On January 31, Bangladesh聮s acting electoral commission chief Mahfuzur Rahman and his four deputies resigned, paving the way for the country聮s caretaker government to appoint new commission members as demanded by the main alliance of opposition parties.
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Prosecutors are calling Amber Abreu a murderer. But the 18-year-old is a victim of restrictions on access to abortion. Prosecutors recently charged Abreu, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic, with 聯procuring a miscarriage聰 聴 a felony that can carry a penalty of seven years in prison. They say they are planning to file additional charges, including a possible homicide charge, against her.
A foretaste of US President George Bush鈥檚 plan to use 41,500 US troops to 鈥渟tabilise鈥 war-torn Baghdad came on January 24 when the US occupation forces conducted their second assault in a month on the city鈥檚 Haifa Street neighbourhood.
聯As long as I聮m breathing, I will fight with the foreign troops who are coming to our country聰, said Abdiqadir Hassan Diriye, Associated Press reported on February 1. Hassan Diriye was one of hundreds of protesters in Mogadishu demonstrating in response to the African Union聮s announcement the day before that three battalions of AU 聯peacekeepers聰 would be deployed in Somalia.
Washington聮s plan for military action against Iran goes far beyond limited air strikes on its nuclear facilities and would effectively unleash a war against the country, a former US intelligence analyst told Reuters on January 21.
Last month, total US military casualties in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion exceeded 50,000 dead and wounded. By January 28, 3071 US soldiers had died in Iraq and at least 47,657 had been wounded, according to Pentagon figures.
Chanting 鈥渂ring our troops home鈥, anti-war protesters rallied in front of the Capitol building in Washington DC on January 27 to pressure President George Bush鈥檚 administration to end the war on Iraq, now only two months short of entering its fourth year.
A mixed message 聴 combining celebration and auto-critique 聴 came from the Nairobi World Social Forum, held from January 20-25 in a massive sports complex 10km from the city. The 60,000 registered participants heard triumphalist radical rhetoric and yet, too, witnessed persistent defeats for social justice causes, especially within the WSF聮s own processes.
More than 200,000 public service workers in the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) held a nationwide strike on January 31, which is being followed by a two-week overtime ban. The February 1 Morning Star reported that 聯the action hit 200 government departments, halted important court cases and paralysed passport offices, benefit centres, and tax offices聰. In addition, the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff was forced to abandon proceedings, and in London the British Library, Tate Modern and Tate Britain were closed.
Reuters reported on February 3 that at least 23 people had died in armed clashes between Hamas and Fatah in Gaza during the previous 24 hours. The deaths helped bury a short-lived ceasefire that had been declared by the groups <197> the two largest Palestinian political parties <197> on January 30. In the two months prior to the ceasefire, more than 60 Palestinians had been killed, half of them between January 25 and January 29.
Comrade Roberts: Recollections of a Trotskyite
By Kenneth Gee
Desert Pea Press, 2006
207 pages, $29.95 (pb)
By Kenneth Gee
Desert Pea Press, 2006
207 pages, $29.95 (pb)
The Battle For Islam 聴 Looks at how in some Muslim countries, it is women who are leading the charge for change. SBS, Friday, February 9, 1.30pm.
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