WW4 Report

Long Island: fear of turbans

C'mon already. 9-11 was almost five years ago. When are people gonna knock it off already? From Newsday, May 13:

LI Sikh angered by terror suspicion
Indian immigrant Jaspal Arora, a religious Sikh, wears a turban everywhere he goes, including to morning workouts at the Mid-Island Y Jewish Community Center in Plainview.

Afghanistan: woman legislator physically attacked on parliament floor

From The Jurist, May 8:

Afghan parliament descends into chaos as lawmakers attack female legislator
The floor of the Afghan parliament has witnessed its first outbreak of violence, with lawmakers physically and verbally assaulting a controversial female legislator who called several of the country's mujahedeen leaders criminals unfit for public office. Female colleagues of 27-year old anti-fundamentalist women's health worker Malalai Joya threw plastic bottles at her and male lawmakers insulted her and allegedly made death threats in the wake of a speech Sunday. Joya was surrounded by a cordon of moderates and escaped unhurt.

Mexico: Fox caves in on decrim law

The conservative Baptist Press News (May 5) chalks this up (pretty damn blatantly) as a victory for a gringo pressure campaign. That spin will not serve Fox well, as a sudden upsurge of peasant and labor unrest is sending Mexico into crisis.

MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Vincente Fox, in a surprise reversal, announced he will not sign a drug bill legalizing possession of illicit drugs passed by Mexico's Congress five days earlier.

Meanwhile, the dolphins are dying...

From AP, May 3:

Sonar tied to deaths of 400 dolphins?
Zanzibar scientists look for clues; U.S. Navy task force in area

ZANZIBAR - Scientists are studying the remains of some of the 400 dolphins that washed up dead on a beach popular with tourists on the northern coast of Zanzibar.

Ecuador: UN seeks aid for Colombian refugees

Colombia is the worst humanitarian disaster in the western hemisphere, and the worst on the planet after Congo and Darfur. But the world is paying very little attention—even as Ecuador is starting to look more and more like the next domino. From the UN News Center, May 5:

The United Nations refugee agency is appealing for just $69,000 by the end of the month — a mere $10 per person — to help 7,200 Colombians who have fled into Ecuador from violence in their homeland.

Ethnic cleansing in Ecuador

From EFE, April 29 via ServIndi (our translation):

QUITO - The government will investigate an alleged massacre of indigenous people in the Amazon, at the hands of presumed armed madereros [pirate loggers], in a dispute over a forest zone, the local press reported today.

Mexico: officer cleared in deadly labor repression

From El Universal, May 4 via the Chiapas95 archive:

A state judge on Wednesday exonerated a Michoacan police officer accused of shooting and killing a striking steel mill worker last month, despite video footage showing the officer firing his rifle toward the workers.

Mauritanian anti-slavery activist to speak in NYC

With Darfur in the headlines, if not the minds of our policymakers, it is generally forgotten that armed attacks, forced deportations and even slavery continue against Black African peoples throughout the Sahel. On Tuesday, May 9, at 7:30 PM, the Libertarian Book Club's Anarchist Forum will present a discussion in New York's Greenwhich Village on "Ethnic Cleansing and Slavery in Contemporary Africa," with an emphasis on Mauritania, Sudan and Darfur. The featured speaker will be Abdarahmane Wone of the African Liberation Forces of Mauritania (FLAM), which has been attempting to resist and expose the system of slavery in that country for a generation.

Syndicate content