It is year six of the UN-backed NATO occupation of Afghanistan, a joint US-European Union mission. On February 26 there was an attempted assassination of US Vice-President Dick Cheney by Taliban suicide bombers while he was visiting the 鈥渟ecure鈥 US air base at Bagram (once an equally secure Soviet air base during an earlier conflict). Two US soldiers and a mercenary (鈥渃ontractor鈥) died in the attack, as did twenty other people working at the base. This episode alone should have concentrated the US vice-president鈥檚 mind on the scale of the Afghan debacle. In 2006 the casualty rates rose substantially and NATO troops lost 46 soldiers in clashes with the Islamic resistance or shot-down helicopters.
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On January 30, 2003, as Washington assembled its military forces for the long-planned invasion of Iraq, US magazine Business Week explained to its corporate readership the expected benefits of the coming US-led occupation: 鈥淪ince the US military would control Iraq鈥檚 oil and gas deposits for some time, US companies could be in line for a lucrative slice of the business鈥, and thus they could 鈥渇eel just as victorious as the US Special Forces鈥.
After promising during his 2000 inauguration not to push for Taiwanese independence, a commitment reaffirmed after his 2004 re-election, President Chen Shuibian reversed his stance hours before China聮s annual parliamentary session 聴 the National People聮s Congress 聴 started on March 5.
On March 4, police arrested 33 women and charged them with endangering national security, propaganda against the state and taking part in an illegal gathering. The women were demonstrating outside Iran鈥檚 Tehran Revolutionary Court to demand a fair trial for five prominent women鈥檚 rights activists arrested in June 2006 during a peaceful protest.
More than 120 branch delegates and a substantial number of visitors attended a conference in Glasgow on March 3 to finalise the Scottish Socialist Party鈥檚 manifesto for May鈥檚 Scottish Parliament elections.
The Unknown Terrorist
By Richard Flanagan
Picador, 2006
RRP $32.95
By Richard Flanagan
Picador, 2006
RRP $32.95
On the eve of China聮s annual parliamentary session 聴 the National People聮s Congress (NPC) 聴 on March 5-16, Beijing announced plans to increase its military spending for 2007 by 17.8% to 350 billion yuan (US$45 billion), provoking immediate concern from Washington.
The revolutionary left in the Philippines has deep roots in the mass movement but its influence has been weakened by disunity. The left began overcoming these divisions through a May 2005 Democratic Left Conference.
鈥淥ur experience of Venezuela is of a mass people鈥檚 revolution. It was something completely different from anything I had experienced in my life 鈥 simply the feeling of a mass revolution is something fantastic. It is reminiscent of [Russian revolutionary V.I. Lenin鈥檚] phrase that 鈥榓 revolution is the festival of the oppressed鈥.鈥
On March 5, the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers鈥 Unions (ICEM), the global union federation for oil workers, issued a call for 鈥渟trong condemnation鈥 by supporters of workers鈥 rights of US-led military raids on union offices in Baghdad on February 23 and 25. During the raids, targeting the General Federation of Iraqi Workers (GFIW), a member of the union鈥檚 security staff was arrested and office equipment was destroyed. On February 19, the Iraq Syndicate of Journalists was raided and computers and membership records were confiscated.
鈥淎t Iran鈥檚 request, the UN Security Council condemned the deadliest terrorist attack in the country in years and extended 鈥榮incere condolences鈥 to the Iranian people, but not to their government, at US insistence鈥, Associated Press reported on February 15.
A general strike that shook the African state of Guinea ended on February 27 with the appointment of a new prime minister acceptable to the trade unions and the political opposition.
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