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PITTSBURGH Police fired canisters of pepper spray and smoke at marchers protesting the Group of 20 summit Thursday after anarchists responded to calls to disperse by rolling trash bins and throwing rocks.The march turned chaotic at just about the time that President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama arrived for a meeting with leaders of the world's major economies.The clashes began after hundreds of protesters, many advocating against capitalism, tried to march from an outlying neighborhood toward the convention center where the summit is being held. The protesters banged on drums and chanted "Ain't no power like the power of the people, 'cause the power of the people don't stop."
Iranian universities have reopened against a backdrop of simmering postelection dispute that has authorities fearing new protests and many students expecting the worst. Officials are concerned that the new academic year will allow disgruntled youths to stoke public anger over the fiercely contested reelection of President Mahmud Ahmadinejad. Student leaders are meanwhile nervous as a result of arrests, bans, and efforts that appeared aimed at intimidating potential malcontents whose sympathies are thought to lie with the political opposition that's been shut out since the June 12 election. One of the traditional hotbeds of student unrest, Tehran University, did not reopen, reportedly due to testing procedures that preempted the start of new classes.
Reporting from Mexico City and Tegucigalpa, Honduras -- For a few hours Wednesday, Honduras' political drama gave way to more important matters -- like buying groceries and filling gas tanks.Streets in the capital, Tegucigalpa, were clogged with frantic shoppers after the country's interim rulers briefly lifted a nationwide curfew to let residents restock shelves. Meanwhile, the deposed president, Manuel Zelaya, remained hunkered in a foreign embassy.It was the first chance for residents to get out since Monday, when Zelaya sneaked back into Honduras and the de facto government abruptly imposed the shutdown. The curfew was to resume later Wednesday."I haven't had food at home for three days because the curfew caught us by surprise. I have to get milk for my three children," said Mariega Garcia, a 40-year-old administrator.
CARACAS, Venezuela — Press freedom groups condemn Venezuela's recent shutdown of radio stations as part of a broader strategy by President Hugo Chavez to progressively clamp down on the private news media — and they want to put a stop to it.Newspaper executives who lead the Miami-based Inter American Press Association say Venezuela will be at the top of their list as they gather in Caracas for an emergency forum Friday to discuss freedom of expression in the Americas.Chavez's government forced 32 radio stations and two small television stations off the air last month, saying some owners had failed to renew their broadcast licenses while other licenses were no longer valid because they had been granted long ago to owners who are now dead.
Buenos Aires, Argentina - On September 3, 2009, three aging, retired officials from Argentina's army entered a federal courthouse in Rosario, Argentina. The men - Pascual Guerrieri, Jorge Alberto Fariña and Juan Daniel Amelong - have been charged with the kidnapping, forced disappearance and torture of 29 people, and the murder of 17 of them during Argentina's last dictatorship. The case in Rosario is the latest in a tidal wave of cases to reach a courthouse against the dictatorships of the Southern Cone from a generation ago. Until several years ago, less than a dozen officials were ever convicted for the atrocities committed by Latin America's military governments in the 1970s. Most of them were eventually pardoned. But within the last three years - particularly the last year - justice has sped up, including dozens of convictions and hundreds of indictments.
WASHINGTON — Wednesday was the 50th day of their hunger strike, but Hamid Goudarzi, 26, and his fellow Iranian-immigrant protesters here swore they would never give up.Two Iranian immigrants, Reza Haghelahi, left, and Khalil Parsae, are part of a hunger strike outside the White House. “I’m getting weaker every day,” said Mr. Goudarzi, who gave up his job in San Antonio to join the protest. “But I’m here to the end.”He is among two dozen hunger strikers encamped a stone’s throw from the White House to protest the deaths in Iraq of at least six members of the People’s Mujahedeen of Iran, an exile group based in Iraq and committed to the overthrow of the Islamic revolutionary government in Tehran. Similar sympathy strikes are under way in Ottawa, London, Berlin, Stockholm and The Hague.
"Crude" sounds like the standard "this is an outrage" environmental degradation documentary, the latest in a line that includes "An Inconvenient Truth" and films about the death of the ocean, the evaporation of water, the murder of dolphins, even the disintegration of dirt. "Crude" fits that bill, but it is something considerably more interesting as well.The outrage in question is the subject of a class-action suit filed by 30,000 citizens of Ecuador against Chevron, the world's fifth-largest corporation, alleging that 18 billion gallons of toxic wastewater were dumped into the Amazon between 1972 and 1990, fatally poisoning the land and water and sickening inhabitants. The lawsuit, with a potential cost to Chevron of $27 billion, has been going on for so long, 16 years and counting, that the original American oil company in Ecuador, Texaco, was acquired by Chevron and no longer exists.
PITTSBURGH -- A relatively small and peaceful group of about 500 protesters, most demanding new jobs programs, marched through city streets in the first full day of demonstrations targeting the Group of 20 economic summit later this week.The turnout was less than the 1,500 expected, and some protest groups blamed the city delays in issuing permits and the promised threefold expansion in the city's police force for the small turnout. Protestors were also critical of comments made by President Barack Obama in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, downplaying the effectiveness of mass protest on abstract issues such as global capitalism.
HAVANA, CUBA More than half a million Cubans gathered in Havana on Sunday for a concert featuring Miami-based singer Juanes, a gig welcomed by US President Barack Obama, but criticized by Cuban exiles.Hundreds of thousands of parasol-waving fans braced blistering heat in the capital's storied Revolution Square, with merriment belying the political undertones that the concert has produced.Miami's Cuban exile community has criticized the performance, saying it will legitimize the island's communist regime, and Colombian-born singer Juanes received death threats ahead of the "Peace without Borders" concert.
Reporting from Cairo and Tehran - Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei attempted to unify Iranians on Sunday by blaming foreign media for "poisoning the atmosphere" and urged his nation to resist the "killer cancer" of an Israel backed by Western powers.Delivering a sermon at Tehran University before a crowd that included President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and opposition cleric Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Khamenei said the West had failed in its attempts to undermine the government with large opposition protests during countrywide anti-Israel rallies Friday. "It showed that their [Western politicians'] tricks, spending money and political evilness do not influence the Iranian nation," said Khamenei, who was greeted with chants of "Leader, we offer our blood to you."
HAVANA TIMES, Sept.20 (IPS) - Shaded from the blazing sun by his straw sombrero, one of the principal leaders of the National Front Against the Coup d’état in Honduras declared, “The only solution to the political crisis is the return of Manuel Zelaya to the presidency before September 30.”“But this also requires the formation of a national constituent assembly to ratify a new Constitution to allow Honduras to be restructured as a progressive Central American nation,” added Rafael Alegría, leader of the Front. Alegria said a new Constitution must contemplate the end of ‘traditional groups of power’ through enacting deep reforms to the system of government, presidential reelections, the extension of that term of office to five years, the breakup of the armed forces and a total reorganization of the police. He spoke just prior to beginning a march through poor neighborhoods on the north side of Tegucigalpa on the 82nd day of protests against the Honduran coup d’état.
WASHINGTON—A high-ranking US senator said Thursday he told deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya to use "constructive means" in pursuing a solution to the political crisis that has wracked the Central American country since Zelaya's ouster more than two months ago. Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, criticized Zelaya for taking "provocative" steps before and after his removal, which contributed to "deep divisions in Honduran society."
Magodonga Mahlangu and her organization, Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), are the 2009 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award winners. WOZA is a grassroots movement of over 60,000 Zimbabweans working throughout their country, empowering women from all walks of life to mobilize and take non-violent action against injustice. Ms. Mahlangu is a bold leader and a pioneer of the women's rights movement in Zimbabwe who has led WOZA's determined campaign of direct action. Tens of thousands of women have joined WOZA in standing up for human rights and speaking up about the worsening economic, social and political conditions in Zimbabwe. Since its founding in December 2002, WOZA has staged more than 100 non-violent marches in support of democratic reform and women's empowerment. The Government of Zimbabwe has jailed Ms. Mahlangu and thousands of WOZA supporters many times for their participation.
Today we announced the availability of 24 scholarships to attend an intensive ten-day session of this newspaper's School of Authentic Journalism, February 3 to 13 of 2010 on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula. The application for scholarships is ten pages long and includes an essay requirement.The video above appeared on CNN last summer but was not filmed by the network. A citizen who had been on a bus to Tegucigalpa, Honduras, to attend a protest against the military coup d'etat there took out his cell phone camera and began filming after soldiers stopped a caravan of buses and ordered everyone out of them. The soldiers - as the video discloses - then shot out the bus tires with their rifles.
Liberian women from all religious and academic backgrounds played a courageous role to end the country's bloody civil war which lasted from 1989 to 2003. Wearing only white T-shirts, the women took on the warlords, including Charles Taylor and nonviolently brought peace to Liberia. Well, their strength and perseverance in stopping the country's brutal civil war is the subject of a documentary – "Pray the Devil Back to Hell". It is showing in over 200 cities around the world, and tonight (Wednesday) the documentary will be shown at the World Bank in Washington, D.C.
Before dawn this morning, a small team of climate and Native Rights activists rappelled from the US observation deck at Niagara Falls. Dangling hundreds of feet above the ground, they sent a special welcome message to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper ahead of his first official visit to the White House to push dirty Tar Sands oil.Not that he’s feeling so welcome anyway. Obama limited the meeting to just one hour. While some have called it a slap in the face, Aides say Harper will turn the other cheek. “The economy, and the clean-energy dialogue,” one aide told the Globe and Mail, “will dominate the discussions.” Obama needed to dodge controversy over oil imports from Canada’s tar sands in the midst of the Climate Legislation debate. Harper needed a story to go with his photo-op.
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran security forces clashed with supporters of opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi and arrested at least 10 of them during annual anti-Israel rallies in central Tehran on Friday, a witness said."Security forces just arrested over 10 people," the witness said. "They are pushing protesters and beating them."Iranian authorities, including Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had warned the opposition against turning anti-Israel rallies to street protests against the clerical establishment.
Sergels torg in central Stockholm was sealed off on Sunday afternoon as rival demonstrators clashed. A demonstration began on the square at around midday to protest against the regime in Iran. At around 2pm a further demonstration began directed against Israel and the two groups clashed in a war of words. "We have had to seal off the square and have to keep the groups apart, there is a tense atmosphere and a lot of verbal abuse being hurled at each other," Kjell Lindgren at Stockholm police told news agency TT. "We have redirected traffic heading towards the square as well, there are too many people milling about," he said.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has urged hunger strikers demonstrating against the treatment of 3,000 Iranian refugees in an Iraqi camp to end their protest. Hunger strikers outside the US embassy in London are demanding the US takes responsibility for Camp Ashraf. Residents of the camp say an Iraqi raid there in July left several people dead. Dr Rowan Williams says the situation at the camp is a humanitarian issue "of real magnitude and urgency", but adds there should be no more loss of life.
A losing presidential candidate in Zimbabwe ’s 2008 presidential elections and now a leading opposition figure Simba Makoni will next Tuesday stand trial on allegations of addressing an illegal meeting during his campaigns.Makoni, a close associate of President Robert Mugabe until he broke away from ZANU PF in February last year to challenge the octogenarian dictator, is being charged under the Public Order and Security Act (POSA).The charges against Makoni who came a distant third in the first round of the presidential vote last year won by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai stemmed from an alleged meeting attended by about 400 people in Harare.
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