WW4 Report

Bombs rock Mexico City

Bombs exploded at three high-profile targets in Mexico City early on the morning of Nov. 6, causing property damage but no injuries. A door was damaged and windows blown out at the Federal Electoral Tribunal (TRIFE), a body which had angered leftists in September for ruling that conservative candidate Felipe Calderon won July's disputed presidential race. Glass and ceiling panels covered the floor of an annex building at the headquarters of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), now embroiled in a bitter conflict in the state of Oaxaca. An explosion also tore apart the metal and glass facade of a branch of Canada's Scotiabank. A fourth bomb at another bank failed to detonate. (Reuters, Nov. 6)

International emergency campaign for Gaza

From Gush Shalom, Nov. 3:

Gaza: Stop the Siege! Stop the War!
A month of protest: November 4—December 2, 2006

The situation in Gaza has reached emergency levels—inadequate water, electricity, and medicine; widespread hunger, poverty, and unemployment; schools and other services out of operation; and constant bombardments and attacks by the Israeli military. The problem is the siege of the Gaza Strip by Israel and the sanctions imposed by the international community, made worse by ongoing IDF attacks. If this siege continues, we will see spreading disease, malnutrition, and anarchy.

Oaxaca: APPO defends university, feds send in spy plane

Mexican federal police pushed through barricades on roads leading to Oaxaca's state university Nov. 2, firing tear-gas canisters and water cannons at protesters, who fought back with rocks, slingshots and molotov cocktails. But the police stopped short of crossing onto the campus. At least eight people were injured in the fighting, including a newspaper photographer who was "hit by fireworks" launched by protesters, according to the New York Times. Flavio Sosa, a leader of the Popular People's Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO) pledged "we will not surrender." (WP, NYT, Nov. 3; La Jornada, Nov. 2)

Drones to patrol Mexican border

From LA's NBC4-TV, Nov. 2:

FORT HUACHACA, Ariz. — The federal government has unveiled a new multimillion-dollar gadget to patrol and protect the U.S.-Mexican border.

Free speech victory in Turkey

From Turkey's Zaman, Nov. 2:

A 92-year-old retired Turkish archaeologist has been acquitted in a rights trial in which she was accused of "inciting hatred by insulting people based on their religion.”

Darfur and Zionist propaganda: our readers write

Our October issue featured the story "Save Darfur: Zionist Conspiracy?" by Ned Goldstein, exploring propaganda exploitation of the genocide in Sudan by Israel and US imperialism. A companion feature by WW4 REPORT Editor Bill Weinberg, "From Darfur to Mauritania," noted the survival of slavery and persecution of Black African peoples across the entire Sahel region—while also noting how the region's conflicts are exploited by rival multinational oil interests. The October Exit Poll was: "Should the UN intervene in Darfur, or is it all a Zionist/imperialist conspiracy for 'regime change' in Sudan?" We received the following responses:

Marseille: intifada redux

From AP, Oct. 30:

MARSEILLE -- France's interior minister sent riot police to patrol the southern port city of Marseille yesterday after a group of marauding teenagers torched a bus, gravely burning a young woman.

Pakistan: protests as air strike wipes out madrassa in Tribal Areas

Pakistan's army admitted Oct. 31 it had killed up to 80 in an early-morning strike on a supposedly al-Qaeda-linked madrassa in a tribal area near the Afghan border. The military action sparked protests in the area, and in the neighbouring North-West Frontier Province, where a local minister belonging to the opposition Jamaat-e-Islami resigned. The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, the religious coalition that rules the province, announced it would organize nation-wide protests beginning Oct. 31. Qazi Hussein Ahmed, leader of JI and the MMA, rejected the military claim that the madrasa was harboring militants and said a number of children were among the dead. He asserted that the army had acted under pressure from the US.

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