Daily Report

Mexico: activist accused in Brad Will murder free at last

The man accused of killing New York independent journalist Brad Will was released from prison in Oaxaca, Mexico, on Feb. 18 after a federal appeals tribunal declared that there was no evidence against him. Juan Manuel Martínez Moreno, an activist with the Popular Assembly of the People's of Oaxaca (APPO) from an impoverished neighborhood of Oaxaca City, was freed after 16 months in the state's harsh Santa María Ixcotel Central Penitentiary. "It was easier to implicate somebody like me than the real killers," he told reporters.

Mexico: massacre in Oaxaca village

Hooded gunmen stormed the pueblo of San Vicente Camalote in southern Mexico's Oaxaca state and killed 13 people Feb. 24. Among the dead were nine state police agents who were attacked at a checkpoint. The gunmen next burst into the ranch of Alfonso Maciel, killing him and his three sons, one of whom was a minor, state authorities said. The pueblo, in Acatlán de Pérez Figueroa municipality in a mountainous region near the Veracruz border, has been occupied by army troops and elite Federal Preventative Police. (AP, El Universal, Feb. 24)

Israeli "national heritage" list "blurs border" with Palestinian territories

The Israeli government's decision to include two West Bank locations—the Cave of the Patriarchs and Rachel's Tomb—on a list of "national heritage sites" has sparked an uproar in the country's political circles. Chaim Oron, chairman of the left-wing Meretz party, slammed the decision Feb. 21, saying "This is another attempt to blur the borders between the State of Israel and the occupied territories."

"Free trade" deepens African hunger: study

Despite good intentions, the push to privatize government functions and instate "free trade" policies has caused declining food production, increased poverty and a sparked a hunger crisis for millions of people in African nations, researchers conclude in a new study. Market reforms that began in the mid-1980s and were supposed to aid economic growth have actually backfired in some of the world's poorest nations, leading in recent years to multiple food riots, scientists reported Feb. 15 today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Algerian court acquits ex-Gitmo detainee

A criminal court in Algeria Feb. 21 acquitted former Guantánamo Bay detainee Mustafa Hemlili of charges of counterfeiting and affiliation with a militant group. Hemlili was released from Guantánamo, along with fellow inmate Hederbash Sufian, after a six-year detention period. The court separated the trials of the two defendants, stating that the only link between them was the date of their release. Sufian's trial was postponed due to poor health after his lawyers presented evidence showing that he suffers from mental trauma as a result of his treatment at the US naval facility. Hemlili had traveled with family members to Mali, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan without a passport before going to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region to work with an international relief agency assisting Afghan refugees. After the 9-11 attacks, Hemlili was captured in Peshawar, Pakistan, with a forged Iraqi passport. (Jurist, Feb. 22)

WHY WE FIGHT

From the New York Times, Feb. 21:

Hit and Run in Brooklyn Leaves One Brain-Dead
An employee of the mayor's office was declared brain-dead on Sunday morning after she and another woman were struck by a hit-and-run driver while crossing Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn, the authorities said.

Falklands war redux?

Several British companies are poised to begin offshore exploration in waters around the Falkand Islands—sparking a diplomatic row with Argentina, which claims the archipelago that it calls the Malvinas. Britain's Desire petroleum, which has just put a rig in place, has licensed six areas where it predicts 3.5 billion barrels of oil and nine trillion cubic feet of gas. Last week, Buenos Aires said it would require all ships from the islands to obtain permits to dock in Argentina in retribution for the move. The press in both the UK and Argentina are raising the specter of renewed conflict over the islands, the scene of a two-month war in 1982.

Honduras iced from Latin American summit

Honduran President Porfirio Lobo is not invited to the second Summit of Latin American and Caribbean Unity, organizers of the regional confab announced. Mexico, which will host the event on February 22-23 in the resort city of Cancún, said the Honduran government should be recognized by the Organization of American States (OAS) before it can take a seat at the summit. (RIA-Novosti, Press TV, Feb. 21)

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