Ema Corro

The Durban Review Conference, held in Geneva on April 20-24, was supposed to review the progress made in implementing Declaration and Program of Action of the World Conference against Racism held in Durban, South Africa, in 2001.
The horror of what is unfolding in Gaza is forcing more people to come out to support Palestine. People are coming out onto the streets in tens or hundreds of thousands all over the world.
The Socialist Alliance will stand two candidates for the City of Maribyrnong in the November council elections, on a platform of “community and environment before developers’ profits”.
The United States administration has stepped up pressure to ban Hezbollah TV station Al-Manar (The Beacon) in Australia and Indonesia.
Students from Melbourne’s Collingwood College protested on August 21 in defence of a student who was threatened with suspension for wearing a "Free Tibet" T-shirt.
A bombing that killed five Hamas members and a five-year-old girl on July 25 in the Gaza Strip has escalated tensions in the Occupied Palestinian Territories between the Hamas government in Gaza and the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority (PA), based in the West Bank.
A French court has denied a woman citizenship because she wears a burqa — a veil covering the entire body — according to a July 11 Reuters report.
“I return from Palestine, only to go back to Palestine. I promise families in Palestine that we are coming back, me and my brothers in the resistance”, newly released Samir Kuntar, one of the longest serving prisoners in Israel, told a jubilant crowd of tens of thousands in Beirut on July 17.
Despite raids by Israel that left six people dead in the Gaza Strip and numerous rockets launched by Palestinian resistance group Islamic Jihad the previous day, a ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas government in Gaza took effect on June 19. At the official start of the ceasefire at 6am, both sides appeared to be holding the truce.
Victorian Labor Premier John Brumby said on August 21 that he will only extend his government’s contracts with Yarra Trams and rail company Connex until the end of 2009, after which there will be a world-wide tender for private operators of Melbourne’s public transport systems.
On June 12, 80 people attended a meeting in support of two Tamil activists who were recently arrested for allegedly sending tsunami relief funds to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
A new report on the effects of the cluster bombs used against Lebanon by Israel during its July-August invasion last year was launched at the Northcote Town Hall on May 29. Around 100 people attended, including members of the Lebanese community, politicians, local councilors and activists.