A group of 57 refugees, mainly from Africa and the Middle East, have pushed the plight of the more than 100,000 asylum seekers in Germany into the national spotlight.
In September, they rejected regulations that constrain their movement and began a long march to the German capital, Berlin. They came from as far as Wuerzburg, a Bavarian town in Germany鈥檚 south. Some of them completed the 600 kilometre journey on foot over 29 days.
Arriving in early October, the refugees and scores more German supporters established a tent city in the Berlin suburb of Kreuzberg.
Aaron Benedek
鈥淰enezuela Elections 'Free, But Not Fair'鈥, was Germany鈥檚 Spiegel Online headline on a piece about Venezuela's October 7 presidential poll, won by socialist President Hugo Chavez by more than 55% of the vote. 鈥淐havismo wins, Venezuela loses鈥, was The Wall Street Journal's take.
Compared with such headlines, the Sydney Morning Herald鈥檚 reprint of a New York Times article 鈥淪ocialist Chavez hangs onto Power in Venezuela鈥 by William Neuman might seem a reasonably balanced report. It is not.
On March 16, former Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib won his case for defamation against an article by Piers Akerman in February 2005 in the Daily Telegraph.
SYDNEY鈥 On April 24, more than 30 organisers and officials from the NSW Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) heard a presentation on the Palestinian resistance and the growing movement for boycotts, divestments from and sanctions against Israel (BDS). The presentation was given by activists from BDS Sydney and the Gaza Defence Committee.
After Israel鈥檚 December-January military assault on Gaza, the global boycott campaign against Israel is starting to have an impact.
Greens councillor Linda Eisler moved a motion titled Support for Palestinian Territories at a Canterbury council meeting on February 26.
One hundred people marched through Redfern on February 14 to mark the fifth anniversary of the death of a young local Aboriginal man, TJ Hickey.
Hickey was impaled on a fence, allegedly as a result of a police vehicle chasing him and ramming his
Along with the sheer brutality and horror inflicted on Palestinians, the massacre in Gaza has resulted in a serious political setback for Israel. Internationally, support for the Israeli apartheid state has been weakened and Hamas鈥 legitimacy has skyrocketed.
On July 17, 50 people heard Dr Mohamed Haneef聮s lawyer, Peter Russo, launch a guide to Australia聮s 聯anti-terror聰 legislation in Bankstown Town Hall.
In his comment piece, "Should Venezuela have entered Mercosur?" (GLW #682), Raul Bassi emphasises the incapacity of Mercosur 鈥 the "Common Market of the South" set up in 1991 between Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay 鈥 to