World

  • VENEZUELA: US tries isolation tactics

    Stuart Munckton "We are very concerned about a democratically elected leader who governs in an illiberal way", intoned US Secretary of State-designate Condeleeza Rice addressing a January 18 Senate foreign relations committee. Rice was referring to

  • LATIN AMERICA: The US/Colombia plot against Venezuela

    James Petras A major diplomatic and political conflict has exploded between Colombia and Venezuela, after the revelation of a Colombian government covert operation in Venezuela that involved the recruitment of Venezuelan military and security

  • POLAND: 28 arrested for insulting Putin

    Polish police arrested 28 demonstrators on January 26, at a rally to protest the planned presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin at a memorial service at the Auschwitz concentration camp on January 27. The protesters argued that Putin was a war

  • ACEH: With 300,000 dead: 'We must have a cease fire'

    Max Lane "The death toll in Aceh from the tsunami is closer to 300,000 people", Thamrin Ananda, chairperson of the Aceh People's Democratic Struggle Front (FPDRA), told Green Left Weekly by phone from Jakarta on January 27. The FPDRA has been

  • EL SALVADOR: Budget sparks protest

    Lara Pullin Within hours of the federal budget being passed on January 28, outraged students and staff occupied the University of El Salvador, vowing to lead national mass actions to overturn it. They have called for mass protests at the national

  • BRAZIL: 150,000 attend World Social Forum

    According to police estimates, more than 200,000 people participated in the January 26 rally to mark the beginning of the fifth World Social Forum. Finishing on January 31, the WSF brought together 150,000 activists from more than 100 countries,

  • Central American unions slam CAFTA as racist

    The leaders of the more-than-30 unions that make up the Central American Common Union met on January 18 in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, to establish the next moves in their campaign against the US-Central America Free Trade Agreement. They slammed CAFTA

  • IRAQ: Tortured policy

    Doug Lorimer On January 15, US Army soldier Charles Graner was sentenced by a court martial to 10 years' imprisonment for his role in physically abusing and sexually humiliating Iraqis held at the US-run Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad in 2003. A few

  • PERU: New broad front formed

    The member organisations from the National Left Committee (CNI) and the Peruvian Progressive Parties (PPP) announced on January 27 through a written document the formation of a "Broad Front" (FA) with the purpose of building a real alternative to the

  • BRITAIN: Proposed 'control orders' to attack civil liberties

    On January 26, British Home Secretary Charles Clarke outlined planned "control orders", which would enable the government to subject those suspected of terrorism to house arrest, curfews or tagging, without needing to try them. The announcement

  • PALESTINE: A town under house arrest

    On January 25, Israeli troops rolled into the town of Saida and placed the whole village under curfew: since then, no-one has been allowed to leave his or her home. One of those in the town is Australian aid worker Donna Mulhearn, who sent the

  • UNITED STATES: Pentagon turns away grieving relatives

    On January 26, Pentagon police turned away five "Gold Star" families (those who have a relative killed in Iraq) who wanted to confront Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld about the reasons for the war in Iraq. Police said the group, which did not have