World

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

Kerryn Smith Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a US soldier killed in Iraq last year, told a conference call on August 16 that a gradual withdrawal of US troops was "not soon enough". According to the August 17 Los Angeles Times, Sheehan urged an

Rohan Pearce The murder in the southern Iraqi city of Basra in early August of Steven Vincent, a US freelance journalist and well-known pro-war blogger, who had reported from Iraq since late 2003, threw the spotlight on the operation of US-backed

On August 17, the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) rejected new US allegations about Cuban and Venezuelan involvement in unrest in Bolivia. MAS deputy Antonio Peredo denied US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's claims that he had evidence that Cuba

Eva Cheng A 2001 World Bank report, China: Air, Land and Water, provides a telling snapshot of the destruction of China's environment. Air In 1999, only one-third of the 338 monitored cities met the nation's air quality standard (with a similar

More than 1500 people rallied on August 9 against a proposed Coca-Cola bottling plant in Gangaikondan village in the Tirunelveli district in southern India. Local communities have united against the plant, arguing that it will further exacerbate

The following is abridged from a July 27 article by Thamrin Ananda, the chairperson of the Acehnese Popular Democratic Resistance Front (FPDRA). The negotiations between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) to resolve the Aceh

Ugandan women on hunger strike in Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre in Bedfordshire are being denied access to legal and welfare support, including rape crisis services. According to Legal Action for Women, the women have also suffered

Osama Yousif In 1983, the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) formed in opposition to Sudan's Islamist military regime. The SPLM called for the liberation of Sudan from poverty, for peace, for a solution to the oppression and

Colin Hughes, Apartaderos The old man carries his X-ray across the brand spanking new clinic. He enters the specialists' room and is given the news he is to be flown to Cuba within five days for a life-saving operation. Three days earlier, the

Dick Nichols The death on July 26 of renowned French Marxist historian Pierre Broue after a long and painful battle with cancer closes the life of one of European Trotskyism's most remarkable figures. Born in 1926 into a family of deeply

Max Lane According to the July Pulse Asia survey, Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyos's approval rating has hit rock bottom at 19%, a further dip from 25% in June. Three out of four people want her to step down and some 80% in Metro