World

  • ISRAEL: Knesset cancels debate on Vanunu

    On March 14, several international experts arrived in Israel to address a meeting of the Knesset's Constitution, Law and Judiciary Committee, scheduled on March 15 to discuss the restrictions imposed on nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu. They

  • GUATEMALA: Two die, CAFTA ratified

    Guatemala's president ratified the US-Central America Free Trade Agreement on March 15, hours after police killed two activists in a violent attempt to break up a protest calling for a referendum on the trade agreement. By lowering US tariffs, CAFTA

  • VENEZUELA: Bush's next oil war?

    Stuart Munckton A statement released on March 8 and signed by almost 400 Venezuelan journalists accused the US government and media of a campaign to prepare the ground for a US military attack on oil-rich Venezuela. According to translation of

  • IRAQ: The right to resist

    Rohan Pearce "When are the Iraqis going to fight for their own country? ... We want to know when the Iraqis are going to go out there and shed their blood, as American service men ... are willing to shed theirs", a plaintive Democrat Senator Edward

  • BRITAIN: Home Office to ease police race recruitment targets

    On March 8, the Home Office announced it was considering making targets for ethnic minority police officers apply only to new recruits, not to the service as a whole, in order to make them "more achievable". The announcement came on the eve of the

  • SOMALIA: EU toxic dumping a post-tsunami disaster

    In a March 5 press conference, Somali MP Awad Ahmed Ashra explained that the Boxing Day tsunami had "thrown out containers containing toxic waste" on the country's coastline, causing widespread illness including skin disorders and abdominal

  • BRITAIN: Protesters shut Coke for 5 hours

    On March 4, an international day of protest against Coca-Cola's human rights abuses in Colombia, human rights campaigners blockaded the company's Bristol distribution centre for five hours, preventing 30 lorries from entering or leaving the site. The

  • BRITAIN: Asylum seeker attempts suicide

    On March 9, a Zimbabwean asylum seeker jumped out the window of her fourth floor flat when she found out that the government intended to deport her. The Home Office resumed deporting failed asylum seekers to Zimbabwe in November, despite a UN

  • UNITED STATES: Immigrants given monitoring bracelets

    National Public Radio in the US reported on March 2 that 1700 immigrants had been given electronic monitoring bracelets by the Department Of Homeland Security, in a six-month experimental trial. The immigrants have not been accused of a crime, but

  • IRAQ: US used chemical weapons in Fallujah assault

    Doug Lorimer The US military used internationally banned chemical weapons, including nerve gas, during their assault on the Iraqi city of Fallujah last November, Dr Khalid ash Shaykhli, an Iraqi health ministry official, told a March 3 Baghdad

  • Leading anti-Pinochet activist dies

    Roberto Jorquera, Santiago On March 6, Chilean Communist Party president Gladys Marin died at the age of 63 after a 18-month battle with cancer. As soon as her death was made public at 6am, many people began to gather outside her house

  • ISRAEL: Government aids illegal settlers

    A report commissioned by the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, released on March 9, has found that at least 105 illegal "outposts" of Israelis in Palestinian areas are established, maintained and expanded with the support of the government. Under