World

Girma Belay, a 52-year-old Ethiopian refugee who has lived in London for 12 years, was detained for six days in connection with the London bombings. He told the August 4 Guardian that he was at a friend's apartment when officers burst in and forced

The South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) will embark on an indefinite strike from August 8 in support of its demands for a living wage. This follows a three-day strike that began on July 27, along with large marches in most major cities. On

On August 11, South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) accepted a wage increase of between 6% and 7% for its members employed in the country's gold mines. More than 100,000 gold mineworkers walked out on August 7. It was the first national

Rohan Pearce When the WMD myths evaporated, the "coalition of the willing" was left grasping the ostensibly humanitarian justifications for the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq. Democracy, human rights and liberty for Iraqis — these were the

Doug Lorimer Over the last few weeks the US corporate media have been abuzz with reports that the Pentagon has secretly drawn up plans to withdraw most of its troops from Iraq next year. This story was given a major boost when General George Casey,

Lee Sustar, Chicago Call it the wishbone strategy — grab hold of a big part of the labour movement, give a hard pull and hope to end up with the biggest piece. That's the method of the seven-union Change to Win coalition, whose three biggest

On August 10, PNG Power workers declared their intention to take industrial action if the proposed appointment of an Australian expatriate as the new CEO goes ahead. The PNG Energy Workers Association is demanding that the PNG Power CEO remained

On August 4, 90% of nurses went on strike across Fiji after the government failed to agree to agree to their demands. The nurses are demanding a wage rise and are refusing to accept a pay cut due to a recent overpayment. Labour minister Kenneth Zinck

Eva Cheng Is China losing the battle to save its horrifically degraded environment? China's heavy reliance on coal has been a decisive factor in polluting the country's air and land, earning it the notoriety in 1998 of being home to seven of the

Bernie Stephens, Harare The finding by UN Special Envoy Anna Tibaijuka that Operation Murambatsvina (drive out rubbish) — the bulldozing of informal settlements — has left up to 3.3 million Zimbabweans "deeper in poverty, deprivation and

Kerryn Williams On July 30, John Garang, leader of the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), died when the Ugandan helicopter that he was travelling in crashed near the Sudanese border. Garang was at the forefront of securing the January 9

Rohan Pearce The August 1 death of Saudi Arabia's King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz al Saud triggered a predictable, and nauseating, flurry of tributes from the "Coalition of the Willing" — the Iraq invasion alliance of Australia, Britain and the US. In