Anti-mining protests have made some international news from Mongolia and Indonesia. The latest entry is from the French colonial holding of New Caledonia. Note that protests causing "millions of dollars" in damages to the mine took place weeks ago with not a flicker in the world media, and that a labor-indigenous alliance is now emerging around the issue. From Radio New Zealand, April 21:

Here's a clue as to the political scorecard in Kyrgyzstan. From Turkey's Zaman, April 20:

The United States was asked to evacuate its military base in Uzbekistan last year and now it has been delivered a "note over its base" in Kyrgyzstan.

The New York Times does it again. The placement of two seemingly unrelated articles (perhaps unintentionally?) reveals more about the world than either would alone. On the op-ed page today, Tony Judt weighs in, somewhat sympathetically, on the Walt/Mearsheimer thesis that the "influence" of the Israeli Lobby accounts for the US presence in Iraq. Meanwhile, a story about President Hu's visit to Washington (on the front page, if below the fold) reveals far more about the real reason the US is in Iraq—and, alas, will likely soon be in Iran. Emphasis added.

Insurgency and counterinsurgency grind on in the North Caucasus, with the world's attention elsewhere. Two police were killed and five wounded April 15 when gunmen ambushed their armored personnel carrier in Chechnya, Russia's RIA reported. One was killed by a roadside bomb and the second when gunmen with automatic weapons opened fire.

An estimated two million people took part in coordinated demonstrations in more than 140 US cities on April 10, a National Day of Action for Immigrant Justice demanding legalization and other rights for out-of-status immigrants. Organizers scheduled the protests for a Monday during congressional recess so elected officials would be in their home districts to witness them. Hundreds of thousands more marched on the previous day, April 9. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Los Angeles Times, April 11)

Received by e-mail from UK Pledge of Resistance:

SUPPORT MALCOLM KENDALL SMITH
Yesterday, Malcolm Kendall-Smith, a Flight Lieutenant with the RAF was jailed for 8 months for refusing to go to Iraq on the grounds that the war was illegal.

Is forgotten Mongolia about to enter the global stage? Suddenly civil unrest breaks out in the capital, Ulan Bator, with a struggle over mineral resources in the background. Dare we hope that the anti-government protesters represent an indigenous ecological movement and not (or at least not yet) mere pawns of Washington, Moscow or Beijing? From AP, April 11:

ULAN BATOR - Thousands of protesters from rival civic groups faced off in Mongolia's capital on Tuesday, as hundreds of police intervened to prevent minor scuffles from escalating.

More than a year after Kyrgyzstan's "Tulip Revolution," the supposed democratic renewal isn't looking too good, is it? President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, so recently a revolutionary leader, now warns against "lawlessness and anarchy" like a good despot. But is he Washington's son of a bitch now? Or are the neocons planning yet another revolution, deeming him insufficiently compliant? From Reuters, April 14: