neo-cons argued that Saddam Hussein was like

Kim Bullimore Despite mass rallies, acid attacks on police and troops, and threats of suicide by fanatical right-wing Israeli settlers, Israel began the implementation of its Gaza Strip disengagement plan on August 17, deploying about 20,000 police